City Life Starter

Written by Efe Abbe

The Word

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’ ” 4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 5 For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. 8 They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.

Genesis 3:1-8, 21 NASB

18 But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth.

Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭18‬‬ ‭MSG‬‬

16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

John 3:16 NASB

Reflection

I wince and my insides are crushed every time I read the third chapter of Genesis. One reason is that it’s a massive let down from the crescendo of the preceding chapters that detail the glory and holiness of God’s presence creating and resting with His creation. Another is that I see my true self and why my default state is separation from God.

Genesis 3 reads like a manual for separating humans from God’s holiness:

1. It begins with the adversary’s hostility against God and his questioning of what God has commanded. “Indeed has God said …”

2. Next, the enemy lies to us, making us believe that somehow, we will escape the God’s just judgment on our disobedience. “You will not surely die!”

3. Then he leads us to believe God is holding out on us and cannot be trusted, so why listen to Him? “For God knows…you will be like God…”

When we mistrust God’s word and character, the evil that God forbids begins to look very enticing. So we look intently at it, then call it “good,” and (par)take of the thing that separates us from God (Genesis 3:6).

The tragedy was that Adam and Eve were already like God, because they were made to reflect God’s holiness through an unhindered access to His presence. They lost it all through disobedience and had to hide from His holiness, ashamed of their nakedness. Still, God came searching for them and in love, sacrificed animals and took the skins to cover them.

Application

The story of Adam and Eve’s rebellion is humanity’s story. We have all listened to the enemy and mistrusted God by our disobedience. Our disobedience has separated us from God’s holy presence and made us objects of His just angry displeasure (Romans 1:18). Yet, God in His love and mercy came searching for us, just like He searched for Adam and Eve in the garden. He came as the Son, Jesus, whom He lovingly sacrificed on a cross to cover our sinful nakedness (John 3:16). God’s desire has always been to restore us to His holy presence and He has done everything to make this possible. The only thing required of us to receive this gift is to repent of our mistrust, through faith in and obedience to Jesus.

Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, You alone know the extent of my depravity and You have loved me enough to lay down Your Son’s life to save me from it. Thank You for making a way to restore me to being one with You, in Your holiness, in Jesus’ name, amen.