I hope you will put up with me in a little foolishness. Yes, please put up with me! I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to Him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led away from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
Eve: the first woman ever created and the first human to disobey God. The serpent deceived Eve to the point where she added something to the command that God had given to Adam about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:16-17 says: And the Lord God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." In Genesis 3:1, the serpent asks a misleading question: "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" Eve is quick to answer and is doing really well until she adds the last part of her statement, "and you must not touch it, or you will die." God didn't say they couldn't eat from ANY tree and He did not say that TOUCHING the fruit on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would cause death. It was the ONLY tree they were not to EAT.
I know that in that situation, I would have made the same choice that Eve did, because I would see the serpent right in front of me and it's so much easier to believe someone who is tangible than someone who was not present in physical form. The serpent made Eve doubt what God had said and she twisted His words. I know that we are guilty of changing the word sometimes when we're in a tight corner. That doesn't make it the right thing to do.
Adam was there, with Eve. He had heard the words of God. He knew the command God had given and had obviously passed on the command to Eve. It may be that he had added the "DO NOT TOUCH" clause to the command, but the passage doesn't tell us. It tells us he was there while the serpent was deceiving Eve. He knew the exact command God had given, so why didn't he step in and tell the serpent to just go away and get lost? Not only did he not stop Eve from sinning, but he chose to sin himself.
As soon as they had eaten from the forbidden fruit, which, by the way, was never named, so I don't know why everyone thinks it was an apple . . . but that's not overly important . . . they were suddenly aware of their nakedness. Up to this point, they had been walking around the garden, completely unconcerned with the fact that they were not covered. As soon as they ate the fruit, they felt the need to cover themselves and so they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. Their perfect innocence was lost, as was their communion with God. They were no longer pure and blameless.
Because they had chosen to disobey the one command God had given, they were cursed. The serpent was cursed too and then, to keep them from figuring out the way to live forever by eating the fruit from the Tree of Life, God had to send them out of the garden and set up a guard to prevent them from returning. Things were suddenly no longer the easy and wonderful life that had been Eden. They were going to have to work hard for the things they needed.
We are similar to Adam and Eve in the moment after they ate the fruit in the moments that follow our wrong choices. We are quick to realize that we made the wrong choice, but like Adam and Eve, we try to hide our shame from God. Just like God came looking for Adam and Eve in the garden, He wants us to go to Him when we have sinned. We still have to face the consequences of our actions, but God will forgive us if we ask Him to.
We need to spend our days absorbing the Truth. We need to read God's Word and be comparing the things that pastors and church leaders are telling us to what we see in the Bible. If something doesn't match up, then we need to go with the Truth of the Bible and discard what the teacher claimed. The Word of God is the final authority and if a human says something that is not in line with the Bible, they are deceiving you. Be in God's Word daily because when you're in the Word, it's much easier to spot the discrepancies and you can make the decisions you need to based on the Truth in the Word, rather than what your pastor or Sunday School teacher is telling you.
-Meg
In the devotion, they say it in a perfect way, better than I ever could. "I’m convinced that Eve gets a bad rap. Yes,
she deliberately disobeyed God. Yes, she was easily swayed. Yes, she
brought Adam down with her. (Though, to be fair, he made his own
decision to take a bite.)"- She Reads Truth: Women in the Bible Part 1. Proof of that statement can be found right in scripture, "6The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too." -Genesis 3:6 (NLT) . Adam was right there with Eve when she ate the fruit he willingly took it, Eve didn't have to convince him, he made the choice to eat the fruit all on his own. So I feel like we blame Eve so often but we forget that Adam and the serpent were both involved and they were both punished equally.
Today I think we are all subject to time where we choose sin over what is good, "We know truth and we live in it, but the lies just get so loud."-She Reads Truth: Women in the Bible Part 1. This statement reminds me of a passage from Scripture found in Romans "14So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. 15I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. 16But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. 17So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.18And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. 19I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. 20But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. 21I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22I love God’s law with all my heart. 23But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. 24Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 25Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin." -Romans 7:14-25(NLT), this is one of my favourite passages i scripture because it reminds me of the state at which all of us live.
-Tiff
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