today's meditation (Gn.3:7-24) Go to God

(Dear Lord Jesus, guide me to understand Your words for today...)

(Genesis 3:7-24)  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. 9 Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” 11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” 14 The Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,
Cursed are you more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you will go,
And dust you will eat
All the days of your life;
15 And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;

He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
16 To the woman He said,
“I will greatly multiply
Your pain in childbirth,
In pain you will bring forth children;
Yet your desire will be for your husband,
And he will rule over you.”

17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’;

Cursed is the ground because of you;

In toil you will eat of it

All the days of your life.

18 “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;

And you will eat the plants of the field;

19 By the sweat of your face
You will eat bread,

Till you return to the ground,

Because from it you were taken;

For you are dust,

And to dust you shall return.”

20 Now the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. 21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.

22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.

TODAY'S THOUGHTS AND MEDITATION: 

Once Adam and Eve ate of the fruit, they realized their sin.  Here was shame and conviction.  But they didn't humbly go to God for help, they instead tried to cover up themselves (with fig leaves).  Here was pride.  And then they tried to hide from God.  Here was fear.  And then they tried to pass the blame onto someone or something else.  Here was self-righteousness.

Their disobedience set into motion so many things.

Sin entered their lives and the world.  Everyone born after this would be born into sin:  pain, struggles and suffering;  the battle of the sexes;  eventually a physical death;  but more poignantly, everyone is born into a spiritually death - with an eternal separation from God - unless they choose otherwise and choose to believe in Jesus.  Hence, sin also put into motion a spiritual battle, within ourselves, within the world, and within the spiritual realm.

But God already had a plan and the victory - Jesus' work on the cross is prophesied in verse 15.

Where there is sin - there is death.  God doesn't want to see anyone die, so He came to earth in flesh to die in our place... "bruising Jesus' heel".  Jesus paid the price for all sin (for all time) by dying and rising again... thereby "bruising Satan's head".

Now, back to Adam and Eve.  God protected them from forever remaining in the state of spiritual death - by taking them out of the Garden of Eden and away from the tree of life.  If they would have eaten from that tree in a state of death, that would have been the end of the story!

Also notice that God does a far better job of covering up Adam and Eve's sin - by making them garments of animal skin (leather).  So because of death, here we see the first death of an animal.  A little later on in the Bible, we'll see how the animal sacrificial system was used to temporarily cover sin (as a symbol of how blood had to be shed to cover sin).

The lesson that I'm seeing here is that we should be humbly going to God AS SOON AS...  As soon as we sin - we should humbly go before God to confess.  EVEN BETTER - as soon as we are tempted, we should humbly go before God for protection.  AND EVEN BETTER - right now!  Ask God for wisdom to set up hedges of protection to guard our way.  Ask for God's guidance in our walk with Him to remain steadfast and righteous!