Today I embark on another journey through the Bible. I’ll spend 9 months in the Old Testament, mining its truths, then the final three months in the New Testament. I’m asking the Lord to teach me something new about Him each day. May His truth go down deep in my heart, so that I’m changed by it.
Today’s reading was Genesis 1-3, and it was chapter 3 that really stood out to me:
Gen 3:1-13 Now the serpent was the shrewdest of all the creatures the LORD God had made. “Really?” he asked the woman. “Did God really say you must not eat any of the fruit in the garden?” 2 “Of course we may eat it,” the woman told him. 3 It’s only the fruit from the tree at the center of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God says we must not eat it or even touch it, or we will die.” 4 “You won’t die!” the serpent hissed. 5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened when you eat it. You will become just like God, knowing everything, both good and evil.” 6 The woman was convinced. The fruit looked so fresh and delicious, and it would make her so wise! So she ate some of the fruit. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her. Then he ate it, too. 7 At that moment, their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they strung fig leaves together around their hips to cover themselves. 8 Toward evening they heard the LORD God walking about in the garden, so they hid themselves among the trees. 9 The LORD God called to Adam, “Where are you?” 10 He replied, “I heard you, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.” 11 “Who told you that you were naked?” the LORD God asked. “Have you eaten the fruit I commanded you not to eat?” 12 “Yes,” Adam admitted, “but it was the woman you gave me who brought me the fruit, and I ate it.” 13 Then the LORD God asked the woman, “How could you do such a thing?” “The serpent tricked me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.” NLT
When Adam and Eve got caught in their disobedience, Adam blamed Eve for giving the fruit to him, and Eve blamed the serpent for tricking her. Neither of them claimed responsibility for their actions and neither one of them said they were sorry. Sound familiar? We’re still at it today. In fact our American culture has made an art form of denying responsibility. Nothing is our fault, so why should we apologize. It’s our parents’ fault or it’s because we had no parents or it was circumstances beyond our control or we were tricked into it. “She gave it to me. It’s her fault.” “He tricked me. It’s his fault.”
I wonder if things might have turned out differently in the Garden of Eden if Adam had said, “Lord, I made a bad choice. I was willful. I’m sorry. Forgive me.” What if Eve had said, “Father-God, I knew You told me not to eat that fruit. But when Satan said eating it would make me like You, I was greedy. I wanted to know everything. Forgive me for my disobedience.” If they had taken responsibility, confessed their sins, and asked forgiveness, would the ground still have been cursed so that weeds grew among the crops? Would women still labor in intense pain in childbirth? Hmm.
There is one more verse, however, that struck me this morning. And the LORD God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife. (Gen 3:21)
Even after Adam and Eve’s disobedience and blame-casting, God still loved them so much that *He* made the clothes for them. He didn’t say, “Go kill some animals and make clothes for yourselves.” God Almighty Himself became the tailor.
What a beautiful picture of grace.
Grace to you,
-rlh-
