(What you are about to read is a selection from a retreat I spoke about a year ago. It is a continuation from Part 1 (The Dawn of Creation) It is based on the discussion of our connection with God and comes from Genesis 3:1-6)
In the midst of God’s perfect creation there was an opening for imperfection. You see, in order for the creation (man) to be the perfect creation, he had to have free will. Man had to have the ability of choice, a forced love is not a perfect love, and a perfect love is a love made because it is what a person wants. In the midst of God’s perfect creation, which it had to be a perfect creation because He made it, there was a birth defect (so to speak) and that was the free will of mankind. In this free will, man had the opportunity to make a choice to not do as God wished.
I don’t know if Adam or Eve even knew they had an enemy. If they did I am fairly confident that they had no idea who they were messing with, no idea of his cunning, his intentions, or his hatred for all that God is. I do know that the enemy knew them, and he knew just how much mankind meant to God. The enemy didn’t try to fool a deer into not doing as it was created to. He didn’t try to cause a bird not to fly. He did come up with the plan for man to not do what he was created to do, to have a special connection with God.
There were numerous trees in creation, all of them lovely. However, there was one that God did not want man to bother himself with and told Adam and Eve to not eat the fruit of that tree. I don’t know how long they listened, but it wasn’t long enough. I don’t know if the enemy heard God tell them not to eat of the tree, but somehow, he knew that there was suddenly a rule that they were not to break. He knew if he played on the freewill of mankind, he may just be able to trip them up. Maybe, just maybe, he could break this wonderful connection and by that break the heart of God whom he hated so much. The enemy devised a plan to trick the trusting humans into direct disobedience.
I am sure Eve in her purity was doing nothing out of the ordinary, maybe she was climbing trees, or gathering fruit, or just out for an observing stroll when the voice spoke to her. This was a new voice, one she hadn’t heard before. I wonder how he started that conversation, the rush he must have felt knowing the devious deception that he was about to begin. The separation he was about to cause, the pain to his nemesis and creator, did he shiver with delight? Whatever was said, it was all wrapped around a lie. Convincing poor Eve that God had somehow been holding out, deceiving her, and that there was most definitely something better.
Eve had quite a wrestling match mentally, not processing the thought that someone might actually be saying something untrue verses her God who seems to have always cared for and told her anything she has wanted to know with complete honesty. That enemy with all his smooth talking and conniving though sounded so honest and why would he want to say anything that wouldn’t be true?
Why not?
She takes the fruit and goes to Adam and convinces him of this insidious thought that maybe, there is more than what God has told us. Maybe this serpent knows something. Maybe there is something more enjoyable than God, and all that He has created. They eat the fruit. Their eyes are opened. A new world has come into play, but this world is not the world that was perfect. This world is disconnected. This world is broken. This world is fractured.
Oh the joy the enemy must have felt as he saw mankind sink their teeth into the fruit of separation. The victory he must have felt as he knew that he had caused this. The joy that filled his dark heart, he had done it. He had broken the heart of his Creator and the Creator of this dangerous mankind. The joys that God had walking with these humans through the garden would most definitely be broken because the enemy had learned from experience; God could not have fellowship with sin. The enemy of God, our enemy, had caused man to stumble and fall away from God’s design.
Mankind was disconnected.
Over to you…
1. As you read the passage and the story, do you see God as an emotionless God, a loving friend, or somewhere in between?
2. Put yourself in Adam and/or Eve’s shoes (so to speak), what the emotions they must have been feeling through all of this
3. The enemy was so driven to destroy the connection, how do you see him continuing to do the same thing today? Does he use similar methods?
2 comments:
I'll take a stab at it bro:
1. As you read the passage and the story, do you see God as an emotionless God, a loving friend, or somewhere in between?
Not really. One of the things I do out of love for my children is deliver on my promises and word to them including disciplinary ones... God told Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit...
2. Put yourself in Adam and/or Eve’s shoes (so to speak), what the emotions they must have been feeling through all of this
Not being them, no real idea but I look at the similarity when I stray from the path. When I see a terrible trial my children, wife, or family member goes though. The voice I hear whispering in my head is, "How are they being provided for, who cares for them, does God even care..." So feeling betrayed that something was kept from them, hidden from them, etc...
3. The enemy was so driven to destroy the connection, how do you see him continuing to do the same thing today? Does he use similar methods?
Oh indeed. I look at how I was taught in public school about evolution, science, logic, reasoning, etc... The strong push to grown/develop in worldly disciplines, knowledge, etc... I hear that voice in my head all the time saying, "That doesn't make any sense..." I hear my secular friends saying things like, "How can anyone believe something that has NO foundation in logic or sense." I think the educated and lovers of science and technology are at risk from attacks of "logic" and can very easily fall into the trap of not give got the credit/glory for everything to God. "The doctors saved me not God" instead of, "God called the doctors to be physicians and through his will I was saved"... "I got this raise because I'm good at what I do, not God" instead of, "God gave me gifts and abilities to further his kingdom so the money belongs to God"...
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