It's 9:30 am. I just finished reading Genesis chapter 3 (for probably the 150th time in my life) along with the reading in the E-100 guide, and a few things stuck out to me like never before! You would think that if you read something so many times, you would have it down. That's what I love about God's Word! There's always something new! Anyway, here are some things that hit me today.
1) The chapter starts as though you are jumping into the middle of a conversation already happening, with Satan in the serpent form saying, "Really? Did God really say that you can't eat of any of the fruit of the garden?" This led me to start thinking that maybe this wasn't the first conversation Eve had with the serpent. Maybe, just maybe, he had plenty of conversations with her to lead up to this temptation. Maybe Eve got to know this serpent so well that now, she had no reason to doubt him in this instance? Maybe Eve got so comfortable with the serpent that now she had her guard down and made herself open to temptation. I say all of that because that's what we do. We talk about, talk with, think about, and flirt with temptation so much that eventually we let our guard down as well. Take a lesson from Eve here...run. Don't even entertain the conversation. You're not strong enough. Run.
2) Many people that that one of the consequences of Adam and Eve's sin was that now we have to work. That's not true. Man was given a job or task when he was created. We were created to work. We were created to have a purpose. Man was told to tend to the garden and the animals. That was his job already. The curse made his job harder in that he would have to deal with weeds and thorns and getting tired and sweaty. Embrace work. We were made for it. We are fulfilled in doing it for the Lord.
3) When Adam and Eve are banned from the Garden, God (Father, Son, and Spirit) has a conversation and in that conversation mention the tree of life. God said that he needed to put Adam and Eve out of the garden because if they ate of the tree of life, they would live forever. Then I remembered in Chapter 2 of Genesis that at the center of the garden was not only the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil (which is the only tree Adam and Eve were not allowed to eat), but also the Tree of Life. The tree of life is only mentioned here in Genesis 2 and 3, Proverbs once relating it to wisdom, and again in Revelation in the description of Heaven. Funny, that where the tree of life was, God was. In the Garden, and in Heaven. He is the source of our life. What kind of life are you going to live today? One that reflects the source of our lives or one that ignores it?
I know today was kind of long. Sorry. But God just showed me some new stuff and it was awesome! Have a great Friday! Praying for you!
Ron Foster
1) The chapter starts as though you are jumping into the middle of a conversation already happening, with Satan in the serpent form saying, "Really? Did God really say that you can't eat of any of the fruit of the garden?" This led me to start thinking that maybe this wasn't the first conversation Eve had with the serpent. Maybe, just maybe, he had plenty of conversations with her to lead up to this temptation. Maybe Eve got to know this serpent so well that now, she had no reason to doubt him in this instance? Maybe Eve got so comfortable with the serpent that now she had her guard down and made herself open to temptation. I say all of that because that's what we do. We talk about, talk with, think about, and flirt with temptation so much that eventually we let our guard down as well. Take a lesson from Eve here...run. Don't even entertain the conversation. You're not strong enough. Run.
2) Many people that that one of the consequences of Adam and Eve's sin was that now we have to work. That's not true. Man was given a job or task when he was created. We were created to work. We were created to have a purpose. Man was told to tend to the garden and the animals. That was his job already. The curse made his job harder in that he would have to deal with weeds and thorns and getting tired and sweaty. Embrace work. We were made for it. We are fulfilled in doing it for the Lord.
3) When Adam and Eve are banned from the Garden, God (Father, Son, and Spirit) has a conversation and in that conversation mention the tree of life. God said that he needed to put Adam and Eve out of the garden because if they ate of the tree of life, they would live forever. Then I remembered in Chapter 2 of Genesis that at the center of the garden was not only the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil (which is the only tree Adam and Eve were not allowed to eat), but also the Tree of Life. The tree of life is only mentioned here in Genesis 2 and 3, Proverbs once relating it to wisdom, and again in Revelation in the description of Heaven. Funny, that where the tree of life was, God was. In the Garden, and in Heaven. He is the source of our life. What kind of life are you going to live today? One that reflects the source of our lives or one that ignores it?
I know today was kind of long. Sorry. But God just showed me some new stuff and it was awesome! Have a great Friday! Praying for you!
Ron Foster
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