- God’s final act part 2
- God’s final act part 1
- Working together part 2
- Working together part 1
- Hope fulfilled part 2
- Hope fulfilled part 1
- Hope promised
- Kings and Prophets
- The Law of Moses part 2
- The Law of Moses part 1
- God’s message to the world
- The Fallout
- God’s response to our choice
- The Fall
- Paradise
- Creation: The Big Picture
by, Isam Itson
If God made life for us under his righteous and just covering so good, why is life on earth so terrible? That is the subject of the third story of the Bible that we call The Fall.
In paradise God gave us a choice. God wanted us to choose to follow him of our own free will. So God set a choice before us. Free access to the tree of life under his sovereign care, or, we could deny the overarching authority of God and take from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and embrace life on our own terms.
The catch is that apart from the sovereignty, wisdom, grace, presence, and power of God, there is no life. Therefore to turn away from God and live on our own inevitably leads to death. God made us to live with him and for him. Yet God does not demand that we submit to him. He gives us the option of turning away from him. This is the choice represented by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Will we choose God’s way of life or our way of life?
Genesis 3:1-7 says, Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
According to Genesis chapter 3, we chose our way of life. The man and the woman liked the idea of being the ones in charge of life on earth. They wanted to pursue life according to what they thought was best for themselves and each other. They each thought life could thrive according to their own wisdom and power. They believed the serpent’s lie that they did not need God in order to live a good life. It looks good. It sounds good. We take our lives into our own hands. And we begin covering ourselves.
As the story continues we learn that there is no faithfulness between the man and the woman in relationship to God or each other. When they heard God approaching they hid. When God called out the man on his behavior, the man blamed God and he blamed the woman. When God questioned the woman she blamed God and she blamed the serpent. They both covered themselves by shifting blame and justifying their actions.
Then, God declared what life on their own would look like. To the serpent God said, That his struggle with humans will continue and that one day God will send a human to conquer him.
To the woman God said that childbirth will become extremely painful for her and that her desire to control her husband will be frustrated. To the man, God said that he will have to work much harder in order to live, but he will die anyway. His life will be defined by hardship and insecurity, futility and frustration, and the persistence of death.
This is the problem of evil in the world. It is rooted in our persistent desire to live life our way rather than God’s way. No matter the cost to other human beings, and in spite of God’s proven goodness.
Our way of life apart from God is defined by conflict. Every person against every other person. Each of us seeking to take control and justify ourselves in opposition to each other and to God. This dedicated self interest is the heart of evil and suffering on the earth. Moral evil rejects God’s purpose for creation and ultimately diminishes and destroys life.
Our way of life leads to self righteousness, injustice, and death. God is dishonored and disregarded as our faithful creator, provider, savior, and ruler. Our lives are defined by self preservation and conflicts of interest. Every person is fundamentally alienated from everyone else, and suspicious of everyone else. The fear of death, deprivation, betrayal, and insecurity rules our lives.
Taking our lives into our own hands and living as if we know better than God is the heart of sin and the root of all evil and suffering in the earth.
In response
1. In what ways do you express your desire to get your own way?
2. How do you respond when circumstances don’t work out the way you think they should?
3. How do you react when people don’t give you what you want or do what you want them to do?
4. How do you express your disappointment and anger to God and renew your commitment to being thankful for your God given life and honoring God’s unconditional love for the people who frustrate your plans or don’t live up to your expectations?