The Heart of the Bible

by, Isam Itson III

How did God respond to our disrespect and rejection of his loyal love, grace, wisdom, and faithfulness, as our Creator and Ruler? He faithfully recovered us. God honored his relationship with us as our creator and ruler. 

God honored his responsibility for us as our creator even though we rejected our relationship to him as his creation. He did this by providing what is necessary for us to endure until his purpose for making us is fulfilled. We call this God’s righteous and just redemption of his creation. 

The first thing we see is God reaching out to the man and the woman after they rejected him. Genesis 3:8-9 reads, “And 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 But the Lord God called to the man”… Let’s stop there. 

God does not let them hide from him. He calls them out so that they have the opportunity to honor him and restore their relationship with him. As discussed in the previous article, as we continue reading in Genesis chapter 3 we see that the man and the woman chose to not take responsibility for dishonoring and rejecting God. 

The man blamed the woman and the woman blamed the serpent. By doing so, both were blaming God. According to the man, if God had not made the woman, the man would not have broken faith with God. According to the woman, if God had not made the serpent, the woman would not have broken faith with God. 

In spite of the man and woman shifting blame and refusing to honor God by taking responsibility for their actions, God remained faithful to his responsibility for their existence. And through them he honored his responsibility as creator for all humanity.

In spite of their rejection, God promised to fulfill his plan for creation through one of the woman’s offspring. In Genesis chapter 3 verse fifteen God says to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” 

God literally said “I made the humans to extend my order over the whole earth. They failed. And I am not giving up on my purpose for them. I will keep working with them. And ultimately, one of them will restore my perfect order in relationship to them.”

Until then, God faithfully provides what we need to keep living, at his own expense. Genesis 3:21, “And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.” God killed another animal, or multiple animals, who had done nothing wrong. God sacrificed innocent animals so that the guilty man and the woman could live without a sense of fear or shame in relationship to each other and in relationship to God. God was still taking care of them.

God’s last moves in this episode are found in Genesis 3:22-24 , “Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever’— 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.” 

In addition to food and protection from the threat of being shamed and abused God  gave them a reason to live. God reminded them that his purpose for them has not changed. He still wants them to establish his order throughout creation by working the ground from which man was taken. Their task will just be harder now because they had taken their lives into their own hands. 

Finally, God limited the ability and capacity of the man, the woman, and all of their descendants to fulfill their self righteous and unjust goals at the expense of others. By cutting  the man, the woman, and their descendants off from access to the tree of everlasting life, God is acknowledging the real consequences of their rejection of his divine authority as their creator. Death limits the amount of time that a person has to pursue their selfish goals at the expense of others.

In response to our rejection, God saved us from lives of everlasting conflict and destruction, and provided for our recovery and redemption at his own expense. God did not give up on us, even though we gave up on him.

In response

1. How do you honor the fact that God does not abandon you under any circumstances?

2. How do you respond to the fact that God does not abandon you even when you take your life into your own hands?

3. How do you feel about the fact that God is always with you and attentive to you?