June 10, 2018
DECEIVED
“Deceived”
Genesis 3:8-19
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
God had created the world. In six days God created light and darkness, an atmosphere, separated the waters above and below, created dry land, oceans, and vegetation, created the sun, moon, and stars, birds, and creatures in the water, and on the final day land animals and people. What a wonderful and beautiful creation God made for people…for Adam and Eve…and for us. God the Father in His love created Eve from Adam’s rib. And at the very beginning, before Adam and Eve’s fall into sin…before any government was established…God gave Adam and Eve the gift of marriage. And everything was perfect.
But! Sin would enter the world. Adam and Eve would be deceived by Satan to eat of the fruit God the Father forbade them to eat. Their eyes would be open to sin. Our Old Testament text follows Adam and Eve’s fall into sin. “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” (Genesis 3:8-11)
Adam and Eve sinned. They knew they were wrong. They were naked and hid from God their Father. Perhaps our greatest trouble, as conveyed in the Genesis story, is that we “discover” our nakedness before God. We, like Adam and Eve, sin constantly…and we too try to hide from God. Yet God sees all of our sins…we cannot hide them, we cannot cover them up…they stand out as if we were the ones naked in the garden of Eden.
God our Father asked Adam if they had sinned. How often parents ask their children if they have done something wrong…not because they don’t know what happened…but because they want their child to tell the truth and repent. I can’t even number the times my parents questioned me about something I had done…because they wanted me to confess my sins…not because they wanted to punish me…but because they wanted to forgive me. God wanted Adam and Eve to confess their sins so that they could be forgiven. That is our Heavenly Father’s love.
But what did Adam and Eve do? Did they confess their sins? Did they repent? “The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:12-13) Here our first parents responded the way our children often respond…they blamed someone else…they passed the buck…they made excuses. Adam blames Eve (whom God made) and Eve blames the serpent (whom God made). Things have not changed have they?
Facebook is the go to place for people to rant and complain. Recently I saw someone rant about their problems…and the reason for them: God. God must hate them. Their horrible day consisted of: expensive car problems, a cold pizza delivered late, and a lack of hot water for a shower after a long, hard, disappointing day. I told them that I cared about them…but to please not blame God for these “hardships.” Their response was that God is in control of everything…so God must hate them because of these problems.
That sounds like Adam when he blamed Eve…and really blamed God…when he said: “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”(Genesis 3:12) What saddens me is that people forget to give thanks to God for the blessings He gives and yet blame God for their decisions which are often bad. Satan still deceives us. Satan convinces us that everything good that happens is because of something you do on your own…and when bad things happen…to blame God. Did God tell you to buy an expensive car? Did God tell you to order a pizza? Did God tell you to take a shower tonight? Instead…why not give thanks that you can afford to buy a car? That you have cold pizza rather than no meal at all…or that you have a home with running water to take a shower. We, even as Christians, fall short of the glory of God. We too blame God for our own mistakes and take credit for God’s blessings.
How does God react…to our sin…to our temper tantrums…to our blame and excuses? “So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel. To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” (Genesis 3:14-19)
Some might think…wow, what a mean God. He makes the poor snake crawl on its belly for the rest of time…and makes child-bearing pains very severe…and husbands will rule over their wives. Adam, and all men, will toil painfully to eat from plants sown and the very fields will produce thorns and thistles…and on top of all that Adam and Eve…all people…would die.
But God isn’t being mean. God is showing his people, his beloved children, His love for them. God shows Adam how to be a Father through discipline, through sacrifice, and through forgiveness. God had to remove Adam and Eve from the garden so that they wouldn’t live eternally in sin. God wanted his beloved children to be saved. He wanted to forgive his children. He would do these things through great sacrifice. He would do this through the very first promise of a Savior who would defeat Satan once and for all through His own death and resurrection.
My brothers and sisters in Christ God wants to forgive you, He wants to save you from sin and give you heaven. God made a great sacrifice so that you would be saved and receive eternal life in heaven. That sacrifice is Christ our Heavenly Father’s only Son.
God the Father loved each of you so much that He gave His only son to death on the cross that we would be saved. That is God the Father’s love… a love the leads to sacrificing everything to save His beloved children. True love consists of sacrifice and forgiveness; it includes calling those you love to repentance…that they may be forgiven…and gain eternal life in heaven. That is true love…for that is Our Father’s love for us. Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. Amen.
