Year 1, Week 1, Day 2

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Genesis 3-5.

While yesterday’s reading oriented us to the goodness of all that God made, today’s reading hits us with the reason why things are a mess (perhaps, if I might suggest, why you and I are a mess). Set up in a good garden with good provisions and good instructions, Adam and Eve rebel against God in disobedience. They were lured by an alternative source of wisdom (in this case, foolishness) to throw off God’s rule and make a good life for themselves on their own, apart from God. They were enticed to question the goodness of God. They took the bait, and everything begins unraveling from this point on.

I was struck by what today’s reading further shows us about the nature and character of God. First, God is holy and just: “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne” (Psalm 89:14a). God warned Adam that violation of His command would result in death. While the death that they experienced was not immediate cessation of life, it did result in imminent expulsion from the presence of God in the garden: “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.” (Genesis 3:24). Existence without the life-giving, life-sustaining, life-preserving presence of God would eventually result in the termination of breathing. Even while we are still breathing on this earth, we are really not living (as God intended it) without the presence of God in our life. Adam and Eve were judged-justly so-for their rebellion, and placed outside the garden. Life for them and their posterity would not be the same. Justice was served.

But I was also struck by another important thing that today’s reading shows about the nature and character of God. God is loving and faithful: “steadfast love and faithfulness go before you” (Psalm 89:14b). Even though Adam and Eve experience consequences-just consequences-for their disobedience, God extends a gracious love toward them; both immediately and ultimately. In the immediate aftermath of their rebellion, God provides a covering for their nakedness. Their failed attempt to cover themselves and thus their shame was met with God’s provision—His gracious and loving provision: “And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.” (Genesis 3:21). While it is not explicitly spelled out for us, the provision of garments from animal skins orients us to the idea of sacrifice. God sacrificed an animal, on their behalf, to cover them. This sacrifice is but a foreshadowing of an even greater sacrifice that God will arrange to cover our sin in a much more profound way. It is this foreshadowing that touches on how today’s reading points to the faithfulness of God to show His love in an ultimate way. God begins making promises—promises concerning His plan to remedy mankind’s sin and its offense toward God Himself: "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.” (Genesis 3:15). God will provide a redeemer, from the woman, who will rescue humanity from their rebellion and restore the presence of God to His people. Even as things continue deteriorating morally and spiritually (as evidenced in the remaining segments of today’s reading), God will prove faithful to provide what He began promising in today’s reading: “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” (Galatians 4:4-7). God is faithful—He does all that He promises. 

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe

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