We know the story well. The couple figures they will be better off deciding for themselves what is good and what is evil-who needs God for that? “ When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she'd know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.
7 Immediately the two of them did "see what's really going on"—saw themselves naked!” Genesis 3:6-7 (The Message). And so to Satan’s real question-can God be trusted-we have the first human response, a resounding ‘no!’.
Part Three: Redemption
Normally I would begin redemption with God’s call of Abram, but lately I’m thinking redemption actually begins with God’s response to the garden episode. Remember God’s warning: “GOD commanded the Man, "You can eat from any tree in the garden, except from the Tree-of-Knowledge-of-Good-and-Evil. Don't eat from it. The moment you eat from that tree, you're dead." Genesis 2:16-17 (The Message). Satan was correct in saying they would not die; at least not physically. Not right away. Here’s what happens.
God curses the serpent. God curses the ground because of the man. God tells the woman she will have her babies in pain. For the woman, this is not a curse (easy for me to say, being a man), this is a promise of life. Generation after generation of life. The man understands and names his wife ‘the mother of all the living’ The “in our image reflecting our nature” part will be problematic but God has a plan for that as well. He tells the serpent “I'm declaring war between you and the Woman,
between your offspring and hers.
He'll wound your head,
you'll wound his heel." Genesis 3:15 (The Message).
Humanity may lose faith in their creator, but God does not lose faith in God’s creation.
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