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What Happened In The Garden?

What Happened in the Garden?

The first sin, the fall of man, the Curse, death, and separation from God: The Bible, Genesis 3

Last time, in the story of Creation, God created the whole universe and everything in it, and the pinnacle of His Creation was us!—human beings! God formed the first man, Adam, from the dust of the ground, and He breathed into his nose the breath of life, and he was alive! God placed Adam in the garden of Eden, a beautiful place with delicious fruit, and He placed two special trees in the middle of the garden. Eating from the Tree of Life would make a person live forever. But God commanded Adam not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, because anyone who ate from it would die. Then God made the perfect companion for Adam: the first woman, Eve. Adam and Eve were both created in the image and likeness of God Himself: having His attributes and His characteristics. He gave them free will, wisdom, and intelligence, and He entrusted them with the authority to rule with goodness and honor over everything that God had made.

The Garden of Eden was a beautiful place, but the best thing about it was that God was there. God was there in the garden with Adam and Eve. They talked together. They did things together. There in the garden Adam and Eve were with Yahweh, the God of the universe: they could ask Him anything, and they knew Him, because He was their closest friend.

One day, when Adam and Eve were enjoying the garden, a serpent spoke to Eve, and he said,

“Did God really say, ‘You may not eat from any tree in the garden?’”

Eve said to the serpent, “No! We may eat from any tree in the garden, but God did say about the tree in the middle of the garden, ‘You must not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’”

The serpent responded, “You won’t die! For God knows that if you eat from it, your eyes opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Eve saw that the tree’s fruit looked delicious, and she thought, “You know, I would like to be wise,” and she reached out her hand and took some fruit from the tree, and ate it. And she gave some to Adam, her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Immediately, their eyes were opened, and they knew that they had sinned, and they were filled with shame. Then they heard Yahweh walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they realized that they were naked, so they fled from Him, and they hid from Him.

But Yahweh called to Adam, “Where are you?”

“I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid from you,” Adam replied.

“Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree I told you not to eat from?”

“The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

So Yahweh said to Eve, “What is this you have done?”

“The serpent deceived me, and I ate,” she replied.

So Yahweh said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed above all the animals. You will crawl on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life, and I will make enemies between you and the woman, and between your descendants and her descendants. He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel.”

And to the woman He said, “I will greatly increase your pain in childbearing. Having kids is going to be painful for you, and you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.”

But to Adam, He said, “Because you have done this, and have listened to your wife instead of me, and have eaten from the tree which I commanded you not to eat from, the ground is cursed because of you. Through painful toil you will eat from it all the days of your life, but rather than good grain, it will produce thorns and thistles for you. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food, until dust you return. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”

Then Yahweh clothed Adam and Eve with garments of skin, and He banished them from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which Adam had been taken. And, so that they would not eat from the Tree of Life and live forever: At the east of the garden, Yahweh stationed cherubim and a flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the Tree of Life.

God’s perfect world had broken: His perfect people turned away from Him. They chose to obey someone else, and so their authority over all Creation passed on to the one they chose to obey. What would become of Adam and Eve? Would Creation ever be restored to the perfect place God had originally created? And what would Yahweh do? He wanted to be their friends. He wanted to be with them. But they chose not to be. Even worse, He was the only source of life. They were supposed to live forever, but they separated from Him: now they were going to die, not just physically, but eternally separated from Yahweh, the God of Life. And we all, like them, like Adam and Eve, choose to obey ourselves and others rather than Yahweh God.

Is there any hope for any of us?

Wrap Up

Thank you for joining me for this story from the Bible, the story of how our parents, the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, chose to sin, just like we all do, rather than obey God. Come join me again soon for the next story, Their Children and What Became of Them.

This story was brought to you by Trailblazers Church, a church dedicated to bringing the good news of Jesus Christ to the farthest reaches of heaven and earth. Thank you for joining us. Please, come join us in person so that we can get to know you. We believe that God has designed an incredible adventure just for you, a life full of love, meaning, and purpose, in which you get to be exactly who God created you to be. He sees you, and He knows you, and He wants to be your closest friend. Come, learn to hear His voice for yourself. We hope to see you there soon. Farewell.

Summary

How did everything go wrong? Who were Adam and Eve? What is sin? How did Satan get power over this world? This is the story of the fall of man: the origin of sin and death in the world and the brokenness of all Creation. The story of mankind’s fall into sin is found in the book of Genesis in the Bible (Genesis 3). It tells how the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, chose to disobey God, the curse that came on all Creation because of it, and how, after they ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, God banished them from the Garden of Eden, to protect them from eating from the Tree of Life. Their sin brought death on them and into all Creation, and our sin continues to bring death to each one of us today: physical death and eternal separation from the God of happiness, life, and hope.