March 14 - Cursed

Felt some awkward pain in my knee today. I hope it doesn't hang around...because I'm not stopping :)

Genesis 2:8-9,15-18

8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground - trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. -- 15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. for when you eat of it you will surely die." 18 The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him..."

Such a pivotal story, from the beginning of the Bible. You would think a pivotal, turning point would be set at a climax in a book...somewhere in the middle, right? I am on page 6 in my Bible. God did not waste any time in delivering this message to his people.

I notice a few things in this selection of verses. First of all, God created perfect fellowship with man from the beginning of creation. The Lord took care of Adam. We see that God created this garden full of trees and produce to live by. God had provided for him. Today, we tend to think, "so what? God gave him an orchard. Big whoop." It is a big whoop. The creation of the LCD TVs, PS3s, internet, or microwaves had not happened yet. God had a plan for those to be invented by Adam's descendants many years later. God  provided for him, nonetheless. I also notice that God created and provided a mate for Adam so he would not be alone (thus a timeline of people began). From the beginning we see that God had this all planned out. 

Secondly, I noticed that God had a purpose for Adam. He appointed him to tend and take care of the garden of Eden. The Lord gave him a gift and said, "Here, I NEED you to take care of this for me, but there are going to be a few things you should know." Adam hears God out and then goes to work. Next thing you know...

Genesis 3

The serpent deceived Eve into eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She ate it and then gave some to her husband. Next thing you know, they are hiding in the woods to avoid God because they knew what they had done was wrong. God did not shake his finger at Adam and Eve. Instead he cursed them forever. God said, "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life..."

God was not happy. He had created a perfect fellowship in which Adam had it made, but the desire of sin and temptation turned everything around forever. Adam's disobedience sets the stage for us, many years down the line. The entire human race is cursed because of Adam's decision. "Way to go Adam...way to screw it up for us all", right? Think again. Put yourself in Adam's place. Temptation rises and what do you do? The exact same thing I would do and that's the exact same thing Adam did. 

So, we are born with this curse. We are in constant sin. God gives us life. From birth to death, sin hunts us down. Temptation lurks in the shadows. We are affected by this curse because we are not in fellowship with God...

The gospel presents this problem to us, but it also presents us with an answer. Our problem is that we are blind to sin. Sin is in front of us and we keep stepping into it, because we cannot see it. Our problem is that we are slaves to our sin. Our problem is that we are dead in our sins. We continue to fall into the sins that have us chained so tightly. We are helpless. We cannot restore our own sight. We cannot free ourselves from sin. I have never witnessed a dead man raise himself from the dead, have you? 

From birth, we are enemies of God. The price of our sinful nature and sinful acts is death. Our mistakes are punishable by death. Remember that curse? This is it. "I'm sorry" doesn't cut it when we sin against God. If Adam and Eve had apologized, God would have still placed this curse on mankind. God is the perfect judge who rules over everything. His punishment for us is death.

What is the answer to this problem though? We are blind, we are slaves, and we are dead. What do we do? When my pulse stops and my heart ceases to pump and my breath leaves my body, I am going to be face to face with my Creator. God is definitely not going to be happy with me. I have messed up. I have sinned. No one in this world can think that God is going to be content and happy with the way their lives were lived. We will be accountable for our sins. We are helpless...

This anger that God will have for us when we enter his presence is not a hateful anger though. God loves us nonetheless. Yes, he is upset that we break his commandments. He loves us so much that he designed a way for each of us to have a way to life without the punishment of death. There are not multiple ways that God created for us to have life, but there is one way...and only one way. That way is through the blood of Jesus Christ... (continue tomorrow).