I just keep thinking about Adam and Eve, and the love that the Lord had for them. We always hear about their disobedience but not about the love that God had for them. Adam and Eve were intelligent people. You say that if they were so intelligent, then what did they eat the forbidden fruit. Why do we do what we aren't supposed to do? They were free moral agents. They were given the choice of choosing what they would do or not do. God did not create robots.
Adam was created with a perfect mind, like the mind of God. Adam gave names to all the animals that God had brought to him Gen.2:19-20. When Adam and Eve sinned, God made and gave the first blood sacrifice for sin Gen. 3:21 and made clothes from the skins of those animals for Adam and Eve. That blood sacrifice was the forgiveness of their sin just as Jesus shed his blood for our forgiveness. And when I think of what our God did, for Adam and Eve, it reminds me of when Isaac asked Abraham where was the lamb for the burnt offering, and Abraham told him that God would provide for himself a lamb Gen. 22:7-13. Abraham knew God! Hebrews 11:17-19, he believed that God was able to raise Isaac from the dead in order to keep the promise that he had given to him concerning that his seed would be through Isaac and not Ishmael. Oh the grace and mercy of God! God also provided us with a lamb for a sacrifice for our sins!
And when Cain killed Abel, God went to him and asked him about his brother. The Lord gave Cain the chance to confess his sin and the chance to be forgiven. Instead of admitting his killing of his brother, Cain argued with God and refused his chance of being forgiven and chose to walk away from the presence of God.
We say and hear that God is love, and he is, but do we really understand this. We see his love here in the first few chapters of Genesis, but I have never heard a sermon about this. I've only heard of the sin of Adam and Eve. In school, we always heard about the caveman, and yes, people have lived in caves for protection from weather, enemies, etc. I've never heard about the love and intelligence that God had and gave to Adam and Eve. How to live on a cursed earth: when, where, and how to plant and harvest, how to kill and prepare meat, make clothes, etc. God was with Adam and Eve, to help them live in this new environment, to have and raise children, etc. He taught them how to worship him and to teach their children to worship him.
Jesus said if we keep his commandments then we love him. His commandments are not grievous and they are loaded with benefits, blessings. We forget that we have an enemy that wants to kill us. When we obey the Lord, we defeat the enemy. Many times we blame the devil for our problems and "the devil made me do it" was a saying made popular by Flip Wilson. But the Lord didn't blame the devil when he asked Adam who told him that he was naked. Each one was convicted by their own disobedience and given their own consequence. James 1:13-16 tells us that we are tempted by our own lusts, enticed, and then do whatever it is causing us to sin. The enemy isn't mentioned. When Eve saw that the fruit was good for food, good to look at, and it would make her wise, she ate it. And no one wants to be alone in their disobedience, so she gave some to her husband with her. We alone are to blame for our own disobedience. We choose whom we will serve. The Lord will correct us because he loves us. He doesn't want anyone to go to hell, John 3:16-21.
We know that Galatians 5:22-23 describes the fruit of the Spirit. This describes God. He is all these things. He doesn't just have them, he is them. And we can see these in his relationship with our first parents, Adam and Eve. And if we look at ourselves, we can see the Lord's forgiveness and goodness in our own lives. Blessed be the name of the Lord!
Peace and grace.
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