Consequences
Opening Prayer
Lord, my actions can bring me down to nothing more than dust. May my plea for help reach Your ears, for I know You love me.
Read Genesis 3:14-24
[14] So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. [15] And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” [16] To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” [17] To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. [18] It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. [19] By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” [20] Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. [21] The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. [22] And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” [23] So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. [24] After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
How did human decision change things?When the man and the woman ate the forbidden fruit, the consequences to God’s Creation were dire. The ground itself was cursed and as a result of sin, the Earth’s production of food was affected The relationship between man and woman, once a comfortable companionship, became acrimonious and filled with enmity. Pain, sweat and tears, previously unknown in Creation, were a few of the consequences that resulted from the act of eating the fruit forbidden by God. Ever since sin was let loose in the Garden, humankind borne the weight of its burdens. The greatest tragedy of all is that through sin, humans built a wall between themselves and Almighty God. Many years later, Jesus would come and scale that wall on our behalf. We may have temporarily been expulsed from the Garden, yet through Christ, the fractured peace is restored. Just as He drew near to the first couple and provided sustenance, He continues to be generous with us. Like an Israelite wandering the desert, our way ahead may at times be unclear. However, just as the Israelites drew wisdom from this story of consequences and used it in their framework for understanding God, human nature and hardship, we, too can use it as a lens through which to view ourselves. When the man and the woman ate the forbidden fruit, the consequences to God’s Creation were dire. The ground itself was cursed and as a result of sin, the Earth’s production of food was affected The relationship between man and woman, once a comfortable companionship, became acrimonious and filled with enmity. Pain, sweat and tears, previously unknown in Creation, were a few of the consequences that resulted from the act of eating the fruit forbidden by God. Ever since sin was let loose in the Garden, humankind borne the weight of its burdens. The greatest tragedy of all is that through sin, humans built a wall between themselves and Almighty God. Many years later, Jesus would come and scale that wall on our behalf. We may have temporarily been expulsed from the Garden, yet through Christ, the fractured peace is restored. Just as He drew near to the first couple and provided sustenance, He continues to be generous with us. Like an Israelite wandering the desert, our way ahead may at times be unclear. However, just as the Israelites drew wisdom from this story of consequences and used it in their framework for understanding God, human nature and hardship, we, too can use it as a lens through which to view ourselves.
Apply
What are the effects of the fall in my own, personal life? How is God calling me to move to redemption?
Closing prayer
Father, help me identify the effects of sin in my own life and correct the problems that cause me to be separated from You.
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