A house testifies that there
was a builder, a dress that there was a weaver; a door that there was a
carpenter; so our world by its existence proclaims its Creator, God.
-- Rabbi Akiba Ben Joseph (C. 40-135)
My 4-year-old daughter shared
with me what she had recently "learned" in Sunday school. "You
know what, Mom?" she said excitedly. "God created man; then he took
the 'brain' from man and made woman!"
-- Laurie Conger, Ukiah, CA. "Heart to Heart," Today's
Christian Woman.
At a summer religious camp for children one of the counselors was
leading a discussion on the purpose God had for everything He created. They
began to find good reasons for clouds and trees and rocks and rivers and
animals and just about everything else in nature. Finally, one of the children
said, "If God had a good purpose for everything, then why did He create
poison ivy?" The discussion leader gulped and, as he struggled with the
question, one of the other children came to his rescue, saying, "The
reason God made poison ivy is because He wanted us to know there are certain
things we should keep our cotton-pickin' hands off."
--James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House
Publishers, Inc, 1988) p. 254.
When starting to
answer the questions of life from the garden of Eden we must begin with what
we know. What do we know? We
know already from the first sermon that loves us and wants to create us.
We know that God is a good God who wants to have fellowship with His
creation. That is why we were
created. We were created for Him
and by Him. Knowing these things
let’s continue to search to find some of the answers to life’s toughest
questions.
Scripture
Text:
Genesis 3:1 Now the
serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He
said to the woman, "Did God really say, `You must not eat from any tree
in the garden'?" 2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit
from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, `You must not eat fruit from
the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or
you will die.'" 4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said
to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be
opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." 6 When the
woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the
eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also
gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of
both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig
leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Why two Trees?
1.
The tree that gave life and then there was the tree that gave death.
The tree of life was the tree
that sustained Adam and Eve forever. They
would never have to die until … This
tree can now be found in heaven and one we will have the opportunity to see it
and eat from it. The other tree
was the tree that gave death. Having
eaten from this tree then Adam and Eve would know of good and evil.
Thus they would have to die.
2.
Why did God plant the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? By
planting the tree God gave to humankind the opportunity to trust God’s word
and plan for our lives. He gave
us the freedom to live with Him by choice and enjoy the fellowship He gives.
3.
Why did God create the serpent or Satan, the adversary?
We believe Satan to be the
adversary of God who began as an angel. Angels
also have the choice to serve God or themselves.
Fallen angels are those who have chosen to serve themselves and not
God. God created all these
because He could and because He wanted to.
4.
Why did God tell them to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil?
God’s commands are like
guard rails on the road. In our
part of the world the rails along the road prevent us form going off the road
and over the hill. The commands
of God are guides to life. If you
break one of the directions from the Lord then you are in for trouble.
So, slow down and stay on the road to have an enjoyable trip.
5.
Be Careful of our adversary and his schemes to destroy God’s good
creation.
The devil tempted Eve with the
fruit of the tree that was good for food and
pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom,
1John
2:15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the
world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of
what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The
world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives
forever.
The devil will tempt us to
follow the world away from the desires of God for our lives.
Since we know who God is, then we know that God’s plan for our lives
lead us to life itself. The devil
tempts us by twisting the Word of God, which plants a doubt in our hearts. Then the rest is history.
We fell like a rock.
6.
What was the result of eating the forbidden fruit of the Tree of
Knowledge?
Adam and Eve ate from the
forbidden tree and they gave up their freedom to know and serve God.
They doubted and disobeyed the Lord.
They gave into the temptations of the unknown and they discovered that
the grass was not greener on the other side.
Immediately the effect of sin was felt.
They were ashamed and filled with guilt. They began to devise a way to cover their sin.
They made aprons of fig leaves and hid from God in the garden.
The beautiful garden of fellowship with the Lord became a place of
shame, guilt, and disgust. It was
too late to go back. Sin
conceived will bring forth fruit, and the wages of sin is death, but the gift
of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Have you given in to
temptation and eaten the forbidden fruit?
Will you continue to trust the Lord and not give in to the desires of
our flesh? Take steps to stay on the road with the Lord.
Don’t break the guides the Lord has given which lead to life.
In a remote Swiss village stood a beautiful church. It was so
beautiful, in fact, that it was known as the Mountain Valley Cathedral. The
church was not only beautiful to look at--with its high pillars and
magnificent stained glass windows--but it had the most beautiful pipe organ in
the whole region. People would come from miles away--from far off lands--to
hear the lovely tones of this organ.
But there was a problem. The columns
were still there--the windows still dazzled with the sunlight--but there was
an eerie silence. The mountain valley no longer echoed the glorious fine-tuned
music of the pipe organ.
Something had gone wrong with the
pipe organ. Musicians and experts from around the world had tried to repair
it. Every time a new person would try to fix it the villagers were subjected
to sounds of disharmony--awful penetrating noises which polluted the air.
One day an old man appeared at the
church door. He spoke with the sexton and after a time the sexton reluctantly
agreed to let the old man try his hand at repairing the organ. For two days
the old man worked in almost total silence. The sexton was, in fact, getting a
bit nervous. Then on the third day--at high noon--the mountain valley once
again was filled with glorious music. Farmers dropped their plows, merchants
closed their stores--everyone in town stopped what they were doing and headed
for the church. Even the bushes and trees of the mountain tops seemed to
respond as the glorious music echoed from ridge to ridge.
After the old man finished his
playing, a brave soul asked him how he could have fixed the organ, how could
he restore this magnificent instrument when even the world's experts could
not. The old man merely said it was an inside job. "It was I who built
this organ fifty years ago. I created it--and now I have restored it.
That is what God is like. It is He
who created the universe, and it is He who can, and will, and is in the
process of restoring it.
--James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House
Publishers, Inc, 1988) pp. 244-245.