Creation and the Fall (4)

You might have a question in your mind. You might be thinking: If God made man perfect, so that he never thought any bad thoughts or did any bad things, why is man so bad today?

Why do men kill each other?

Why do we have robbers?

Why am I naughty sometimes?

If God made everything perfect, why isn’t it that way today?

That is a smart question! Let us find our answer in the Bible. We find it in the very first book, Genesis, again.

Remember Adam and Eve are in the Garden of Eden, and they are very happy. They have everything they could possibly want and everything they need. But then something awful happens.

Remember how God put Adam in the garden and gave him only one rule to obey? God told Adam that there was just one tree in the garden that he could not eat from. Well, at first Adam and Eve listened to God, and did not eat from that tree. But then something happened ….

As you know, there were many animals in the Garden of Eden. So of course there were snakes, too. In those days the snakes were not like we see them today. Back when God created snakes, they had legs like all the other animals.

One snake (the Bible calls it a serpent) came up to Eve and asked her a question.

“What!” you say. “How can a snake talk?!”

Well, it wasn’t really the snake talking. It was someone inside the snake talking, a person called Satan. Do you know who Satan is? He is also called a devil in the Bible. He is the one who tells people to do bad things. He sometimes talks to you and me, too, and puts naughty thoughts in our minds. We don’t know for sure exactly when Satan was created, but we know he was created good by God.

So Satan talked to Eve out of the snake. He asked her, “Is it true that God does not want you to eat from every tree in the garden?”

“Yes, that’s true,” Eve told him. “We may eat of the fruit of all the trees in the garden except the one in the middle. God told us that if we eat of that tree, we will die.”

What do you think that Satan, through the snake, now did? He told Eve a lie. Today we call him “the father of lies.” It is very bad to lie! Now he told Eve, “No, you shall not die at all! God told you not to eat from that tree because He knows that if you do, you will be exactly like Him and know everything!”

So, Eve looked at the tree that she was not supposed to touch …

Suddenly the fruit on it looked very delicious to her.

So, she reached out… took one of the fruits … pulled it off the tree … and took a bite.

That was very wrong of Eve. All she had to do was to say “No” to Satan. But instead, she listened to him and ate the fruit.

I hope you don’t listen to Satan. Sometimes he will tell you something naughty, such as to be mean to your little brother, or to do something your mother told you not to do. But do not listen to Satan. Always tell him “No.”

When we listen to Satan and disobey God or our parents, it is called sinning. God has also given us certain rules so that we can be happy and can live with each other. When we disobey these rules, we sin, and we become unhappy.

These rules are in the Bible. They are called the ten commandments. We hear them in church every Sunday. Some of the Ten Commandments or rules are: Do not kill anyone; do not take something that isn’t yours; do not wish you had something that isn’t yours. God wants us to follow these rules so that we can live happily together. Let us pray that God will help us to obey His rules.

Eve thought the fruit was so good that she brought some to Adam. And Adam ate it, too. This was another sin.

Suddenly their eyes were opened and they knew that they had sinned. They wanted to hide from God. In those days, Adam and Eve did not need to wear clothes like we do; but now, suddenly, they tried to cover themselves up with large leaves. Then they heard God coming, so they hid, because they knew they had done a sin against Him.

Then God called to Adam, “Adam, where are you?” God did not say this because He could not find Adam. No, God knows everything, so He knew where Adam and Eve were. But He said this because He wanted Adam and Eve to know they had sinned.

Then Adam answered, “I heard your voice in the garden and I knew I was naked. I was afraid; so I hid.”

God asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I said not to eat?”

Then Adam answered, “This woman that Thou didst give to me, it was all her fault.”

This was not right of Adam. But we do the same thing, don’t we? We always try to blame someone else. If you get in a fight, don’t you quickly say, “It’s his fault!”? Or, when you and your sister get caught doing something wrong, don’t you sometimes say, “It was her idea!”?

That’s what Adam did. He blamed Eve. And, then when God asked Eve, “What have you done?” she said, “It’s all the snake’s fault.”

Eve was partly right; it was the snake’s fault; but it was also her fault for listening to him. And it was also Adam’s fault for listening to Eve and disobeying God.

Deze tekst is geautomatiseerd gemaakt en kan nog fouten bevatten. Digibron werkt voortdurend aan correctie. Klik voor het origineel door naar de pdf. Voor opmerkingen, vragen, informatie: contact.

Op Digibron -en alle daarin opgenomen content- is het databankrecht van toepassing. Gebruiksvoorwaarden. Data protection law applies to Digibron and the content of this database. Terms of use.

Printen