by Wendy Elizabeth Middleton
The man said, “The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it. Genesis 3:12
My last post dealt with the temptation and fall of man. Now let's look at what happened next.
The Devil is sneaky
I have been sorely tempted even as I was writing this blog. My computer caught a cold, a nasty virus that delayed my posting Monday’s blog and this one. It is all better now but for four days I was in the land of frustration.
I was frustrated by the necessity of hurriedly backing up files, and relearning the roads through an old operating system on an old computer. And the whole way through I kept hearing that verse that I mentioned in a recent blog: “Fear not, I’m right here with you.”
And miraculously my anxiety level was minimal, the whole way though the process. I got Monday’s blog uploaded! Yeah! I got my computer to the computer doctor and got it back not only healed but all shiny clean. Double Yeah!
I even congratulated myself on trusting God through out the whole process. And then…
I played one of my games, and lost, and slammed my pretty and healthy computer shut.
The Devil is sneaky. If he can’t get you in the big things then he starts poking at you with the little stuff. I got mad over a completely meaningless happenstance. Which brings us to the subject of this blog.
Calling poison control
How should we react when we give in to temptation and eat the poison fruit? We should call poison control immediately. The minute that lid slammed shut I knew what I had done. I closed my eyes and asked God to forgive me for undoing all the work that He had done over the last few days.
That kind of reaction takes time to develop. It isn’t natural it is practiced. I’m not saying this to brag, in fact it was God through the whole thing that illustrates the point of Genesis 3:8-13
Our natural inclination
The first thing that Adam and Eve did when they heard God coming was to hide. God is all knowing and all-seeing; there is no hiding from God. So why did God call to the man, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9) Because from the very beginning God wanted to redeem His creation. I firmly believe that if Adam had confessed right then and there God would have forgiven him. There would still be consequences, he was already suffering from shame, but they may not have been nearly so severe.
Adam wasn’t tempted by Eve. He was tempted by the lies of the serpent. He justified himself in the very act of disobedience by not picking the fruit himself, he let Eve do it, he watched Eve do it, he knew exactly what Eve was doing, he knew where the fruit came from and he ate it anyway.
I even congratulated myself on trusting God through out the whole process. And then…
I played one of my games, and lost, and slammed my pretty and healthy computer shut.
The Devil is sneaky. If he can’t get you in the big things then he starts poking at you with the little stuff. I got mad over a completely meaningless happenstance. Which brings us to the subject of this blog.
Calling poison control
How should we react when we give in to temptation and eat the poison fruit? We should call poison control immediately. The minute that lid slammed shut I knew what I had done. I closed my eyes and asked God to forgive me for undoing all the work that He had done over the last few days.
That kind of reaction takes time to develop. It isn’t natural it is practiced. I’m not saying this to brag, in fact it was God through the whole thing that illustrates the point of Genesis 3:8-13
Our natural inclination
The first thing that Adam and Eve did when they heard God coming was to hide. God is all knowing and all-seeing; there is no hiding from God. So why did God call to the man, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9) Because from the very beginning God wanted to redeem His creation. I firmly believe that if Adam had confessed right then and there God would have forgiven him. There would still be consequences, he was already suffering from shame, but they may not have been nearly so severe.
Blame the victim much?
Adam was right there the whole time. He could have corrected the serpent with the very words of God, and didn’t.
Adam was right there the whole time. He could have corrected the serpent with the very words of God, and didn’t.
He could have stopped Eve from eating the fruit, and didn’t.
He could have stopped himself from eating the fruit, and didn’t.
The Blame Game
But Adam’s confession was an afterthought tacked on the end of a statement of blame and Adam was not on that list.
“The woman YOU put here with me…” Genesis 3:12. Adam not only blamed Eve he blamed God for ‘putting’ her there to tempt him. Eve was not a temptress; she was a help-meet and a blessing. She did not shove that fruit down Adam’s throat. And far from protecting Eve, he threw her under the bus when God arrived.
Eve, for her part, blamed the devil. God gave Eve the same chance He had given Adam. “What have you done?” Genesis 3:13 But she tacked her confession onto a statement of blame as well. “The serpent deceived me…”
So you see the Devil made them do it and it’s all God’s fault.
In the aftermathWhat we do after the fall is just as important as what we do when faced with temptation. We can fight temptation and we will fail. For all have sinned and fall short…(Romans 3:23) It is our natural inclination to sin. (Romans 7:18) It is our natural inclination to hide and to blame and this inclination must be fought with as much vigor as that with which we fight temptation itself.
God will always ask us “What have you done?” Not because He doesn’t know, but because He is offering the opportunity to confess and have our sins wiped away. Our sins, not their consequences, eat the poison and the poison will cause harm, pain, suffering, or death.
But there are at least three kinds of death.
1) Death of the body, which we will all suffer.
2) Death of the spirit, which we will all suffer, but from which we may be redeemed by the grace of God.
3) Death Eternal, which only those unredeemed will suffer after judgement.
Adam brought all three forms of death into the world and Jesus broke the power of all three on the cross. (Romans 5:19)
So do not hide, it doesn’t help and isn’t possible.
But Adam’s confession was an afterthought tacked on the end of a statement of blame and Adam was not on that list.
“The woman YOU put here with me…” Genesis 3:12. Adam not only blamed Eve he blamed God for ‘putting’ her there to tempt him. Eve was not a temptress; she was a help-meet and a blessing. She did not shove that fruit down Adam’s throat. And far from protecting Eve, he threw her under the bus when God arrived.
Eve, for her part, blamed the devil. God gave Eve the same chance He had given Adam. “What have you done?” Genesis 3:13 But she tacked her confession onto a statement of blame as well. “The serpent deceived me…”
So you see the Devil made them do it and it’s all God’s fault.
In the aftermathWhat we do after the fall is just as important as what we do when faced with temptation. We can fight temptation and we will fail. For all have sinned and fall short…(Romans 3:23) It is our natural inclination to sin. (Romans 7:18) It is our natural inclination to hide and to blame and this inclination must be fought with as much vigor as that with which we fight temptation itself.
God will always ask us “What have you done?” Not because He doesn’t know, but because He is offering the opportunity to confess and have our sins wiped away. Our sins, not their consequences, eat the poison and the poison will cause harm, pain, suffering, or death.
But there are at least three kinds of death.
1) Death of the body, which we will all suffer.
2) Death of the spirit, which we will all suffer, but from which we may be redeemed by the grace of God.
3) Death Eternal, which only those unredeemed will suffer after judgement.
Adam brought all three forms of death into the world and Jesus broke the power of all three on the cross. (Romans 5:19)
So do not hide, it doesn’t help and isn’t possible.
Do not blame others, they may have introduced you to the temptation but YOU gave in to it.
And do not blame God, He warned you, you are the one who didn’t listen.
And blaming the Devil for temptation is like blaming the fire for being hot. You know the fire is hot, it may be pretty but you know better than to stick you hand into it. The fire did not reach out and burn you. YOU stuck your hand in the fire and got burned.
When God offers you the opportunity to confess – CONFESS. Honesty is scary until it happens, and then we realize that what we imagined is not reality. We imagine being blamed by God for our failure. Reality is that God is gracious to forgive, He wants to forgive, He is willing to forgive, He has already forgiven if we would only accept it.
Simple – Ain’t – Easy
But confession is good for the soul
Wendy
And blaming the Devil for temptation is like blaming the fire for being hot. You know the fire is hot, it may be pretty but you know better than to stick you hand into it. The fire did not reach out and burn you. YOU stuck your hand in the fire and got burned.
When God offers you the opportunity to confess – CONFESS. Honesty is scary until it happens, and then we realize that what we imagined is not reality. We imagine being blamed by God for our failure. Reality is that God is gracious to forgive, He wants to forgive, He is willing to forgive, He has already forgiven if we would only accept it.
Simple – Ain’t – Easy
But confession is good for the soul
Wendy
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