No change of Plans

O.T.15 "No Change of Plans"
April 1, 2013
Genesis 3-Part 1
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.  Genesis 2:16-17 KJV

LET IT GLOW

I'm always making plans and then sometimes I change my mind about them. Things like what's for supper, what I'm going to wear, where and when I'm going to go somewhere. Well, maybe I'm not alone. Somehow the old cliche' got started-It's a woman's prerogative to change her mind.
How it must frustrate the men in our lives. Maybe that's the way we were made. (giggle)

He could have changed His plans, you know. God knows everything, even our future. He knew what the old serpent would do to His perfect children (Adam and Eve) and what He would have to do because of it. Yet it all was allowed to happen, no change in plans-the temptations, the yieldings to sin, the provision for sin. Bring it on down to our day-our sins, our yieldings to sin, and the provision for our sins-the blood sacrifice of His only Son, Jesus Christ. However, He did not change a thing.

Here we are, the first man and the first woman, sinless, living in a perfect world, being confronted and yielding to the first temptation, and the first sin. Adam was told he could eat freely from every tree in the garden, except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which would result in death.

You know how movies often show the ending first and then show what happened leading up to the end. Well, I'm doing that today. We have a good ending.
Skip to verse 21 and see how God provided for His children in sin-the blood sacrifice of animals, the shedding of blood is necessary to provide a covering for sin (Heb. 9:22). The animals' skins covered the fallen couple. There was a death-the animals. Thus, one day God would kill a substitute to redeem sinners-Jesus.

Do I take it seriously how Jesus provided for me, for my sins to be forgiven?

LET IT GROW

Shall we get down to the niddy griddy? We have four main characters in our story, which is a true story. Let's look at each one.

1. Serpent: 

• a manifestation of Satan, the Devil (Rev. 12:9, 14-15, 20:2) which had rebelled sometime after 1:31; (Ezekial 28 gives more detail);
• a fallen archangel, a supernatural spirit, who possessed the body of a snake;
• more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD had made; subtil means cunning (usually in a bad sense), crafty, prudent; Paul describes it in 2 Cor. 11:3,14;
• spoke to Eve; he was an enemy of God because animals could not speak;
• spoke a lie (John 8:44), saying she would not die if she ate the forbidden fruit;
• indicates that the path to knowledge is to bypass God's Word;
• received punishment from God-cursed above all cattle and every beast of the field; moves on its belly;
• Satan is the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:3-4), the prince of this world (John 16:11), the prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2:2), the ruler of the darkness of this world (Eph. 6:12), and the king of a kingdom (Matt. 12:26, 4:8-9). All will be destroyed in the end.

2. Eve, the woman:

• was alone, not where she belonged (stood by the forbidden tree);
• saw that the tree was good for food (lust of the flesh) see Gal.5:19-21);
• saw that the tree was pleasant, pleasing, and attractive to the eyes (lust of the eyes);
• There is the lust of the eyes after all kinds of evil, sex, pleasures and possessions, alcoholic drinks, and other gods.
• saw that the tree was desirable for gaining knowledge, experience, and wisdom (pride of life);
• was a stumbling block to Adam, not a helper;
• tried to hid from God, tried to cover up her sin, blamed the serpent for her sin;
• pain in childbearing;
• her desire would be to her husband, and he would rule over her;

3. Adam, the man:

• was told the rules and consequence-no eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, or else die;
• tried to hide from God;
• passed the blame of his sin onto the woman and God who made her;
• was held responsible for the family;
• had to work for his food, sent out of the Garden of Eden (the ground was cursed for his sake).

4. God

• keeps His Word;
• shows His goodness when disciplining His children;
• does not tempt us to sin (1 Cor. 10:13);
• provided a blood sacrifice and cover for His children; 
• would provide the particular seed (Jesus Christ) of woman to crush the tempter.(Gal 3:16)

We are born with a corruptible, sinful nature, and all have sinned (Rom. 3:23, 6:23).
There is no use in trying to hide from God nor denying our sins.
Because of His love for us, God became a man, a perfect sacrifice for our sins, and died so we can be acceptable to God for fellowship, by way of Jesus Christ. (John 3:16-17)

LET IT GO

Let go of my pride and admit my sins to God, asking His forgiveness.

Trust Jesus as my Savior and provision.

Resist the lust of the flesh and lust of the eyes.

Daily put on the armor of God (Gal. 6:13-15).