Hello Everyone,
I want to welcome the United Kingdom to the list of readers who log on every week. God's word is spreading more and more each time we come together to study. It is truly an honor to study God's word with all of you. I am so blessed by your emails and text messages each week. I especially want to acknowledge those of you who post on the blog and share your testimony and thoughts. I assure you that it is a blessing to all of us when you do so. Our testimonies definitely bless each other. It is a privilege to be on this journey with all of you.
So far we have discussed the womanhood, vulnerability, and sin of Eve. Now, we will discuss the separation that this sin has caused. We will also venture into the notion that this separation was not necessarily God's original plan. What causes separation between us and God is sin.
RESOURCE
Genesis 3:13-24
13 And the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." 14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this You ar cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, \And you shall bruise His heel." 16 To the woman He said: "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you." 17 Then to Adam He said, "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat of it All the days of your life. 18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. 19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return." 20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. 21 Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them. 22 Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out this hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever" 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the eat of the Garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
Separation - lacking unity; detached; where division or parting occurs
LESSON
Over 45% of marriages end in divorce within the first 10 years of marriage (NCHS 2002). This number has actually decreased over time. However, the impact of its results is immeasurable. This number may appear small, but when you think of it in relation to the billions of people in the world, that means billions of people have experienced divorce. I have. I have personally experienced divorce 3 times in my life. I am child of a divorced home and I have been divorced twice myself. I have to admit and own my sin that attributed to the demise of my failed marriages. While I was not the sole factor, I was a contributor. Through those experiences I have learned what not to do, and how necessary it is to seek God and follow His statutes. Just like many men and women of the bible, including Eve, I surrendered to my flesh and disappointed God. However, again, just like those men and women I am redeemed through the grace of Christ Jesus.
Divorce is separation. We divorced God in the garden that day, by no choice of our own, Eve made the choice for us. Just like my parents made the choice for me and I then made the choice for my son. Sin perpetuates itself. Do you see the long-term effects of sin?
He(the serpent) knew he could not destroy, but had to draw our parents(Adam & Eve) to sin and SEPARATE them and their God (Nelson 1997). We, as His bride, have been divorced from God through the exchange of the serpent and Eve that day. Being made aware of our fleshly nature, it formed a wedge between us and our God. The knowledge of the difference in being breaks the original intimacy God intended towards us. As this separation polluted the Garden of Eden, it now pollutes our relationship with God through sin.
In undermining the correlation between God's command and man's own best interest, the serpent portrays a false view of sin as something beneficial to man (Asbury 1992). This initial separation has caused us to deceive ourselves time and time again. We deceive ourselves daily. We convince ourselves, with our finite minds, to believe the fleshly acts we commit, in our daily thinking and behaviors, are beneficial to us. We are led by our own self. These thoughts and behaviors are temporary fleshly gratification that are mere band-aids to bullet wombs. We are basically soothing ourselves like babies with pacifiers when they really want their parents. We really want out Father, God!
God has given us and continues to give us opportunities to reconcile (Romans 5:1-3). Everyday breeds a new opportunity of reconciliation to God through the Holy Spirit and Christ Jesus. Everyday we must be committed to reunite with our God through obedience to His word and fulfilling our Godly purpose. We are offer renewed encounter with God (Asbury 1992). He offers renewed encounters with Him daily. We are destined to reunite(remarry) our God when He returns for us (Matthew 25:6, 1 Thessolonians 4:17).
Eve is no different from us. We desire much more than our finite minds can conceive. We make choices that affect generations without considering God (Psalms 145:5). Nonetheless, we have an opportunity to have choices of blessings and not sinful curses to ourselves and those generations (Genesis 22:8, Luke 1:50, Psalms 100:5).
The word "generations" appears in the bible over 132 times. Do you think God was trying to make a point? We not only have an obligation to ourselves to follow Christ, be obedient to His word, and strive for reconciliation with Him for ourselves, but for every generation that lies ahead (Proverbs 4:10-27).
APPLICATION
We have been on an interesting journey with Eve. Eve has challenged us to be more vulnerable in Christ and to look at ourselves more closely. This week as we gain a better understanding of Eve, we will focus in on ourselves again. Ask yourself, what sins of yours have caused separation between you and God? Are your sins the same as Eves's? Pride, Selfishness, Disobedience?
Review these scriptures as you reflect on these thoughts?
Psalms 59:12
2 Chronicles 26:16
Proverbs 11:2
Isaiah 3:8
Joshua 5:6
Deuteronomy 28:15
Ephesians 5:6
It is such an occasion as this to right the wrong and reconcile with God.
Have a blessed week!
Be blessed,
T. Carter
REFERENCES
All scripture notations were extracted from New King James Version of the Bible. YouVersion (2013).
Carpenter, Eugene E. & McCown, Wayne (1992). Asbury Bible Commentary. Zondervan Publishing House. Grand Rapids, Michigan.
M-W.com (2013). Merriam-Webster Dictionary Web Version. Retrieved from: App Store
NCHS/CDC Public Affairs (2002). Cohabitation, Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage Trends in the United States. National Center for Health Statistics. Retrieved from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs
Nelson Thomas (1997). Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible. Thomas Nelson Publishing. Nashville, Tennessee.
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