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GENESIS 3–4; PSALMS 5–6

Week 1, Day 3

When Genesis 2 ends, all is perfect; man and woman have each other, they are in communion with God, happily employed, and blessed with idyllic housing and food.

Then, enter the villain. He is known by a variety of names, but probably the most significant is Adversary or Accuser. He enters our story making accusations against God, but it is soon evident that the object of destruction is the human creature.

The sin, quite simply, is disobedience to God. What Adam and Eve wanted was itself admirable (as is often the case with sin); they wanted to “be like God.” But they pursued their goal in the wrong way.

The results were catastrophic. They found themselves distanced from God, from each other, from nature, and from their own selves.

The pain continued into the next generation, and it continues to our own time. All our deeds, for good or ill, have consequences. In Adam and Eve’s case, the tragedy grew monstrous when their older son murdered the younger.

But there’s a note of grace from the very beginning. When Adam and Eve sinned, they received a message that traditional scholars over the centuries have seen as a promise of the Messiah (3:15); and when godly Abel was killed, there was a birth of new hope in Seth.

PRAYER: Save me, O God, from the day of temptation; and if I fall, teach me to repent. Amen.

Analyze your personal experience of temptation by comparing it with Eve’s encounter with the serpent. What was Eve’s experience? What is yours?