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Trust broken, but grace showed amid consequences

February 13, 2025
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Daily Scripture

Genesis 3:1-24

1 The snake was the most intelligent of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say that you shouldn’t eat from any tree in the garden?”
2 The woman said to the snake, “We may eat the fruit of the garden’s trees 3 but not the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. God said, ‘Don’t eat from it, and don’t touch it, or you will die.’”
4 The snake said to the woman, “You won’t die! 5 God knows that on the day you eat from it, you will see clearly and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 The woman saw that the tree was beautiful with delicious food and that the tree would provide wisdom, so she took some of its fruit and ate it, and also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then they both saw clearly and knew that they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made garments for themselves.
8 During that day’s cool evening breeze, they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden; and the man and his wife hid themselves from the Lord God in the middle of the garden’s trees. 9 The Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 The man [Or he] replied, “I heard your sound in the garden; I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree, which I commanded you not to eat?”
12 The man said, “The woman you gave me, she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.”
13 The Lord God said to the woman, “What have you done?!”
And the woman said, “The snake tricked me, and I ate.”
14 The Lord God said to the snake,
“Because you did this,
    you are the one cursed
        out of all the farm animals,
        out of all the wild animals.
    On your belly you will crawl,
        and dust you will eat
        every day of your life.
15 I will put contempt
    between you and the woman,
    between your offspring and hers.
They will strike your head,
        but you will strike at their heels.”
16 To the woman he said,
“I will make your pregnancy very painful;
            in pain you will bear children.
You will desire your husband,
        but he will rule over you.”
17 To the man he said, “Because you listened to your wife’s voice and you ate from the tree that I commanded, ‘Don’t eat from it,’
cursed is the fertile land because of you;
        in pain you will eat from it|
        every day of your life.
18 Weeds and thistles will grow for you,
        even as you eat the field’s plants;
19     by the sweat of your face you will eat bread—
        until you return to the fertile land,
            since from it you were taken;
            you are soil,
                to the soil you will return.”
20 The man named his wife Eve [Hebrew sounds like live] because she is the mother of everyone who lives. 21 The Lord God made the man and his wife leather clothes and dressed them. 22 The Lord God said, “The human being [Or man (Hebrew adam)] has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil.” Now, so he doesn’t stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever, 23 the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to farm the fertile land from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the human. To the east of the garden of Eden, he stationed winged creatures wielding flaming swords to guard the way to the tree of life.

Daily Reflection & Prayer

In Genesis 3, the archetypal nature of the story is even clearer. “[Adam and Eve] hear a talking serpent whisper to them all the reasons why they should disobey Yahweh’s command. This is not ancient history. This is your story. It is my story. Which of us has not heard the serpent’s whisper in our ears, beckoning us to do what we know is wrong?” * The vivid image of “the tree of knowledge of good and evil” showed that God gave us the freedom and responsibility of making moral choices.

  • One of the first consequences of choosing to know evil came in the way the human couple related to one another and God. “When confronted with their disobedience, the people pass the blame instead of accepting responsibility. The man even blames God indirectly (The woman you gave me.)” ** Have you ever tried to “pass the buck” for a bad choice you made? When has someone else tried to blame you for a mistake they made?
  • The archetypal stories in Genesis made crucial claims (humans were created in God’s image, God made certain portions of time holy, God provided what humans needed to thrive, and they lost innocence by distrusting God). Could the scientific method possibly prove or disprove claims of that kind? “These lessons are not in conflict with science. They are the deeper truths about the nature of the universe and our place in it.” *** How can you see that science and Scripture address different dimensions of truth?
Prayer

Loving God, remind me to focus on and apply the Bible’s big principles to my life. Let me learn not just fragments, but the Bible’s overall message to empower me to choose your way of life. Amen.

GPS Insights

Picture of Janelle Gregory

Janelle Gregory

Janelle Gregory serves on the Resurrection staff as Human Resources Lead Director. Janelle finds that her heart is constantly wrestling with the truth that she needs a Savior, and the times when she's at her very best are when she's just too tired to put up a fight.

When we think about the story of the Garden of Eden, we often focus our attention on Adam, Eve, and the snake. Certainly, those are key characters in this story, but what often gets overlooked are the two trees in the story. Which tree comes to mind when you picture what happened in the garden? The tree with the fruit that they ate from, right? The tree with the snake, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
We’re all prone to temptation, and we’re all going to give in to that temptation. We’re all Eve–every single one of us. We’re drawn to the wrong tree. The wrong tree is shiny, flashy, and alluring. It shapeshifts into power, greed, bitterness, self-centeredness, and lust. One would think that its fruits are filling, but just like in a fairytale, its fruits are full of poison. And when we taste those fruits, we’re not only poisoning ourselves, but we’re also drawn away from the other tree.
 
The other tree is the tree of life. It gives life abundantly and eternally. One might think that this tree was on the opposite end of the garden, far from the poisonous tree. But in Genesis 2:9, we find that both trees were planted in the middle of the garden. The tree of life was right there with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Yet Adam’s and Eve’s eyes (more so than their stomachs) were drawn to the shiny, poisonous tree.
 
This is what happens with temptation. We’re blinded when we become attracted towards doing something we know we’re not supposed to do. It becomes difficult to see other options beyond our selfish desires. Yet if we pause to look around, there are options of hope and light, and they’re closer than we think.
 
Today, we don’t turn to a tree, we turn to one who died on one. It’s in Christ that we find that abundant and eternal life. Just like the tree of life, he’s right there in every situation. We’re much more likely to avoid the poison of sin when we turn our attention to the fruit of life he freely gives us.
© 2024 Resurrection: A United Methodist Church. All Rights Reserved.
Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
References

* Hamilton, Adam, Making Sense of the Bible: Rediscovering the Power of Scripture Today (pp. 191-192). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
** Theodore Hiebert, study note on Genesis 3:12-13 in The CEB Study Bible. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2013, p. 9 OT.
*** Hamilton, Adam, Making Sense of the Bible: Rediscovering the Power of Scripture Today (p. 194). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.