The Rest of the Story – December 1st
Genesis 3: 1-13
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 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.”
Thoughts
Hey, I thought these devotions were about Advent and Christmas? Yes, that’s true. But to see the real reason for Christmas, we need to know the rest of the story.
A long time before Jesus came to earth as a baby, the world was perfect. Adam and Eve walked on the face of the earth and looked forward to their fellowship with God, their creator. We see from these verses that one day the deceiver, Satan, tricked Eve by telling her lies. The “fruit” looked sooo. . good, what harm could there be if she ate it? What harm could there be if she knew good from evil?
It wasn’t really about the fruit at all. It was all about obedience. God gave Adam and Eve a choice, to obey or to be disobedient. Satan always makes disobedience look like it is OK, that it really doesn’t make a difference, that there won’t be any consequences. These are only some of the lies of Satan. Adam and Eve faced consequences that forever changed the world.
So, why do we celebrate Advent and Christmas? Have you ever been disappointed with someone’s (or maybe your child’s) actions or behavior, so disappointed that you devised a way for them to redeem themselves? This is exactly what God did.
The rest of the story (the Bible) is God’s perfect plan, a plan of redemption to bring man back into communion with the perfect, sinless God. It took a long time to accomplish. After all, God’s time frame is not the same as ours. From that very moment of disobedience in the Garden, the time table was set. God would come to earth as a human baby, live as a human, and die a terrible death as a sacrifice for the sins of mankind. Man could never redeem himself because of his sin-nature. Redemption had to come from the sacrifice of Jesus who was sinless. Only then, could the human race be redeemed and have fellowship restored with our God.
The rest of the story starts with the Advent, Jesus arriving as a baby, but also as our Lord and Savior, and redeemer
Prayer
Thank you, father God, that you cared so much for mankind that you sent your perfect son, Jesus, to be my savior and redeemer. Amen.
Joyce Blowers
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