Week 4 - Day 2
THE STORY
Rebellion
REBELLION ON EARTH
Yesterday we saw that the Rebellion actually started in heaven. Today we will see how this Rebellion came to earth.
Genesis 3:1-6 (NIV)
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
How would you break down the serpent’s (Satan’s) temptation of Eve and Adam (who was right there with her)?
How do you see temptation at work in your life? What’s your greatest temptation?
Why is Adam and Eve’s sin not just an act of disobedience against God’s commandment, but a declaration of independence from God Himself?
In Genesis 1, we read that God had already created Adam and Eve like Him.
Genesis 1:26-27 (NIV)
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
How were Adam and Eve like God?
How were they not like God?
What was Satan tempting Adam and Eve to do?
Satan was tempting Eve and Adam to not be satisfied with being like God as dependent creatures submissive to God’s will, but to be LIKE God as independent agents asserting their own wills. Satan was tempting them to de-god God so they could be their own gods, something Satan had already done in heaven. This is the essence of the Rebellion—a declaration of independence from God. It’s a decision to be autonomous (Greek for “a law onto yourself”) from God so you can decide what’s right and wrong for yourself. Ultimately, then, every sin, every choice to disobey God’s commands is an act of high treason against God’s rightful authority over our lives.
We have to give Satan some credit at least for telling one truth. When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit they did become like God in knowing good and evil. But that’s not a good thing. As God, God knows both good and evil. He knows goodness because He is good and He knows evil because He is God. Though there is no evil in Him, God knows evil because He knows all things. Adam and Eve, on the other hand, knew goodness because they knew God and the good life He created, but they hadn’t known any evil. But now they do—personally and from the inside out. Think of it this way. God knows evil as an oncologist knows cancer. That kind of knowledge can save people. Adam and Eve, however, now know evil as a cancer patient knows cancer. That kind of knowledge will kill you. And it did. Adam and Eve have become spiritually malignant.
Isaiah 33:22 (NLT)
For the LORD is our judge, our lawgiver, and our king.
How does this passage speak to what’s going on in Genesis 3?
How do you see this independence from God at work in our culture?
How do you see it at work in your own life?
Genesis 3:7-13 (NIV)
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?
He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
What happened after both Eve and Adam fell for Satan’s lie and disobeyed God? How do you see these results of the Rebellion in your life?
In light of what you have discovered through the Bible readings and your personal reflections, how will you respond? Finish this sentence: I will …