Week 4 - Day 3
THE STORY
Rebellion
CONSEQUENCES
Last week we talked about how at Creation everything was perfect. We had a perfect loving relationship with God and a perfect caring relationship with the world, including each other. It was literally paradise.
Here’s how we pictured Creation.
Adam and Eve’s rebellion, however, has devastating and lasting consequences for the rest of creation and all of us. As you read today’s passage you will see the roots of all the world’s pain and problems.
Genesis 3:14-15 (NET)
The LORD God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all the cattle
and all the living creatures of the field!
On your belly you will crawl
and dust you will eat all the days of your life.
And I will put hostility between you and the woman
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
What are the consequences for Satan (the serpent) and our relationship to Satan? How do you see this evident in life?
Genesis 3:16 (NET)
To the woman he said,
“I will greatly increase your labor pains;
with pain you will give birth to children.
You will want to control your husband,
but he will dominate you.”
What are the consequences for Eve? How do you see this evident in life?
Genesis 3:17-20 (NET)
But to Adam he said,
“Because you obeyed your wife
and ate from the tree about which I commanded you,
‘You must not eat from it,’
the ground is cursed because of you;
in painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
but you will eat the grain of the field.
By the sweat of your brow you will eat food
until you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust, and to dust you will return.”The man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.
What are the consequences for Adam? How do you see this evident in life?
Genesis 3:21-24 (NET)
The LORD God made garments from skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them. And the LORD God said, “Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not be allowed to stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the LORD God expelled him from the orchard in Eden to cultivate the ground from which he had been taken. When he drove the man out, he placed on the eastern side of the orchard in Eden angelic sentries who used the flame of a whirling sword to guard the way to the tree of life.
What are the consequences for God and our relationship with God? How do you see this evident in life?
What about the next generation? How did the consequences of Adam and Eve’s rebellion impact them? Did they learn from their parent’s mistake?
Genesis 4:1-12 (NLT)
Now Adam had sexual relations with his wife, Eve, and she became pregnant. When she gave birth to Cain, she said, “With the LORD’s help, I have produced a man!” Later she gave birth to his brother and named him Abel.
When they grew up, Abel became a shepherd, while Cain cultivated the ground. When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the LORD. Abel also brought a gift—the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The LORD accepted Abel and his gift, but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected.
“Why are you so angry?” the LORD asked Cain. “Why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.”
One day Cain suggested to his brother, “Let’s go out into the fields.” And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother, Abel, and killed him.
Afterward the LORD asked Cain, “Where is your brother? Where is Abel?”
“I don’t know,” Cain responded. “Am I my brother’s guardian?”
But the LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground! Now you are cursed and banished from the ground, which has swallowed your brother’s blood. No longer will the ground yield good crops for you, no matter how hard you work! From now on you will be a homeless wanderer on the earth.”
How did the Rebellion impact the next generation?
Here’s a graphic of the second chapter of The Story. Our rebellion has ruined our loving relationship with God and our caring relationship with each other and the world.
In light of what you have discovered through the Bible readings and your personal reflections, how will you respond? Finish this sentence: I will …