Man's Fall

Genesis 2,3 NLT

 After God created man and woman; He placed them in the Garden of Eden and God warned them:

  "You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden - except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.'" 2:7,8, 15-17

"Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame." vs 25  The man and his wife lived a perfect life of beauty and no shame in the garden. They could eat fruit from every tree, except one.

Now here comes trouble:

"The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, 'Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?' 'Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,' the woman replied. 'It is only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not to eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die." 3:1-3

 The serpent was very clever in trying to trick Eve. First he tries to get her to doubt what God says and tries to confuse her by saying 'you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees'. Eve knew what God had said. "'You won't die!' the serpent said to the woman. 'God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.'" vs 4, 5 Here the serpent actually accuses God of lying to them and doubts His goodness and love in not allowing them to become like Him, knowing both good and evil. God is their Father and He wanted them to trust Him as to if they should know evil.

Kids, are there movies and pictures on the computer that your mom and dad don't want you to see? Why is that? What is evil? Why should you not see evil?

"The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves." 
vs 6, 7

What three ways was the woman tempted? Do you feel tempted by things you see?... Things that look yummy?... Or do you wish you could be as smart as your mom and dad?

Her husband was with her, why did he not try to stop her from eating the fruit? Why did he eat it too? Are you ever with another kid who wants to do something you know is wrong and instead of stopping them, or telling your mom or dad; do you do it too? Could this bring harm into your life? The serpent tricked them into thinking that eating the fruit would bring good into their life. What happened instead?

"When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. Then the Lord God called to the man, 'Where are you?' He replied, 'I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.' 'Who told you that you were naked?... Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?'" vs 8-11

Kids, have you ever done something wrong and hid from your mom and dad? You know your mom and dad really love you and so does God. Adam and Eve spent time with God, their Father, every evening enjoying His love. But now that they disobeyed and were ashamed of their nakedness, they were ashamed to be with Him. I feel sad for them and for God.

Even though they tried to cover their shame with fig leaves; that was not enough. So the Lord made clothing for them out of animal skins. To get these skins, an animal had to die, to be sacrificed to cover their shame. Sin is costly and brings death of some kind. This points to how God already had a plan for forgiveness of sin and to remove its shame. Do you know about that plan?

Since the man now knew evil; God could not let them stay in the beautiful Garden of Eden anymore, because there was a tree of life that would allow them to live forever. Can you imagine how awful the world would become if people had forever to think up  and do evil things. So God sadly sent them out of the garden. Then they would have to grow their own food.

This tendency to sin was passed down from parents to their children and even affects us today. Evil came into the world and along with it much pain and suffering. Because when people do evil things, they hurt other people. But God had an answer of how to deliver man from his sin. Part of the curse to the serpent hints at His solution to this problem and is a promise (prophecy) to give us hope:

 "... I will cause hostility between you and the woman... and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike His heel." 3:15

Sin came into the world through Adam and Eve being tempted by the serpent (Satan, the devil). But God promised to bring salvation through a Son of Eve, a person who would strike the head of the devil and destroy his power over people... thousands of years later.

I wonder who that might be? Do you know?