2.

The Choice

 
SHARING LIFE

▶ Pray together: Thank God for experiences, ask for God‘s help.

REVIEW

▶ Pray together, that you may get to know new aspects of God and that your friendship with God would be strengthened and become deeper.

 

BIBLE STUDY

Genesis 3

1Now 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’?”

2The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 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.’”

4“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.5“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6When 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. 7 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.

8Then 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.9But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

10He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

11And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

12The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

13Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

14So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

“Cursed are you above all livestock
    and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
    and you will eat dust
    all the days of your life.
15And I will put enmity
    between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
    and you will strike his heel.”

16To the woman he said,

“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
    with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
    and he will rule over you.”

17To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
    through painful toil you will eat food from it
    all the days of your life.
18It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
    and you will eat the plants of the field.
19By the sweat of your brow
    you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
    since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
    and to dust you will return.”

20Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.

21The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.24After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.


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General questions: 

Specific questions (see commentary) 

 

Applying the text 

 

CHALLENGES

 

 

COMMENTARY ON THE TEXT: 
Genesis 3
Before we get into the tragedy of this chapter, let‘s take a look at an important point in the story. Adam and Eve heard God walking in the garden. They immediately knew that it was God who was approaching. It did not seem to be extraordinary that God walked in the garden with them and that they spoke together. The relationship between humans and God must have been straightforward and wonderful. How dramatically did that change when Adam and Eve suddenly had to choose between the snake and God. The snake advised them to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But after eating from it, they had an even bigger problem. They knew that God would come to them in the garden that evening. What should they do? The man decided to blame the woman and the woman decided to blame the snake. That was the beginning of individualism and egotism. They started to think of themselves as individuals instead of as a unit of man and woman. They stared to distance themselves from each other. That‘s why they made clothes from leaves. This just reflected what had already happened in their hearts. They drew a line between themselves, to protect themselves from each other and they both hid themselves from God too. Humans had only known goodness and lived in a wonderful relationship with God and with each other. By eating the forbidden fruit, they discovered evil and its consequences. In due course humans were driven out of the garden and thus out of God‘s presence. The snake‘s advice was not completely wrong. They did not die immediately, but were severed from God, the source of life, and therefore became mortal. Sadly, from that point onwards, not only humans, but the whole of creation fell under the influence of death, therefore some animals had to die to provide humans with clothes. Through that single action of human opposition towards God, all relationships were marred. The relationship to God was marred, the relationship between humans was marred and the relationship of humans towards nature and animals was marred.