A Walk Thru the Bible: Separation

Genesis 3. 1- 24 (CEB)

The snake was the most intelligent^[a] 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^[b] 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^[c] 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.”

¹⁴ The Lord God said to the snake,

¹⁵ I will put contempt

¹⁶ To the woman he said,

¹⁷ To the man he said, “Because you listened to your wife’s voice and you ate from the tree that I commanded, ‘Don’t eat from it,’

²⁰ The man named his wife Eve^[d] because she is the mother of everyone who lives. ²¹ The Lord God made the man and his wife leather clothes and dressed them. ²² The Lord God said, “The human being^[e] has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil.” Now, so he doesn’t stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever, ²³ the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to farm the fertile land from which he was taken. ²⁴ He drove out the human. To the east of the garden of Eden, he stationed winged creatures wielding flaming swords to guard the way to the tree of life.

Romans 3. 21- 26 (CEB)

²¹ But now God’s righteousness has been revealed apart from the Law, which is confirmed by the Law and the Prophets. ²² God’s righteousness comes through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who have faith in him. There’s no distinction. ²³ All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory, ²⁴ but all are treated as righteous freely by his grace because of a ransom that was paid by Christ Jesus. ²⁵ Through his faithfulness, God displayed Jesus as the place of sacrifice where mercy is found by means of his blood. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness in passing over sins that happened before, ²⁶ during the time of God’s patient tolerance. He also did this to demonstrate that he is righteous in the present time, and to treat the one who has faith in Jesus as righteous.

Creation was perfect.  No death, no destruction and a simple, easy life.  However, God had given humans authority.  The ability to choose.  Once tempted to be like God, they chose to step out of the created order and seek equality with the Creator.  Their imperfection, their selfishness changed the whole of creation.  Perfection cannot live with imperfection.  This is the world we inherited- broken.  Broken environments, broken relationships and separation from God.  This story humbles us as we realize we inherited this broken selfishness.  We are truly in need of a Savior to redeem us!  Thank God that our redeemer came in Jesus Christ to restore that which was broken!