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Genesis 3:1-7
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, 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.’” “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.” 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. 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.
1. Question: What is the serpent implying about God?
2. Question: What can we learn about our own sin?
· The issue here is trust. The serpent succeeded in getting Adam and Eve to not trust in the goodness of God. In what ways do we also do that?
o The serpent didn’t influence Eve to sin. There was no sin. Think about it. There were no examples of right and wrong. Has anyone ever told you a lie about someone? How did the lie affect your view of both people? Because this is what the devil did.
o Sin was created when the goodness of God became questioned.
o So the core of sin is mistrusting God
3. Question: Where are we tempted to doubt God’s goodness in our own lives?
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Genesis 3:9-13
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.”
4. Question: What do you see humans already doing here?
Genesis 3:22
The Lord said, “These people now know the difference between right and wrong, just as we do. God sent Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden and he put winged creatures at the entrance to the garden with a flaming flashing sword to guard the way to the life giving tree.
Genesis 5:1
God created men and women to be like himself. He gave them his blessing and called them human beings.
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Genesis 6
When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
· In Genesis 6 it says God saw the wickedness of the human race, the thoughts consuming the hearts of humans and it did not make him angry. It made him sad.
This reminds me of the popular show on Netflix called "You." In "You" the character, Beck, said, "If we don't have trust, we don't have anything." The fact that Joe didn't trust Beck broke her heart. God has emotions too. Our sin doesn't necessarily make God angry, it makes God sad.
5. Question: How would your attitude toward sin change if you saw it less as breaking God’s rules and more as breaking God’s heart?
· God could have destroyed the human race but instead he chose to save one family, not turn his back on humanity. Even though he knew that Noah and his descendants would again disappoint him, God chose to keep loving his children.
Genesis 10:32
After the flood their descendants became nations and spread all over the world.
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Genesis 11:1-9
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
6. Question: In what ways do we live like the people in Babylon, making ourselves the main character of our stories?
· There was still a sin problem because there was still a heart problem
· Sin remained in people’s hearts even after the flood
· People got focused on lifting up themselves rather than God
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Challenge: Consciously make God the main character of your story.
Sometimes we have great plans and wonder why they fall apart or don’t go like we planned. When you find yourself in these situations stop and ask: How often do I talk to God? How often do I hear from God? Was this my plan or God’s?
Pray: Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you as you examine your heart. Confess to the Lord any sin going on in your life, repent for time you have broken his heart.
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