The Devotional Journey
Bible Reading 2
The man and woman rebel against Yahweh
Read Genesis 3:1–24.
In this chapter, we see how mankind was given genuine choice by God. God created mankind to have a real relationship with Him and that means the man and the woman could choose to trust Him and obey His one instruction or they could decide to rebel against Him, believing they knew better.
When a stranger in the form of the serpent came to converse with the man and woman, they chose to listen to this creature rather than to the voice of their Creator. They treated this serpent’s words as equal to God’s words. They considered what both said and then they chose to rebel against God’s command for them and eat the fruit.
In this incident, the man and the woman actually had several choices. They could have ignored the serpent and trusted God’s instructions completely. They could have waited for God to come that day and than ask again about the fruit. Or they could consider themselves the ultimate authority and judge for themselves if God or the serpent was telling the truth. Instead of trusting in the always truthful Creator, they judged that the stranger, the serpent, was telling the truth.
Using their personal free will, mankind chose to rebel against God. Rebellion against God is the basic definition of sin. Because God is all-good and all-righteous all of the time, rebelling against Him results in evil. Here was when sin, evil, death and suffering started, as well as when nature became corrupted. Choices always come with consequences. Good choices lead to good consequences. Bad choices lead to bad consequences.
When people we love distrust us or sin against us, sometimes we feel so hurt and angry that we don’t want to be with them anymore. But notice in this event, though mankind had mistrusted God and severed their relationship with Him, God’s love is merciful and kind toward mankind because He immediately promised to rescue all mankind from sin so that we could all have a relationship with Him again.
Genesis 3:15 contains the first piece of information about God’s plan to rescue mankind and restore the relationship that mankind had destroyed—God announced that the offspring of the woman would strike the serpent’s head. This means that some time in the future, a man who would be born only of a woman (with no human father involved) would destroy the serpent and his evil influence, and restore the relationship between God and mankind.
Can we imagine such an infinite love? Compare the way God loves mankind with how we love others. How we love often depends on how the object of our love behaves. But God is not like us. Even though mankind had rebelled, God continued to show love. God’s love is not dependent on the behaviour of the object of His love. Rather, His love depends on His all-loving character. Mankind had just rebelled against His command and yet we see Him extend mercy and love towards the man and the woman.
Let’s pray today to thank God for how much He loves each of us.
And let’s learn from God’s example of continuing to extend love even when the ones we love fail us or disappoint us.