OBEDIENCE – failing to obey is sin

Genesis 3:14-19

14 Then the Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this, you are cursed
more than all animals, domestic and wild.
You will crawl on your belly,
groveling in the dust as long as you live.

15 And I will cause hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.”

16 Then he said to the woman,
will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy,
and in pain you will give birth.
And you will desire to control your husband,
but he will rule over you

17 And to the man he said,

“Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree
whose fruit I commanded you not to eat,
the ground is cursed because of you.
All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.

18 It will grow thorns and thistles for you,
though you will eat of its grains.

19 By the sweat of your brow
will you have food to eat
until you return to the ground
from which you were made.
For you were made from dust,
and to dust you will return.” (New Living Translation)

Adam and Eve learned through painful experience that since God is holy and hates sin, he must punish sinners.The rest of the book of Genesis recounts painful stories ruined as a result of sin.

Disobedience is sin and breaks our fellowship with God.

Fortunately, when we disobey, God can forgive us, restoring our fellowship with him.

satan is our enemy–he’ll do anything he can to get us to follow his evil, deadly path. The phrase “You will strike at his heel” refers to satan’s repeated attempts to defeat Christ during his life on earth.

“He shall strike you on your head” forshadows satan’s defeat when Christ rose from the dead.

A bruise on the heel is not deadly, but a strike on the head is.

Already God was revealing his plan to defeat satan and offer salvation to the world through His son Jesus Christ.

Adam and Eve affected all of creation, including the environment.

Years ago people thought nothing of polluting streams with chemical waste and garbage. This seemed so insignificant, so small.

Now we know that just two or three parts per million of certain chemicals can damage human health.

Sin in our lives is strangely similar to toxic waste. Even small amounts are deadly.

OBEDIENCE – we should obey because God tells us to

Genesis 3:11 “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”

12 The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”

13 Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”

“The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”

Adam and Eve failed to heed God’s warning in 2:16, 17. God’s command not to eat from the Tree of Conscience showed the essential nature of the obedience to God.Most commands of God are obviously for our own good.

But more important, the reason for obeying God is that he tells us to, and that must be reason enough.

When God asked Adam about his sin, Adam blamed Eve.

Then Eve blamed the serpent.

How easy it is to excuse our sins by blaming someone else.

We often fall into the trap of blaming others or circumstances for our personal failures.

But God knows the truth! And he holds each of us responsible for what we do.

Admit sin and apologize to God.

Don’t try to get away with sin by blaming someone else

OBEDIENCE – the way to true freedom

Genesis 3:

5God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.

Adam and Eve got what they wanted:An intimate knowledge of both good and evil.

But they got it in a distorted and painful way. satan had twisted their thinking by telling them they could know the difference between good and evil by doing evil.

We sometimes have the illusion that “freedom” is doing what we want. God says true freedom comes from Obedience and knowing what NOT to do.

The restrictions He gives us are for our own good, showing us how to avoid evil.

We have the freedom to walk in front of a speeding car, but we don’t need to be hit to realize that it would be a foolish thing to do.

Don’t listen to satan’s temptations to experience evil in order to learn more about life.

satan used a sincere motive to tempt Eve–“you will be like God, knowing both good and evil”

To become more like God is the highest goal of humanity.

It is what we are supposed to do.

But satan misled Eve on the right way to accomplish this goal.

He told her that you become more like God by defying God’s authority, by taking God’s place and deciding for yourself what is best for your life.

You become your own god.

But scripture clearly states that to become like God is not to be God Himself.

Rather, it is to reflect His characteristics and recognize His authority over your life.

Like Eve, we often have a worthy goal but try to achieve it in the wrong way.

It’s like paying off an election judge to be voted into office. Serving the people is no longer the highest goal.

The ultimate goal of self-exaltation is rebellion against God.

As soon as we begin to leave God out of our plans, we are placing ourselves above Him, which is exactly what satan wants us to do.

OBEDIENCE – God doesn’t force us to obey him

Genesis 2:16 But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” (New Living Translation)
God gave Adam responsibility for the garden and told him not to eat from the Tree of Conscience. Rather than physically preventing him from eating, God gave Adam a choice, even though Adam may choose wrongly.God still gives us choices today, and we, too, often choose wrongly. These wrong choices may cause us pain and irritation, but they can help us learn and grow and make better choices in the future.

Living with the consequences of our choices is one of the best ways to become more responsible.

Why would God place a tree in the garden and then forbid Adam to eat from it?

God wanted Adam to obey, but He gave him the freedom to choose. Without choice, Adam would have been a prisoner forced to obey.

The two trees presented an exercise in choice, with rewards for choosing to obey or consequences for choosing to disobey.

(Unless otherwise stated, parts of this series of studies on Obedience have been taken from The Living Life Application Bible by Tyndale)