In Genesis 3, we see that the man, Adam, and the woman, Eve, sinned against God’s command. They ate of the forbidden tree, and because of that, they were cast out of the beautiful garden of Eden.

Since the serpent is the one who persuaded Eve, God pronounced that He would put enmity (hostility) between the serpent and the woman and between the serpent’s offspring and hers. Man will crush the serpent’s head (kill him one day), and the serpent will strike his heel.

Then to the man Adam, God said the ground will be cursed and only through painful toil will you eat food from the land all the days of his life. The ground will produce thorns and thistles for you, and only by sweat and hardship will man be able to grow food.

Man will not live forever but return to the ground from where he was taken and will return to dust when he dies.

What hopelessness mankind must have felt! Work, hardship, toil, and then death was all they could hope for at this time.

But as the statements above show, God had made a plan to reverse the curse, and it came with His Son!

This is a holy week called Passion Week—one of the most sacred times in our faith. Palm Sunday faces the death and then the resurrection of God’s Son! Our hope is now found in the miracle of life after death! Because Christ lives, we can live this life with hope, knowing we will be with Him in heaven one day.

Here are some thoughts I recently heard:

1. Jesus died on the cross, which was made of a tree. Man stole from the tree, and so God put him back on the cross to undo that sin.
2. Jesus’s hands were pierced because He took the forbidden fruit with His hand.
3. Jesus’s feet were pierced because the first messianic prophecy involves the feet: Man will crush the serpent’s head, Satan and death will be defeated!
4. Jesus’s side was pierced because Eve came from his side, now making atonement for her sin.

I pray that this week you will take time to be with the Lord with praise and great thanksgiving for taking away the sting of death and giving us new life! Praise be to the Lord, for death is defeated, and God lives in us daily to walk with us on this thorny and hard path.

Manna from Heaven

The Fall of Man

Genesis 3

1 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’?”

² 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.’”

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.”

⁶ 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

¹⁴ So 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.
¹⁵ And 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.”

¹⁷ To 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.
¹⁸ It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
    and you will eat the plants of the field.
¹⁹ By 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.”