Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at 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.  Genesis 3:6  NIV

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.  But the Lord God called to the man,  “Where are you?”  Genesis 3:8  NIV

For many years, I have been really mad at Eve.  I mean face it, had she not eaten this forbidden fruit and given it to Adam then we would all be living in this Garden of Eden or basically heaven on earth.  Our lives would be easy and carefree.  We would just be trusting God for everything just as we are supposed to do and life would be good.  Now first of all, God knew that sin would enter the world through Adam and Eve and had already planned for it by planning to send Jesus to save us.  So, this was no surprise to God.  But we studied this scripture passage in our Sunday School class last week and it keeps coming up to me, so I figured that God wanted me to discuss it.  So here we go.

Adam and Eve are both responsible for this sin and we will go into that in detail, just bare with me.  God punished them both as well as the serpent for this little escapade.

But I wanted you to look at verse 6.  This verse tells us that Eve saw that the fruit was very desirable.  Sin is always desirable, right.  Otherwise, it would not tempt us.  I don’t know about you, but I find brownies way more desirable than broccoli and cauliflower, just sayin.  So this fruit looks very desirable.  I am guessing it looks like a tree full of M&Ms or Hershey Kisses, and Eve just can’t say no. But where is Adam?  Well according to verse 6, he is right there with her.  Sitting like a bump on a log while she destroys every good thing that God has given to them.  He just sits there while she does something that will not only curse them but will be a curse to all the generations to come.  So old Adam is not as blameless as you guys would like for him to be.  Also note that when God went into the garden, he confronted Adam, not Eve, hmm.

Now when God came looking for them.   They hid from him.  Now you may think that’s crazy because we all know that we can’t hide from God, right?  But stop and think a minute, what are you trying to hide from God right now.  He knows all and sees all and hears all.  He even knows every thought that comes into your head, so good luck with that.

Now they are hiding from God and God calls them out on eating the forbidden fruit.  Adam immediately blames Eve.  Eve immediately blames the devil.  So who are you blaming for your sin?

As we approach Father’s Day, I felt that God wanted me to confront the status of family life in our country today.  So we will spend the next few days camped here in this scripture.  You see, God made man in His image.  He made man to be the spiritual leader of his family.  He made woman to be his helper.  He also made her to be cherished by man.  Genesis 3:24 says that they are to become one flesh and this is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united with his wife.

Everyone wants to point the finger of blame at someone else for what is going wrong in our country today.  But what if we all stepped up and shared the responsibility?  What if we all started the day out on our knees praying to God for our country (2 Chronicles 7:14)?  What if we all lived our lives with our families as God instructed us to do in His word?

Ephesians chapter 5 v. 21 through chapter 6 v 9 tell us how to behave in our earthly relationships.  Wives are told to submit to their husbands.  It was a long time before I could say that verse without choking, but I am doing much better, praise God.  But husbands, you are instructed to love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.  Now, I have to be honest with you.  When my husband is loving and giving and selfless, which I have to say he often is, submitting to him is much easier.

So today I want to ask a question to the men out there.  Are you manning up?  Are you leading your household as God intended?  Take a minute to think about that today. If you are falling short, pray for God to help you to do better.  Philippians 4:13 tells us that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

TO BE CONTINUED-

Have a great day!