Revolt: The Story of God's Pursuit of Imperfect PeopleSample

The tragic story begins in the third chapter of Genesis. Right on the heels of the stunning description of God’s creation—which crescendos with the design of men and women who are tasked with cultivating God’s world and filling the earth with His image-bearing worshipers—comes the tale of creation and humanity’s unraveling due to Adam and Eve’s sin and disobedience. Pick any book in the Bible and you are sure to see story after story that testify to the effects of this fall and the universal problem among humans that it brought.

In many ways, this just seems to be how life goes. A good day filled with happiness can end with a phone call announcing a tragedy. Hours of confident preparation for a test sometimes results in a lower grade than anticipated. A new relationship that brought such hope for lasting joy ends in a broken engagement. Pain often seems to follow joy.

But it didn’t have to be this way! Men and women were designed to celebrate God’s goodness in the perfect world that He created. But in one fatal act, Adam and Eve plunged the world into the depth of chaos. Here is how the story reads in Genesis:

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. – Genesis 3:1-7

The story of the fall is fairly straightforward. Satan, in the form of a serpent, tempts Adam and Eve to disobey God. They give in to his deception and eat fruit from the tree of good and evil that God had told them to avoid. This act seems fairly minor in the big scheme of things. After all, it was just a little piece of fruit, right? Who really cares?

God! In His grand story, this seemingly minor act is nothing short of an outright revolt against His plan, design, and goodness. Of course, the fact this happened was no surprise to God. In His eternal knowledge, He knew that humankind would sin. He already had a plan in place to save them and fix the problems they had brought into His perfect world through Jesus Christ. This is why Jesus is the focus of the entire Bible.

Respond

Why do you think Adam and Eve chose to listen to the enemy’s lies?

How does the enemy whisper in your ear to get you to doubt God’s goodness?