I Will Remember: Recounting the Wonders of God During Difficult TimesНамуна

When Your World Falls Apart (Genesis 1:26–31; 2:15–25; 3:1–19)

There are many people today who believe their world is falling apart. That world could be physical, financial, vocational, relational, personal, or spiritual. 

When someone feels as though his or her world is falling apart, what that person is saying is that there has been this instant shift from the good to the bad. The good he or she had worked for, invested in, spent time with, enjoyed, and/or loved, is, in a moment, gone. 

This is the picture in Genesis 1, 2, and 3. In these chapters, we read that God created, built, invested in, and enjoyed his perfect creation. In addition, he created man in his own image for the purpose of reflecting his glory throughout the created order. Being his prized creation, Adam and Eve enjoyed perfect fellowship with their Creator as well as with one another. In short, there was shalom (total flourishing) over the whole earth. 

However, in a single moment shalom was shattered. Rebellion entered into God's perfectly created order when Eve and Adam cognitively chose to disobey his word and ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. At that moment, their world fell apart. 

Their world of perfection, harmony, peace, love, unity, and fellowship ended. They instantaneously realized they were naked. Rather than seeking God to fix this feeling, this change of reality, they sought to fix it themselves. And when they sensed God’s presence, they played a little game of “Hide and Seek” with God. But even when they came out of hiding, they immediately began blaming someone else for the crashing of their world. 

In short, their situation—a world in shambles—was now one of fear, confusion, shame, guilt, embarrassment, and chaos. 

In the midst of a broken world, God speaks a word of hope. We see this word of hope in Genesis 3:15 where he promises than an offspring (a child) of Eve would bruise the head of the serpent. Scholars refer to this as the “first gospel” where God promises to reconcile the world to himself, to restore the world to a pre-fall state, and to consummate his cosmic divine kingdom. He will accomplish this by crushing the head of the serpent, ultimately defeating sin. 

To foreshadow this promise, God clothes Adam and Eve’s nakedness by using animal skin (Gen. 3:21). 

Maybe you feel as though your world is falling apart. Maybe you feel, in general, that the world is falling apart. If so, remember today the wonderful promise that God made to Adam and Eve, which was fulfilled when Jesus (the offspring of Eve) went to the cross to die for the sin of the world. Remember that the Lord will one day fully reverse a world that has fallen apart to a world of total flourishing (shalom). 

Questions for Reflection

How does it seem your world is falling apart, and where do you sense God meeting you in that? 

How can you speak the truth of restoration into the lives of those around you?