3. The Desperation

Read Genesis 3:7-24

I don’t know how it happened; the Bible says that their eyes were opened. I honestly do not know what that looks like. The point is that they understood they did something very wrong. They did something so wrong that they ran and hid from God when they heard Him coming.

Hide from God.

Can you imagine the desperation that they felt in their hearts when for the first time they felt guilt, remorse, panic, dread, and so many other emotions?

Hide from God?

They were so overwhelmed by these new emotions and feelings that they had no idea what to do with them. As they wrestle with all of this, they hear footsteps. More of these fearful emotions flood over them…

Hide from God!

They run and find refuge somewhere, but God is the worst person to play hide and seek with. He knew, and yet, He came. He didn’t leave them out there; He went to them to make certain that they knew what had happened. They had never experienced God like this, God the disciplinarian. I don’t know if they understood the weight of what had just happened. They knew it was a serious problem, but it would soon come to a time that they would have to experience the full brunt of what they had done. Not only would life on earth change, but the relationship with God would be forever changed…

…for them…

…for all mankind…

…forever.

While they dealt with dread, He dealt with great sorrow. His perfect creation fell. Separated to a relationship He never intended. Broken, shattered, crushed, and wrecked the beauty of the free will that He gave man had become the breaking point the enemy attacked and gained victory over. He was forced to drive them away from Himself, forced to become unplugged from them, forced to divorce Himself from them. God…broken hearted.

The desperation of mankind as they were forced to leave perfection by partaking of the fruit as well as being driven out of the garden had to be unexplainable. Everything was new, but in a horrible empty way. Instead of just gathering food that was in abundance all around them, they had to search for food. They had to learn to plant and grow food, learn to water it, learn to fend off predatory animals, find shelter from weather. Everything that seemed so simple to them and to us now, was not simple because now they had to figure it out for themselves.

How lonely and desperate they must have felt. If only we could re-do everything. If only we hadn’t listened to that blasted serpent. If only we had known then what we know now, why would anyone want to do this to us anyway? Their children would never know God the same way they did. Mankind would grow and spread all across this earth, but no one would experience God the same as they did. The way God designed mankind for, the way we were supposed to be connected. Desperation to rekindle the connection filled the heart of mankind. A desperation to fill the void, but this desperation is one that mankind could not fill on their own, how could they ever reconnect to God?

Man began to try to find ways to fill this void, but how? Many attempts have been made to fill that void over the centuries; there is only One who can fill. The desperation to fill that void began thousands of years ago when the fruit was eaten; many still suffer from it now. The beauty is that the wonderful God that we serve made a plan. An elaborate plan and the only way to fix the broken relationship was to become broken Himself.

1. The connection was broken, try to imagine what that must have felt like and explain as best you can. 2. What thoughts do you think went through Adam and Eve’s mind as they left the garden? Have you ever felt that way?

3. What are your thoughts so far? Have you ever felt desperation? Hopeless?

2. The Separation

Read Genesis 3:1-6

In the midst of God’s perfect creation there was an opening for imperfection. You see, in order for the creation (man) to be the perfect creation, he had to have free will. Man had to have the ability of choice, a forced love is not a perfect love, and a perfect love is a love made because it is what a person wants. In the midst of God’s perfect creation, which it had to be a perfect creation because He made it, there was a birth defect (so to speak) and that was the free will of mankind. In this free will, man had the opportunity to make a choice to not do as God wished.

I don’t know if Adam or Eve even knew they had an enemy. If they did I am fairly confident that they had no idea who they were messing with, no idea of his cunning, his intentions, or his hatred for all that God is. I do know that the enemy knew them, and he knew just how much mankind meant to God. The enemy didn’t try to fool a deer into not doing as it was created to. He didn’t try to cause a bird not to fly. He did come up with the plan for man to not do what he was created to do, to have a special connection with God.

There were numerous trees in creation, all of them lovely. However, there was one that God did not want man to bother himself with and told Adam and Eve to not eat the fruit of that tree. I don’t know how long they listened, but it wasn’t long enough. I don’t know if the enemy heard God tell them not to eat of the tree, but somehow, he knew that there was suddenly a rule that they were not to break. He knew if he played on the freewill of mankind, he may just be able to trip them up. Maybe, just maybe, he could break this wonderful connection and by that break the heart of God whom he hated so much. The enemy devised a plan to trick the trusting humans into direct disobedience.

I am sure Eve in her purity was doing nothing out of the ordinary, maybe she was climbing trees, or gathering fruit, or just out for an observing stroll when the voice spoke to her. This was a new voice, one she hadn’t heard before. I wonder how he started that conversation, the rush he must have felt knowing the devious deception that he was about to begin. The separation he was about to cause, the pain to his nemesis and creator, did he shiver with delight? Whatever was said, it was all wrapped around a lie. Convincing poor Eve that God had somehow been holding out, deceiving her, and that there was most definitely something better.

Eve had quite a wrestling match mentally, not processing the thought that someone might actually be saying something untrue verses her God who seems to have always cared for and told her anything she has wanted to know with complete honesty. That enemy with all his smooth talking and conniving though sounded so honest and why would he want to say anything that wouldn’t be true?

Why not?

She takes the fruit and goes to Adam and convinces him of this insidious thought that maybe, there is more than what God has told us. Maybe this serpent knows something. Maybe there is something more enjoyable than God, and all that He has created. They eat the fruit. Their eyes are opened. A new world has come into play, but this world is not the world that was perfect. This world is disconnected. This world is broken. This world is fractured.

Oh the joy the enemy must have felt as he saw mankind sink their teeth into the fruit of separation. The victory he must have felt as he knew that he had caused this. The joy that filled his dark heart, he had done it. He had broken the heart of his Creator and the Creator of this dangerous mankind. The joys that God had walking with these humans through the garden would most definitely be broken because the enemy had learned from experience; God could not have fellowship with sin. The enemy of God, our enemy, had caused man to stumble and fall away from God’s design.

Mankind was disconnected.

1. As you read the passage and the story, do you see God as an emotionless God, a loving friend, or somewhere in between

2. Put yourself in Adam and/or Eve’s shoes (so to speak) explain the emotions they must have been feeling through all of this

3. The enemy was so driven to destroy the connection, how do you see him continuing to do the same thing today? Does he use similar methods?

1. The Original Connection

Read Genesis 1 &2

The great God of all things has set into motion His grand creativity and in His all knowing mind has a blueprint to lay out the perfect plan for the perfect world and in this perfect world, a perfect companion. All else is laid out and now it is time to create man. Man will walk with God, talk with Him, they will be connected. Man and woman both will have this wonderful access to God. The plan is perfect, God stoops down to the earth that He created and begins to carve out in the dirt that He created a form. This form somehow looks like God, but is in no way God.

God spoke all things into being, but this project is so unique, so special, so exciting for Him that He actually gets His hands dirty. The form is done, and now for the most electric part of Creation…God breathes life into man. With a single breath from God dirt turns into flesh, lungs take in air; blood begins to pump through the veins he designed throughout the body. The blood is pumped by a muscle in the middle of the body, while other muscles begin to awaken for the first time as man begins to stir from his sleep. Dirt becomes alive.

We can imagine numerous things as we picture this story unfolding. What was the mind of Adam thinking as He awakened? This mind that just moments before was a large lump of dirt, what was the first thought when the synapses began to form? Man, and shortly after woman, was formed and God had created and finished the perfect world. The beauty that He had designed in a mere six days was capped off with the crown jewel of His desire. Humans, chosen to be the love of the one and only God, created to be connected to God…forever.

The perfection of His creation is exhaustive to think about, the many intricate parts of the body that He designed and how they all work together. To say it is a work of art would be infinitely short selling the work that He did. God walked in the garden with the first couple, I can only image the conversations that happened there. The questions the first probing human minds shot towards the all knowing God, it must have been like a three year old at the zoo.

While we can’t think in the same light as God, I wonder what He was thinking. Knowing that He knew the outcome, why would He go through the pain and frustration? Why would He put up with all the garbage that man would throw at Him? Why did He care so much? Why does He love us so? Much of the connection that He longs to have with us today can be understood (not completely) in better light when we see how enamored He was with Adam and Eve. God created a perfect place for them to live, and gave it to them for their own even. I think we often forget just how much God truly loved Adam and Eve; we focus on the fall and the wrongdoing, but before the fall the acts of love that God presented to them was beautiful.

1. What sticks out to you? What are you thinking?

2. Do you see anything new that you hadn’t thought about when you read this story?

3. Try to explain God’s love for mankind from what you see in this story and in Genesis.

4. Does this make you think differently about how His love for you?

5. Explain God’s desire for connection as best you can