Word for the day by Christian Education Forum

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‘Put Out’

Genesis 3: 1 - 9

“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.” (3: 6)

One might title the overarching theme of Genesis 3 to be ‘Put Out’, in that we see here that the relationship between God and man, between man and woman, and between humanity and nature (the earth and the animals) were all ‘put out’ by one act of disobedience.  Till this point in time, humanity (Adam and Eve) were the ‘perfect or flawless’ creation of a ‘perfect’ God, who lived in a ‘perfect or flawless’ world up to this point and enjoyed a ‘perfect’ relationship with God, each other and nature.  However, with this one act of disobedience, we see what humanity chose to become, an imperfect creation of a ‘perfect’ Creator, now making the world around him or her, ‘imperfect’ as well.

Put Out From God:  It seems but a simple, innocuous action, eating of a fruit that God had forbidden them to eat of, but which had long-lasting consequences.  By that one action, they distanced themselves and all subsequent generations of humanity from God.  Even today, we may do things in our own life that continue to ‘put us out’ from God and distance Him from us. 

Put Out From Each Other:  When God confronted Adam, he blamed Eve and thus relationally, they were separated from each other.  What had till that point been a perfect relationship, led to approportioning blame and creating mistrust between them.  Even today, we all go through situations where we look to blame others, either within our family, or in our workplace, or our church life for poor choices that we make, either in actions or words. 

Put Out From Nature:  Third, we also see a disruption of the natural harmony between humanity and nature, be it the earth or animals.  Eve blamed the serpent, and ultimately God condemned the serpent to crawl on the ground forever, Eve to go through the pain of childbirth and Adam to toil hard to be able to use the earth to grow produce (Genesis 3: 14-19).  Even to this day, our attempts to make our surroundings more comfortable and convenient to us, put us at odds with the environment, conservation for the future, and needless to state, we are at the mercy of the fury of nature, when storms or other events occur.

Even though Adam and Eve’s relationship with God, each other and nature were ‘put out’, thanks be to God that through the coming to this world and His death on the cross, Jesus has restored that relationship. 

Prayer: Jesus, thank you for restoring our relationship to the Father through your coming to this world and dying for us on the cross.  Grant that we may continue to restore our relationship with each other, and with nature, just as you have done it for us.

Thought for the day: What is our relationship with God and with each other like??? Does it need restoration?
 
Dr. George M. Abraham, MTC, Boston

 

 

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