Sun.’s Devo - The Fall

Read: Genesis 3:1-4:26; Matthew 2:13-3:6; Psalm 2:1-12; Proverbs 1:7-9 On the sixth day God created beasts and cattle which are two different Hebrew words. Beast have to do with wild animals which are described as strong and have an appetite. Cattle mean that they are mute beasts and often collective like a group. The serpent fell into the beast category and it is said that he was the most subtile or cunning of the beasts. Satan used him to talk through to the woman and entice her to eat the fruit from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He told her that it would make her wise like God and she would know what God knows. She gave it to Adam who was with her at the time. Makes you wonder if he tried to stop her or was waiting to see what would happen to her if she ate it. When nothing visibly happened, he ate it too. Who knows! They were immediately enlightened. They saw that they were naked and were ashamed, so they make clothing out of fig leaves and hid. When God came out to talk with Adam like he did every day at evening time, Adam was hidding because he was afraid of God. Sin does that. It makes us ashamed and afraid that God is mad at us. God got to the truth. Adam ate because of Eve. Eve ate because of the serpent. All were cursed by God. Woman would have pain in child birth and be controlled by their husbands. The serpent would crawl on its belly and be an enemy to the women, but one day she would strike his heel. Adam’s curse was that he would have to work the ground and the ground would not work with him. To keep them from eating from the Tree of Life and being forever in that state of sin, God had to cast them from the garden. He set up mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden to guard the way to the tree of life. Eve became pregnant with two sons. She first delivered Cain. He was from the seed of Satan but Abel was from Adam’s seed. As they grew, Cain worked the ground and Abel took care of sheep. They both offered God an offering and God was pleased with Abel’s and not pleased with Cain’s. Cain gave of his labor but Abel gave a blood offering of the best and first born sheep. He set the standard for all future offerings. Abel was a type of Jesus who offered the perfect sacrifice. It cost both of them their lives. Cain who was a murderer from the beginning, killed Abel and buried his body. God came to confront Cain and he had no remorse. God cursed Cain and banished him from the ground. He sent him to be a homeless wanderer who would never eat the fruit of his labor. Cain and his wife gave birth to Enoch. His fourth generation was Lamech who was a polygamist. Lamech told his wives that he had murdered a man in self-defense. He was afraid that his punishment would be greater than Cain’s. Meanwhile, Adam and Eve had another son to replace Abel. His name was Seth. Seth had a son named Enosh and for the first time, people began to worship the Lord by his name. In Matthew, after the wise men left, Joseph was warned in a dream to flee to Egypt with his family and stay there until God told him it was safe to return. When Herod realized that the wise men had not come back to tell him where the king was, he was furious. He went on a tirade killing all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under. Herod died and God gave Joseph another dream to tell him it was safe to return. Mary and Joseph came back and settled in Nazareth. John the Baptist began his ministry in the Judea wilderness. He preached repentance and baptized the people in the Jordan River who confessed their sins. He was preparing the people’s hearts to receive Jesus’ ministry and salvation. Lord, may we confess our sins and be cleansed in your river of life. Thank you for another opportunity to walk through your Word and learn about you and your heart.