People of Advent: Adam and Eve

 

From time to time in this advent series I will look at the people involved with the advent.  Today it is Adam and Eve.

Adam and Eve Genesis 3:22-24

²² Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” ²³ therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. ²⁴ He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

 

It seems surprising to include Adam and Eve in the advent.  The Advent happened long after Adam and Eve lived.  They were long dead.  How do they enter in?  Well, they were not physically present at the Advent, but their presence underlies The Advent event.  If Adam and Eve had not chosen to sin, Jesus would not have had to come. From the minute of their sin we were in need of a Savior.  They knew perfection and they knew the loss of perfection.  I think they understood the consequence of choosing sin over God’s plan more than any human being.  For them it was tragedy.  For us it is tragedy, too, but we have not experienced perfection so we cannot conceive of the magnitude of loss.  We were born this way. 

 

Someday we will live in a perfect world, better than even what Adam and Eve knew.  We will do that because Jesus came.  The Advent!  When we live in that perfection we will  be unable to sin.  Everything will be right, and Satan will be beaten, vanquished. 

 

When you think of Advent think about the reason for it, and the hope The Advent brings.  Then sing out those Christmas songs with all your heart!

 

Day 3

Genesis 3:1-24 The Fall

3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You^[a] shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” ² And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, ³ but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” ⁴ But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. ⁵ For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ⁶ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise,^[b] she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. ⁷ Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

 

Well, here it is!  The debut of sin.  It crept in with subtle words that made Adam and Eve feel they deserved to sin.  It would be so much fun!  They could be God, and they would have the power.  That was what they wanted.  It would make them feel great.  They thought it would improve on perfection.

 

Well, surprise!  They could not improve on God’s plan.  Sin resulted in separation from God and all the perfection and beauty they lived with.  It was replaced with pain and toil and broken relationship.  It was forever lost.  God provided a way to restore relationships with Him, but it was never like in the garden.  That was lost.

As we enter advent let us ponder our relationship with God.  What do we want in that relationship?  We need forgiveness for the myriad of times we give in to the sin of discontent and try to fashion something better.  Just give that up!  You cannot make anything better than God.  So sit down for ten minutes and practice being content with God!

Man in Sync with God

 

Genesis 1:26-30 (ESV)

²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make man^[a] in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

²⁷ So God created man in his own image,
    in the image of God he created him;
    male and female he created them.

²⁸ And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” ²⁹ And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. ³⁰ And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

 

God made man in His own image.  He gave man intellect and responsibility.  We were mandated with caring for creation which in turn would provide us with food.  We were told to multiply and populate the earth.  God made us, gave us work and food and it was good.  The whole world was perfect in all respects.  Man was in sync with God.  That is how it should be.  That was God’s image of life on this world. In fact if life had stayed like this Jesus would not have needed to come.  But it all went crazy, and sin bounded into the world with destruction spewing everywhere.  It did not have to happen that way.  Man was not content with the world God gave him.  He wanted more, but ended up with less. How do you want more than God has given?  Are you willing to surrender to God’s perfect plan?  Why not try it?

 

 

Advent?

 

 Jeremiah 23:5-6 (ESV)

⁵ “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. ⁶ In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

 

 

What does advent mean?  In general it means coming or arriving.  The Advent means the coming of Christ.  As we prepare for Advent, we are in good company.  The people in the Old Testament were preparing for the Advent from the time sin appeared on the scene.  They were told God was working out His plan to restore our relationship with Him.  That plan involved Jesus, God’s Son coming to earth to die for us.  So they all prepared for this event.  Many did not understand the plan, and most only knew a small fragment of the plan, but they talked about that part they knew and prepared and hoped for the day it would be fulfilled.

 

We prepare for Advent now, too, but it is with hind sight that we prepare to remember, and celebrate the fulfillment of the first phase of the plan.  We know what Christmas means, Jesus came!  We remember and celebrate that part of the plan each year.  We have added much to the celebration through the years.  In fact now we kind of push Jesus right out of the celebration.  We have fallen in love with the celebration rather than Jesus.  Just like a birthday loses its joy when we forget the person whose birth we are celebrating and celebrate the cake.

It is time to put celebration back in its place and focus on Jesus as we enter Advent.  Let’s do that today.  Focus on Jesus coming and find ways to celebrate that each day of Advent.

Decision Making and the Holy Spirit

 

Decision making is really hard.  Is it for you, too?  You see, I cannot see all the consequences of my decisions.  I make a decision thinking, “now that was mature,”  only to find it was not really very good and led to things I did not want, or were harmful.  See my sight is short.  My thinking is self-centered.  I am weak, but think I am strong.  That frequently adds up to disaster.  I really need help in these matters.

 

Good news!  I have that help at hand all the time.  Jesus left a helper to steer me through every minute.  The Holy Spirit -- Always wise, always right, always there!  I need to not be impatient but wait for that guidance which will come in due season.  I must slow down and take notice.  I must be ready to obey.  Not easy, but part of God’s plan for me.  So, Holy Spirit, what are we doing next?