Lessons in falling backward and being broken Gen 3:12-13

Genesis 3:12-13
12 And the man said, The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. KJV

And here we have the basic building blocks of God's plan of salvation. We typically study this passage and mock how prone they are to pass the buck and blame everyone else but themselves. The Believing world puts all the accountability upon Adam & his wife, but I don't think they read the passage correctly. By reading it that way they fail to understand the depths of the Propitiation. The devil does not want us to understand the depth & height & width & breadth of the Propitiation.

See, I think this is the place where we see God holding Himself accountable to His own plan. What sort of God puts His vulnerable children in a snake pit with a dangerous deceiver? Every good parent baby-proofs the house, do they not??? A little child who is hurt while unattended in a dangerous environment is not to blame for his injury; his Caretaker is. We see the Lord hold Himself to this accountibility in that the Propitiation of Christ requires that God Himself atone for the sin of humanity. No other offering is good enough for a Good & Perfect God. Why would God require Himself as an atonement if it weren't a means of holding Himself accountable to us as His kids?

And thus we see that Adam and Eve are both correct in their court room defenses. Remember, they have no Advocate to argue for them at this point. They have to argue their innocence before the Lord Himself; unlike us who can claim the name of Jesus as our Mediator.

Most folks read the passage to indicate that Adam blames his wife. But is he really blaming Eve, or is He blaming God Himself? Does he not say, the woman YOU gave me??? To me, this is the first place we see God being held accountable for His own plan. Adam in effect, claims the Propitation of Christ by holding the Lord accountable to HIMSELF and the plan that was ultimately His to begin with. In fact, Jesus accepted the mission of salvation based on the love He has for us; a love with would inspire accountibility that's ultimately the responsibility of God Himself. Remember that He designed this whole plan of salvation from the very beginning before sin ever began. So it certainly seems reasonable that Adam should hold God accountable to His children and the mistakes they make. No good & loving parent would deny their personal responsibility in protecting and rescuing their children.

Eve is right in her defense too. She's innocent because the devil himself beguiled her. Who on earth stands a chance against Satan??? Only God in the flesh of Jesus made it through the devil's temptation. Thus we see yet another proof that He holds Himself accountable to the redemption plan.

And we come to see that plan meted out in the punishment that God immediately imposes. It's no small thing that the first sentence handed out is to Satan himself, and take note of how it immediately illustrates the devil's crushed head--the redemptive plan--from the very get-go.

Yes, Adam & Eve will have the earthly consequences of the death penalty invoked upon them But without seeming blasphemous, I postulate that it was a set-up--a divine plan for something that could only happen through the imposition of death.

Now comes the foreboding challenge of illustrating how a loving God uses death to make His point and turn the hearts of the children back to the Father. This is the point whereby humanity rejects the plan. Yet we cannot reject the plan. We must seek to understand it and make peace with it. We must come to know His love through it.

Lessons in falling backward and being broken Gen 3:4-5

Genesis 3:4-5
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. KJV

Okay, you know what strikes me about this passage? Two things:
1) the serpent proclaimed that they would not die. In other words, he was already privy to the Redemption plan and being saved from death. He already knew the eternal outcome of salvation (thus why he sought to make the young couple stumble);

2) that God already knew. He already knew she would chose poorly. He knew her selfish motive. And He let it all happen because He knew His plan to rescue her from herself.

Initially it would appear that Satan deceives Eve with what would seem only partially true--he tells her she will not die, and yet God has told Adam that they certainly will. They both are right.

God proclaimed that he would impose the death penalty upon humanity if they went outside the boundaries. It's true that now every human faces death at some point in their lives.

The devil, however, is also right in his delaration because by the plan of salvation we will NOT die. In the eternal scheme of things, death can't touch anyone who's protected by the plan of salvation--which Adam & Eve were.

So when I look at it more deeply, it would seem reasonable that the devil is proclaiming the basic principle of redemption. That principle is that it's our original nature to chose sin and to be consumed with the darkness of ourselves. And by "original" I mean, even BEFORE the fall. Man was made a sinner from the very beginning; his sin was part of God's plan. Even in the midst of Eve's pure countenance, before she ate and succumbed to the devil, she proved that we're designed with a genetic inclination for curiosity; to go outside the boundaries; to be self-consumed & idolatrous. It would appear that God wrote her propensity to choose poorly right into her countenance. Some theologist would claim that's where free will comes from, but I'm very skeptical about "free will." I think God wrote it that way.

Ultimately, I think we were designed with a genetic frailty and inability to make proper choices from the very very beginning. He made it that way on purpose.

And then, because God is all Good and all Knowing, He actually created the plan of salvation before He ever unleashed mankind out over the earth. Before man was ever even made, the rescue was in place.

Once that was in place, He could let Adam & Eve skrew up and not worry about it cuz He already had it fixed--and thus that's what the devil meant when he said they would not die. The devil just failed to tell them about the earthly death, and thus he snagged them by the lip just like an expert fly-fisherman does in a stream full of salmon. I guess his scheme would stand to reason. Afterall it is the devil's job to get us to squander our inheritance in any way he can. And we are like silly children with candy ready for the taking. It doesn't get more simple, and proves that even the devil knows God's Truth. It proves that even in the midst of a really crappy plan, God's got a Rescue mission already accomplished.

And so all that remains now is one question. The one question I struggle with along with most of humanity. Why Lord?

why did You put such a plan in place?
why did You give the devil such a powerful & deceptive leash to hurt Your people?
why does it have to hurt so deeply?

It's like Paul says, it's foolishness to them who don't get it. I hope He doesn't hold it against me when I admit that I don't get it sometimes either. But I do trust that we didn't just make this stuff up. I do believe His plan of salvation is True. I do believe there is a Rescuer.

And while I may wrestle and struggle with the ancient "why", I also hope to get to the bottom of some of my wrestlings as I dig through more passages. This will get me started.