A Garden Variety Showdown Series

To understand the need for the promise of Christmas, we need to understand the reason for the promise in the first place. Most of you are familiar with the story of Adam and Eve, but did you realize that even in the Garden of Eden, God revealed the promise of a coming Savior.

Let’s look at the scene. Adam and Eve had it made. They lived in a perfect world created by the hand of God. They had unlimited access to God and full of enjoyment with only one stipulation. Adam and Eve could eat the fruit of any of the trees in the garden, but one. Let’s look at God’s instructions to Adam in Genesis 2:15-17:

“The Lord God put the man in the garden of Eden to care for it and work it. The Lord God commanded him, ‘You may eat the fruit from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat the fruit from the tree which gives the knowledge of good and evil. If you ever eat fruit from that tree, you will die!’”

Of course we know that there was a problem. There was also a sneaky snake in the garden, and he was up to no good. Look at what Genesis 3:1-5 tells us:

“The snake was sneakier than any of the other wild animals that the Lord God had made. One day it came to the woman and asked, ‘Did God tell you not to eat from any tree in the garden?’

The woman answered, ‘God said we could eat fruit from any tree in the garden, except the one in the middle. He told us not to eat fruit from that tree or even to touch it. If we do, we will die.’

‘No, you won’t!’ the snake replied. ‘God understands what will happen on the day you eat fruit from that tree. You will see what you have done, and you will know the difference between right and wrong, just as God does.’”

Isn’t that just like Satan? Always making things sound good. Asking those questions, that make you question. And of course Satan is always full of promises...you know the drill..."it’s only one drink"..."everybody else is doing it"...."it will make you feel good." Kind of amazing how not much has changed.

Remember though all Satan ever does is make suggestions and draw our attention, we are always left with a choice as we’ll see here in verse 6:

“The woman stared at the fruit. It looked beautiful and tasty. She wanted the wisdom that it would give her, and she ate some of the fruit. Her husband was there with her, so she gave some to him, and he ate it too.”

You see the problem is this...Eve didn’t turn and run, but instead she stared. As she stared her lust became a thought...she didn’t want fruit..she wanted wisdom that was not hers....and eventually her thought became an action...she took it and ate it. Not only did Eve’s sin effect her life, but she gave some to her husband, and instead of choosing obedience, he gave in to pressure. We are not much different...none of us falls into sin, it’s a process. A thought is dwelled upon, lust begins to surface, that lust leads to action.

We learn another valuable lesson here. Satan never comes at us with a full out lie...he prefers to twist the truth. He was right, Adam and Eve immediately knew the difference between right and wrong, but instead of enlightenment, there was shame. As we read verse 7, you will see the questions immediately arise "hey, where’s our clothes?"

“Right away they saw what they had done, and they realized they were naked. Then they sewed fig leaves together to make something to cover themselves.”

Remember we talked about what a pure existence Adam and Eve had. They froliced around in the all together. They talked and fellowshiped with God in the all together. Want to know how much their sin has affected you? Anyone here make a habit of praying in the buff? Didn’t thank so...we are all very aware of our nakedness. Quite a trade off for a bite of tempting fruit isn’t it. Remember anytime sin enters our life, we are trading off God’s best.

Not only did Adam and Eve become aware of their nakedness, but they were now ashamed and afraid. Look at verse 8:

“Late in the afternoon a breeze began to blow, and the man and woman heard the Lord god walking in the garden. They were frightened and hid behind some trees.”

Notice what else they traded off. God was walking in the garden. Walks with God forsaken for a moment of selfish lust.

We also see that Adam and Eve are like the rest of us wanting to hide their sin. How many of us are hinding sin, even today? But as you will see, God knows it all. Let’s look at verses 9-10: