Pointing the way

We have finally begun our Bible study again.  

I have missed it so much.

Anyway,  this week we started a focus on five major characters in the old testament.
This week we started with Adam, let's face it he was first, right?

We discussed Adams relationship with God, I mean he had everything he could possibly want right, he lived in paradise, was given a wife, basically, all his needs were met.

Then the serpent comes along and temps Eve, and she falls for it.  She wanted more.

Did you get that?

She wanted more.

So she decided to try the fruit from the Tree of Good and Evil.

Then what does she do?  

She runs straight to Adam and gets him to do it.

And he does it too, knowing he shouldn't, he still does.

Now, these people have the kind of relationship with God that we can only imagine, he actually came down to talk to them.

Can you imagine that?

So, even though God already knows what has happened he wants to hear if from them.  But they hide, thinking he won't know where they are or what they've done.

How silly, he knows it all.  So when they finally, admit what they had done, after blaming it on everyone they could, God disciplines them.

Now, remember he told them not to eat from the tree or they would surely die, but he didn't kill them, he showed them mercy.  

God is good, even when we don't deserve it.

Instead he gives them consequences for their actions (curses is what the bible call them).

First the serpent, he is condemned to crawl on his belly and eat dust all his life.  And the woman and all her descendants will be your enemy.  They will crush your head, and you will strike their heel.

To Eve, she will have much pain in childbirth, yet she will greatly desire her husband, and he will rule over her.

And last but certainly not least Adam.  He will put a curse on the ground, so that he will toil hard for his food, the ground will produce thorns and weeds and you will sweat and work hard.

I would like to say that the more I read it, the more I love the old testament.  The stories point us to Jesus.  There is nothing that we face today, that isn't in the old testament.  Betrayal, adultery, prostitution, just to name a few, and on top of all of that, God uses everyday people to lead them back to him.

Also, the more I learn the more I see how the old and the new are so intertwined.

For example;

We know that everything God made has been waiting until now in pain, like a woman ready to give birth.  Not only the world, but we also have been waiting with pain inside us.

Romans 8:22-23

A new testament example of how Eve's fall to sin still points us to Jesus.  Our suffering now, are nothing compared to the glory he has waiting for us.

How exciting is that?

Next week, Noah.