Mar 12 - God Follows Through

Read Genesis 3:13-19

Context: The serpent has convinced the woman to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The man, too, has taken a bite and God has confronted them.

Text:
13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"
The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this,
"Cursed are you above all the livestock
and all the wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring [a] and hers;
he will crush [b] your head,
and you will strike his heel."
16 To the woman he said,
"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;
with pain you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you."
17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,'
"Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return." (NIV)
Footnotes:
Genesis 3:15 Or seed
Genesis 3:15 Or strike
taken from www.biblegateway.com

As a parent, it is easy for me to tell my kids that there will be consequences for disobedience. However, it is often hard to follow through...especially when it means that I have to suffer, too (as in a grounding or not allowing someone to go someplace special). God had given Adam and Eve his instructions, and the serpent had succeeded in his temptation.

God acted swiftly and firmly (most women would say too firmly when it comes to pain in childbirth!). I appreciate that he punished all parties involved...even the serpent. We can't fool ourselves that God won't see and he won't respond to disobedience. He cannot lie, and if he tells us "Don't", we have to know that he means it!