Before Adam and Eve ate their forbidden fruit meal, all their food was provided for them, fresh and juicy. Little effort was involved in cultivating what God had already planted and He took care of the watering. There were no weeds. Adam and Eve merely reached out and picked what God so generously provided.
Genesis 3:17-19 “The ground was
cursed.” Men throughout history since Adam have had to work
for their food. Backbreaking toil. “Thorns and thistles
shall grow for you,” said the Lord. The weeds vied for the growing
space, the water and the nutrients with the grain. Harvesting the
grain was more difficult with the presence of weeds. Then
there was the toil in grinding the grain, preparing and baking the
bread. Toil and sweat. Separation from
God. Adam and Eve were not exactly “feasting” at God’s table. Do
you ever feel separated from God? Rejected like the tares—the weeds—in
the wheat?
And
to the man he said, "Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree
whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you.
All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow
thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. By the sweat of
your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which
you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return." Genesis 3:17-19
Prayer
– Dear Lord – I don’t want to feel separated from you. Thank you for sending
Jesus to save us—to restore our relationship with you.
Meditate.
Consider God’s punishment for mankind because of Adam and Eve's disobedience.
Verse
of Salvation ~ For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and
only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal
life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the
world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in
him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not
believing in God's one and only Son. John
3:16-18
Comment
from a reader: I often wonder if I had been in Adam's place could I have
resisted the temptation. Or what if there had been more people at the time of
Adam and Eve's sin. Could they have resisted the temptation after they saw what
the consequences were for Adam and Eve. It might have been nice if God would
have built a wall around the tree so that it was impossible to sin. Though
without sin certain attributes of God would never be demonstrated like grace
and mercy. I guess it is all part of the plan. Do you think God conquering our
sin and showing grace and mercy draws us closer than if we had never sinned in
the first place?
© 2025 Text, photos, and
illustrations by Mickey M. Hunacek. All rights reserved.
Original post: January
2, 2012.
All scripture quoted
from the New Living Translation (NLT) unless otherwise noted.
New Living Translation
copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of
Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights
reserved.
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