Pastor Pusch

Don’t be alarmed! It’s just me.
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Recently, I began reading again in Genesis. I am still amazed at God’s creation and His greatness that made man a living soul. I never want to take the familiar for granted. It’s rich.

Yesterday I landed in Genesis 3. Whole volumes have been dedicated to the content within this chapter. I remember writing a 10 page paper in college regarding “The First Proclamation of the Gospel in Genesis 3:15″. Many of you who are reading this entry are probably familiar with “The Fall of Man” (the heading given to Genesis 3). If not, you can read it here.

Here is Genesis 3 in a nut-shell. The “crafty” serpent deceives the woman(1,4). The woman, full of deception, lusts after the forbidden fruit (6a,b). The now deceived, lustful woman, in her pride (6c) partakes of the fruit (in direct disobedience of what God commanded (2,3)) and shares it with her husband (6d). As a result, both man and woman found themselves to be naked (7). The LORD God shows up and reveals to them their  sin (as if they were’t aware)(8-11). The man blames the woman (12), the woman blames the serpent (13), and God punishes all three (14-24).

There is so much to discover within this passage, but for the sake of time, I’ll not go there. I do, however, want to touch on verses 22-24 where my question to you has do to with verse 22 specifically.

” (22)Then the LORD God sad, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever -’ (23) therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. (24) He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden, he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.”

As I’m sure you have heard it explained, God kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden because of their disobedience. God said don’t, they did, God punished, and kicked them out of the garden. I got it. In my reading, though, I kept going back to verse 22 and here’s my question to you… What did God mean when He said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil”? Perhaps my mind is trying to make too much out of this statement. In the countless number of times  I’ve read through this passage, I have never stopped at 22. It’s as though I’ve never read it. I understand why God wouldn’t want them to partake of the tree of life  as they would then be forever in their sinful condition. Adam and Eve has to go, I get it. Verse 22 just stopped me for a while.

The first three chapters of Genesis is a theological stockpile. It is the beginning and end of man where in between lies man’s only ray of hope that will eventually come through redemption in Jesus, the Messiah.

Well, perhaps this was a confession of my complete and utter ignorance as I journey through scripture. Regardless, I appreciate you taking the time to read. Feel free to comment below.

Blessings,
Pastor Pusch
unedited

“No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals. They did not remember the Lord their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side.” Judges 8:33-34

Three times in the first few chapters of Judges the word “prostituted” was used to describe Israel’s spiritual amnesia (KJV uses the word “whoring”) that resulted in their forsaking God and complete rebellion. Interesting description, if you ask me. Then I was reminded of James description in his own letter to believers who struggled with these similar issues. James wrote, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God?” (James 4:4). “Prostituted”. “Whoring”. “Adulterers”. Do these descriptors add perspective to our flirtatious attitude toward sin? Perhaps I (we) need to concern myself more with fleeing as far away from the line of sin than I do “whoring” around with it.