Learning To Listen to God

Eve: Disaster in Paradise

Just stop and think!

•What parents say when kids make mistakes.

•This series will examine 14 victims who failed to think properly before acting.

•Each suffered from their decisions and actions.

•The scope of this series

•Study of 14 disasters brought about because people didn’t understand God or listen to what He said.

•Understanding of the character and will of God as a reflection on these cases.

•Development of our awareness concerning obedience before God.

Intimacy With God in Paradise

•God prepared a glorious garden for His children

•Genesis 2:8-9 -- Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

God created mankind with super intelligence.

This is evidenced by man’s naming of all the animals.

Shows God’s desire for communion with man.

•Evidence of God’s presence in the Garden

•Genesis 3:8 -- Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

•Was this a frequent practice of the Lord?

God gave them a clearly defined commandment to keep:

Genesis 2:16 -- And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

A Stranger Invades Paradise

Genesis 3:1 -- Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?“

What did Adam and Eve know of this stranger?

What did they know about God?

What was the angle of his temptation?

Painting God as petty and restrictive: Vs. 1

"Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?“

Distorting the plain truth with a lie: Vs. 4-5

“You will not surely die….your eyes will be opened and you will be like God….”

Instilling a desire beyond the provision of God. – vs. 5

“…you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

But what did the serpent really offer?

Absolutely nothing!

•They had everything they needed – but accepted death rather than life.

Disaster in Paradise

Notice the juxtaposition of the trees:

Genesis 2:9 – “… In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”

Eve exhibits “twisted” thinking

Gen 3:6 -- When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.

How does Satan defeat us every time?

1 John 2:16 -- For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.

James 1:14-15 -- but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

Three realizations would have saved Eve:

God is goodGod is right (and righteous)God is enough

What is Satan dangling before our eyes?