Sermon Redux – “The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions” – Genesis 3:1-24 – Part 3 of How We Got Into This Mess

 

Genesis 3:1-24:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the^[c]cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” The Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,
Cursed are you more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you will go,
And dust you will eat
All the days of your life;
And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
To the woman He said,
“I will greatly multiply
Your pain in childbirth,
In pain you will bring forth children;
Yet your desire will be for your husband,
And he will rule over you.”

Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’;

Cursed is the ground because of you;
In toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.
“Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
And you will eat the plants of the field;
By the sweat of your face
You will eat bread,
Till you return to the ground,
Because from it you were taken;
For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return.”

Now the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.

Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.

The thing people need to remember bout Adam and Eve and the very first sin is that you can’t blame a sinful nature.  Thy didn’t have one and so the nature of the serpent’s temptation had to be related to something they possessed in their human nature without sin to tilt the scales.  Up until now this series has set the scene but now the bad decisions start and lead us into the mess we are in.  If we can get past our questioning of God and our own ignorance, there then becomes the simple fact that we are often drawn into temptation by our good intentions.

Eve decision to eat the fruit is not based on anything evil.  She sees the fruit as good for food, pleasing to the eye and can make one wise.  Food, beauty and wisdom are not in and of themselves evil things but if the pursuit of them causes you to break even one commandment then it is sin.  This is the problem with a lot of our decisions are based on the maximum good with as little evil as possible.  But we find ourselves compromising God’s commandments in a way where we seem to be doing most of them but that one in the corner, ‘surely God will not will not mind’.  ‘Its for a noble cause so I can break this command over here for the greater good’.  These thoughts are well intended and very human but they also are not respecting the command giver.

God’s commandments are ultimately guard rails that keep us from trouble.  Too often we do not seek counsel long enough or look through the scriptures long enough until we have a clear answer.  What happens then is in our good intentions we find ourselves violating the commands of God.  Adam and Eve were only one conversation with God away from to sinning.  So we need to remember that our good intentions can cause a great deal of harm, so we need to make sure that if even the smallest commandment is being broken it is not an action that needs to be avoided.