Stories from the Bible - Ep 2 How It All Got Messed Up (Genesis 3)

Episode Date: October 15, 2021

Last episode we heard how at the very beginning of everything God simply spoke, and his words brought the world and all it’s creatures into existence. God was happy with everything he made and declared it all to be very good. But something obviously went wrong, because the world isn't like that anymore. This episode tells the story of how it all got messed up. The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® http://netbible.com copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved

Beauty, perfection, desire, deception, rebellion, judgment, hope. You're listening to Stories from the Bible. Bible stories told in order, using the words of the Bible, with introductions to give a recap and provide context. At the end of each story, you might want to pause and take a moment to reflect on what you noticed in the story, things you liked or didn't like, something the story showed you about God or about people. Don't worry if not everything makes sense. Keep listening to each episode and sit with the journey. I'm stoked to have you on the ride. Today is story two. Before we begin today's

story from the Bible, let's just recap. We heard how at the very beginning of everything, God simply spoke, and his words brought the world and all its creatures into existence. God was happy with everything he had made and declared it all to be very good. We're told people were uniquely created in the image of God, and they were given the special task of ruling over the world. Being God's image-bearers meant they were to rule in harmony with the ways of God, which, at its heart, meant to listen to God's words and follow what he declared to be good and true and right. But something obviously went wrong. Badly wrong. Because we don't see that

humans have ruled the world particularly well at all. Human greed has caused havoc and destruction amongst the creation. And not only have we failed to be good rulers of the plants and animals, but we can't seem to even rule our own lives very well. Our relationships with one another don't go the ways we want. And if we look closer into our own hearts, we have to admit that we look closer into our own hearts, we have to admit that we can't make things awesome and happy there either, as hard as we might try. So what went wrong? Today's story tells how the bad stuff started. Before we get there in a moment, some important background that happened after God had finished creating the world. You see, God had planted a garden in a place called Eden, and there he placed

the man he had made, to work the garden and watch over it. God made every kind of beautiful tree bearing good food to grow out of the ground in this garden, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden, as well as the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And God commanded the man and said, You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die. Today's story begins here. Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, Did God really say you can't eat from any tree in the garden? He said to the woman, The woman said to the serpent,

No, you will certainly not die, the serpent said to the woman. In fact, God knows that when you eat it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the

time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the Lord God among out to the man and said to him, Where are you? And he said, Then God asked, Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from? The man replied, The woman you gave to be with me, she gave me some of the fruit from the tree and I ate. So the Lord God asked the woman,

What have you done? And the woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate. So the Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, you are cursed more than any livestock and more than any wild animal. You will move on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life. I will put hostility between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head and you will strike his heel. He said to the woman, I will intensify your labor pains. You will bear children with painful effort.

Your desire will be for your husband, yet he will rule over you. And he said to the man, because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, do not eat from it. The ground is cursed because of you. You will eat from it by means of painful labor all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground since you were taken from it. For you are dust, and you will return to dust.

The man named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living. The Lord God made clothing from skins for the man and his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living. The Lord God made clothing from skins for the man and his wife, and he clothed them. The Lord God said, So the Lord God sent him away from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove the man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the Garden of Eden to guard the way to the Tree of Life. And the story ends here. Thanks for joining us for today's story.

You can read it for yourself in Genesis chapter 3. Will things ever come good again? Stay with us to find out. You've been listening to Stories from the Bible. I'm Jen, and I look forward to sharing more stories with you.