Read Genesis 3:1-24

This chapter is a very well known one in the Bible as, through it, we discover the impact that sin has on the world. Before this chapter, Adam, Eve and God were living in harmony in the garden of Eden until they went against God’s will and ate from the tree from the knowledge of good and evil. As a result, they were banished from the garden and, from chapter 4 throughout most of the Bible, sin wreaks havoc on the world.

What makes Eve extraordinary isn’t the first sin she committed, but what came after.

We read swift and heavy punishments as a result of their (Adam, Eve and the serpent) sin. God made it clear that life would never be the same and that their sin would have ripple effects on generations to come.

The issue wasn’t just that she and Adam took from the tree they were forbade to eat from. On a deeper level, their issue was that they compromised their faith, the truth of God and allowed the serpent to talk them into second guessing what God had said.

However, the story doesn’t stop there. Adam calls his wife Eve because, according to verse 20, she would become the mother of all the living. It would be, through Eve, that the rest of the world would come about.

In the midst of so much sin, darkness and death, God gives promises of life and, even, salvation. In verse 15, God tells the serpent that he will strike the heal of her offspring (Jesus) but that He would crush his head indicating that, through Jesus’ death on the cross, sin, evil and Satan would be overthrown.

What can we learn from the story of Eve…other than what not to do?

Looking back, their issue was compromise. They allowed the words of someone else to trump those that God had given them. As you look over your life, where are you making compromises in your faith? In what way are you not fully surrendering yourself to God? Are you allowing sin to slowly enter into your life unchecked?

The story here, and throughout the Bible, is clear. Sin will be punished. We must trust God’s words above all.

Where are you making compromises? What are you going to do to focus on the truth of God’s Word to fight that temptation?

Also, take a moment to reflect on Genesis 3 and the promise of life that came as a result of it. Thank God for His mercy and grace.

Jake Lawson