SCRIPTURE: Genesis 3
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
(Read my Genesis 3 reflection from 2008)
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” [Genesis 3:4-5]
Your eyes will be opened… well I guess that is true, but they will not like what they see.
Lured to see what they shouldn’t see, they looked and were shocked at what they saw.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. [Genesis 3:7]
Apparently the other side of the fence is not as green as it looks from this side.
Having tasted the forbidden fruit, they are now sorry for it.
He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. [Luke 15:16-18]
The story of the prodigal son parallels the Genesis story, but now we see the other side, when his eyes are opened to his folly – or he comes to his senses!
Buried deep in the forbidden fruit, and miserable because of it, the voice the Spirit compels him to see the other side, the original side – life with the Father.
Yes, Satan is luring us to sin and misery, but the Spirit is also drawing us back.
Compare the situations of both: Adam and Eve before sin and after they ‘looked’; the prodigal son after plunging into sinful, selfish living, and then when his eyes are opened and he comes to his senses.
Yes, we still need our eyes opened, but not like Satan meant.
We are experiencing the horrible consequences of having looked where Satan wanted us to look; now thew Spirit is urging us to look back to God.
Consider your life, where you are at in relationship to God, to life, to happiness and peace.
Are you enjoying life and with the Father in His world, or are you tasting the fruit of godless, selfish life – an unwelcome guest at a feast with pigs!
Two voices whispering to us – Satan towards sin, the Spirit towards life.
Who will you listen to, what will you choose?
This passage reveals what happens when we listen to Satan and look into the things we were not made to see – we are cursed, life becomes a living misery.
We are now living among the pigs, and we are one with them, and yet.
By His grace, our eyes can be opened again, this time to the truth.
May we come to our senses today, wherever we are living in selfish, sinful folly.
PRAYER:
Lord, this chapter describes well what happens when we turn away from You. The grass is not greener on Satan’s side of the fence. Help me come to my senses. Open my eyes!