Gen. 3:14-2414And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: 15And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. 16Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. 17And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. 20And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. 21Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them. 22And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. (Genesis 3:14‑24)
I AM sure you are very sorry to hear that Adam and Eve were turned out of the garden? It was not so pleasant outside the garden. Many, many weeds and thistles now grew outside; but in the garden there were only pretty flowers and sweet fruits.
Adam was forced to dig the ground till he was hot and tired, for he could not always find fruit on the trees. Now Adam felt pain in his body sometimes. His hair became gray, and at last he was quite old. Eve was very often sick and weak, and tears ran down her cheeks.
Poor Adam and Eve! If they had obeyed God they would have been happy forever.
Adam and Eve knew that they must die at last. God gave them some little children, and Adam and Eve knew that their children must die too. God had told them that their bodies were made of dust, and that they must turn to dust again.
But there was something more sad still. They were now wicked. They did not love to praise God, as they once had done, but they liked doing many bad things. They were now like Satan. So Satan hoped that, when their bodies would be put into the ground, their spirits would be with him, for Satan knew that wicked people cannot live with God in heaven.
And they would have gone to hell, and all their children too, if God had not taken pity on them. God, who is very kind, had found a way to save them.
God had said to His Son, a long, long while before then, ‘Adam and Eve and all their children must go to hell for their wickedness, unless Thou wilt die. My beloved Son, I will send Thee. Thou shalt have a body. Thou shalt go and live in the world and Thou shalt obey Me. And Thou shalt take the place of very many men and women and children and die instead of them.’
The Son said to His Father, ‘I will come.’ He would do all that the Father wanted Him to do. He said, ‘It is My delight to obey Thee.’ So the Son promised to come into this world to die.
How kind it was of the Father to send His dear Son, whom He loved so very much! How kind it was of the Son to come from His throne of light and His bright angels, and to take a body and to die!
You know that we are some of Adam’s children’s children. It was for such people that Jesus came to die. We are wicked, and we should go to hell, if Jesus had not promised to die for such people. We ought to love the Father and the Son, because They had pity on sinners.
Let us praise God with the angels, and say, ‘We thank Thee, O Father, for Thy tender love in giving Thine only Son.’
‘We thank Thee, O Son, for Thy tender love in coming down to bleed and die.’
The Father waited a long while before He sent His Son down to be a man. All the time the Son waited in heaven, He thought of what He promised to do. But He would not go and be a man till His Father was pleased to send Him.
Adam has sinned, and on the ground
Shall thorns and thistles grow.
His body lie in dust; his soul,
Ah, whither shall it go?
Shall one who dared to disobey,
With God forever dwell?
When angels sinned God did not spare,
But cast them down to hell.
Yet long before the world was made
Our God contrived a plan,
By which his sinful soul to save,
And pardon guilty man.
The Father said His Son should die,
The Son replied, ‘I will.
A feeble body I will take;
This body men shall kill.’
Father, how great Thy love to man,
To send Thy Son from high!
How great Thy love, O glorious Son,
To come, and bleed, and die!
Questions
Were Adam and Eve happy after they had eaten the fruit?
Why not?
Who took pity on them?
What did God wish His Son to do for Adam?
What did God’s Son say to His Father, when He told Him to be a man so that He could die?
Are we some of Adam’s children?
If Jesus did not die, where would Adam and Eve and all their children go when they died?
Did Jesus come down into the world as soon as Adam became wicked?
Did He wait a long while, or a little while?
God sent a Savior
A verse from the Bible for you to learn: