THE TRADE OF THE WORLD
Behind leaf two we have: the prefect life, perfect health, perfect body, perfect marriage, perfect self-cleaning house, no grocery shopping, no laundry, pain free, no guilt, no stress, no worry, no pollution, everything provided and daily fellowship with God face to face. However; Eve chose what was behind leaf number one, the forbidden fruit. She did not consult the audience, her stockbroker or Adam if it was a good trade. What an impulsive buy that was. Not only did she get the fruit. She lost all that she had. Including the relationship with Father God. The ramifications of her deal are apart of our day to day life. One of the reasons Eve went for the fruit was for the wisdom. Don't know how wise it was to sew fig leafs into clothes. Once again God's wisdom is far better than man's.
THANKS EVE!
We all know what caused Eve’s lost of fellowship with God. It was the introduction of sin into the world. Let’s look at some of the things (sin) that can cause us to lose our fellowship with Him.
In Romans 3:23 we find that Eve is not alone in this sin issue.
“For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” NLV
It is sin that keeps us from fellowship with Him. As we look at sin that the letter I is in the middle of the word. So one could define sin as this;
Putting I (self) before God. Before His standards and express commands of God. They demand that we should love God with all the heart, soul, strength and mind.
Susanna Wesley gave this wise counsel to her son John,
“Whatsoever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of Spiritual things - whatsoever increases the authority of your body over your mind - that thing, to you, is sin.”
Let’s look at what the Bible says about sin and the various types of sin.
Willful sin
Pesha` - Transgression, Trespass, Rebellion and Sin.
This is not just an accidental step over the line. It is a willful disobedience to the will and Law of God. In other words you saw the light turn red but ran it anyways.
,
Disobedience to His Word
avon - Iniquity, Punishment, Fault, Mischief, Sin.
This is close to Pesha yet it is more of intent to do wrong. Here one plans on how they are going to do. For example: When my husband was the manager of a four-plex. We woke up one morning to find that the wall out front had become someone’s canvas. The big green word BOMB on it. This was not done in haste. It took some time to cover a 6x10 foot wall and to make the O look like a bomb. It was obvious this person had planned this mischief out as to how to do it and the best time to do it.
Changing His Word
Paraptoma - A lapse or deviation from truth andThe uprightness.
We all suffer from this one, thanks to EVE. This is the one that led up to our lack of fellowship with God as Eve once had it. Eve deviated from what God had said by adding the word touch. Many of the false teachers today and through out history have done this. They will take a verse from the Bible and twist it to mean something that it doesn’t mean.
OOOPPS I’ve Fallen
Hamartano - to miss the mark, to err, be mistaken, to miss or wander from the path of uprightness and honor, to do or go wrong, to wander from the law of God, violate God's law, sin. As a little girl, Corrie Ten Boom, had been instructed never to step on the blue stone in the playground at school. During a drill one day, Corrie stepped on the stone. She received a slap across her face immediately from the head master. Her actions were not a willful break of the rule or an out right act of rebellion. It was just a simple slip up, not paying attention to what she was doing.
Our Cover Up
Instead of confessing our sins to the Lord, we cover up to try to make it un-noticeable. No matter what we do to cover up our sin it will always be as plain as the pimple on our nose. That is until we deal with it His way. Let's look at some of our covers.
Ignore it
If we act like nothing didn’t happen; then no one will know.
Hide it
Like trying to put something back in the box that it came out of. Hoping that no one will know that it was ever opened up.
Cover it up
Eve did this with fig lives. When we try to cover up our sins it is as uncomfortable as wearing itchy fig leaves.
It is not my fault
Not me I didn’t do it. Ask any kid that has chocolate all over his/her face if they ate the last of the chocolate candy. Of course they will not own up to it.
Blame someone else
This reminds me of a story about a man that went to Hawaii for a vacation. As he was out shopping and sight seeing he realized he got lost. When asked what had taken him so long,. He replied that he had gotten lost because Hawaii laid the streets out wrong.
He Still Seeks Us
As we look at the rest of eve’s time in the garden we see that:
In the Cool of the Evening
After Adam & Eve tried to cover up with itchy fig leave and that did not help they decided to hide from God. Yet God came seeking them in the coolness of the evening. It was not in the heat of the afternoon when everything had just happened. He waited till tempers had cooled down. Giving them time to seek Him first for repentance.
He Knows Where We Are –
Some game of Hide & Seek, when the Seeker knows where you are hiding even if He did close His eyes. He still gave them the opportunity to come out of hiding and confess to Him what they had done.
He Knows What We Did –
He knew the whole time during this game of Hide & Seek what they had done. Yet He wanted to hear it from them what they had done.
He Still Desires Fellowship –
The fellowship was broken by the sin that was committed. Yet He still sought fellowship with man. All throughout the Bible you can see God seeks fellowship with man.
He still waits for us run out of excuses before we can hear that still small voice in the evening. Once we confess our sins to Him can we find peace.