Day 2: God is Our Redeemer

Why do we worship God?

God is Our Redeemer

God created our world in six days and rested on the seventh. He created the first man and woman and placed them in a lush and beautiful garden. He provided for them a perfect place to live and raise a family. He gave to them a world filled with not only beauty, but also joy.

Even before this world was created, God knew that the beauty, the joy and the peace would be short lived. Yet, that knowledge did not prevent Him from continuing with His work. You see, God knew Eve would disobey and that His beautiful creation would need to be separated from Him. Yet, He loved them so much that He allowed them to have their own free will and choose whether they would listen and obey.

There had been war in heaven and Lucifer, the most beautiful of all angels had sinned against God. He had boasted and cried out to the heavens that he would be like the Most High God. Lucifer exalted himself before all of creation and God had cast him away.

When God’s work was done and He had rested the seventh day, He gave instructions to Adam and Eve. In the midst of the Garden of Eden, was the Tree of Life and another tree, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God said they might freely eat of every tree in the garden, but that the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was not to be touched.

One day Eve was walking through the garden and a serpent called out to her:

I would imagine that Eve was surprised at first. She probably had a small voice inside of her saying, “Don’t talk to him!” But for whatever reason, Eve stepped closer and listened.

She knew what God had said. She had known only love and goodness since the day she was created. And, still, she doubted Him. She listened to the serpent.

Satan was persuading her, deceiving a child of God. He was leading her in the wrong direction. He was convincing her not to believe God’s Word. And so she thought about it. And she believed the serpent.

Perhaps she felt a sense of power, or a sense of shame, or maybe she got a rush of adrenalin the way men and women often do when they think they have gotten away with something. Whatever she felt inside, it didn’t stop her from encouraging her husband to sin with her.

Adam, while he was not the one to initiate the sin, partook fully by taking the fruit from her hands and putting it to his lips. He chose Eve over God. Here he was enjoying another perfect day in the Garden of Eden when he sees his wife coming toward him. He must have known immediately that something was wrong. The covering of God’s light had disappeared from her and she was naked before him – no longer an image of perfection.

I can imagine his face falling as he looked over the woman he loved. The woman who had been given solely for his pleasure; for his devotion; for his companion. “Eve,” he cried out, “What have you done?” She would have explained the story to him, telling him about the serpent who had spoken to her. Telling him that the fruit was good for food, that God had not told them the truth. And he reached out his hand and grasped the fruit, knowing he would die. He had loved Eve more than he loved God.

Their eyes were opened. And they were afraid. Adam and Eve covered themselves with fig leaves to hide their shame. Fear caused them to hide from their Creator. And when God called to them, they didn’t take the blame on themselves. They placed the burden of sin on someone else.

On the day of judgment, we will each have to stand on our own. We will not be able to blame our spouse, our parents, or our miserable circumstances. We will stand alone and accept responsibility for our own sin.

This sad story has a beautiful ending – a promise. God had known before he even spoke the first words; calling the world into existence; that His beloved children would sin against Him. He knew their disobedience would come. And He had a plan already in place.

In this verse, at the very beginning of the Bible, we see God’s first promise of a Savior. He knew we would need a way out. In His loving grace and mercy, a plan was set in motion that would give the entire world a chance to come unto Him again, to live in His presence.

And so we are given the incredible gift of Christ Jesus, the unblemished Lamb who was slain. Jesus died that second death that would keep us from God for all eternity. And he conquered death and rose again. He is waiting to take us home. For now, we each have a choice to make. We can either follow Him, or we can choose a different path, but the choice is ours.