God created everything in this world, called it perfect, and then created Adam in His image, to inherit all of it and rule over it. (God likes to share His goodness with us ;-) Adam gave a name to everything God made including "Woman." (God is humble sitting back and letting man take the reins of His world) Adam had it made. He lived with his Creator, face to face and was freely given all things good. Try to imagine that for a minute. God freely gave him all of the things on the Earth except one: the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Of that tree, Adam and Eve were neither to touch or eat. How hard could that possibly be to leave one tree alone when you had so many other amazing things to enjoy? And yet....
We all know how this goes. Satan, in serpent form, shows up and questions Eve, "Did God really say you'll die if you eat? (He creates doubt) No, you won't die, (He calls God a liar) God just doesn't want you to be wise like Him." (He lays the bait for self-glorification) Eve contemplates the bait. Genesis 3:6, So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Did you catch that? Adam was with her as she contemplated eating from the tree. He must have watched her eat, and not die, so figured God was a liar and the serpent was right, so he too ate. (The created beings rebelled against their Creator thinking they deserved to be equal to Him, and maybe even above Him. This is all rooted in pride! And it goes right before the fall) Proverbs 16:18
I'm certain the fruit was sweet in the mouth (because at first sin always is) but soon bitter in the stomach - look what happens next. Genesis 3:7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. Guess what? They didn't become gods. Instead, they felt the weight of their sin. So much so that they feel the need to hide from God. Have you ever wondered what would have happened if they had run to God right at this moment and confessed and repented? Would He in His grace and mercy have chosen to forgive this? I don't know. What I do know is that this original sin was further compounded when God questioned Adam about eating from the tree and he blamed it first on Eve and then on God for giving him Eve. “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” Genesis 3:12 God then turns His attention to Eve who blames her sin on the serpent, And the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” Genesis 3:13
Well, after this brief conversation, God put Adam and Eve out of the garden permanently and divulged to them the consequences of their disobedience. Adam saw the consequences of his sins on all of creation for 930 years. (Can you even imagine?) His first son was the first recorded murderer (of his second son) and things only went downhill from there. The length of Eve's life on Earth is not mentioned but you can only imagine the heartache and guilt she (and Adam) endured for life knowing that their pride caused all of these consequences.
So let's plot this original sin out a bit: doubting God leads to pride, pride leads to disrespect for God, disrespect leads to arrogance, arrogance leads to willful disobedience, willful disobedience leads to all manner of immorality. Pride is a sin that snowballs; it rolls downhill getting bigger and bigger as it picks up more and more sin trying to cover it's ugliness. Pride doesn't take responsibility for it's sinfulness, it hides and once snared, it blames it's sinfulness on others, including God Himself. Do you see how ridiculous this is? No wonder they got thrown out of Eden. You give someone the whole Earth and this is how they repay your kindness..... This would tick me off too!
Every Biblical commandment is broken by someone who acting out of pride. Pride is the original sin for all sin. There is not one commandment which isn't broken under one of these pride filled thoughts: "I'm better than ____," "I don't need ____," "I deserve better than _____." "I know more than ______." (fill in the blanks with you, or God, or just about anything.) Ultimately ending with, "I AM equal to God so I can do what I want."
The question I asked earlier - if Adam and Eve had immediately repented, would God have mitigated their punishment? I think somewhat, maybe. But they didn't repent. Instead they kept sinning and like Lucifer was cast out of Heaven, they were cast out of Eden. But unlike Lucifer, they were given hope for the future; God did not fully abandon them as He has Lucifer. He just cannot abide sin especially that one. So they were cast out of the Garden with the promise that Satan would be crushed for his part in "the fall" and that their sin would be atoned for at a later date. (by God in fallen human form: Jesus)
Well this war between God and Satan rages on. Nothing has changed. Satan still uses the same tactics on whosoever will take the bait. He's always prowling for the weakest victims and most especially children. With God's grace and wisdom, parents try to give their children all of the things they feel are best for them to fulfill their needs: love, food, clothing, education, toys, fun, etc. They set limits to keep them safe. "These things you cannot do. These things you cannot touch. These things you cannot have. Obey or you'll be punished." And invariably a day will come when the children willfully disobey. And when parents find out (because children rarely freely admit their guilt) and ask them why they disobeyed, they get all manner of explanations, except the truth.
I will freely admit that these instances, when they occur in my home, repulse me and I could not quite figure out why until God led me back to studying original sin. I have been praying that God wake up their sin awareness in certain areas and He has shown me that it has been blocked by pride. So now, I can get to the root of the problem.
The worldly have an apathetic attitude about childhood rebellion and especially attribute it to simply being a teenager though it can happen at any age. "Teenagers rebel, they disobey, they push the boundaries. It's normal. They'll grow out of it. Look at me. I was a horrible kid and I turned out okay." Really...um....sorry to step on your pride here but if we do not recognize our own sinfulness, if we think we are okay in our own goodness, we're fully in pride and we are NOT safe. 1 Corinthians 10:12
God takes the sin of pride very seriously and so should we knowing now that it quickly leads to all manner of evil. We can punish our children for disobedience all day long and never get very far if the sin of pride in their heart remains unchanged. Pride makes one blind to their own sin. So in the same manner which Moses showed the Israelites sin=curses and obedience=blessings, we need to do likewise for our children. Deuteronomy 11:26, here I set before you blessings and cursings, the choice is yours to make. Expose the original sin using Biblical examples, then offer the remedy for that sin. Remind them that the choice is theirs to make. All we can do is show them the correct path and pray they see The Light. Finally reaffirm to them that God will give them the strength they need to stay away from this sin through the work of the Holy Spirit who makes sin unattractive to us everytime we choose obedience and experience blessings from it. They need to understand that obeying God is not empty religion but instead leads to a satsified life full of blessings. God still enjoys sharing His goodness. This by no means suggests that we will always be perfect, but as John admonishes us in 1 John 2:1-2, we have an advocate in Heaven, that is Christ, and so when we do fall down into sin, we are to recognize it, learn something from it, and repent quickly knowing we will be forgiven. But, if we choose to disobey and continually grieve the Holy Spirit, we'll hear Him less and less and He will eventually depart from us entirely. Hebrews 10:26-27
The remedy for pride is humility. Jesus came to this Earth and lived in total humility to God, his parents, and all who crossed His path -very much opposite of Adam and Eve. He too was baited by Satan but He chose to honor His Father and NOT fall into the snare of pride. So we should look to Him as our example in cultivating humility in ourselves first and then our children. We cannot teach them that which we do not know and live out. If we do not crucify our flesh, our children certainly won't. So let us ponder what a humble person looks like and allow the Holy Spirit to let us where we need more humility. The starting point is always to submit to God's authority.
A humble person recognizes their own sinfulness and is the first to point a finger at themselves in judgement. They don't seek to justify their sin by their own merits because they know they can never be good enough. Ephesians 2:8-10 They recognize their need for a Savior and carry their own cross behind Him. A humble person has a servant's attitude toward everyone but themselves. They submit to all authority over them except when that authority asks them to break God's commandments. (Think of Daniel here) A humble person cannot be a selfish, arrogant or boastful person. They seek to help others all the time, not just when there is an audience to praise them. A humble person is one who does not pretend know everything and is always teachable, flexible and compassionate. A humble person does not boast of their accomplishments or think higher of themselves than others. They are not out to be the best, have the most, or outdo their neighbors. A humble person seeks God's attention, approval and blessing rather than the world's. A humble person delights most in their accomplishments for God and not for this world because they know that everything in this world is temporal while the things of God are eternal.
The curses that come from pride are vast. Jesus told us that without humility, we will not see God. Matthew 5:3-11 Solomon told us that God will destroy the house of the proud Proverbs 15:25 and additionally that He opposes the proud. Psalm 138:6 reads: “For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar.” There are more and more scriptures covering pride and humility but they all boil down to this: The Holy Spirit cannot dwell in a heart filled with pride. Isa. 57:15 says, “For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite." The question we need to ask ourselves as well as our children daily, as we cultivate humility, is do we want the one true God inhabiting our hearts and lives or do we want Satan there instead? Does our life outwardly reflect our answer to this question?
"Hands Full" is my Tuesday blog feature about the full time job of raising children according to God's Word. If you are a Christian parent who has chosen to forgo materiality to put your children first by being home with them, who may also homeschool them (an often thankless job the worldly show lowest esteem for), you will find this feature both an exhortation and an encouragement to keep living out the will of God. You will also find that, if you allow it, God will use your own children to teach and correct YOUR relationship with Him. Please feel free to share the link. To read the introduction to this series, click here.
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