Monday, October 1
The consequences of the Fall were enormous. The disobedience of Adam and Eve started the rupture of a harmonious interdependence between all life forms. Even worse, it started the disunity, discord, and divisions among human beings that exist even today. The disharmony is seen immediately in how Adam and Eve sought to put the blame for the Fall on others (Genesis 3:12, 13). Things have become only worse since.
Read Genesis 3:16-19 and Genesis 4:1-15. What in these verses reveal the results of sin and its impact on the harmonious world God had created?
Adam’s disobedience became the source of many events and consequences that over time affected all of God’s creation. The natural world itself began to suffer from the consequences of sin. Human relationships also were affected. Cain and Abel, two brothers who should have loved and cared for each other, were estranged because one wished to follow his own selfish inclinations instead of following God’s prescribed mode of worship. This estrangement resulted in violence and death. Cain’s reaction, however, was more directed at God than at Abel. He felt angry toward God (Genesis 4:5), and this anger led to resentment toward Abel. Disobedience further ruptured human relationships.
“Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5, NKJV). This evil ultimately led to the Flood and to the incredible devastation of God’s original creation left in the Flood’s wake. But even then God did not give up on the human race but left a remnant, Noah and his family, to start again.
After the Flood, God gave a promise to Noah and his family. The rainbow in the sky would always remind them of His care and promises, of His kindness and mercy (Genesis 9:12-17, Isaiah 54:7-10). God instituted a covenant with Noah and reinstated His original plan to have a united human family faithful to Him and His Word.
What are the ways that sin brings disharmony? What choices can you make right now to help restore harmony among those whom your choices can impact in a powerful way?
