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What in the Bible?!
Have you ever read the Bible and wondered, "King David did what?!" Or, have you come across the passage where Lot's daughters get him drunk and then sleep with him? How about the story of the younger brother that makes himself more hairy in order to trick his dying father into blessing him over his older brother?! And, don't get us started on Revelations! Oh wait, it's Revelation! These are only a few of the examples written in scripture that will have any new reader asking, "What in the Bible?!" In this podcast, we are two sisters reading through the Bible for the first time. Our goal is to share this experience with our listeners and have a lighthearted discussion over some of these controversial but often comical questions. Our hope is for our listeners to realize that reading and understanding the Bible is hard especially when reading it for the first time. It's okay to have questions or struggle with passages that make your eyebrows raise and your mind wonder, "What did I just read?!" We hope you will join us in this journey of working through difficult questions and growing in our relationship with Christ as we read and seek to understand God's Word.
What in the Bible?!
Kick Rocks, Satan: The Genesis of Deception
Satan's first deception wasn't a blatant lie but a subtle distortion. "Did God really say...?" With these words, he planted seeds of doubt about God's goodness that continue to sprout in our lives today. In Genesis 3, we witness humanity's catastrophic fall from perfect fellowship with God into sin and separation – a moment that fundamentally altered every relationship we experience.
What makes this chapter so powerful is seeing how quickly Eve's perception changed after that initial seed of doubt. The forbidden fruit suddenly appeared "good for food," "pleasing to the eye," and "desirable for gaining wisdom." This progression from temptation to justification to action mirrors our own struggles with sin so closely it's almost uncomfortable to read. And when Adam accepts the fruit without question, we're confronted with how profoundly our choices affect those around us.
The aftermath reveals another timeless pattern: instead of owning their actions, Adam and Eve hide in shame and shift blame. Adam points fingers at both Eve and God himself, while Eve blames the serpent. Yet despite their rebellion, God responds with a remarkable blend of justice and mercy. While pronouncing consequences for their actions, He also makes the first sacrifice—clothing them with animal skins—and delivers the first gospel promise that one day, the offspring of woman would crush the serpent's head.
This isn't just ancient history; it's the story playing out in our lives whenever we question God's goodness, follow our own wisdom, or try to cover our shame with inadequate solutions of our own making. But it also contains the incredible hope that God's redemptive plan began unfolding the very moment we needed it most. The same God who walked in Eden seeking His rebellious children continues to seek relationship with us today, having made a way back through Jesus Christ.
How does understanding the original fall change your perspective on temptation and God's redemptive plan? We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments or through a review!
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What's up everybody and welcome to what in the Bible? We are two sisters reading through Genesis to Revelation for the very first time and asking the question every new believer is thinking what in the actual Bible?
Speaker 2:I am one of your hosts, Jenna, and hello everyone. I am Audrey. We want to welcome you to our podcast. Thank you for tuning in. In this episode we are attacking Genesis, chapter three, which covers the fall. Lots of fun stuff to talk about, Absolutely. You know we're recording the day after Resurrection.
Speaker 1:Sunday so.
Speaker 2:I think that's fun too, especially as we get into chapter three, because I mean that's essentially like what Jesus did, that resurrection. It all started from the fall right, I mean that whole plan started from the fall, so I'm really excited to get into it and start talking about the significance.
Speaker 1:Yes, me too. It couldn't have been better timing.
Speaker 2:Amen. So before we do that, we're going to attempt to say our scripture that we memorized yes you are going first this week, okay, I kind of knew that was coming.
Speaker 2:Okay, oh, man, all right. So my scripture was Genesis 2, 23 through 25. The man said this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she came out of man. No, she was taken out of man. This is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife and the two become one flesh. Adam and his wife were both naked and they did not feel shame yeah, I think, yeah, that was a long one yeah, shoot, I stumbled super impressive.
Speaker 1:What?
Speaker 2:was it. No, you did great on that she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man yeah, I think you said that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good. Thank you, I'm sweating, I know, I know I almost wore a sweater today, but I I'm like man, it is like 89 today. It is no longer sweater weather, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, the mornings have been cool. Yeah, it was 60 this morning when I woke up. Yeah, and that is your weather report. For what?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's hot already.
Speaker 2:It's April and it's hot.
Speaker 1:Yes, okay, mine was Genesis 2-3. Okay, mine was Genesis 2-3. A quick glance at the text. A quick glance, okay. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
Speaker 2:Woo oh leg drop.
Speaker 1:Okay, that was harder than I thought it would be. I am not good at this.
Speaker 2:You're over there quick, just in the zone, and I'm like I did look at it a little bit more than the previous verse, so I think you know it wasn't just like. Oh, let me just memorize this in two minutes, because that's not how. No, I have to have repetition for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, you did what we were supposed to do and actually you know, read it, digest it, look into it, research it, figure out the context, what it really means.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, I mean I wouldn't go that far. Yeah well, I mean I want to go that far. Think about it a couple of times. Yeah yeah, good job, that was really good. Oh well, thanks, okay, so the fall, the fall. We need to get like one of those boards we do.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, our whole podcast would just be filled with noises we'd be fighting over. Yeah, do-do-do-ch, we need those. I love it. Oh my gosh, Our whole podcast would just be filled with noises.
Speaker 2:We'd be fighting over the little keyboard. Yes, you guys would probably be annoyed, yeah. Like if you get through one episode without me like oh my gosh, make it stop For sure.
Speaker 1:All right, okay. So what were some of your big ones, sister? Oh gosh, all 14 of your verses, pages.
Speaker 2:Over there. It's like, yeah, not like eight verses that I'll talk about. I'm like, oh okay, I have like eight pages, let's see what can we dive into first. I kind of went about it in like a systematic, just like from the beginning to the end kind of way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I did that too.
Speaker 2:Okay, cool, yeah, so okay, In the first few verses we see Satan tempting Eve for the first time. I highlighted three, I guess it's the first one, no, yes, first one. At the end when he says he said to the woman did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden? So right there, it's like that one little statement that you could gloss over and think okay, yeah, he asked her a question, but what he does with it is he's inserting that that toe right, he's, he's getting the foot in the door to cause eve to question the goodness of god, yep, to question the command that he had given exactly. And that is essentially that little seed that was planted you know, we talk about seeds being planted a lot in in our faith and that that little foot that he got in the door with Eve in her mind caused her to turn around and then change her perception of the goodness of God and also her perception of the tree itself and the fruit of the tree.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, I wrote that down as well as, just right out the gate, satan distorts God's word in our brains and, like you said, he plants that question of well, is this really what he meant? I mean, let's dissect that a little bit, let's just bend that boundary line just a tad, just to make sure that that's what he really meant. So, and I mean it just, you know, as we know, he does that today. He's very good at distorting what God said and trying to kind of counterfeit, like we've always talked about, the words of God, the commands that he's given us. Yeah, like you said, he just inserts it, just enough to make us, hmm, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:And I think you know kind of going along that point, just getting the foot in. I think you know kind of going along that point when we talk about counterfeit it's like it looks very similar to the real deal but it's false. Yeah, it's a fraud, it's a fraud. So then he says in 3.4, you will not certainly die, the serpent said to the woman. For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So he's using truth, Right, but he's twisting it to cause Eve again to question oh, you won't die, and while you know, as we see, after she ate the fruit she didn't drop dead, Right? So some truth there, right, Right, Exactly.
Speaker 2:And then also, when you look at which this is another verse I want to get to eventually, but towards the end of the chapter, when God is speaking and he says the man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil, Confirmation that that statement was true. Like, yes, eating that fruit did make them like God, Right, Like yes, eating that fruit did make them like God. But when Satan, you know again, when he gives you that well, you'll not certainly die. Well, no, they don't physically die right away, but that does open the door for physical death and, more importantly, spiritual death. Right, Right.
Speaker 1:Exactly that separation from God.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I wrote that all down almost verbatim for what you said.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's just so relevant to the battles that we face, even with Satan you know, in our own spiritual battle and knowing that he likes to take our truths and he likes to take things that are true and just twist and distort and use it to ultimately separate us from God, which is what he did right here, right in the very beginning.
Speaker 1:And that's why I think it's so important, that's why we're doing this, guys, so that we know what God's truth is. Back to, you know, you referenced when Jesus was in the desert being tempted by the devil, and the devil would do this exact thing where he took God's word and tried to distort it and apply it, and Jesus always came back with yes, but the word also says this, and that's why what you're saying is not true. So that's why it's so important to be in God's word, so important to understand the context, so that when the devil comes at you with these false truths or these true distortions, you can be like, yeah, but you know what Kick rocks, because this is what my God actually says.
Speaker 2:Yes, I love that. Kick rocks Satan.
Speaker 1:Kick rocks.
Speaker 2:Satan Put that on a t-shirt.
Speaker 1:Bumper sticker.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my first merch Kick rocks Satan.
Speaker 1:When I start rambling, you never know what you're gonna get. That's so funny.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:I love that so kind of.
Speaker 2:In addition, like, since we're talking about this little chunk of scripture here, I also thought it was interesting that and I think our study bible probably even acknowledges it, but this got brought up in a conversation with one of my friends it's like this progression of being tempted to actually committing sin, and I found it very interesting to have this kind of visual picture and how that can be applied to our everyday lives and when we do get tempted, what that looks like and then these things happen that can lead to you actually sinning. So Eve, when she was asked by the devil about the fruit, she confirmed that God said that they may eat fruit from the trees in the garden. But then she goes on to add something. She doesn't just stick to the facts of what God did say, but she then says and you must not touch it or you will die. So she added her own little piece in there. So she's already starting to like change her perception, right, she's already starting to like interpret things on her own and not relying on God, right?
Speaker 2:So then in verse six it says so first she saw the fruit, that it was good for food. So again changing, like adding her own interpretation to it, like, oh well, that tree is good for food. Right, but, as you mentioned, god had already provided for them plentifully. It's not like they were starving in this destitute desert with nothing. It happened upon this tree and it was like I need food.
Speaker 1:I'm salivating.
Speaker 2:Exactly Like. No, it was like you know, she saw it and she's like oh well, yeah, it's food, like it's good for food Right. So you're like justifying your thoughts already.
Speaker 2:Yes, so, then she goes on no-transcript why I want to take this piece of fruit right now. I like it, it's attractive, it's pleasing to the eye, it looks delicious and I'm going to gain from it. So all of these things, it's like selfishness, right? It's this self-serving motivation for and justification to take this thing that you were commanded not to like. You knew you weren't supposed to have, but you're like. But X, Y, Z reasons like this is.
Speaker 1:It must be good because of all this.
Speaker 2:So then it goes from that all of these like thoughts about why it's okay to actually taking it, and I really like how it says she took some and ate it. Like that taking. To me it just sounds so like wrong. I don't know Like I don't know how else to say, but just the fact that almost like stealing kind of like you took something that was not intended for you.
Speaker 2:So you know, from all of that it's, you know, taking what's not for us, what God doesn't have for us, because of our fleshly desires, because of temptation, because we started to serve ourselves and our own fleshly desires, for us to turn around and then take what was not ours, to have, what God had told us not. So, essentially going our own way, you know, yeah, and as we all know, then comes all the consequences of that decision yeah, oh, that's so good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then she doesn't stop there, right, she keeps going Wait, there's more. She then encourages her husband to eat it, and I mean that for me is so profound, and I think I'd talk about this later on, also during the curse. But the fact that she not only disobeyed, but then she turned around and encouraged her husband to disobey.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep, I wrote that down too and definitely wanted to talk about that, just because I know that it's not on us to save others. You know, like it's not our job to save others, it's solely God and what he can do to save others. We can't save people. Such a blatant reminder of who you have around you and who is in your life is so important because we could cause others to stumble. Others could cause us to stumble. It is so important that we are influencing those around us our partners, our spouses, our friends in a positive way, that we're not causing them to stumble in this way and vice versa. Where we're choosing our partners, our spouses, our friends in a positive way, that we're not causing them to stumble in this way, and vice versa. Where we're choosing our partners, our spouses, our friends, knowing that our group matters, who we surround ourselves with matters.
Speaker 2:Who you fellowship with.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, because it's like Adam didn't even blink an eye. He was just like cool, doesn't say a whole lot, just she gave it to him and he ate it it's just like thanks, girl. So it's like it's just so important who you have in your circle absolutely amen to that.
Speaker 2:I also found it very interesting verse 3 7, when it talks about then. Their eyes were open and they realized they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. So I found it very interesting that, and the minute that sin entered so this you know. Again, I feel like these are verses where you can gloss over it because it's like, okay, they ate a piece of fruit, then they knew they were naked and they decided to make clothes for themselves.
Speaker 2:But when you understand what that action did, that's we're literally reading sin entering into the world, right there. And what is the first thing they feel? Shame, Right, Yep. Like wow, Not so again, this tree, this knowledge of good and evil, but yet the first thing that they experience after eating it is evil, is shame, Right, yeah, no good came of that. No, no good whatsoever. And then the fact that they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. So that when I was reading this I was like typical, Like we try and hide our sin from God, from others around us, from those we love, from the church, from each other. We want to cover it up, but I'm sorry, fig leaves in the middle of winter ain't going to do anything for the rest of the year, Just in the same way that the way that we try and cover up our sin. It doesn't do anything, it's ineffective.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, only God. And, as we'll see, you know, once he discovers what they've done, how you know his response yeah, Yep, yep.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love when we're on point together. So, I have literally all this hiding from the Lord in shame, same thing we do today when we sin.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, thank you, lord.
Speaker 1:Yes, our sister brains are working.
Speaker 2:Yes, the Holy Spirit in us. Thank you, Lord. So I have another one at 3.8. I feel like the character of God is starting to come out here. Yeah, you know. Yes, Adam and Eve hide because they? Know, they're like oh, we messed up, we got messed up and they're feeling shame and again they're trying to cover it and hide it to keep it out of the light, right? So God knows, they're hiding like he knows everything, you know. He's just like strolling through the garden like, hmm, where's Adam and Eve?
Speaker 1:He knows.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he knows they're hiding, but he's like he calls out anyway, he's not like get out here, get out here exactly. Yeah, you are in trouble, exactly, you're in trouble. Come answer to me right what you've done wrong. What did you do? No, it's I know what you did right. Yes, so he's like where are you? You know, he gives them the opportunity to come to him. He doesn't command that they come to him and face him and face the consequences. What a loving, awesome father.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they just ruined everything that he did.
Speaker 2:He just literally like shut Well, he didn't, they didn't flush the plan because God they didn't ruin it.
Speaker 1:It was part of it, yeah, but still.
Speaker 2:But they rejected it, right, right. I think our Bible actually says, yeah, rejection of the creator's plan. Yeah, they listen to a created thing over their creator, but in his loving, merciful, awesome goodness, he does not force himself on them. Yeah, he allows them to come to him. He's you know, and I can't. I look back at times when I've parented and been like, get over here. You know right, and it's just. God is so good Again. I just think that his character coming through in these verses is so beautiful.
Speaker 2:You know the way that he disciplines them. He's not like oh it's okay, we'll clean, I'll clean up your mess, we'll figure it out. Yeah, this was wrong, but I love you and I have a plan to make it right. And not only that, but again what he does later when he covers them with actual animal skin. Yeah, you know, he continues to take care of them, he continues to provide for their needs.
Speaker 1:Even after their fall. Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:So this next chunk, I think, is going to be quite the conversation. So basically like 310 through, I mean pretty much until God curses them all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, god's like I've been kind. Okay, now for now for the punishment. All yeah, god's like I've been kind. Okay, now for the punishment.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so just to discuss it, because obviously the act of Adam or Eve being able to say I messed up, lord, I messed up, it happened, I messed up, help me through it. Neither one is able to do that. I wrote simply again for the fact of just wanting to talk about this entire section. I just wrote Adam throwing Eve under the bus.
Speaker 1:Adam's like I don't know, Lord, it was that woman you put with me. It just kind of made me giggle. I mean, obviously this is extremely serious and we're not making fun of it, but it just made me laugh because I'm like man. And then, of course, you know, Eve turns around and just blames the devil. And honestly, I can sit here and say very confidently that I do that all the time. I'm like, oh, it's the enemy. Oh, the enemy made me react in that way. The enemy caused me to be mad about this or hold a grudge against this person, or or say this word because this went wrong. And I think that's easy to do. And of course, yeah, a lot of it is the enemy. But to a certain extent we need to be able to say that is on me. I let that happen, I yelled out of anger, I hurt this person, so, and clearly it's, I mean, from the very beginning. That's very hard to do.
Speaker 2:Yes, what I love most about this is there's what's called, I think, inherited sin or something like that, where we will have natural tendencies to sin in a certain way, and this is essentially what we're seeing here Adam not being able to hold himself accountable to his own actions, putting the blame off. I find it pretty profound that he's like well, it's that woman, you put in here Like he blames God.
Speaker 2:Like the first person he blames is God, and then yeah, and then Eve is the one that made me take and eat it. But I really, like our Bible points out, god didn't. He didn't give that command to Eve, right? I mean, yes, she was, you know, Underneath, her husband Underneath, and required to follow that command. Right, you know it wasn't like, well, I only gave that command to Adam and Eve, you're exempt. No, like she had to follow it, just like Adam. But God spoke it directly to Adam, which I think is why Adam gets not harsher punishment. But I feel like he's like, you know, I think our Bible points out, when he's talking to the woman, he doesn't actually say curse.
Speaker 2:Right you know he doesn't reference that word curse, but he does use it when he's talking to the serpent and to Adam, mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:But then, like you said, for then Eve to turn around and then be like, well, it was Satan. Right, you know, and I love that you bring that up in terms of us putting blame on Satan, right, because it is so easy to just be like, well, that was the enemy. You know, maybe we're like, yeah, forgive me, lord, but it was the enemy kind of thing, no-transcript, sinning in your anger by allowing it to control you. You know, maybe it's a fleshly desire, whatever the case may be, but, yeah, I think that's really dangerous for Christians. You know, we do need to be accountable to God, to each other, when we mess up and, yeah, acknowledge and know when we're being tempted, but not for the point of being able to be like, well, that was, you know, to put off blame onto Satan, but to be able to recognize it when it does happen, so that we can submit to God, we can resist the devil and he will flee and we can get through that temptation with God's help, without falling into sin.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, absolutely. There's no way for us to grow and change unless we, like you said, take accountability and say, yes, this devil might have started it, but I finished it and I went along with it. And you, just, you cannot change unless you can sit here and admit that you yourself made that decision. Absolutely Hard pill to swallow sometimes, absolutely, especially when it's something that you're working on a lot and you keep fumbling and you're like man, why do I keep doing that? Why do I keep yelling in my anger? Why do I keep doing this when I'm upset? Why does this keep happening? And it's like man, the enemy is just on me, the enemy is just on me and that's like, and that can absolutely be the case, but I think that's where you just take from Adam and Eve and go to God instead, don't take from them and don't do what they did and rely on their own understanding.
Speaker 2:Go to God. I think it's very interesting because what just popped into my mind right now is some of those times may not be the enemy. It may actually be God offering you opportunities to grow and to respond in the way that you've been praying him, you know, in the way you've been asking him to help you through.
Speaker 2:Because God's not going to just snap his fingers and boom. You're the most calm, patient parent or, you know, have these things that you're asking for he does in some circumstances. I think I've heard of people who had these addictions prior to coming to the faith and then they say yes to Jesus and he just takes that desire away and we don't know why. I think that was in one of our sermons recently. But I think in these areas of growth like this, I think it's not always the enemy tempting us.
Speaker 2:I definitely think he uses that as an opportunity to be like pointing a finger and be like see, like again instilling that shame, see, you can't change, you're always going to be the same. You keep responding in the way that you do. Why even try? You know all these negative things like he can use that. But I think a lot of times when we ask for something, god answers, but he answers in a way that's oh, you want to be more patient? Okay, here's an opportunity for you to practice being patient. Yeah, yeah, that's when growth happens. Absolutely the more of those opportunities we get.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure yeah.
Speaker 2:So just to kind of piggyback onto what you had already initiated with these lovely verses here, to kind of piggyback onto what you had already initiated with these lovely verses here Again, the fact that Adam, like you said, like he doesn't respond in a way that's like, yeah, lord, I messed up, I'm here. He doesn't say I'm hiding because I did what you told me not to do. He's literally like I'm hiding because I was naked and I didn't want you to see me, so I hid. Like he's still trying to hide what he did, right, and not fess up to it, right.
Speaker 2:So just to kind of dive a little bit deeper in this, the husband setting an example for his wife because he blames God and Eve first, she sees that and she basically replicates the behavior. She turns around and puts the blame on Satan. So, husbands, as the headship of your family, setting that example for your family of those good choices and those bad choices, holding yourself accountable, admitting when you messed up, submitting to God, that to me was like very black and white. A husband setting that example for his wife In turn, the scriptures prior, when Eve essentially was the door for him to sin. Wives, mothers, your choices, what you allow, what you, the temptations that you do give into, can affect your whole family and can cause them to follow suit and to sin.
Speaker 2:Your husbands, your children, I mean, I'm that's like whoa, like Lord, help me.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I think that that kind of revolves back to even what we were talking about before, where it's like who is in your life, who is in your family, and then what you let in. I mean, it can cause you to stumble if you're surrounding yourself, if the people closest to you are people that are going to drag you down, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's good, no pressure.
Speaker 2:No pressure.
Speaker 1:No pressure, yeah, to make the right decisions.
Speaker 2:Well, thankfully we don't have to do it without God.
Speaker 1:Right, exactly Because we can't, we cannot. I mean, this is proof right here on paper saying you cannot do it by yourself, right?
Speaker 2:I love that. God curses the serpent first. You know, right, he gives each person the opportunity to be like yeah, I messed up, what did you do? What happened? Explain it to me. They decide to put the blame on others. He deals with Satan first. I love that. Yeah, so God curses the serpent. That word curses pronounced R-R-R, r-r-r, r-r-r. That word curse is pronounced arar. Sounds fitting, yeah, which I'm going to butcher this I'm sorry to execrate, which means feel or express great loathing. For to bitterly curse, we hear all the time like God hates sin. But when you break down that curse the curse, he's cursing the serpent.
Speaker 2:Great loathing, for I mean, god truly does hate sin, um, and satan yeah and then when he goes on in verse 15, putting that enmity enmity which is translated and pronounced a ball, which is translated and pronounced Abah, which is hostility or hatred Again that hatred word and it's used five times in five different verses and I actually did go to some of these to kind of look up and see, wow, like it's only used. I find those words that are only used a few times in the Bible like those are pretty significant words.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:So I think I don't want to go through each one and I'll say them here so that you guys can look them up if you want to. I think and I got these from our study Bible, so your study Bible might have similar or different but numbers 35, 21 through 22, I thought was actually pretty interesting because it's talking about the consequences of murder. But it distinguishes between murder of like an intentional act of murder, like you straight up went out and like killed this person, like you knew what you were doing and you did it on purpose. That deserves death. Basically, when you look up numbers, and then the other situation is it was an accident, basically Like you did not have hatred in your heart, you did not have that intent to take life, and in that case I think the consequence was like banishment or something until some high priest dies or something like that. I'm sorry you guys, like I said, I'm paraphrasing, but, like you know, there was a significance there when hatred is present, when it's not present, kind of thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, romans 8, 7 was another good one. Romans 8, 7, the mind governed by the flesh is hostile. So that same word to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so? So we're getting this picture of you know, that enmity, that opposition to God, not just separation from God, but that complete opposition to and here it's pointing out, you know, mind governed by the flesh. So, like any of our fleshly desires, anytime we give into that temptation, we commit sin. We are in direct opposition to God and that he hates. He hates sin, you know, I think we talked about when he basically smites what's their names and acts, and like they literally just dropped dead because they lied about the money, and it's like whoa Lord, like Jesus just died for everyone's sins, like forgiveness, all that stuff, and like here you are smiting two people, like literally like a book after the gospels, you know. But I think you know, as our pastor explained to us, this is an example of how God feels about sin and he will not tolerate it.
Speaker 2:He's not going to tolerate sin. Yeah, so James 4.4, that's the one I really want to get to, because I thought that was like pretty cool. All right, ready, yes, let's hear it. You adulterous people.
Speaker 1:Right out the gate. Right out the gate. Dishonor on you.
Speaker 2:Dishonor on you, dishonor on your calf. Yes, you, adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity against god. Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of god. And I just felt so strongly like that is still present today. Yeah, you know. You, adulterous people like you, are cheating on god with the world. You're're allowing these, whatever it may be, it may be your job, it may be material things riches, fame, your own glorification, all of those things. When you allow them to come in and take over priority in your life, you are essentially cheating on God. You know, committing adultery on your faith with God. When you choose the flesh, anytime you choose any of that, you are putting yourself in enmity. And again, that word hatred, hostility. Like you are opposing God and everything that he has done, his love for you, essentially rejecting him for created things Right, Right.
Speaker 1:Well, this world is all about self-satisfaction and self-reliance, and I mean we just we've talked about that before of just how this world just is so self-centered.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:So I mean self-centered?
Speaker 1:Yep, absolutely. So I mean it makes sense. Yeah, you can't be in the world and with God you have to be. Apart from that, that's something that I'm trying really hard to teach my oldest right now. I mean you can even teach it to your younger kids, but obviously, when they start getting older, it's something that you know. Sometimes he's like mom, you know, like sometimes I feel like I'm kind of like I don't fit in. Or you know, if a bunch of kids think that I'm weird or whatever the case, and I'm like, if you are not like the rest, then you are doing something right Like we. God, his word, says that we were created apart for his glory, for his purpose, not for our own. So if you don't feel like you fit in with the other 30 kids in your class, glory to God.
Speaker 1:I don't want that, god doesn't want that. I know that that's hard, I know that there's struggles, and that's another whole other topic that we could have.
Speaker 2:Second Corinthians 12,. Paul talks about the thorn in his side, and we don't know what the thorn is. It could be spiritual oppression, could be a physical ailment, but he talks about, you know, his weaknesses. God's powers made perfect in our weaknesses, and so he rejoices in his weaknesses. And he goes on to describe not just physical ailments or spiritual attack, but also persecution from others.
Speaker 2:And as Christians, we know that's part of it. Yeah, you know. And the Beatitudes Matthew 5, you know Jesus talks about blessed are those who, basically, are persecuted. When people throw insults at you on account of me, I think it's, for yours is the kingdom, or you will inherit the kingdom, or you know one of those. I'm sorry, I don't know it as well, but it's unfortunate. That is part of it. But you know, in our weaknesses God makes us strong, his power is made perfect. In our weaknesses we're able to endure through those. Knowing that, you know what an honor, what an honor to suffer as Christ suffered. You know to be aligned with Him, to be not be in opposition to Him, but to be united with Him, to have relationship with Him again.
Speaker 1:Thank you, lord, to be united with him, to have relationship with him again.
Speaker 2:Thank you, lord, I'll take it and I used to struggle with that too. Like social media, I have friends on there that are completely opposed to God and anything. When you start to try and have those conversations and they respond in such an aggressive way, like people that you thought were your friends and you're reaching out and all of branch and love, but they respond and again, like that I do think is definitely spiritual.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know what I mean, yeah.
Speaker 2:So just maybe not feelings like you're missing out, more as like what an honor and blessing to suffer for Christ, you know, because we will be rewarded in heaven. So I hope that's encouraging.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely Okay. So verse 15, you know, I will put like you were just talking about M and T, between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers he will crush your head and you will strike his heel. So I'm trying really hard to read in a way of actually trying to understand it. You know, like in our very first episode we talked about things that you know we struggle with, and that's something that I struggle with, where I just read it and it doesn't stick and I don't really go into the context of it. So I'm like, okay, he will crush your head and you will strike his heel. What in the actual Bible? I'm like, what does this mean? And you know, because everything is relevant in some form. And I'm like, well, you will strike his heel. What does that mean? Yeah, so I just I wrote her offspring, descendants equals Jesus, the Messiah.
Speaker 1:Equals crushed devil's head, slash plans, devil's strike of his heel, which is, you know, ultimately Jesus is suffering on the cross for our sins. So he's literally saying like, yeah, you're going to strike his heel. All in my plan, god can use any of Satan's manipulations or causing someone else to stumble for his glory, which he's already doing right here and it's just, it's all set up for his ultimate triumph. But again, it's one of those things where you might just read it and gloss over it or even just be like I'm sorry, I can feel, okay, what does that mean? But that's literally just saying, like her offspring is going to be the Messiah and while you may think that you've won because you're going to cause him to suffer on the cross, it's going to be my doing that causes that, and then he's going to come back and crush your head.
Speaker 1:I didn't deliver that, like I was hoping to. But it's just, you know, it is so significant where it's like in this cursing, in this fallout from Adam and Eve, like you so graciously put, they choose themselves over God, and God already like doesn't even miss a beat and he's like well, plan B and this is what it's going to be.
Speaker 2:So, as you were reading that out, I'm thinking to myself how come Satan didn't know any better? Like I'm just kind of like he thought he won. You know when Jesus goes to the cross and he dies and everything since then you know again. Like we talked about the seed war I think we'll get more into that as chapters continue. But like everything that Satan does, you know, it stems from this. This prophecy right here, this was like the first. What does it say? In our book, the first prophecy of the coming of the Messiah is known as the Protoevangelium in Latin, which basically interprets the first preaching of the gospel. Like God is prophesying right here, right now Christ will come through Eve's line and he will be victorious.
Speaker 2:He's going to suffer some things, but he's going to be victorious over you. And I like how our book describes the difference between the striking of the heel versus the crushing of the head. Right, you know, the striking of the heel is not a mortal wound like our Bible describes, you know, but the crushing of the head, like that, would that would kill a snake, right, right. So, yeah, I love that. God's like this ain't this is just a bump in the road, not even that, because I have a plan and this is going to be the plan and we will. He's going to be victorious.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I like how he says it kind of is like an afterthought, almost like he will crush your head and you will strike his heel. That will also happen. But it's irrelevant, it's coming first, because I think I where was it? Was it during a sermon? I forgot where I heard this or read it or what it was, but it was like things are not always in chronological order, clearly, because we know that jesus crushing his head is after the fact of the devil striking his heel, but it's of importance. Right, like a lot of times, it's not chronological order, but it's of order of importance.
Speaker 1:Oh, I think it was in a case for christ nice when we were reading that with book club, because I think that he says that when they're talking about other things where they're like no, you don't understand, like back when they wrote things, it was kind of of order of importance. So I just thought that that was kind of funny. It's like, oh yeah, like that will also happen, but it's all part of it and the main thing is you lose and the devil it's just it's. He has stamina. I guess, like you said, he somehow thinks that he has any sort of a chance, where he just loses time and time again. Right, and it's just kind of ironic.
Speaker 2:I mean, he tried to tempt Jesus for crying out loud first attempt was to prevent him from being born and then trying to kill him, as a baby has to flee to egypt, okay. Well, if I can't kill the man, I'm gonna have to like like. You can't be a perfect, spotless lamb if you've committed sin, so let me tempt him then yeah can't do that.
Speaker 2:so then you know, going to the cross, okay, well, he's finally dead, kind of thing. But again it's like you know, he was the perfect, spotless lamb, he was the perfect, he was the man that had no sin, that bore sin for the world and died as that sacrifice, as that justification. I love it when our pastor explains that, because we are justified. It's not just like, oh yeah, your sins are forgiven, the debt is paid, you are in a court of law and you are not guilty because of the blood of Jesus. You know that was shed.
Speaker 1:So yeah.
Speaker 2:I love that it's coming up in chapter three of the whole Bible. I said boom a lot to this episode. That's all right, yeah, okay so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what do you got next? Where are you? Where are you going after that?
Speaker 2:well, kind of wrapping it all up, I guess, with like how the fall changed everything um, you know, in 3, 16 through 19 god is basically saying he's cursing the ground, not just you know the result of adam's sin's cursing the ground, not just you know the result of Adam's sin is cursing the ground. So it's like, wow, that's. It changes the relationship between God and man, it changes the relationship between man and women, it changed the relationship between man and nature. Yeah, I mean, holy moly, mm. Hmm, impactful, impactful. The original design is thus not wiped out, altered for a time until Jesus returns. But now man has to work hard and like I did, I highlighted that these verses by the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken. For dust you are, and to dust you will return. This is like the death sentence. Not just that, it's like, basically, you're going to spend your days toiling for your own food and then you're going to die.
Speaker 2:Yep, so like you're going to work and then you're going to die, Like whoa.
Speaker 1:That is the world we live in.
Speaker 2:What In the Bible, lord, oh man, it's so much more than that. I mean, like, now that Jesus has come and you know we do have a relationship with God, we can experience heaven on earth through relationship with him. But I mean, you know this right here, this curse, this death sentence.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, he wasn't messing around.
Speaker 2:And then in 321, again, we kind of alluded to this already. Yeah, I like this one. So God making garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothes them. Again, they tried covering up their sin with fig leaves and that's a representation of us in our own mess, trying to get ourselves out of the mess. Our pastor says that all the time we can't get ourselves out of our own mess, it makes it worse. Yeah, we put ourselves there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we put ourselves in the mess.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then we make it worse by trying to get ourselves out of the mess. Right. Only Jesus can, yep, which you know obviously with here. The imagery that we get is God clothing them with actual, you know, animal skin, which is, you know, going to be more protective of them in harsh climates, and again foreshadowing Christ's sacrifice on the cross.
Speaker 2:What I actually also thought about here was like this is actually the first time that we're seeing the death of a life for someone else. So, like the animal skin, God had to have taken that from an animal. So that animal had to die. This innocent animal had to die to cover up the sins of Adam and Eve, that is good, I didn't catch that. So the innocent animal used to cover and clothe Adam and Eve, the guilty.
Speaker 2:And again just referencing back to Jesus, the innocent man who knew no sin. Poor sin, poor the guilty.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and even and even you know Old Testament you had to sacrifice your best lamb or your best livestock, and it's kind of like setting up the practice for that as well, which, like you said, it all points back to Jesus and his sacrifice for us. But wow, that's really neat because it really starts what God requires in the Old Testament to atone for sin.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And then 322. So I mentioned this earlier. It confirms, you know, says he must not eat of the tree of life. So, like, prior to sin did not command Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of life. After sin enters, the world can no longer eat. At first I was like, oh okay, yeah, that's just interesting. I kind of made note of it. I'm like, why, like he doesn't want him to live forever, which makes sense, I mean he is't want him to live forever, which makes sense. I mean he is in opposition to God. Now he's sinned.
Speaker 2:But when I read it again, I saw Jesus let's see, take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever. Again, like that, taking taking what's not yours now, before it was, you had the tree of life. You were in the garden of eden with god and fellowship with him, literally walking with him, right, I can't imagine that. I'm trying to picture god like walking in the garden. Yeah, had fellowship with god.
Speaker 2:Sin enters, you're no longer with god, you are completely separated. And not only that now you cannot partake of the tree of life, you, like he said, eat of this tree and you will surely die. I mean, for all symbolic purposes they had died. Separation from god is death, yeah, and so not only that, but we can live forever and we can partake of life. You know the tree of life, but Jesus is that tree of life. You know, he's the one that, as you mentioned, with this first picture of that sacrifice, he's the one that had to sacrifice. I feel like I'm beating a dead horse right now. I'm sorry, you guys, but, like if you haven't guessed, yeah, jesus is the way. I'm sorry you guys, but like, if you haven't guessed, yeah, jesus is the way. The truth and the life, anyways.
Speaker 1:Yes, no, I love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then to just finish up the chapter like again just that visual of this angel now protecting the garden and essentially, like the garden represents presence with God.
Speaker 1:Right, exactly.
Speaker 2:So now it's like you can't come in you, there's a flaming sword. You are presence with God, Right exactly. So now it's like you can't come in there's a flaming sword. You are separated from God, and it wasn't until Jesus came that bridge has been made through Jesus for us to fellowship with God again, to be with him, to have relationship with him again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what a God we serve. Can you imagine? God just created the and of course, we don't know the exact timeline of this entire thing, but God just created the whole world, everything in his perfection. He created man in his image, woman in his image, and just the utmost perfection of it all.
Speaker 1:And even though, again, not to say that God was blindsided or you know that this was a surprise to him, but for him to you know, can you imagine the level of betrayal that that would feel? Like where you're? Like, my goodness, you just want to grab them and shake them like you had it all. It was right in front of you, god and God's sitting there like I gave you everything, zero reason for you to have done this, like the amount I mean. I just and of course that's me in my own human imperfection of thinking this way of like. Oh my gosh, the anger, the betrayal. You know God hates sin, all the things, and what he must have felt in that, in this entire moment of then cursing them and having to separate them from him when he created them in his image, to walk alongside him and have a relationship with him. And what a God that we serve to choose to save us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, he could have been like I'm done with y'all, Right, it's like you guys okay, maybe free will wasn't a great idea.
Speaker 1:No, I say that in all joking matter, but seriously though, for God, and you know, we don't choose Him. You know, and we can all sit here and say that we're dedicated to God and we do our best every day, but we're always going to fall short. That's the whole purpose of all of this is that we will never be good enough, no matter what, and God still choose to love us. He still chooses us. He's still there always, no matter what we put him through, no matter what we do, he is there patiently waiting for us to come back. So it's just just having that mental image of the garden being closed and the relationship with God being closed and how. What a toll that must have like taken on God to just know that he had to do that and still to this day.
Speaker 2:Um, you know, I listened to this audiobook called imagine the God of heaven and if anyone's seen after death, it's one of the commentators in in that movie. But he wrote two books Imagine Heaven and then Imagine the God of Heaven, and it's all based on what he calls NDEs, which is near-death experiences. And all of these people, regardless of where they live in the world, what culture they're from, what their religious backgrounds are, they all have the same exact well, not exact, but the same experience in their NDE, in their near-death experience. One of the things that I found was very interesting was when God allows some of these people to feel His emotion. So they all describe this beautiful, bright, warm, loving light. It's not just oh, it's a bright, warm, loving light. It's not just oh, it's a bright, warm light, it's loving, and they feel completely accepted and loved and just like they don't want to leave it, like they want to be with that. That's God.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then some people also experience like they look, they're able to see, they look down and they see the world and all of a sudden they feel this profound sadness and they're like, why am I feeling this, like mourning, this extreme sad and grief, and they realize it's coming from God and he's looking at all of his children who are not saved, who don't believe in him, despite everything that he's done, despite the ways that he shows up every day in creation. There's evidence for him in creation the mountains, the trees, the oceans, the birds, the flowers, like everything sings holy, holy, holy, right, so that he is in mourning for those. It's not His will that any should perish. When I think about that, I start praying Lord, help me to see them the way that you see them, because I'll be real honest with you, it's really hard for me some days to love on people. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:It's for all of us, yeah more often than not, admittedly so.
Speaker 2:He didn't want to live without us. That's why he sent Jesus. You know, he did not want to live without us, without his children. I mean that love. I don't think that's something that we'll ever understand until we get to heaven and we are with him. Actually, you know we are with him, but like with him, like his that loving light, you know, right, yeah.
Speaker 1:The perfect love. Yes, Thank you Lord, Thank you Lord, Thank you.
Speaker 2:Lord Loving us in our mess meeting us where we are.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:I feel kind of like sad because I didn't, we didn't really get to this and I did want to bring this up and I don't know if we have time, but you know, in our study Bible it has the effects of the fall, basically like the rejection of the creator's plan. And I found this really helpful when I read this for the very first time because it kind of helped me understand again some of those inherited sinful tendencies and patterns to God, that separation. It changed our relationship to nature. We now have to work for food and it's not only going to, it's going to be hard work, it's not just we're working for it. Like God said, there's going to be thorns and thistles, like nobody wants to eat. That that's going to be hard work. And then that that change in relationship between man and woman.
Speaker 2:So, that tyranny to headship. So the man again not being able to hold like, be accountable to his actions, but also abusing that power of leadership Right. And then, on the women's side, that rebellion to submission.
Speaker 2:So, that's where that's like. We want to be our own leader. Whoa, like what God originally created intended for marriage, those different roles between husband and wife that were supposed to fit together in this beautiful half, like you said, like united one flesh, are now in constant friction to one another, causing problems. And rest assured, there is hope, there's guidance on how to serve in those roles that God intended the way that God intended.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, I had that written down as well, because that's another one where you just kind of read over it and it kind of at first glance it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense in how it's worded. You know, and it's.
Speaker 1:I mean again, I kind of always had a tendency to just read things and gloss right over it.
Speaker 1:But yeah, your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you. When you read that, it's kind of it's either you just read right over it because it just you know you'll desire your husband and he'll rule over you, ok, whatever. But then when you really get into it and where you see that that's because it's like, well, women who want to be married are going to desire to be married, but then you are going to be in this sin tendency of wanting to not let him have the leadership role. And then, as you said, the husbands will have a sin tendency, and not for everybody and not all the time, but this is just, it's one of those inherited sins, you know, generational sins that have come down the line of just husbands will sometimes abuse that role. And yeah, like you said, our Bible also says scripture where it backs up the way that it should be and the way that we can still serve and fill those roles. And you know kind of how to counteract these effects of this inherited sin.
Speaker 2:Yes, how to you know when you're living a life righteously for God, when you're submitting to God as the headship, right Jesus lording over your life, and you're like, okay, lord, not my will, but your will, like acknowledging I know I have a tendency to want to do this or to rebel against this and just submitting to him and asking him to come and transform you and, like you mentioned, relying on the word. You know, like going back to those scriptures, with anything that you're struggling with, it's all meant to be encouraging and helpful and love. So our pastor, I think, mentioned once if you're reading the Word and you don't feel encouraged or hopeful, you need to look at your heart. Yeah, it's oppressive. Then you need to look at your heart, your submission to the Lord, because I think that's a good indicator that maybe you're not in alignment with God and His will for your life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely that's your own self-serving nature coming out kind of. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, if you're offended, you probably should look at that a little more.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's all Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you're offended, you probably should look at that a little more. Yeah, yeah. So that's all I got. Yeah, yeah Me too. Eight pages flew right on by oh my goodness, thank you Lord. Yeah, I don't really have a scripture picked out.
Speaker 1:I know I was trying to look for one, but maybe we can pick one and then just yeah, okay. You know, say that we picked it next time. Yeah, we'll come back, we'll surprise you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there you go you guys, you know, think of a scripture too. And again, thank you guys so much for tuning in to our. What is this?
Speaker 1:our fourth episode already yes, yes, our fourth episode I get so confused because we're going over chapter three, but it's episode four right yeah, yeah, anyways, thank you guys.
Speaker 2:Um, please continue to, you know, tune in, give us your feedback. Um, if you feel inclined, leave us a review or a comment, give us your thoughts, what?
Speaker 1:you struggled with, yeah, what you got out of it yeah, otherwise we will catch you next time.
Speaker 2:We're going to be going over chapter four, cain and Abel.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:Should be good, should be interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a big one too.
Speaker 2:Yes, all right, guys. Well, until then, what's my saying? Keep praying and stay fed by the word of God. All right, amen. See ya, bye, everyone.
