7: GOD’S WORD - OUR RESPONSE (OBEY or TURN AWAY?) - MCI

Adam’s Suit

A young boy opened the big and old family Bible with amazement, and studied the old pages as he slowly turned them. As he was turning the pages something fell out of the Bible, and he picked it up and looked at it closely. It was an old leaf leaf that had been pressed between the pages.

“Mom, look what I found,” the boy yelled.

“What do you have, sweetie?” his mother asked.

In total shock the young boy answered: “I think it’s Adam’s suit!”

Of course, the reason why Adam had to have a “suit” is because of he and Eve’s decision to TURN AWAY from God’s words rather than OBEY God’s words.

And that’s the question I want you to ask today:

How will we RESPOND to GOD’S WORD communicated through the Scriptures?

“Will I choose to OBEY God’s Words or will I choose to TURN AWAY?”

Genesis 3:1 (CSB)

Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”

Who or what is this serpent?

Interpreters have several different views:

First, some think this is some sort of literary fable intended to communicate a real truth.

Problem: If this isn’t a true story about the fall of man into sin, if Adam & Eve simply represent mankind as a whole, then we must discount other references to Adam in the New Testament as a real individual (e.g. Rm 5:12-15, 1 Tim 2:13, 1 Cor 15:21-22, 45-49; 2 Cor 11:3). You also have several of their children mentioned with family lineages that follow. Where does the ‘fable’ stop and the history begin?

Second, if this is a real moment in history, how could a snake speak and cleverly trick Eve into disobeying God?

Problem: Did animals made by God desire to disobey God and lead humans to do the same? In other words, did thinking, communicating creatures designed by God, already have a sinful streak...before the fall of man? (There seem to only be 2 stories of animals speaking - this one and the story of Balaam’s donkey) - In both cases, this is NOT natural, but supernatural.

Finally, it seems that this is more than a snake, but a picture of the clever & conniving being later referred to as, “the ancient serpent, who is called the devil & Satan” (Rev. 12:9; 20:2). And it's here, in the Genesis account, for the first time, that we see the one Jesus called 'the father of lies' (Jn 8:44) do what he does best.

Genesis 3:2–5 (CSB)

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’ ” “No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

LIE #1: ‘You won’t die! Disobedience won’t hurt you!” It’s literally the oldest trick in the BOOK. The devil prompts people created in the image of God to doubt the goodness and truthfulness of God. “You won’t die. God is trying to keep you from something good.”

You don’t need to stay sexually pure until you’re married.

You don’t need to stay away from that drug, those pics on the internet, or those people who bring you pleasure.

God is trying to keep you from something GOOD!!!

That’s why we disobey, isn’t it? We doubt the goodness and truthfulness of God.

LIE #2: ‘You will be like God.”

You don’t have to submit to HIS authority. You rule over ever other animal. YOU should rule over YOU too!

Eve bought the lie and then it happened...

Genesis 3:6 (CSB)

The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it;

It tasted good. It looked good. It was going to make her feel good.

she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Wait a second! Was Adam there when she was tempted? If so, why didn’t he stand up and tell the serpent to shut up!? Why didn’t he lead his wife to obey what God commanded?

If he wasn’t there when Eve was tempted, then the question remains - WHY did he choose to follow her lead & disobey God’s clear command?

Adam & Eve questioned God’s goodness & bought into the lie that they could become like God, and be the authority of their own lives…and the consequence followed quickly behind...

Genesis 3:7 (CSB) Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Suddenly there’s a sense of shame that they needed to cover up. Yet, before they sinned against God the Scriptures note they had a very different outlook.

Genesis 2:25 (CSB) Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame.

But now that they have disobeyed God, just look at the difference.

Genesis 3:8–11 (CSB) Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze,

How cool would THAT be?!? To know that your Creator was coming to visit you? But this time was different...

and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

That was NOT a geographical question. This wasn’t hide n seek and God had no clue where they were. This was a spiritual question. God is essentially wanting Adam to answer this question: “Where are you WITHOUT Me?”

And He said, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” Then He asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

Sin’s immediate price tag is SEPARATION from the God they once walked and talked with. Instead of fearlessness there was fearFULness. Instead of enjoying God’s Presence, they were hiding from Him.

We sin too. We HIDE too. We wonder why we can’t find lasting purpose in possessions, trophies, or human relationships. So, thousands of years later, we know that something is wrong in the world and we know that we were meant for more.

We are created to KNOW God and make Him KNOWN.

We are created to WALK with Him, not HIDE from Him.

Sadly, Adam and Eve’s family followed in their footsteps.

Just before Cain decided to kill his brother because of his jealousy, what God told Cain thousands of years ago is applicable to us today.

Genesis 4:7 (CSB) If you do what is right, won’t you be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

Had Cain OBEYED rather than TURN AWAY from God’s word, his life would have been very different.

Thousands of years later, Paul writes Timothy and reminds him to go against the flow of culture, to OBEY rather than TURN AWAY from God’s words communicated through the Scriptures.

2 Timothy 3:12–17 (CSB) In fact, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Evil people and impostors will become worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you, and you know that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Scripture = NET - “holy writings”, ESV = “sacred writings”

Will we OBEY or will we TURN AWAY? Will we HIDE FROM GOD or will will WALK WITH HIM?

One sure sign to demonstrate whether we’re still HIDING from Him or not is seen by our response to God’s words - whether we OBEY or TURN AWAY.

If we TURN AWAY, then we certainly won’t make much time to READ the Scriptures when we refuse to HEED the Scriptures.

I’ve written this in the front of my Bibles: “Sin will keep me from this book and this book will keep me from sin.”

This year as I was reading through the Scriptures I ran across an ancient story I was familiar with that is tied to another ancient story I don’t ever remember reading.

Here’s the part I was familiar with - the story of Josiah - the youngest of Israel’s kings.

The ungodly Legacy left for Josiah

Josiah’s grandfather was Manasseh. Look at wha the Scriptures say about him.

2 Kings 21:2–4 (CSB) He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, imitating the detestable practices of the nations that the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites. He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed and reestablished the altars for Baal. He made an Asherah, as King Ahab of Israel had done; he also bowed in worship to all the stars in the sky and served them. He built altars in the Lord’s temple, where the Lord had said, “Jerusalem is where I will put My Name.”

Baal was a fertility god who had a lover - Asherah - a Canaanite fertility goddess of whose images are highly sexual. Remember the battle between Yahweh and the 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah (1 Kings 18:19) at Mount Carmel? Those were the ‘gods’ Manasseh built altars to INSIDE the temple of Yahweh!

2 Kings 21:5-7 (CSB) He built altars to all the stars in the sky in both courtyards of the Lord’s temple. He sacrificed his son in the fire, practiced witchcraft and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did a huge amount of evil in the Lord’s sight, angering him. Manasseh set up the carved image of Asherah, which he made, in the temple that the Lord had spoken about to David and his son Solomon: “I will establish my name forever in this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.

Manasseh’s son was Amon.

2 Kings 21:20–22 (CSB) He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, just as his father Manasseh had done. He walked in all the ways his father had walked; he served the idols his father had served, and he bowed in worship to them. He abandoned the Lord God of his ancestors and did not walk in the ways of the Lord.

Amon’s servants assassinated him.

Josiah became king in his father’s place.

2 Kings 22:1–2 (CSB) Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah; she was from Bozkath. He did what was right in the Lord’s sight and walked in all the ways of his ancestor David; he did not turn to the right or the left.

Josiah was trying to repair the damage to the temple (2 Kgs 22:3-7).

While cleaning up the temple, a book was found. Josiah wanted to hear what it said.

Scholars think this is likely Deuteronomy (2nd Law) - Moses’ reminding the Jewish people of all God said and expected.

Look at Josiah’s response to God’s words.

2 Kings 22:11–13 (CSB)

When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes. Then he commanded the priest Hilkiah, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Achbor son of Micaiah, the court secretary Shaphan, and the king’s servant Asaiah, “Go and inquire of the Lord for me, for the people, and for all Judah about the words in this book that has been found. For great is the Lord’s wrath that is kindled against us because our ancestors have not obeyed the words of this book in order to do everything written about us.”

Josiah is distraught. His ancestors have disobeyed God and led the people of Judah to disobey God.

A prophetess is asked about what God wants them to do. She told them that God said He would destroy Judah because of their disobedience, BUT…not until AFTER the reign of Josiah - because...

2 Kings 22:19–20 (CSB) because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and because you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I myself have heard’—this is the Lord’s declaration. ‘Therefore, I will indeed gather you to your ancestors, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster that I am bringing on this place.’ ” Then they reported to the king.

Watch how Josiah responds to God’s correction from the Scriptures. He is no longer IGNORANT and he refuses to IGNORE what God said. So...

2 Kings 23:1–2 (CSB) So the king sent messengers, and they gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to him. Then the king went to the Lord’s temple with all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, as well as the priests and the prophets—all the people from the youngest to the oldest. He read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the Lord’s temple.

2 Kings 23:3 (CSB) Next, the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant in the Lord’s presence to follow the Lord and to keep his commands, his decrees, and his statutes with all his heart and with all his soul in order to carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book; all the people agreed to the covenant.

And then Josiah went off!

2 Kings 23:4–5a (CSB)

Then the king commanded the high priest Hilkiah and the priests of the second rank and the doorkeepers to bring out of the Lord’s sanctuary all the articles made for Baal, Asherah, and all the stars in the sky. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel. Then he did away with the idolatrous priests the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense at the high places in the cities of Judah and in the areas surrounding Jerusalem.

2 Kings 23:5b-7 (CSB) They had burned incense to Baal, and to the sun, moon, constellations, and all the stars in the sky. He brought out the Asherah pole from the Lord’s temple to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem. He burned it at the Kidron Valley, beat it to dust, and threw its dust on the graves of the common people. He also tore down the houses of the male cult prostitutes that were in the Lord’s temple, in which the women were weaving tapestries for Asherah.

There’s more to the story but we will conclude the story of Josiah with this passage.

2 Kings 23:24–25 (CSB) In addition, Josiah eradicated the mediums, the spiritists, household idols, images, and all the abhorrent things that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. He did this in order to carry out the words of the law that were written in the book that the priest Hilkiah found in the Lord’s temple. Before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength according to all the law of Moses, and no one like him arose after him.

Josiah heard what God said and bent His beliefs to fit what the Bible said. He would not TURN AWAY, but chose to OBEY.

Anything in YOUR life you need to DESTROY and REMOVE from your life?

Josiah’s Son, Jehoiakim, was king during the ministry of Jeremiah the prophet. God told Jeremiah to write a word of warning to Jehoiakim. He sent his servant to read the scroll to the people inside Jerusalem, and when many of the officials heard what he said, and concerned about how the king would respond - they told the servant and Jeremiah to hide and took the scroll to the king.

But instead of following in the footsteps of his father, Josiah…listen to what he did.

Jeremiah 36:22–23 (CSB) Since it was the ninth month, the king was sitting in his winter quarters with a fire burning in front of him. As soon as Jehudi would read three or four columns, Jehoiakim would cut the scroll with a scribe’s knife and throw the columns into the fire in the hearth until the entire scroll was consumed by the fire in the hearth.

Jeremiah 36:24-26 (CSB) As they heard all these words, the king and all his servants did not become terrified or tear their clothes. Even though Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah had urged the king not to burn the scroll, he did not listen to them. Then the king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son, Seraiah son of Azriel, and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to seize the scribe Baruch and the prophet Jeremiah, but the Lord hid them.

God brings judgement on the king, kills him, and makes sure his name is forever hated while his father’s name is forever honored.

Josiah had been IGNORANT, but WANTED to hear what God said. When he did, he chose to obey rather than IGNORE what God said.

Jehoiakim chose to IGNORE what God said, and God held him accountable.

WHICH EXAMPLE WILL YOU FOLLOW?

Rather than stay IGNORANT, or will you - LIKE Josiah - explore what the Scriptures say and then OBEY what God says?

Or when confronted with the correction of God's Scriptures, will you respond like Jehoiakim - TURNING AWAY and IGNORING what God says?

Read the Scriptures. Bend your beliefs to fit what the Bible says?

FEET2FAITH

Read & heed Psalm 119 - the importance and knowing and obeying God’s Word.

Finally, we are reminded that our greatest example of how we respond to God’s Word is Jesus - the living Word of God.

When Jesus, the 2nd Adam, is tempted in the wilderness. Yet Jesus, fully human and experiencing our struggles, doesn’t waiver from God’s words when tempted. Adam & Eve were in the garden with every need provided for. Jesus is in the wilderness with no provisions - he was hungry.

Matthew 4:1–4 (CSB) Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. Then the tempter approached him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” He answered, “It is written: Man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

PRAY