The Fall

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall

All the king’s horses and all the kings men

Couldn’t put Humpty together again

Not sure why so many nursery rhymes which are meant to be comforting to an infant involve someone falling. Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, Rock a bye baby

With Humpty Dumpty you have to think what happened to this dude?

Why is he shaped like an egg?

Why is an egg shaped man sitting on the top of a wall?

How can a horse help put an egg back together?

Well a horse can’t because horses do not have thumbs.

There’s a lot of questions that we can ask in this simple nursery rhyme but never get the answers too because we don’t know.

Well, let’s look at life as we know it.

Why is there sickness? Why is there pain? Why is there death?

Genesis Chapter 3 answers the origins of these questions

————————————————

All scripture in the Bible is important but there are key points in the Bible that are important to tie everything together Just like in a movie, there are climactic scenes:

The account of creation, the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the return of Jesus

All of these are important to understand in the Christian faith

The Fall is important to understand why sin and suffering exist. I won’t go into much detail about that because that is what Joseph is teaching next week, but I will be going into Genesis Chapter 3 and what happened

The term “the fall” is nowhere in scripture, but that is what we call it and it came from something called 2 Esdras.

It is a Jewish text from the late first century CE and part of it says this: “O Adam, what have you done? For though it was you who sinned, the fall was not yours alone, but ours also who are your descendants.”

————————————————-

Before the fall

Before the fall, God created a perfect world with no sin, death, or pain.

Adam and Eve were made in God’s image and likeness. They could think, feel, and make their own choices.

Adam and Eve lived in garden of Eden and were given responsibility to tend to it

And God gave them only one rule:

***Read Genesis 2:15-16

Go into Genesis 3

Genesis 3:1-7

Temptation illustration

One of God’s attributes is that he is omniscient. He knows all things, right?

If He knows all things, how could he let this happen? Why would He let humanity go through this?

God gave humanity free will. He did not create us to be robots. We have a choice to love God and He seeks our love

But there are 4 words for love in the Greek language. The love that God requires from us is called Agape

Free will is necessary for Agape love

because Agape love is a self-sacrificial love. It is the love that is described in Romans 5:8

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”

At any point God could have stopped all of this. He could have wiped out humanity at that point in time and done anything. He could’ve created another man or made us to be like robots who would obey no matter what. But without freedom there is no genuine love.

Starting in Genesis 3:15, God initiates His rescue plan.

As Mrs. Katya stated last week, it is the first Gospel message in the Bible.

It is

Follow your heart. Terrible advice

David then Joseph

We have screaming goat buttons all around us. Some of us have one in our pocket. Screen time. Go outside. Touch some grass. Put your face on some tree bark