And to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’
Cursed is the ground on account of you;
in hard labor you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
Thorns and thistles it will bring forth for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face
you will eat bread
until you return to the ground,
because out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you will return” – Genesis 3:17-19
I’m sure many of us have listened to someone against our better judgment and regretted it. Adam listened to Eve who encouraged him to eat the fruit which both of them were forbidden to eat. God had told them that if they ate it they would surely die. There were no ifs, ands or buts. The consequences for disobeying Him would cost them their lives and more.
Adam knew where Eve got the fruit from. She had taken a bit and was giving it to him. She must have told him what the serpent had said. And the fact that she was still alive may have persuaded Adam that eating the fruit was not a bad thing to do. God had said that they would die if they ate it but Eve wasn’t dead. She was there before him, her eyes sparkling and her face flushed. She looked more beautiful than he had ever seen her. The serpent must be right. There was no harm in eating the fruit. So, he took it from her and ate it. The moment he tasted the fruit, things changed.
Why do we tend to listen to other people instead of God? His Word is there to guide us, to keep us safe yet we tend to listen to and follow bad advice. And we place our love for our spouses and children above our love to God. The Bible says, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” We show God we love Him when we obey Him even when we are pressured or tempted to do otherwise. Our loved ones may try to get us to do something that is contrary to God’s will but we have a choice to make. We can choose to listen to God or listen to them. No one can force us to do anything. Eve didn’t force Adam to disobey God. He chose to do so. And the consequences of that choice were far-reaching and as a result sin, suffering, death came into the world and their relationship with God and each other changed. The family dynamics changed. The husband became the head of the home and the wife was to be subject to him. Childbirth was not meant to be a painful experience but it is and working for a living was not supposed to be hard but it is. And we were not supposed to experience death but we all will. Our choices can affect not only us but others too. God knew what tragedies disobedience would bring to Adam and Eve and the world if they didn’t listen to Him.
Today, choose to listen to God. Don’t let anyone persuade you to do anything that would draw you away from God. Let your spiritual walk be such that when God comes looking for you and calls out, “Where are you?” you can show yourself and say, “Here I am, Lord.”
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