-
Introduction
：
Do you
ever feel sad as you think about all the trouble
in the world
？
It seems every
day
we
hear
bad
news
of war,
earthquakes,
disease,
or
other
disasters.
Many
times
people
ask
“
Why did God let this
happen
？”
??
In our last lesson we
learned that when God created the world, there
were no terrible things
like
war,
earthquakes,
storms,
sickness
or
death.
God
created
a
perfect
world.
But
what
went
wrong
？
Pay careful
attention to our lesson today, and you will find
the answer.
??
Do
you remember some of the things God
created
？
The plants and
trees; the sun, moon and
stars;
the sea creatures
and
birds
and
animals.
What was
God
’
s
most
special
creation
？
It was
people! God made the first man Adam in
His own image and gave him a soul that will last
forever.
??
Genesis
2
：
8 & 9 says,
“
And the LORD God planted a
garden eastward in Eden; and there
he
put the man whom he had formed. And out of the
ground made the LORD God to grow every
tree that is pleasant to the sight, and
good for food; the tree of life also in the midst
of the garden,
and the tree of
knowledge of good and evil.
”
Why do you think God went to all the
trouble to
plant a special garden just
for Adam
？
Because He loved
him so much!
??
Did you know God loves you
just as much as He loved
Adam
？
How do I
know
？
Because
you
too were created by God. God says in Jeremiah
31
：
3,
“
I have loved thee with an
everlasting
love.
”
Y
our perfect Creator God
knows the day you were born, and already has a
perfect plan for
your life. His plan
for your life includes knowing God and having
wonderful fellowship with Him.
No one
could ever love you as much as your Creator God
loves you.
??
Because God loved Adam so
much, He planted a special garden just for
Adam
’
s enjoyment.
God told Adam to keep up the garden,
but that was not hard work, for at that time there
were no
weeds! God told Adam he could
freely eat of any tree of the garden except one,
and that was the
tree
of
the
knowledge
of
good
and
evil.
God
warned
Adam
that
if
he
ate
of
the
tree
of
the
knowledge of good and evil, he would
surely die.
??
God loved Adam, and even
brought all the animals and birds to Adam so that
Adam could
choose names for them! How
would you like to have all the animals and birds
in the world for
your very own pets! At
that time all of the animals and birds were tame,
they did not harm people
or each other.
Do you think Adam might have spent many happy
hours enjoying the animals and
birds
？
Even so,
there was one more thing God saw that Adam needed.
God said,
“
It is not good
that the man should be alone,
”
so God caused a
deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and as he slept,
God took one of his ribs and from that
rib God made a woman, a mate, for Adam. Because
God
created Adam and knew everything
about him, God knew just how to make the perfect
mate for
Adam.
Can
you
imagine
the
happy
surprise
when
Adam
woke
up
to
see
this
wonderful
mate
waiting for
him
？
He called her Eve. What
a perfectly happy world Adam and Eve enjoyed then!
??
Because there
was no sin, Adam and Eve had a perfectly pure
conscience and enjoyed a close
friendship with God. In fact,
God
’
s Word says,
“
And they were both naked,
the man and his wife,
and were not
ashamed.
”
??
Lurking in the garden
where Adam and Eve lived so happily was a creature
called a serpent.
A
serpent
is a snake, but this serpent was no ordinary snake
like we see today.
??
It was Satan,
God
’
s enemy, speaking
through the serpent.
??
Did you know that at one
time Satan was an angel in
Heaven
？
His name was Lucifer,
and he
was a beautiful shining angel.
But Lucifer became proud and tried to
rebel against God, because
he wanted to
be God. God could not allow that rebellion, so he
threw Lucifer and his followers out
of
Heaven. Now we call him Satan, or the devil, God’s
enemy. Satan hates God and he hates you
and me. He works night and day lying
and deceiving people to try to turn them against
God. He
began with Eve in the garden.
??
Satan
disguised as a serpent came to Eve one day,
“
Has God said you shall not
eat of every
tree of the
garden
？”
Eve knew
God
’
s rule and replied,
“
We may eat of the fruit of
the trees of
the
garden
：
But of the fruit of
the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God
hath said, Y
e shall
not eat
of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye
die.
”
Do you
remember the name of that
tree
？
It was
the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
??
Satan gave a
deceitful reply
：
“
Y
ou will not surely die, for God knows
that the day you eat of
that tree, you
shall be as gods, knowing good and
evil.
”
??
Now Eve had a very serious
choice. The Bible tells us
“
And when the woman saw that
the
tree was good for food, and that it
was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired
to make one
wise, she took of the fruit
thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto
her husband with her; ” Eve had
deliberately made the choice to disobey
God’s voice and listen to Satan, her enemy. She
ate the
fruit and gave some to Adam,
and now Adam had a choice. Would he also disobey
the God Who
created and loved him and
had done so many wonderful loving things for
him
？
Y
es, Adam
chose
to disobey God and he
??
ate the fruit Eve gave
him. Through their disobedience, sin came into the
world.
??
Even
though Adam and
Eve were the first two
people to sin, they were not the only ones.
Because of the sin nature we inherited
from Adam and Eve, we were all born with a want-to
to go
our own way and disobey God.
Romans 5
：
12 says, Wherefore,
as by one man (Adam) sin entered
into
the world, and death by sin; and so death passed
upon all men, for that all have
sinned.
”
Do
you pretend not to hear your parents
when they call you
？
Have you
been thinking angry thoughts
about
someone
？
Do you pout to get
your way
？
Those are some ways
that boys and girls sin.
??
When sin entered the
world, it brought many terrible things with it,
but the worst thing is that
sin causes
you to be separated from God. If you continue in
that sin, God says that when you die,
you will be separated from Him forever
in a horrible place of punishment called hell. Can
you see
that
disobeying
God
is
a
serious
sin
？??
Adam
and
Eve
realized
too
late
the
serious
sin
of
disobeying God. Because of that
disobedience, their whole world changed. They had
never known
sadness or guilt or shame,
but sud
denly they felt all those
things. The Bible says, “And the eyes of
them both were opene
d, and
they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig
leaves together, ”
to make a covering
for their bodies. Perhaps you are thinking, “But
they didn’t die, as God said
they
would.” Oh, yes, they did die the worst kind of
death. God says that when we
are
separated
from Him, we are spiritually
dead. We cannot enjoy fellowship with Him, or be
in
His glorious
Home
called
Heaven.
The
day
that
Adam
and
Eve
sinned,
they
suffered
spiritual
death
and
separation
from
God.
Not
only
that,
but their
perfectly
healthy
bodies would
now
also
have
to
suffer decay and sickness and death.
??
Adam and Eve
were so sad and ashamed. The Bible says,
“
And they heard the voice of
the
LORD God walking in the garden in
the cool of the day
：
and Adam
and his wife hid themselves
from the
presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the
garden.
”
??
God called,
“
Adam, where are
you
？”
Did God
really need to ask that
？
Adam
answered
from his hiding place,
“
I heard your voice in the
garden, and I was afraid because I was naked;
and I hid
myself.
”
When God
asked Adam if he had disobeyed
God
’
s commandment, Adam
tried
to blame it on his wife
Eve
：
“
The woman
Y
ou gave me, she gave me of the tree
and I did eat.
”
Then Eve tried to blame the serpent for
her
disobedience
：
“
The
serpent tricked me, and I
ate.
”
??
God cursed the
serpent
：
“
Because
you have done this, you are cursed above every
beast of
the field. Y
ou will
crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the
days of your life.
”
??
Then God in
His great love and mercy made a marvelous promise!
God promised that one
day He would send
Someone
into the world Who would defeat
Satan and save people from the
terrible
punishment of sin.
??
Y
ou and I know
that special Someone was
God
’
s perfect Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ! When
Jesus
left
Heaven
to
come
to
earth
to
die
for
your
sins
and
mine,
He
fulfilled
the
promise
God
made
in the beginning of the world. II Corinthians
5
：
21 says,
“
For he (God) hath made him
(Jesus) to be sin for us, who (Jesus)
knew no sin; that we might be made the
righteousness of God
in him.” When
wicked men caused Jesus to be beaten and bruised,
and nailed
to a wooden cross, it
should have been you and me. But Jesus
Who had never sinned, became sin for us and took
our
punishment on the cross. It was an
agonizing death for the Lord Jesus, but He loved
you and knew
His suffering would pay
for your sin. After
the Lord Jesus
suffered and died, three days later He
came alive again! Jesus is the living
Savior Who can forgive you and set you free from
everlasting
death and separation from
God! Jesus is the special Someone God promised
Adam and
Eve
He
would send to the world.
??
What
a
marvelous
promise
God
made
to
the
world,
even
as
He
also
had
to
pronounce
punishment for sin. God told Eve she
would suffer pain as she gave birth to children,
and that her
husband
would
rule
over
her.
To
Adam
God
said,
“
Because
you
listened
to
your
wife,
and
disobeyed Me, cursed is the ground for
your sake.” Now Adam would have to work hard to
get
food to grow. There would be
thorns, and weeds, and other hardships he had
never known before.
Adam and Eve would
know great sorrow for the rest of their life
because of their sin.