Up until now, the story has been sweet and encouraging. God, in His desire to dwell and abide with His creation, made us a place in which to do it; Eden. He did this with a purpose in mind, and that was to bring humanity into His already present divine family, consisting of created spiritual beings, or the Heavenly Hosts. Everything was going along quite well as God and His creation, both human and divine, dwelt together in harmony.

We get two chapters of this bliss ... then WHAMO! Genesis chapter 3.

This is the chapter where the wheels sort of fell off of the entire deal. While many reduce this chapter and story down to merely about disobedience, temptation, and resulting punishment, the true story of what's going on underneath is much more serious. If we look closely at the text, the chapter isn't only about rule breaking it's also about broken trust.

In Chapter 3 we don't see when or how the serpent figure (the Satan) came to be in the place to sow seeds of doubt with Eve. (we DO learn more about that later). At this point all we really know is that the serpent has a reason to want Eve to doubt the goodness and faithfulness of God. He implants a seed of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). And he is successful.

But the first thing to change upon her giving in to the temptation isn't the ground being cursed or her immediate physical death as some would expect. The first fracture is a relational one.

Almost immediately Adam and Eve hide themselves from God, and from each other. It says, "their eyes were opened and they new they were naked." Then they covered themselves, they covered their nakedness. Now, they had always been naked. Being naked was apparently not the problem ... but now ... their eyes were opened. They saw the other as someone who was no longer pristine and without blemish, they each knew the other could no longer be trusted. They were ashamed of their outward appearance because their eyes were opened to what was now their inward brokenness.

This caused them to see each other and, tragically, God, in a different light.

The serpent was tricky and subtle. He doesn't deny God's existence, power, or majesty ... he only questions God's goodness and the accuracy of His word. "Did he really say ....?" The real temptation wasn't to disobey, to obtain momentary pleasure from the fruit. No, the temptation was to reinterpret God as holding something back, as distant, or even manipulative.

God doesn't enter the scene thundering accusations and railing against rebellion. He comes in asking questions. He isn't interrogating to gather information; he knew. He was inviting them back to Himself, back into relationship.

Sin, at its core, is choosing mistrust over intimacy. It is believing we must grab life by the whiskers on our own terms rather than receive it from God's hand. The tragedy of Genesis 3 isn't just that humans broke a rule. The tragedy is that they broke fellowship.

But even in all that betrayal, God's purpose is not abandoned. He pursued them. He spoke to them. He clothed them and covered their shame. Judgement is real, but so is His mercy. He refused to abandon His new family. We mustn't forget that this story isn't only about how we fell, but it is also about how He responded.

Even in rebellion He remained present and began at that moment to make a way for ultimate redemption and restoration.

Honesty time. Have you ever had times when you felt like God was holding back instead of giving all there was to give?

When you consider sin as a relational breech instead of just a rule break, how does that impact your response?