The Encourager
“THE SEDUCTION, SHAME, AND SORROW OF SIN written by Mike Richardson”
I remember the shame of something I did as a child. We had gone to a yard sale and there was an old fishing bob laying in an old box. I reasoned in my mind they must be throwing it out and it was free. However, when we were driving down the road and I revealed my find to my parents they immediately turned the car around. They made me take the fishing bob back to the people and confess that I took it. I was embarrassed and begged them to just let me put it back, but they wanted to teach me a lesson that stealing is wrong. I never forgot the shame I felt as those people stared me down when I confessed my wrong doing. This goes back to the beginning of sin.
When Adam and Eve were lured into sin, they made a choice to rebel against God. God had forbidden them to eat of the tree of knowledge, yet they ignored God’s voice and heeded the voice of the wicked one and partook of the fruit. When one reads Genesis 3:8-19 one sees the seduction, shame and sorrow of sin. For the purpose of this article let us focus on what sin does.
(i)Sin Always Breaks Fellowship with God (Gen.3:8). First, you have Adam and Eve with open eyes trying to hide from God. Sin Always Breeds Fear of God (9-11). We observe the calling Father in vs.9 and in vs.10 you see the cowering sinners. This is the worst game of hide n seek ever played. Man, trying to hide from God. God had come to have fellowship with them, but they had broken the bond with God by violating His will. God asks them if they had eaten of the forbidden tree (11)? God knew where they were the whole time and what they had done, but He made them come clean on their sin. Their sin broke fellowship with God.
(ii)The Sinners Try to Shift the Blame (12-13). Adam sought to blame Eve, Eve sought to blame the serpent who didn’t have a leg to stand on! Notice no one wanted to take responsibility for their sin. They all try to evade, excuse, and explain away their sin. They had been seduced by the lie of the devil, they had felt the sting of shame for their sin, and now they must deal with the sorrow sin brings forth. Instead of confessing their sin they sought to shift the blame.
(iii)Sin Changes Security into Sorrow (16-19). Because of their sin God multiplied their sorrows (16). Woman and man now live in a cursed world because they chose to defy God’s will and do their own. They believed a lie and lost the Garden. They wanted to be God instead of having a relationship with God.
vgarden and were not ashamed, until they ate of the forbidden fruit. Disobedience to the commandment of God was the cause (17). First, Adam and Eve listened to the wrong counsel (17). Secondly, they abandoned the counsel of God (17). Third, they lost paradise because of their wickedness (17). Because of their sin there is disorder of the creation in a curse (18). Thorns and thistles are silent witnesses to man’s
disobedience (18). Adam now sees what sin has brought and God reminds him of his past formation (19), his present frailty (19) and is promised fate (19).
(v)Lessons For Us:
(1) Sin Still Breaks Fellowship with God (Eph.5:1; Rom.3:23).
(2) Sin Brings a Fear of God (Heb.10:31).
(3) Sin Seeks to Shift the Blame!
(4) Sin Brings Shame and Sorrow!
