How do people write books? It seems the best way is to spend the
winter secluded in a large resort in the mountains. I want to write a
book of approximately 300 devotionals that a reader can use as a guide
for reading approximately half of the Bible... the core stuff. You know.
Skip Song of Solomon and Esther, for example. They will be for Volume
2. I don't think I will be able to do it "in my spare time." Anyway,
here's what I wrote today.
The
serpent redirected focus to what God has forbidden. The serpent offers
freedom, fulfillment, pleasure, discovery and autonomy. God does
too—except for autonomy.
I am impressed by verse 11: “Who told
you that you were naked?” God is offering these first two humans an
opportunity to confess and to express regret; but each of them transfers
blame to someone else. They never regret. Mending damaged relationships
begins with expressed regret.
However, the violated party in a
damaged relationship can do a lot to mend the damage. God set for us a
really good example by providing only natural consequences of the
infraction. There were three parties involved in this sin: the serpent,
the woman and the man. The only one of these three that actually was
cursed is the serpent. There is no curse language directed towards the
woman or the man. We recognize God’s mercy in these consequences.
The
consequence that sent a shock wave through the ages is what God said to
the woman. “He shall rule over you” (vs. 16). None of the consequences
detailed by God are results we should happily embrace. That the man
shall rule over the woman is not some beautiful new pecking order. It is
not divine notice of the woman’s new “place” in the social order.
Rather, it is a natural consequence of sin.
There is every good
reason to make work easier and more efficient (less sweat), to try to
live longer (no hurry to return to the ground), to ease the pain of
giving birth and to eliminate female subjugation.
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