#DailyDevotion Are You Looking At The Man In The Mirror?
Genesis 310“I heard you in the garden,” he answered, “and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”11“Who told you you are naked?” He asked him. “Did you eat some fruit of the tree I ordered you not to eat?” 12“The woman You gave me,” the man answered, “she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” 13Then the LORD God asked the woman, “What did you do?” “The snake tricked me,” the woman answered, “and so I ate.”
The LORD had called out to his two children, Adam and Eve, “Where are you?” It wasn’t because he didn’t know where there were but so that he may come to them in a state of grace. Adam admits his fear of the LORD because he was naked. Well that opens up a whole can of worms! Who told you that? If you are ashamed of your nakedness then something happened.
“Did you eat some fruit of the tree I ordered you not to eat?” Mercifully the LORD opens up the situation so Adam may confess his sin in all humility. But the damage has been done. Adam knows evil now, I mean is really intimate with it. He has become one with it as he was once one with his wife.
And there you go the original blame game started right there in the Garden of Eden. What a horrific thing to read. The man who not more than a chapter earlier broke forth into poetry when the LORD brought him the woman is not blaming her for his rebellion and while we’re at it, he is also blaming God for giving him the woman. What a sad, sad scene it is. Evil has worked its magic on Adam.
But wait, there’s more! The LORD God asked the woman, “What did you do?” Does this look like a scene from a playground or the backyard when there is a broken window? Well evil had had its way with Eve as well. She learned quickly from her husband and points the finger at the snake. She blames him for tricking her. And well since God created the serpent there is a tacit blame of God here as well.
The snake, well he doesn’t have a leg to stand on.
We have inherited this way of life or rather death from our parents Adam and Eve. With death so corrupting our nature we are afraid of God with an ungodly fear. We want to blame him for all our troubles in our lives, yet for the most part the trouble are mostly our own making. Mostly. We blame God and we blame others, your parents, your siblings, society, other races, the Democrats, the Republicans, the Socialists and the Communist. We blame the schools and we blame economic systems. Yet what is needed is we look in the mirror and accept responsibility for our sins, iniquities, trespasses, guilt, shame and rebellion. He need to humble ourselves underneath our heavenly Father’s most gracious hand and confess our sins. For the sake of Jesus, God’s Son, he forgives our sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. In accepting and confessing our fallen nature, receiving the love, mercy and kindness of God in Christ Jesus, we are made anew. Christ the life and light of the world gives us his life, the life we had in the Garden and we are new creatures in Christ. If we point our finger it is to Jesus and saying, we are saved because what Jesus has done.
Heavenly Father, grant us the gift of repentance that we may truly be contrite over our sins, believe in Jesus Christ for their forgiveness and receive his life as our own. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.