Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden Sunday School Lesson

Have you ever had to plan a party?

Well, I am planning one right now, but I’m having a little trouble… I have the guest list… I know the theme…. I know the games. But there’s just one thing I have no clue about.

The food!

Do you think you can help me come up with food for this party? Maybe we could make a list of all of your favorite foods, and then I’ll know what we should bring to the party? Does that sound good? Okay, what’s everyone going to bring?

(Make a list of all of the food at the party)

 

Okay, great! Now I just want you to know that my grandmother is going to be bringing oyster and liver stuffing…

 

It’s really, really gross, so you do NOT want to eat it. I mean, that stuff is so disgusting it’ll make you sick for days. It might even start to rot your stomach away from the inside. Just trust me on this one. You can eat any of these other foods… but don’t touch the oyster and liver stuffing!

Now…. Let me ask you a question, and be honest….

How many of you are kind of wanting to try just a taste of that oyster and liver stuffing?

I know I said it wasn’t very good… and I know I said it’ll make you sick… and I know I said it’ll make your stomach rot from the inside… but I’m sure at least one of you kind of wants to take an itty, bitty, teeny tiny taste just to see what all the fuss is about, right?

Well, one time, God kind of threw a party. It was in this garden, and he invited his two friends, Adam and Eve to attend. He made sure the garden was lit up with all sorts of foods to eat. Every variety you could think of, an endless supply. It was really the place to be!

It was kind of like a food court garden party, if you will…

And he told Adam and Eve to make themselves at home. They could do whatever they wanted at his garden party. They could ride any of the animals, talk to any of the animals, and eat any of the food….

 

Well, except the oyster liver stuffing.

 

Okay, it wasn’t really oyster liver stuffing… it was a kind of fruit from a special tree. A tree that would make them see the world as it really was.

God told them not to eat from that tree. He knew it wouldn’t be good for them… It would make them sick. It would make them start to rot. If they ate from that tree, things would be very, very bad.

So one day, Adam and Eve were walking in the garden, trying out the delicious foods. Adam had probably just gotten a slice from the pizza tree. Eve was off picking chocolates from the chocolate bush. Ok…maybe there weren’t THOSE kinds of trees, but it was a bunch of good stuff! All was good in their little world…

Until…

“PSST! Eve!”

Eve turned around. She looked left. She looked right. She looked North. She looked South.

 

“PSST! Eve! Down here!”

 

When she looked down, she saw a snake. Now, she didn’t realize yet that snakes were creepy, crawly, bad news bears, kind of things… So she said,

“Yes, Snake?”

And it went a little like this….

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,

3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.

5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”

Can you say ‘uh oh’? UH OH is right! Eve practically just ate the oyster liver stuffing, and not only that, she gave it to her husband!

Except this was worse… way worse. Because this wasn’t like you eating oyster liver stuffing when I told you not to. This was like Eve eating fruit that GOD told her not to… and then feeding some to her husband.

 

Now why would Eve do that?

 

Well, think about what that serpent did for a moment….. that serpent made her doubt God.

First, the serpent tested Eve’s own memory! He pretended like she might be confused. Did she really hear God right? Did God really say what she thought He did? Hmm….

Then, he tested God’s motive. The serpent made Eve believe that God’s plan for her life wasn’t the best plan. He made her think that God was just being mean, or that He was out to get her. He made her think that she knew better than God did!

Satan tries to get Eve to doubt God’s goodness. He makes her think God might have lied to her. Then, he makes her think that if God lied to her… well, he couldn’t possibly be a good God…

… and at the same time, he tries to get Eve to doubt the badness of sin! Sin won’t kill you. It’s just a little bite. Sin is actually good for you!

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

 

Satan wants to twist things. He wants us to see sin as something good that a bad God doesn’t want us to have… when really, sin is something bad that our good God doesn’t want us to have!

And Eve? Well, Eve took the bait. And then she convinced Adam to take the bait too…

And you know what happened next?

 

God went looking for them.

 

“Where are you?” he asked. Over and over again. He wasn’t angry at them. He didn’t have his guns drawn and he wasn’t stomping through the garden looking for them. He was worried. He was disappointed. He was sad. “Where are you?” he asked.

You see, before Eve ate that apple, God didn’t have to ask where Adam and Eve were. They were right there with him. No separation at all.

But now, God knew there was a separation. A separation so big that He was the only one who could fix it. A sickness so big that it would rot away at Adam and Eve forever. So when he found them, he came up with a plan.

Listen to it.

21 The Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”

23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.

It sounds kind of like a mean plan, doesn’t it? It sounds like God is majorly freaking out over a bite of oyster liver stuffing… but you see, God wasn’t being mean. God was being nice.

I know, I know. You’re all wondering how this is nice. God kicked them out, right?!

Well… Think about it. If Adam and Eve continued to live in that garden, they would have kept eating from that tree. They would keep having their eyes opened to what was going around them. They’d be wallowing in brokenness. Their insides would forever be rotting because they would just keep ingesting sin. Over, and over, and over again.

God didn’t want that for his children. He couldn’t stand that fate for the people he loved. So His love made them leave, and He allowed them to die.

That doesn’t sound great either, does it?

Except it does. Because without death, there’s no resurrection. Without death, there’s no ability to get right with God. There’s no Jesus.

You see, even when we mess up. Even when we do things that God isn’t happy with? We can’t thwart His plan. You are not mighty enough or strong enough or smart enough to beat God’s plan. There is nothing you can do that will mess up God’s plan for your life.

And His plan is always, always good.