DAY 9
GOD GIVES IN SPITE OF THE FALL
Gen. 3:1-13
At the heart of Satan’s deceit and seduction at the time of mankind’s Fall was the implication that God had not given enough. He convinced Adam and Eve to
believe the lie that God had withheld certain things they were entitled to have!
[Satan asked] ‘Did God say, “You shall not eat from any tree in the garden”? . . . You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil’ (Gen. 3:1, 4–5).
That rejection of God by Adam and Eve was a rejection of his very nature as the true Giver. It was nothing less than a refusal to be thankful for the good gifts he had already given. In effect they were saying to God, ‘Your gifts are inadequate: You have not given us enough’. This lack of gratitude and our refusal to be thankful is now at the heart of humanity’s perversion of all things:
20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Rom. 1:20-21)
Following the Fall, humanity deteriorated into such corruption and violence that it was said, ‘every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually’ (Gen.6:5). Nevertheless, in spite of the Fall, God continues to sustain and preserve the human race. Although he came close to wiping us out at the time of the Flood, he nevertheless renewed his covenant to Noah and so to the whole of mankind. Again and again those covenantal terms have been restated—to Abraham, Moses, David, and so forth.
(Grace of Giving by John Dunn)
Raul Pabilando
