Adam and Eve Get Fired

1st in a series on how men and women in the Bible

deal with waiting, disappointment and unemployment

Adam and Eve Get Fired

Whenever we read the Bible we study it while wearing a particular lens.  If anyone ever tells you that they have an objective view of the Bible or of history, keep your distance…because they are deceived.  We come at everything with an agenda.  I hear your compliments and criticisms through the lens of my emotional security.  I read the newspaper looking for views that support my own.  And I usually like to surround myself with people who regard my particular views as sound and noteworthy.  My only hope is that, as I read, I remain open to other interpretations and primarily to the influence of the Holy Spirit.

With that in mind, I have just begun viewing the Bible from the perspective of what it means to wait.  It seems like there’s a lot of waiting in the Bible.  Also, how do men and women in the Bible deal with disappointment.  Lastly, is unemployment in the Bible?  Many of my friends deal with that too.  

Beginning with Adam and Eve I want to remain true to good biblical interpretation and see if the Scriptures can address these things and offer us encouragement today.  Good interpretation meaning - I want to ‘draw out’ the intent of the writer rather than coming at it with my own agenda….even though this is not entirely possible.  Pray that the Holy Spirit guides my thinking and writing.  

Adam and Eve had jobs.  They were gardeners.  We don’t know how hard it was or if they got dirt under their fingernails, but we do know they ‘worked’.  They worked because God worked.  Work is good.  Human beings were designed with this in mind.  But like any job or setting, there were choices to be made.  It appears that God was not a micromanager because he delegated the work of the garden to Adam and Eve.  And it seems Eve had her chores and Adam had his because the instance we discover in Genesis 3 is a time when Eve is alone.  An opportune time for Satan, a real being, apparently disguised as a snake, to approach Eve.  Isn’t this often the way it is….we get in the most trouble when we are alone?   

The result of Eve listening to the serpent and Adam listening to Eve causes a disturbance in the universe.  When it’s time for Adam to have his daily meeting with God, he is noticeably absent and avoiding contact.  Adam knows he has made a bad choice and doesn’t know how to deal with it, so he hides.  Once discovered, he does not confess and ask for forgiveness, he blames God for putting “this woman” in the garden and Eve consequently blames Satan.  Not much has changed.

Is the husband and wife gardening business ruined?  Should they file Chapter 13 bankruptcy?  Is there any hope?  Are there any contingency plans?  Didn’t God know this was going to happen?  Hey! See what happens when you delegate?(sarcasm)  

But there is a plan.  Genesis 3:14,15 "So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.  And I will put enmity
between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”  The first prophecy in Scripture.  The good news that God doesn’t wait for a confession to forgive us, but that He is going to provide a plan of salvation even though we didn’t ask for it. 

Now understand, God’s love doesn’t remove the consequences for our actions.  Eve would now bear children in pain and work would be difficult.  But, despite the original plan being disrupted, God still provides.  The fact that God initiates with love, care and concern separates Biblical Christianity from every other world religion.  

So, as I’m facing a time of waiting, unemployment or disappointment what principles can I take away from here:

1. Be in community.  Remember Eve messed up when Satan got her alone.  Find others in the same predicament.  Find those that can encourage you.
2. God’s immediate reaction was to forgive and offer a plan of salvation.  Therefore, we should forgive those who have hurt us.  
3. Avoid blame.  Accept the consequences of your actions.  
4. God is sovereign.  His control over the world, over our individual situations and His desire to do us good can give us confidence that our future is in good hands.

From the git-go God has designed us to work.  He delegates the care of the earth to us, allows us to make mistakes, but supplies the resources we need to be redeemed.  Facing life with the knowledge of how things have been designed enables us to successfully navigate the issues we face on a daily basis.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

Romans 5:6-8