The Amish Voice 4
God told Adam that he could eat from EVERY
tree in the garden except ONE.
Genesis 2:16-17
And the LORD God commanded the
man, saying, of every tree of the garden
thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil, thou
shalt not eat of it…
Did God make Himself clear enough? Most
certainly He did, because later on he in-
formed Eve about it too.
However, we are told in Genesis 3:1 that the
devil came along in the form of a serpent
and had a meetng with Adam’s wife, Eve.
Now the serpent was more subtl than
any beast of the feld which the LORD
God had made. And he said unto the
woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall
not eat of every tree of the garden?
And just like Eve, when the Devil comes
along to tempt us, we sort of hang around
and chit chat with him. We tell ourself,
“surely I am strong enough to handle any-
thing that comes my way!”
May I remind you that the Bible is clear
about trustng in your own heart. Proverbs
28:26 says, “
He that trusteth in his own heart
is a fool…”
But none-the-less, Eve hung around and car-
ried on a conversaton with the Devil.
In the next two verses, Eve is going to tell
the Devil that she and Adam are allowed to
eat from ALL the trees in the garden EXCEPT
the
ONE
which is in the middle of the gar-
den. Let’s listen in on their meetng.
Genesis 3:2-3
And the woman said unto the serpent,
We may eat of the fruit of *all+ the trees
of the garden: But of the fruit of the
tree which is in the midst of the garden,
God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it,
neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
Before we go further in our story, let's take a
good look at what may have been taking
place at this very moment in the garden.
1. It appears that Eve may NOT have been
at Adam’s side and was alone when the
Devil approached her.
2. Another thing that seems quite clear is
that Eve was standing next to the forbid-
den fruit and may have been wondering
how tasty and pleasant looking the fruit
was.
Isn’t it interestng how Satan always knows
exactly when to come along and tempt us;
he knows just when to catch us of guard.
1. It happens at a tme when we are walk-
ing outside God’s protecton.
2. It happens when we are at our weakest
point spiritually.
3. It happens right when we are standing
under our own tree of forbidden fruit.
No one knows just how much tme went by
afer the Devil and Eve had their meetng. It
could have been days and it could have been
years. But one thing we do know, Eve most
not have been able to get the
ONE TREE
out
of her mind.
Again and again, she walked past the forbid-
den fruit, and each tme she wondered to
herself, “oh, if only I could have one bite?”
She may have had thoughts like, “surely one
bite is NOT as bad as eatng the whole fruit.”
The Bible tells us that the day fnally came
and Eve just could NOT hold back another
minute.
Genesis 3:6
And when the woman saw that the tree was
good for food, and that it was pleasant to
the eyes, and a
tree to be de-
sired to make
one wise, she
took of the
fruit thereof,
and did eat,
and gave also
unto her hus-
band with her;
and he did eat.
Again, I would like to make a point that was
already made several tmes before in this
artcle. When Eve and Adam fnally took of
the forbidden fruit, they brought unbelieva-
ble disaster to billions and billions of inno-
cent lives.
If only Eve could have kept her eyes and
mind of of the
ONE THING
she was not al-
lowed to have, then…
1. Broken lives, diseases, sorrow, pain and
death would never have had to happen.
2. Murder, hate, cursing God, lying,
cheatng, homosexuality and sexual
abuse would never have had to happen.
3. Jesus would not have had to come and
die on the cross to redeem God’s crea-
ton back to Him.
4. The pain of child bearing, sweat, thistles
and weeds would never have been a
problem.
5. Millions would not have had to go into
eternity and spend forever in the Lake
of Fire, separated from God for all eter-
nity.
And oh so many other terrible and evil things
would never have been, IF ONLY Adam and
Eve would have stayed away from the tree.
The Bible says in Romans 5:12,
Where-
fore, as by one man, sin entered into
the world, and death by sin; and so
death passed upon all men, for that all
have sinned:
Yes! Just
ONE
person opened the food door
for sin to com into this world. But regardless
of how terrible the story sounds, there is
hope.
The Bible also says that because of
ONE
per-
son, Jesus Christ, we can now also be saved
from our sin and from being cast into the
everlastng lake of fre.
Romans 5:18-19
Therefore as by the ofence of
ONE
judgment came upon all men to con-
demnaton; even so by the righteous-
ness of
ONE
, the free gif came upon all
men unto justfcaton of life.
For as by
ONE
man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the
obedience of
ONE
shall many be made
righteous.
And dear reader, just like the Scripture
points out, only Jesus can get us back on
track and make us right with God. Nothing
else can make us right.