Sin Effects, a Reflection on Genesis 3:8-15

In the period after Trinity Sunday, the lectionary offers two sets of Old Testament readings (and correspondingly, alternate psalms in response). Through the summer the first First Reading will be taken from the 1st and 2nd Samuel and 1st Kings. The other set of First Readings will each week be related thematically to the Gospel reading.

Mark tells of the disruptive effect that Jesus' accomplishments was having on the people in authority, and, consequently, on his family. The OT passage chosen as related to the reading from Mark tells what happened after Eve and then Adam disobeyed the only restriction that God had given them and the consequences of it.

God had told the man (the woman wasn't there yet) that he could eat what ever looked good to him with one exception, fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:7-9, 15-17).  But, the serpent enticed the woman to eat from that tree, assuring her that anyone who did would be like God, knowing good and evil. She ate and gave some fruit to her husband, too. What the serpent had told them turned out to be true--they knew the difference between good and evil. They immediately put some clothes on, sewed-together fig leaves (Genesis 3:1-7).

When they heard the Lord, they were afraid and tried to hide. The Lord God found them and asked the man why he had eaten from the one tree that he had been told not to. He blamed the woman. She blamed the serpent. The Lord God cursed the serpent.

God described what life out of Eden would be like, pain and toil and  disappointments and death. Before their departure, God made them some fur clothes (Genesis 3:8-22).

We've read more of the story so we know that even after being expelled from the garden, Adam and Eve and those that came after them were not expelled from the presence of God. Nor did the gifts of God stop at the borders of the garden. God continued, continues, to provide.

Something else hasn't changed. We still do just what we know that God doesn't want us to do. We still blame others for the decisions we make. We still get forgiveness.