I. Eve falls for deception – Genesis 3
II. Adam followed Eve’s proposal – Genesis 3
III. Abram proposes his wife to lie– Genesis 12
IV. Abram followed Sarai’s proposal – slept with servant – Genesis 16
V. A daughter proposes to get father drunk to sleep with him – Genesis 19
The first two examples of the catastrophic
consequences of following others before even praying about it can change the
world upside down in a blink of an eye with eternally repercussions. These
became the foundation of the fall of mankind.
I. First, naïve Eve… how did she even engage in a conversation with a snake? But she did! And that shrew snake hit the target and didn’t miss, for naïve Eve, fell for it!
Genesis 3:1 “The
serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked
the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the
trees in the garden?”
The consequences? Pain!
Genesis 3:16"Then he said to the woman, “I will sharpen the
pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you
will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will
rule over you.[c]”II. Second, naïve Eve, shares the forbidden fruit with her beloved Adam and he accepts! This is what broke the communion humanity had with its Creator. Adam bluntly disobeyed what God already had warned Him about, and followed his wife over God. From then and on, we all are born with that desire to follow the wrong.
Genesis 3:6 “6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit
looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. THEN she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.”
The Consequences? Pain!
Genesis 3:17 “And to
the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose
fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a
living from it. 18 It will grow thorns and thistles for you,
though you will eat of its grains. 19 By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you
return to the ground from which you were made…”
III.
Abram, a man of God, who leaded by the fear of
what godless people could to do him, proposes to Sarai, his wife to lie.
Genesis 12:11 “As he was approaching the border of Egypt,
Abram said to his wife, Sarai,
“Look, you are a very beautiful woman. 12 When the Egyptians see you, they will
say, ‘This is his wife. Let’s kill him; then we can have her!’ 13 So please tell them you are my
sister. Then they will spare my life and treat me well because of
their interest in you.”
The consequences? Pain!!!
Genesis
12:14 “And sure enough, when Abram
arrived in Egypt, everyone noticed Sarai’s beauty. 15
When the palace officials saw her, they sang her praises to Pharaoh,
their king, and Sarai was taken into his palace. 16 Then Pharaoh gave Abram many gifts
because of her—sheep, goats, cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female
servants, and camels. 17 But the Lord sent terrible plagues
upon Pharaoh and his household because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.
IV. Sarai knew the challenge of having kids had been ordained by God, but she try to get it on her own, and because her husband Abram whom God had promise to give him an heir but still at eighty plus years of age it hadn’t happened, therefore he saw this as an opportunity “to help the Lord”. Abram hears his wife fears, and without seeking the Lord’s advice, accepts her proposition.
Genesis 16:1 “Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not been able to bear children for him. But she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, “The Lord has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.” And Abram agreed with Sarai’s proposal. 3 So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian servant and gave her to Abram as a wife.”
The consequences? Marked for life!
Genesis 16: 4 “So
Abram had sexual relations with Hagar, and she became pregnant. But when Hagar
knew she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress, Sarai, with contempt.
5 Then Sarai said to Abram,
“This is all your fault! I put my servant into your arms, but now that she’s
pregnant she treats me with contempt. ….11 And the angel also
said, “You are now pregnant and will give birth to a son. You are to name him
Ishmael (which means ‘God hears’), for the Lord has heard
your cry of distress. 12
This son of yours will be a wild
man, as untamed as a wild
donkey! He will raise his fist
against everyone, and everyone will
be against him. Yes, he will live in
open hostility against all his relatives.”… 15 So Hagar gave Abram a son, and
Abram named him Ishmael. 16
Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born.”
This is a very
strong prophecy to any mother about her child. Still I’m not sure she fully
realized what The Lord was saying, since we do not see she questions God about
it. What I do see is the battle between her and Abram’s wife, Sarai which started
not long after Sarai knew her maidservant was expecting a child from Abram. From here and on, we can see this battle gets
deeper as eventually Sarai gets pregnant; the children of these two women all
over the Old Testament battle for a place. See end note.
V. So with an apparent “good” reason, to preserve the family line, they sink in a terrible mistake. Really?! What a terrible thing! This is exactly why we can’t allow desperation to lead us, because the results will be devastating! There’s no good in allowing circumstances to dictate the way we ought to act! The enemy who came to rob, kill and destroy[1] isn’t joking!!!
Genesis 19:30-38 “Lot left Zoar because he was afraid of the people there, and he went to live in a cave in the mountains with his two daughters. 31 One day the older daughter said to her sister, “There are no men left anywhere in this entire area, so we can’t get married like everyone else. And our father will soon be too old to have children. 32 Come, let’s get him drunk with wine, and THEN we will have sex with him. That way we will preserve our family line through our father.”
The consequences? Marked for life!
Genesis 19:36 “As a result, both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their own father. 37 When the older daughter gave birth to a son, she named him Moab.[b] He became the ancestor of the nation now known as the Moabites. 38 When the younger daughter gave birth to a son, she named him Ben-ammi.[c] He became the ancestor of the nation now known as the Ammonites."
These two groups have been recorded all over The Bible as the caused for pain and trouble. To read more about the Moabites[2] or the Ammonites[3] history follow the link at the footnote.
Personal note:
In my research for the answer of what happened to Ishmael and how he turned out to be, for the prophesies about him were very strong, “a wild man”, “untamed”, “hostile” against even his own; I found a ton of sources some agree and some disagree in two major controversial points. According to The Religion Research institute one of these points is that “Muslims believe that Mohammed is a descendant of Ishmael”[4]. Another interesting point from another source found says that some Arabs are the descendants of Ishmael[5]. Therefore this is another deep study that I can probably go into further research in the future; as for now, I cannot confirm or denied these points until further investigation.
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