This lesson is compatible with the "Creation, Adam, and Cain" Flash-A-Cards from Abeka Books.  

Scripture References: Genesis 4:1-7

“Quick!  Eve we have to hide!” said Adam.  “We need to hide before He gets here!”  Adam and Eve were scared of God for the first time since they’d existed.  They used to wait excitedly for God each evening when He came to the garden to walk with them.  They loved being around God.  It was the absolute best part of their day.  Now they were cowering in some bushes, hoping God wouldn’t notice what they had just done.

If you remember from last week, the serpent spoke to Eve and told her that God didn’t want her to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil so that He could have all the knowledge.  “God doesn’t want anyone to be as smart as He is” said the serpent.  Who was really speaking?  Satan!  He was using the serpent to put doubts in Eve’s mind.  Eve took a bite of the fruit and gave it to Adam because she didn’t die right away after eating it.  Adam also made a choice to eat the fruit.  Was that a good choice or a bad choice?  Why? (God told them not to.)  God knew something would happen to Adam and Eve that would make them suffer.  And they would die. 

Adam and Eve didn’t die right away, physically.  Neither one of them died and had to be buried for many years.  In fact, Adam lived for 930 years before he died and was buried!  But Adam and Eve suffered a different kind of death.  Death in the Bible means “separation”.  When we die physically, our souls are separated from our bodies.  But when Adam and Eve ate the fruit they died spiritually.  That means they could no longer be with God like they used to.  They would never enjoy God’s presence without fear and shame again, until they got to heaven. Their souls were no longer without sin.  And sin is what separates us all from God. 

So, Adam and Eve went to the trees and bushes and began to take leaves and put them in a pile.  “We have to make something to cover our bodies!  We are naked.  We can’t let God see us like this” said Adam.  God had created Adam and Eve without clothes, because there was no sin, and they didn’t need to feel ashamed of their nakedness.  But now, sin made them realize they needed to be covered before God.  They weren’t just trying to cover their nakedness.  They were trying to cover their shame.  They took the leaves and sewed them together to make aprons to wear.  Then, they heard God coming into the garden.

“Quick!  Hide!” said Eve.  So, they hid among the bushes.

God knew exactly where they were, and what had happened.  But God said “Adam, where are you?”

Adam felt so scared he could barely breathe, but he knew he must answer God.  “I am hiding because I heard you coming in the garden, and I knew I was naked.”

God asked “Who told you that you were naked?  Have you eaten of the tree that I commanded you not to eat?”

“Eve, who you made, gave me the fruit and I ate it.”  Adam was trying to blame Eve, and he even tried to blame God!  He reminded God that He had made Eve to be his companion, and that, since she “made him eat”, God was partly to blame!  Was God in any way to blame for Adam’s sin?  NO WAY!  Adam knew the commandment, and he chose to break it.  Our sins are our choice.

God then asked Eve “What have you done?”  “The snake tricked me! So, I ate the fruit.”

Eve was now trying to blame the snake for her sin.  But really, Eve was the one who made the choice to eat the fruit.  She and Adam both knew the commandment.  But they felt guilty and didn’t like this new feeling.  It wasn’t a good feeling.  They thought if they blamed someone else the guilt would go away.  Did the guilt go away?  No!  Of course not.  Should we blame others when we sin?  “My brother was SOOOO annoying!  So, he made me hit him!” we might say to our parents.  But really, it is our own choice how we act towards our brother.  Even when he is being annoying.  The Bible says we are to love everyone else more than ourselves.  Even if they are annoying!

God looked at Adam, Eve, and the snake.  He was very sad.  He must have felt heartbroken.  Adam and Eve broke His one commandment, and things were going to change between them.

Sin always separates us from God.  It always comes in the way with good fellowship with Him. 

God began with the snake.  “Because you have done this, you will be cursed above all animals.  You will crawl on your belly, and you will eat dust all the days of your life.”  God was speaking to the animal because it was used by Satan.  “I will put hatred between you and the woman, and between all your descendants and her descendants.  Man will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”  Now God was speaking to Satan.  God was making a promise to Satan.  One day, a man was going to conquer Satan and his power, and Satan would hurt the man…for a time.  Do you know who the man was?  Jesus!  Jesus would be hurt by Satan, when He died on the cross for our sins.  But Jesus would conquer Satan by paying the price for our sins.  From the very beginning, God promised that Jesus would come to die for us!  Isn’t that wonderful?!

To Eve God said “You listened to the snake and broke my commandment.  Now, you will give birth to children with much pain.  You will want to be the leader of the house, but your husband will be the leader.”

To Adam, God said “Because you listened to your wife and broke my commandment, you will have to work very hard to eat, and provide food for your family.  The ground will be cursed, and will grow weeds and thorns, and you will sweat from all the hard work trying to plant fruits and vegetables.

Then, God sent Adam and Eve out of the perfect garden of Eden.  This was part of their separation from God.  God placed angels called cherubim outside of the garden to make sure no man or woman ever entered there again.  He also made a sword made of flames to stand guard as well.  This also symbolized the spiritual death of Adam and Eve.  They could no longer physically walk with God.  They had to go to God the way HE told them to.  Not the way they wanted to.  Just like today…we must go to God through Jesus.

And because Adam and Eve sinned, we were all born into sin.  We are all born with souls that are separated from God.

God did one more thing for Adam and Eve.  He killed an animal (the first physical death on earth) and made clothes from the animal skins.  I’m sure they watched as God did this.  They saw that sin is a very serious thing with God.  It always takes blood to cover sins.

That means we can’t enter into heaven as we are…with our sins uncovered.  We can’t do good works to become clean and go to heaven.  That is why Jesus, God the Son, came to earth as a baby sever thousand years after He created Adam and Eve.  God does not want to be separated from us.  So, Jesus came to die on the cross to pay for our sins.  We could never pay for our sins.  We couldn’t even pay for just the bad thoughts we have!  Jesus took the body of a human, so He could be God and man at the same time.  That way He would live a life never sinning.  Then, He could shed His perfect blood for our imperfect lives.  He can wash our sins away and make us like new.  Jesus can cover our guilt before God.  When we accept Jesus as God the Son who died on the cross, God makes our souls alive!  No more separation from Him.  We can go straight to Him in prayer to talk, and we can understand His Word with the help of the Holy Spirit!

Let’s pray right now and thank God for His promise to send Jesus from the beginning.  Let’s thank God that Jesus can cover our sins if we accept Him.