THE BEGINNING ADAM AND EVE This is the second session in our series called The Beginning. So last week we looked at how the world was created. This week we are moving onto looking at the first humans, Adam and Eve. We also see the decisions that they have to face. There are two key passages that we are going to be looking at today. The first one is Genesis 2 : 15 25. Here we see God giving humankind responsibility over all of the Earth and all of the animals that God had made. We see that God gives Adam a few simple instructions: - Look after my garden. - Eat any of the plants you want, except for the two tree in the middle of the garden. - Name my animals. We see here that God had given Adam a purpose, and responsibility. He taken care of Adam s immediate needs, by giving him an abundance of food. He also had taken care of his emotional needs, by giving him a companion Eve to be his wife, a wife who had been formed out of his And finally, God had given Adam and Eve the freedom to make their own decisions, and clear boundaries on how they should live their lives. IF YOU WERE ADAM So we are going to play a little game. If you were Adam and had free reign to name the animals anything that you like what would you name them. In small groups come up with your own names for these animals and we will see how they compare to the real ones. Split the group into about three groups for this activity. IN BOX RESOURCE The actual names are shown on the left. Animal naming cards
THE GIFT OF CHOICE As we saw in the passage earlier essentially God gave Adam and Eve freedom to live a comfortable life within the beautiful paradise that was the Garden of Eden. They were free to eat pretty much anything they liked from the abundance of plants throughout the garden. However, as we saw there was one exception. The only thing which was off limits in the whole of creation, were two trees in the middle of the garden. One was called the Tree of Live, the other called the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. You might think that it is a bit strange for God to have planted this tree, especially in such a prominent place if he did not want them to eat it. However this tree was much more significant than just the fruit that grew on it. These trees gave Adam and Eve the ability to choose to follow God s instructions or to go against them. You could then argue that because of this these trees were the most important plants in the garden. Sometimes these choices can be difficult, even with the simplest of things. We are now going to watch a video which illustrates this quite nicely. A bunch of children were given the choice of either eating 1 marshmallow now, or leaving it alone and getting two once the experimenter returned to the room. Show this video which will be available for you on the ipad. IN BOX RESOURCE Making choices video on ipad ( bit.ly/2i5x6vz ) You might think that the decision would be easy just wait a little while and get twice as many marshmallows as having it now. But as you can see many of the children featured in the movie struggled with the temptation of having the marshmallow right now. It was a similar situation for Eve as we can see in our second passage which is Genesis 3 : 1 13. Here we see Eve being tricked into thinking that going against God s instruction would be better for her. She convinced herself that gaining knowledge about right and wrong would be a good thing. But this wasn t the full story she and Adam did gain more knowledge but this did not bring happiness because her actions were not part of Gods plan for them.
KEY IDEA The ability to choose between right and wrong is a gift from God. However it is up to us to use this gift wisely and not allow ourselves to be misled. THAT DOESN T SOUND TOO BAD As we can see in this passage the devil, shown in this passage in the form of a serpent is clever. He knew that he would need to present breaking God s rules in a way which didn t seem that bad. Presenting an argument that would make Eve think After all who wouldn t want to get more knowledge that must be a good thing for me so it must be ok God will understand These distortions of the truth can influence our decisions and cause us to move away from what God wants for us. Can you think of any times where like Eve you have had to make a decision between what you know God wants you to do and something else which seemed better? Encourage the youth to share examples of situations where they have had to make a decisions like this. Then have a discussion on how we can make sure that we make Godly decision. Good examples might be: - To pray about the situation. - To talk to Christian friends and family that you trust about it. - Read what the Bible has to say about it.
ACTIONS HAVE CONCEQUENCES We are going to play a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors with the person sitting next to you. The idea is to pick one of the following moves to beat your opponent in a best of three. Each round both players make their move at the same time. The possible moves are: - Rock (clenched fist) which beats scissors, but loses to paper. - Paper (open palm) which beats rock, but loses to scissors. - Scissors (two open fingers) which beats paper, but loses to rock. Just like in the game I am sure you know that all of our actions have a consequence. Once you have made a decision of the move you are going to make there is no going back. You can t decide that you are no longer going to be rock when you see that your opponent has paper, that simply isn t how the game works. The same was true for Eve and Adam after they chose to disobey God and eat the fruit that God had forbidden them to eat. We see in Genesis 3 : 14 19 that the consequence of their actions is that for the first time they feel shame and embarrassment. The newfound knowledge they wanted has caused them to realise that they were naked, and for the first time they were not comfortable living as they were. They were also kicked out of the paradise that was the garden of Eden. From then on they would have to work hard for the food they ate, rather than simply eat the food which was already sitting there waiting for them. KEY IDEA There are always consequences to our actions, both good and bad. However no matter what happens we can always turn to Jesus for forgiveness.
GOD BRINGS FORGIVENESS Fortunately this action was not the end of the road for Adam and Eve, or for us. When God found out about their actions he could of decided to send down a bolt of lightning and just finish them off there and then, or simply kicked them out completely naked to fend for themselves. However this isn t what God did in Genesis 3 verse 21 it says the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. Showing that even when they made mistakes he was willing to be gracious and forgiving towards them. Providing them with what they would need to make a new start moving forwards. Can you think of any parallels between this and what Jesus has done for us? Encourage the youth to discuss the parallels that we could see between this part of the passage and Jesus s death on the cross. Some key things to try and highlight are: - God is providing a way to make a new start, though providing clothes save their embarrassment, and though Jesus taking the punishment for our bad decisions. - There is death involved in both cases, both through the animals needed to make the clothes made out of skin, and the death of Jesus on the cross. - In both cases God is freely giving these gifts, they were not earned. CLOSING PRAYER Encourage the group to pray for: - Thanking God for giving us freedom to make decisions. - Asking him to give us wisdom to make the right choices. - Asking him for forgiveness for our mistakes in the past and thinking him for making these right though Jesus. If the situation seems appropriate you might want to break off into smaller groups for prayer.