• Read Genesis 1-3

Consider the following questions:

• After the slow crawl through these chapters the past couple weeks, what pops out to you in today’s quick reading?

• Adam and Eve made a choice to take their lives into their own hands. Disbelieving that God had the best and wisest path for them, they took their own road. Where do you see, in your own life, you going your own way instead of God’s way?

Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal this to you.

• Read Genesis 3:21-24

Reflect on these questions today:

• The first animals are killed on earth to make garments for Adam and Eve. Why is this significant as you think about the rest of the Bible?

• How does this simple act demonstrate God’s incredible care for this couple?

• I sometimes forget that Eden was a garden amidst the rest of creation. So the couple gets banished from the beautiful garden that was their home. How is God loving them in this decision?

• Read Genesis 3:17-20

I find it curious that the woman readily admits, “the serpent deceived
me,” but Adam doesn’t even speak about the serpent. He blames the
woman.

• How could the man have loved the woman better during the time of tempting? What choices do you see that he had?

• Why do you think God says “because you listened to your wife?” Why was this a bad thing that he did?

• Adam is primarily cursed in his work, the tasks around him that he had been given by God. How do you see this worked out either in your own life, or those around you?

• What implications do you see for the relationship between Adam and Eve going forward with all that’s happened?

• Read Genesis 3:16

Reflect on the following:

• Eve’s curse is very relational in nature. How do you see this worked out today? In your own sphere?

I had it explained to me once that the word translated desire here is
the same word used later in Genesis when God is telling Cain to resist
the desire to kill his brother, Abel. There it says, “sin is crouching at
your door and it desires to control you.”

• Do you see a desire for control in yourself?

• God creates them “side-by-side,” using a piece of the man’s side to create the woman, and now it has become a competition. I grieve this in so many ways. How do you see this competition in play in our world today?

• Are there examples in your life of a godly “side-by-side” relationship and serving?

As is our rhythm, spend some time with the Father. Bring to him
the things that you can tend to doubt. Turn towards Him with your
questions, doubts, and fears.

• Read Genesis 3:14-15

Matthew Henry’s commentary says regarding verse 15:

God passes sentence; and he begins where the sin began, with
the serpent. The devil’s instruments must share in the devil’s
punishments. Under the cover of the serpent, the devil is
sentenced to be degraded and accursed of God; detested and
abhorred of all mankind: also to be destroyed and ruined at last
by the great Redeemer, signified by the breaking of his head. War
is proclaimed between the Seed of the woman and the seed of
the serpent…A gracious promise is here made of Christ, as the
Deliverer of fallen man from the power of Satan. Here was the
dawn of the gospel day: no sooner was the wound given, than the
remedy was provided and revealed. This gracious revelation of a
Saviour came unasked, and unlooked for.

• What does it tell you about God’s character that He judges the deceit of the serpent?

• What does it tell you about Him that He alludes to a future deliverer who would crush the serpent?

• Read Genesis 3:11-13

Reflect and consider these questions as you go about your day today:

• How do the man and the woman respond when confronted with their sin?

• Who knows you well enough to see the sin in your life? Have you given them permission to confront you?

• When you are confronted by a friend about some sin in your own life, how do you generally respond?