Intro: For our Advent season this year, I have chosen to enjoy the Jesse Tree by sharing a 24-day practice to prepare us for the celebration of Christ’s birth; the event we celebrate and honor at Christmas. From the root of Jesse’s stump, we will discover or rediscover the people in the family Tree of Jesus Messiah who were instrumental in bringing the presence of God near to us in order to revive the Spirit-led family of faith. With each day’s reading, we will add a new symbol—an ornament—to our family tree.
Today, is day two of our journey and our symbol is the fruit.
The garden was a perfect environment for humanity, because everything was operating in the harmony [shalom] of God. But, there was an imposter lurking within the garden; a spirit of evil that twisted the Word of God in order to tempt Adam and Eve to sin against divine authority. [From our lesson yesterday, we remember there are realities we can see, as well as realms of invisible realities that exist beyond our natural senses known only to God].
In God’s love he set a warning, but gave human beings a choice. In the visible, it seemed like it would be all right to eat the fruit and it looked delicious, but “What was it exactly God said, again?” Adam and Eve knew what God said, but they wanted what they thought they lacked to make them happy, so they chose to please their human flesh and exalt their desires rather than obey God.
Adam and Eve lost the divine and glorious oneness God provided in the garden, because they disobeyed Him when they ate the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. The first couple desired wisdom and Satan made the fruit looked tempting. Fruit can look good on the outside, but be rotten on the inside or provide a very bitter taste that lingers. We were created to eat spiritual fruit that feeds us eternal life. We cannot judge whether spiritual fruit is good or bad by human visual examination alone, because there is a great deal of evil lurking within certain decisions—evil that injures and destroys our oneness with God. Only God knows what is really going to be “good” for us, because He made us. We need God to teach us how to identify good spiritual fruit or we will fall for the rotten fruit Satan offers every time. Praise God for the work of the Holy Spirit!
So from the first Adam, we received a sin nature; something human beings never had when God formed us. Yet, in God’s goodness and in His appointed time, through the root of Jesse, we have a new Adam to follow—Jesus Messiah the sinless One who takes upon himself the sin nature of the world [the cross] and reconnects us in the righteous oneness of God. We must choose Jesus and follow Him as the Way to eternal life. He has been made Wisdom for us and He leads us to feast on righteous fruit. Our lives can once again sing in the harmonies of God by our obedience to receive Jesus. He is the only one who can heal and restore us when we lose our righteous way.
Genesis 2:15-17 NLT
15 The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. 16 But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden— 17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”
Genesis 3:1-6 NLT The Man and Woman Sin
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?”
2 “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. 3 “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”
4 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”
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.
Romans 5:12, 15, 19 NLT Adam and Christ Contrasted
12 When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.
15 But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ.
19 Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous.
1 Corinthians 15:22 NLT
22 Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for helping us understand the destruction hidden within the fruit of sin and disobedience. Help us to lean on your Word rather than on our own understanding. Heal and forgive us when we sin through selfish words or actions. Empower us to live godly lives in oneness with you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.