25 lesson plans for children, young people and their teachers.
Lesson 3 Mankind rebels. Bible reference – Genesis 3:1-24. God had been very good, loving and kind to Adam and Eve. Yet the man and the woman He had created were not good to God! Genesis 3 tells us how they ignored God’s plan. God’s people chose to disobey God. Verse 1 begins with “the snake”. He was part of God’s creation, Genesis1:24. Later in the Bible he is said to be “the Devil”, Revelation 12:9. In the Bible he is always against God. He is always trying to get people to follow his own ways and not obey God. Sometime in between the creation and Genesis chapter 3, the Devil was an angel who led a rebel movement fighting against God. He wanted to be on the top throne, and to be like God himself (see Isaiah 14:12-15, 2 Peter 2:4, and Jude verse 6). Here, he tries to get people to follow him. In Genesis 3 there is a battle for the control of humankind. Adam and Eve were working the Garden of Eden, Genesis2:15. They lived as God told them to, by eating the fruit of the land, Genesis 2:16,17. Satan comes and questions what God has told Eve and Adam to do, verse 1. He also questions, in verses 4 and 5, why God would not allow them to eat from “the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad”, Genesis 2:15. That tree was one of two that God had planted in the middle of the garden.
Stop and discuss (1) In pairs, with each person finding one answer, 1. What two things do you think Satan is trying to make Adam and Eve do by eating the fruit God told them not to eat? 2. What two things do you think Satan is doing to God’s word, in verse 1, and in verses 4 and 5? Eve listened to Satan and chose to forget God’s rule. In chapter 3 verse 6 Eve also looked for a long time at the fruit she was not allowed to have. It looked really good! These two things were both in her mind. Yet her actions went against what she knew she should do. She ate the fruit God told her not to eat and she passed some of the fruit on to Adam, 3:6. We know the Devil wanted to be like God, Isaiah 14:14. Eve and Adam had the same strong feeling inside them. They were not willing to let God’s word be their guide, or to let God be God! They ‘sinned’ by following their own way. (‘Sin’ is any rebellion against God and His will). They removed God’s plan by putting their own idea into its place. Their lives were going to follow their own way, not God’s way.
Stop and discuss (2). Once Eve and Adam did not believe God’s word was true, the Devil found it easy to stop them living God’s way. When you were a young child, did you ever do something your parents (or your teacher) told you not to?
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When you were found out, what happened to you? In Genesis 3:7 Adam and Eve knew for sure that they had done wrong. They realised God’s word was true, see chapter 2 verses 16,17. The people became mortal, 6:3. They were not able to live forever. Their only feelings towards God were shame and sorrow. They tried to hide what they had done, but it was impossible.
Stop and discuss (3). In the same pairs you were in earlier, can you now find three ways Adam and Eve tried to cover up the wrong they had done? Look in Genesis 3:7-13. Genesis 3:14-24 teaches us that sin – going against God’s will – always brings bad results into the lives of people who do it. God said that Satan, the snake, would always crawl along the ground eating dust, verse 14. God said the woman would have more painful childbirth, verse 16. God said the man would have to work much harder to earn his living from the ground, verse 19. (Compare this with Genesis 1:11,12 and 2:8,9). This whole event is often known as ‘the Fall’. It is when humans fell away from being God’s friends. From this time men and women would be living in rebellion, against God and against His will. God sent Adam and Eve away from the beautiful Garden of Eden, chapter 3 verse 23. He set special guards to stop any way back, verse 24. All of this was part of God’s judgement. It was God’s solemn response to mankind’s disobedience. Not only had humans broken their friendship with God, but also all of creation was now broken. The world was no longer perfect. It would be very sad if the Bible story ended here. Happily it does not!
Stop and discuss (4) There are three clues we are given in these verses that give us reason to hope in God even though we are part of humankind that is under God’s judgement. Can you find all three of them? 1. Genesis 3:15 God promised an o of the w would crush the h of the s . 2. Genesis 3:21 God c Adam and Eve with a s (which means
blood was shed). 3. Genesis 3:24 God blocked the way to eating the fruit of the t that gives l ,
so that humanity would not live forever as ‘sinners’.
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Answers to Stop and discuss.
1. 1. - to disobey God
- to obey himself (Satan)
2. - to doubt God’s word
- to deny the truth of God’s word
2. I took my brother’s new watch, without him saying that I could. I wore it to school and showed it off as if it was mine!
My dad punished me with a beating. And, the next day at school all my friends knew what I had done and they laughed at me.
3. 1. they sewed leaves to try and cover themselves, Genesis 3 verse 7
2. they tried to hide from God among the trees, verse 8
3. they each blamed someone else for their own wrongdoing, verses 12,13.
4. 1. offspring - woman, - head - snake, 3:15
2. clothed - animal - skins
3. tree - life
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