[Intro: It\u2019s a fine day today, so Bible study is happening outdoors.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iino: <\/strong>Spike!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n G\u014d:<\/strong> Let\u2019s play soccer, not volleyball!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Doc:<\/strong> Hey guys, why don\u2019t we make a start?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Iino:<\/strong> What about war?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Iino:<\/strong> All I see on TV these days is heart-wrenching news like that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yoshiya:<\/strong> You\u2019re right, but even if it doesn\u2019t escalate that far, I reckon the problem starts in people\u2019s hearts. The hostility and hatred people have for one another; even in our own families, wherever you look there is strife. <\/p>\n\n\n\n G\u014d:<\/strong> What about natural disasters? It feels like lately they\u2019ve been particularly devastating. It\u2019s a big issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Iino: <\/strong>Crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n G\u014d:<\/strong> I thought you might say that!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Iino:<\/strong> What do you mean? What\u2019s wrong with my answer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yoshiya: <\/strong>\u201cSin\u201d (tsumi<\/em>) in the Bible is actually different from committing a crime. Right, Doc?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Doc: <\/strong>Yes. Today, let\u2019s take a look at what the Bible has to say about sin. Last time we saw that God created human beings as his \u201cimage\u201d. As the \u201cimage\u201d of God, humanity was made to reflect God\u2019s glory, to represent God to the world, and to relate to God in the \u201cvery good\u201d uchi<\/em> fellowship established between God and human beings in paradise. God blessed the man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, with every good gift and in return they were to love, serve, and worship God in joyful obedience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But in the garden of Eden, there was one thing prohibited. Iino, could you read the next passage for us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, \u201cYou may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.\u201d <\/p>\nOld Testament, Genesis 2:16-17<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Iino: <\/strong>Isn\u2019t this a bit of a trifling command though? It\u2019s not on the same level as \u201cdon\u2019t steal\u201d or \u201cdon\u2019t lie\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Doc: <\/strong>Haha! \u201cTrifling\u201d; that\u2019s an interesting comment! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Doc: <\/strong>But yes, it\u2019s not a particularly \u201cmoral\u201d command, is it? Even so, what do you think is the reason that God gave this command?<\/p>\n\n\n\n G\u014d:<\/strong> Was it to test them? At the beginning in the garden of Eden humans had total freedom. God said to them, \u201cYou may surely eat of every tree of the garden.\u201d But this freedom they enjoyed in the garden was paradise under God\u2019s rule and in obedience to him. So, didn\u2019t God give this command to test them, to see if they would really obey him or not?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yoshiya: <\/strong>Right. It makes sense that the Creator is the master and the created people are his servants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yoshiya: <\/strong>The Creator is superior to his creation by definition. I think the command was given to make that clear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Doc: <\/strong>Excellent ideas! Thanks for sharing them. We can see that humanity was created male and female. They were created not only to enjoy fellowship with God, but were also created to enjoy relationships with one another as man and woman, and God gave them authority over the rest of the creation. They were commissioned to extend God\u2019s uchi<\/em> fellowship-circle out from the garden to the ends of the earth. Nothing and no-one was to be left outside (soto<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yoshiya:<\/strong> Yeah, but last time, we talked about how something went wrong somewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Doc:<\/strong> You\u2019re exactly right. Actually, Genesis chapter 3 is where everything changes. Here, it seems that one of God\u2019s creatures has already turned his back on uchi<\/em> fellowship with God, and has made himself an outlaw or outsider. In outright rebellion against God, he comes in the form of a serpent to tempt God\u2019s image-bearers to follow him outside\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s read what the Bible has to say. G\u014d, would you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, \u201cDid God actually say, \u2018You shall not eat of any tree in the garden\u2019?\u201d And the woman said to the serpent, \u201cWe may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, \u2018You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.\u2019 \u201d But the serpent said to the woman, \u201cYou will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.\u201d So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.<\/p>\nOld Testament, Genesis 3:1-6<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Iino: <\/strong>Because the serpent tempted her to. Until this point, she may have never even noticed the tree, but after listening to the serpent, she notices the tree, and it looks absolutely delicious. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yoshiya:<\/strong> It used God\u2019s words to ask, \u201cDid God actually say, \u2018You shall not eat of any tree in the garden\u2019\u201d? I think the serpent knew exactly what God had commanded, but it deliberately made God out to seem like a stingy character. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Iino:<\/strong> I think Eve\u2019s answer to the serpent was interesting. She answered, \u201cYou shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it\u201d, but actually, \u201cyou must not touch it\u201d was not in God\u2019s command, was it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n G\u014d: <\/strong>Yeah, and the two phrases, \u201clest you die\u201d and \u201cin the day that you eat of it you shall surely die\u201d are different as well, aren\u2019t they? The way Eve tells it, it sounds like the reason for not eating the fruit is to avoid having to die. The way I read it, God just commands them not to eat and tells them the consequence of disobedience, rather than the reason<\/em> not to eat the fruit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yoshiya: <\/strong>Yeah, I agree with you, but I guess we kind of do the same thing as Eve did? For example, we\u2019ve all heard people warn us, \u201cDon\u2019t be loud on the train: it\u2019s a nuisance.\u201d But we tend to hear this kind of warning as, \u201cIf you make yourself a nuisance on the train, someone\u2019s going to get mad at you.\u201d Just like God\u2019s command: it was originally a \u201cno-no\u201d just because God said so, but Eve re-interpreted it as a reason<\/em> for her not to eat: \u201cIf I eat this fruit, I\u2019m going to die, and I don\u2019t want that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Iino: <\/strong>Interesting. I can see what you\u2019re saying. I think another one of the serpent\u2019s tactics was to deny God\u2019s word outright: \u201cYou will not surely die.\u201d So, especially when Eve is thinking, \u201cI don\u2019t want to die, so I won\u2019t touch the fruit,\u201d the serpent takes away her only real reason for being obedient. Because if she\u2019s not going to die when she eats the fruit, there\u2019s no reason to obey the command any more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n G\u014d: <\/strong>And maybe she starts to think that the reason God told her not to eat the fruit was because it wasn\u2019t in God\u2019s <\/em>interests for her to become like him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Iino: <\/strong>I wonder if talking to the woman rather than the man was another one of the serpent\u2019s tactics?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Doc: <\/strong>I think so. <\/p>\n\n\n\n G\u014d: <\/strong>Well in verse 6 it says, \u201cher husband who was with her.\u201d So, he must have been there the whole time. Was he just standing there doing nothing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yoshiya: <\/strong>When the serpent came close, he should have chased it away!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Iino: <\/strong>He should have gone running to God saying, \u201cEmergency! Come and help!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n G\u014d: <\/strong>He should have killed the serpent!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Doc: <\/strong>You\u2019re all right! If Adam had done any one of those things, we would have a different story, wouldn\u2019t we? But unfortunately, he didn\u2019t do anything. In fact, he took the fruit that she offered, and they ate it together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n G\u014d:<\/strong> Sin is doing what God has said not to do. It\u2019s a rebellion against him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Iino: <\/strong>I see. So, even if you never committed a crime according to the law, you could still be sinning every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Doc:<\/strong> Exactly. And what I want you to notice is that sin is more of a heart problem than about individual acts. What do you think was happening in Eve\u2019s heart before she took the fruit from the tree and ate it? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yoshiya:<\/strong> Well first, she was doubting God, wasn\u2019t she? She thought about what God had said, about what the serpent had said, about which was right, and ultimately, she chose to obey the serpent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Doc: <\/strong>Exactly. Because that\u2019s what was in Eve\u2019s heart, she took the fruit from the tree and ate it. And because Adam, who was by her side, took the fruit and ate it as well, we can assume that his heart was in the same place as hers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In response to the sin of Adam and Eve, God punishes them and their descendants. As part of that punishment, they are sent or driven outside (soto<\/em>) the garden paradise. Let\u2019s look at this passage in the Bible. Yoshiya, may I ask you to read?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then the Lord God said, \u201cBehold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever\u2014\u201d therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.<\/p>\nOld Testament, Genesis 3:22-24<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Doc: <\/strong>The cherubim mentioned here are heavenly messengers or angels. But let\u2019s take a second to think about what it means to know good and evil. What do you think that refers to?<\/p>\n\n\n\n G\u014d: <\/strong>Well, I don\u2019t think it means that Adam and Eve didn\u2019t even know what good and evil were before they ate the fruit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yoshiya:<\/strong> Yeah \u2013 I think they could surely tell right from wrong. They must have known that it was evil to do what God had forbidden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Iino:<\/strong> Okay, then what does it mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Doc:<\/strong> To \u201cknow good and evil\u201d in this sense is a bit like what a judge does. For a judge to make a ruling, they have to know or decide what is right and what is wrong. So, on a global level, who is able to make judgments like that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Iino:<\/strong> God! I see. So, when Adam and Eve tried to \u201cknow good and evil\u201d, they really wanted to be like God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yoshiya: <\/strong>It says, \u201clest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n G\u014d: <\/strong>Because God didn\u2019t want humans who make their own judgments about good and evil to live forever. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Doc:<\/strong> The tree of life represents eternal life, God\u2019s good uchi<\/em> fellowship. In rebellion against God, forever making their own judgments about what is good and what is evil, human beings would be miserable. That wasn\u2019t God\u2019s intention for his creatures. So here we see his kindness in not allowing them to eat of the tree of life and live forever in this miserable state. God had a different plan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n G\u014d: <\/strong>Now, the man needs to \u201cwork the ground\u201d just in order to live. But isn\u2019t this also what humans were doing in the garden?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yoshiya: <\/strong>True, but in Eden, they were laboring in paradise and in perfect conditions. Outside of Eden, now human work is a struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Doc: <\/strong>Right. Let\u2019s think again about how the Bible depicts sin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Iino: <\/strong>It makes sense to me. When we first talked about sin earlier, I said that war is the world\u2019s biggest problem. But as I\u2019ve thought about it more during our conversation, maybe the deeper problem is that everyone thinks they are right, and everyone decides for themselves what is good and evil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n G\u014d: <\/strong>I bet he\u2019s sad about it. I mean, the humans he created \u201cvery good\u201d and blessed so much turned against him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yoshiya: <\/strong>Yeah, and I think he\u2019s saddened by my sin too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Doc: <\/strong>Well, today, let\u2019s end by reading a Bible passage from the Old Testament. In the latter half of the Old Testament, in Isaiah 51:3 (8th century B.C.), it says, <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor the Lord comforts Zion [a poetic name for the city of Jerusalem]; Doc:<\/strong> This suggests that there may be a way back to paradise after all. We\u2019ll consider that possibility next time!<\/p>\n\n\n\nAccording to the Bible, the world God created was \u201cvery good\u201d, but that seems true no longer. What would you say are the biggest problems in our world today?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nWhat comes to mind when you hear the word \u201csin\u201d (tsumi<\/em>)?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Why do you think God gave this command to Adam?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Why did the woman eat the fruit?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nWhat tactics did the serpent use to persuade her to eat it?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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\n\n\n\nWhat was the man doing while the serpent spoke with the woman?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What should he have done?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nGenesis chapter 3 does not contain the word \u201csin\u201d. But it is clearly a story about sin. What do we learn about the Bible\u2019s understanding of \u201csin\u201d from this story?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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\n\n\n\nWhy do you think God sent\/drove the man (and woman) out of the garden?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nHow is life different for the man and woman outside (soto<\/em>) the garden?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Is \u201csin\u201d according to the Bible something you are familiar with personally? What about sin\u2019s effects on your life and the lives of others around you?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nHow do you think God feels about human sin? And about your sin in particular?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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he comforts all her waste places
and makes her wilderness like Eden,
her desert like the garden of the Lord;
joy and gladness will be found in her,
thanksgiving and the voice of song.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nThe ESV Bible<\/em>. Crossway, 2001, www.esv.org\/.<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"class_list":["post-17036","manga","type-manga","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myuchisoto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/manga\/17036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myuchisoto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/manga"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myuchisoto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/manga"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myuchisoto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}