Advent Meditations Week 1--Hope

December 1: Genesis 3:8-15

• Our sin is always followed by shame (conviction) but instead of owning and confessing it we often resort to blaming someone or something else. Have you blamed anyone or anything for your recent sins? 

• What hope for salvation do you see in this passage from Genesis? Compare Col. 2:13-15 & 1 John 3:8. Be cleansed of your sins today through confession (1 John 1:9).

Genesis 3:8-15English Standard Version (ESV)

8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool[a] of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”[b] 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

14 The Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,
    cursed are you above all livestock
    and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
    and dust you shall eat
    all the days of your life.
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring[c] and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
    and you shall bruise his heel.”