DAY 17: THE RICHES OF GOD’S MERCY IN THE OLD TESTAMENT I- ADAM

 THE RHEMA WORD FOR TODAY

(A DAILY DEVOTIONAL WITH PREACHER SAM)

 

TOPIC: THE RICHES OF GOD’S MERCY IN THE OLD TESTAMENT I- ADAM

DATE: 17 SEPTEMBER, 2021

BIBLE READING: GENESIS 3: 1-24

VERSE FOR MEDITATION: GENESIS 3:21 NIV

The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

 

Apostle Paul when writing to the church in Ephesus explains that the reason why God is rich in mercy is because of His great love with which He loved us (Eph. 2:4, 5). So how great His love is explains how rich His mercy is.

And Apostle Paul still explained that the love of Christ is beyond measures and passes knowledge (Eph. 3:16-19). Therefore, the riches of God’s mercies is beyond what we can fully understand. In the next few days, we will be looking at some people from both the Old and New Testaments that experienced the riches of God’s mercies.

Adam, our first case study, was the first person to benefit from the riches of God’s mercies. After the fall of man, Adam and his wife, Eve, hid themselves from the presence of the Lord. First, that is what sin does to us, it makes us unrighteous before God. God does not hide Himself from us when we sin, but it is our sin that hides us from Him (Isa. 59:1-2).

In that their sinful state, God still needed fellowship with man, that’s the reason why He called out to Adam, “Where are you/” Now understand the Sovereignty of God as Omnipresence. That question was not an enquiring question, but a call to man that He has lost fellowship with Him. So “where are you?” implies that, “Are you aware that you are no longer in the place of fellowship?” That’s how merciful God is, that even in our fallen state, He still wants us back, “Come now, and let us reason together, on how we can restore fellowship again.” (Isa. 1:18).

The next question God asked was still not an enquiring question, but He was telling Adam that he has lost his authority to the devil. The issue of nakedness here was not something strange to Adam, because in Genesis 2, they were not ashamed that they were both naked (vs. 25). How come that it was after the fall that they became ashamed? It was in Apostle Paul’s writings to the church in Colossae that Christ disarmed principalities and powers, and made a public spectacle of them (Col. 2:15). And to disarm, is to strip someone (in context) of his authority. And to strip simply means to naked. So the question, “Who told you that you naked?” implies that, “Are you aware that you have lost your authority?” These questions do not look like a God that was mad at them. And the passing out of His judgement was out of His great love and rich mercy, “Because you have done this, this and that will happen.” That was the resulting effect for sinning. Sin affects our relationship with God.

And because of the riches of His mercy that He sent them out of the Garden of Eden so that they won’t eat from the tree of life and remained in their sinful state forever. But before He sent them out He gave them a covering, an angry God won’t do that. This is the Father’s love in the beginning!

 

PRAYER: Daddy, I thank you that right from the beginning, you have always been merciful unto me.

 

DECLARATION: GLORY TO GOD THAT MY FATHER STILL LOVES ME.

 

JOURNEY THROUGH THE PAULINE’S EPISTLE: EPHESIANS 1-3