Passage:
1 Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’? ”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. 3 But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’ ”
4 “No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you? ”
10 And he said, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”
11 Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from? ”
12 The man replied, “The woman you gave to be with me — she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.”
13 So the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done? ”
And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent:
Because you have done this,
you are cursed more than any livestock
and more than any wild animal.
You will move on your belly
and eat dust all the days of your life.
15 I will put hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.
16 He said to the woman:
I will intensify your labor pains;
you will bear children with painful effort.
Your desire will be for your husband,
yet he will rule over you.
17 And he said to the man, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’:
The ground is cursed because of you.
You will eat from it by means of painful labor
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow
until you return to the ground,
since you were taken from it.
For you are dust,
and you will return to dust.”
20 The man named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living. 21 The Lord God made clothing from skins for the man and his wife, and he clothed them.
-- Genesis 3:1-21 (CSB)
Song:
Eden (Isn’t It Just Like You?) by Aodhan King, Benjamin Hastings, Brandon Lake, Dylan Thomas, Hank Bentley, Joel Houston, and Michael Fatkin
Lyrics:
Oh Eden's tree
The choice within their hands
As the serpent whispered from beneath
Where Your grace exceeds
The sum of all our lack
For I am Adam I am Eve
Isn't it just like You
To turn it all around for good
Like only You could
Like only You would
You turn it all around for good
And when You do
You do it so it's done for good
Like only You could
Like only You would
You turn it all around for good
Oh Calvary's tree
The nails within Your hands
And laughter swept the crowds beneath
Where Your grace exceeds
The sum of all our lack
For I'm a thief upon a tree
Isn't it just like You
Just like You
Oh the vast extent of my regrets
And all my deepest fears
Were buried in a garden
Where You wept and bled in tears
For You climbed a hill not Yours to climb
They thought Your fate was sealed
For the serpent tried to take you down
But he only bruised Your heel
See the empty grave is overgrown
And the earth begins to heal
For the enemy is overthrown
And the darkness finally yields
So now I don't owe a thing to death
Should ever he appear
For death can only borrow breath
No longer can he steal
Isn't it just like You
Isn't it just like You to go and make it new
Isn't it just like You
It's just like You
You're making all things new
You don't stop until it's done
Oh tree of life
There's hope in every branch
And the serpent's nowhere to be seen
Where Your grace completes
The sum of all our lack
For I am Adam I am Eve
And Eden's my eternity
Abbreviated Passage:
Prayer:
Almighty God, the fountain of wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask, and our ignorance in asking—we ask you to have compassion upon our weaknesses; and those things, which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask, grant to give us for the worthiness of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
-Book of Common Prayer (1552)
