Author: missionspaul

Our enemy traffics in dark places, speaks words that no one else can hear, and lures us into traps that we haven’t comprehended. Here is the story of the world’s first murderer.

“Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.” (Genesis 4:6-10)

Let’s go out to the field, which isn’t there in the earlier versions of the Bible. It is there with a footnote because it helps us understand what Cain said to his brother and why they were in the field.

But we don’t know what Cain said. In the original, that’s the point. But the voice of a brother got him into a place where he could be killed. There is a voice of the enemy that wants to close you down, finish you, to steal, kill, and destroy, and he will speak to you. He will use words that no one knows, but these are hidden. Secret words, he traffics in hidden places. But make no mistake, he wants you out in the field; he wants you to follow him, to be in a situation, a circumstance, where he can destroy you.

Sin is personified as a predatory animal, crouching, waiting for the opportune moment to pounce. Cain had a choice, God had warned him that he had, but he chose the wrong decision. His anger blinded him, and it led him to become the first murderer. Unresolved sin can very quickly devastate. Unbelievably, Cain showed no responsibility or remorse for his actions; somehow, he felt justified, and his heart was hardened.

There’s a haunting beauty in how Abel’s story connects to the larger biblical narrative. In Genesis 4:10, God tells Cain that Abel’s blood “cries out” from the ground. Later, in Hebrews 12:24, the author contrasts Abel’s blood with Christ’s blood, noting that Jesus’ blood “speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”
Abel’s blood cried out for justice; Christ’s blood speaks of mercy and forgiveness. Yet both testimonies emerge from faith—Abel’s faith in offering his best to God, and Christ’s faith in offering himself for our salvation.

This story is more than a rivalry between brothers. It contains an essential truth for us still today in how we approach God. They both brought an offering, but one pointed to faith and the other to works.

“Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time, Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favour on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering, he did not look with favour. So Cain was furious, and his face was downcast. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. (Genesis 4 2-8)

This wasn’t about animals being better than vegetables! It was about faith. Abel probably didn’t realize what his offering was pointing to. He hadn’t seen how everything in Bible history leads to the sacrifice of the Son of God on a cross. Neither had Cain.

They didn’t understand the Lamb of God, a title for Jesus Christ, who takes away people’s punishment for sin.

But when these two offerings were made, God accepted one and rejected the other. We do not know how this was determined, but perhaps it was by fire from heaven, which generations later would be experienced especially within the Temple.

Cain offered the work of his hands as a sacrifice. This practice still exists today. It was relevant for the author writing to a community of believers who were being tempted to return to a works-based system of worship, like Judaism. For us, it remains present as well. Cain trusted in his own reasoning and efforts, believing his work would impress God.

Abel offered his sacrifice by faith. What does that mean? It was a blood sacrifice—a substitute that pointed to Christ, of course. His offering had to die to bring worship to God. This wasn’t just about Abel, but about the animal. There was nothing in Abel that he could get, but his offering was acceptable because of the life in the blood of the sacrifice. Very early in history, Abel understood—even in a basic sense—that approaching God requires something to be sacrificed.

The main point is this: we cannot approach God through our own efforts or strength, but only by the blood sacrifice of another. Don’t go back to the Old Covenant; the New Covenant is much better because it is fulfilled by the superior sacrifice of Jesus Christ, not by our own works. We never approach God based on what we have done, but on what He has done for us. This hero – Abel – still speaks to us today.

The story of Eve has always caught my attention. She has been blamed since time began. It has been encouraging to revisit her journey carefully. We all have sinned and fallen short, haven’t we? So I conclude her story with these two verses.

“Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man … Adam made love to his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, ‘God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.’” (Genesis 4:1, 25)

There are moments for all of us when we know we cannot turn the clock back, we cannot undo the past, and all that greets us in the morning is regret. At these times, it takes courage to believe again.

It takes courage to acknowledge that God is in your pain.

She gave birth. What did that mean? She experienced what she had never experienced – pain. She had never witnessed it in anyone, nor had she felt it herself. But she knew God, who had forewarned her of such pain (3:16), was with her “With the help of the Lord…”

It takes courage to know God is in control.

It takes courage to believe that the pain will enlarge you, stretch you so that you receive what He has for you. The promise will not pull you; the pain will.

It takes courage to believe you can still accomplish great things. “I have brought forth,” whatever you are facing, don’t listen to those who say you cannot do it; you can, with God.

It takes courage to move on.

If you are willing to go again, God will always be there for you.

To see your family divided is hurtful enough. To witness a murderous death within your family by a family member is a nightmare. To realize it was done through deception, which was your own previous failing, and your sin is now passed to the next generation, is unbearable.

What did Eve do? She again gave birth. She began again. She moved on.

Success is getting up one more time than the number of times you fall.

The future is not in what you have lost. Seth’s name meant substitute. Eve lost Abel. But it was in Seth that the bloodline would be traced to the birth of Jesus Christ, God’s substitute for our sin.

The past will always be the same. Please stop trying to change it. Start believing the best is yet to be. It takes courage to move on.

If we read the expulsion only as God’s judgment, then we have missed a great deal. You see, in the saddest of moments, you can find a diamond.

“The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Genesis 3 v 21-24)

God clothes them with garments of skin. Whose skin? It doesn’t say. Do they leave the garden covered with the skin of something that died for them? Is this the gospel, right at the beginning of time, speaking loudly of grace and mercy?

God drove the man out, but the biblical story tells us that God went with them. God would be found again by them and by the generations to come. This is the first exile, and there would be more to come, and in every one of them, God comes to His people again. Whether that be Egypt, Babylon, or a small village in Israel, which becomes the centre of the world, where God takes on human flesh, God comes to us. He always has, He always will.

God placed a ‘cherubim and a flaming sword’ on the east side of the Garden. Behind the fire stands the Tree of Life, waiting; the cherubim still guard.

This is all at the beginning of the book. But we have read to the end, haven’t we? We know what has happened and what is to come, don’t we?

“To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” (Revelation 2:7) This was a message to Ephesus, which, heeding the warning of Jesus amongst the letters to the seven churches, became a major Christian centre with thriving churches. Within Ephesus, a magnificent temple of Artemis stood, accompanied by a beautiful garden that offered asylum to criminals who managed to escape into it. This may well be the connection Jesus is referring to when He says there is a garden, the paradise of God, where the tree of life is at the centre. This is not unrepentant criminals but repentant Churches.

But let’s keep going to the very end. “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.” (Revelation 22:1-5)

In a perfecting of Eden, the garden has become a city, and God is no longer hidden behind the trees. We have changed, been made holy, His character and nature, His mark, is on our lives, and we will see Him! We will finally look upon God and live!

Since Adam and Eve, we have tried our entire lives to see God in all His fullness and have failed every time. But not now. His glory within us has changed us to become like Him, so much so that we will see His face!

In what has to be one of the saddest moments in the whole of the Bible, we see the separation of God and man.

“The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Genesis 3 v 21-24)

Adam and Eve start their walk out of Paradise and probably did what feels natural to all of us. I imagine them looking back because I would have done the same.

They reflect on what they once had and who they once were. What lies ahead doesn’t seem as promising as what is behind them. They look back and see the light of that ‘flaming sword’ guarding the tree of life. They would never know what they once knew. I keep wondering if they would even have the faintest hope that one day they would walk with God in the cool of the day again.

They had to leave.

“The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil,” God confirms what the serpent promised. However, what the serpent didn’t tell them within that temptation was the weight they would feel of their moral consciousness, the shame and fear, and instead of rising to be like God, they broke under the heaviness of it all.

Yes, they had to leave. “He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” That wasn’t solely punishment, though the phrase ‘drove them out’ indicated the seriousness of what they had done. It was grace. God was not going to allow them to live forever in their fractured, sinful state. That would have been an eternal curse. It would have been hell.

What was ahead of them?

Interestingly, it was to do exactly what they were doing in the garden—working—but with a big difference. From now on, they would labour with the sweat of their brow as they navigate the thorns and thistles. Life will be different; they will face opposition to their efforts, have days filled with frustration, and nights that are sleepless.

So they depart. The last thing they see is not God but the “cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.” Even if they wanted to, and they most likely did, returning was impossible. It was over. The tree of life remained there. But this perfection was now guarded as if protected for a moment to come. They didn’t know what we now know. As they looked back, they realized they would never return, when in fact, God was saying, ‘not now’. To be continued … in many ways.

U2’s song “Grace” concludes with a heartfelt reflection. It demonstrates how grace transforms ugliness into beauty and uncovers goodness everywhere. This is both inspiring and thought-provoking.

Reflect on what it means to notice God in an imperfect but created world, to see Him in the simple setting of a manger, and to find Him in the pain of the cross. These moments are ways we encounter grace, shaping how His grace takes root in us.

From the moment you wake today, everything that happens is touched by His grace. Remember, He watches over you, blesses you, loves you, and shows you favour — not alone, but through every part of the world around you, just as He has shown grace in key moments in Scripture.

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3 v 15)

Isaiah 42:3 – “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out.”

Throughout the Gospels, we see Jesus showing kindness to those who are hurt or struggling. For example, to the leper who asked, “If you are willing,” Jesus replied, “I am willing.” To the woman who thought, “If only I could touch his garment,” he said, “Take heart, daughter.” To the man with demons who cried, “Swear you won’t torture me,” Jesus gave him freedom and peace, leaving him calm. Each meeting shows how grace changes suffering.

Eve, too, was a bruised reed.

But consider God’s response carefully. Don’t focus solely on the banishment; look deeper into what else God provided.

There was a promise—a promise that would shape the hope of all generations.

In verse 15, God spoke a word of hope. Someone would come to save. The first promise about the Messiah would come from this guilty, broken woman. The first person to sin was also the first to hear about the One who would defeat sin. God said the snake would hurt the Savior’s heel, but the Savior would crush the snake’s head. By dying and rising again, Jesus defeated the powers of darkness and proved that He was stronger.

There was a covering.

Eve tried to cover herself and Adam with fig leaves, but it did not work. God’s covering came through a sacrifice. Their shame was covered by the life of an animal given in their place. In the same way, your guilt is covered by what Jesus did—He is the Lamb of God. This is amazing grace.

Who does God say you are today? That’s not just theology, I’m meaning, your identity. We all have to live from that place.

In the garden, that perfect place, disobedience introduced words that were never meant to exist. Actions that should never have been taken were carried out.

They covered themselves in shame. They hid from the presence of God. Fear gripped their hearts for the first time.

And then came the reckoning.

“And God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labour you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.” (Genesis 3 v 11-20)

God’s questions pierce through the silence: “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

What follows is humanity’s first blame-shifting. Adam points to the woman and subtly, to God himself: “The woman you put here with me, she gave me some fruit.” Eve points to the serpent: “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Look at the new vocabulary sin has introduced to creation:

Deception – “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Cursed – “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals!”

War, crushing, striking – “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

Pain – “To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labour you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

Thorns and thistles – “It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.”

Death – “ By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

These words tell the story of what went wrong. They define the moment. They could have defined the woman forever. But they didn’t.

Hidden in verse 20 is a profound act of defiance against failure’s labels: “Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.”

Think about that. In the middle of a passage saturated with curse, death, and pain, Adam gives his wife a name that means LIFE.

It’s important to know who you are.

Of all these many words that could have been used which fit the situation perfectly, this failed woman takes a name from Adam, Eve. Its meaning  is this, LIFE.

Names were synonymous with the nature of that person and was often used prophetically even without awareness of the events to be unfolded. For example, Abel means ‘breath’ or ‘vapour’, fitting for his shortened life.

This is who I am. Even though I’ve failed, sinned and been disobedient. I am LIFE.

Like Joshua the high priest standing before God in Zechariahs prophecy with Satan at his right side to accuse him, the enemy of your soul has positioned demonic angels close enough for you to hear the accusation. The aim is to get you to believe the accusation.

Now what shall I call this woman? Deceiver? Cursed? Death? No! Eve is LIFE.

What will you call yourself after you’ve failed?

The accusations are loud: Failure. Disappointment. Beyond repair. Used up. Disqualified.

What is your identity? You will act according to who you believe you are. If you work at who you are you will live like that. Who are you? Not what have you done?

If anyone is in Christ; he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come.

God says I’m a new creation.

This new self, fashioned after Jesus Christ, looks nothing like your failures:

• You are someone who loves people deeply
• You carry God’s anointing
• You go the extra mile
• You walk in patience
• You are free from fear
• You pursue purity
• You demonstrate gentleness
• You operate in wisdom

That’s who you are. Not what you’ve done but who you are.

If you accept the label of your failure, you’ll live in its shadow.

Eve could have lived the rest of her days known as “the woman who ruined everything.” Instead, she became “the mother of all the living.”

You have the same choice.

He asked first. The first search was divine; it came from Him.

“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, Where are you?” (Genesis 3 v 8-9)

God had been trying to find man long before man began his search for God. From the moment sin entered the garden, it was the Lord who came walking, seeking, pursuing. While Adam and Eve hid in shame, covering themselves with fig leaves and shadows, God was already moving toward them with purpose and intention.

God knew separation from man long before man, through his many works, would try to bridge the gap. He understood the chasm that sin would create. Long before humanity built towers, constructed temples, or devised religious systems to reach heaven, God had already seen the futility of our efforts and planned His own solution.

God called to man long before man recognised the need to call on Him. His voice echoed through the garden before we even understood we were lost. He initiated the conversation, extended the first invitation, and made the first move toward reconciliation.

Before we shout out “where are you?….. Where are you in my pain? Where are you in my disappointment? Where are you in my fears?” Remember, God was asking “Where are you?” first. His question wasn’t born of ignorance. He knew exactly where Adam was hiding. Rather, it was an invitation to come out, to step forward, to be honest about our condition and receive His grace.

God would ask it again, not of Adam, but of Himself later. He sent His Son, and while hanging on the cross, cried out the words of Psalm 22, asking, “Where are you?” Jesus was forsaken, alone and forgotten. He said what Adam should have said because of his own sin. He said it because sin separates us from God, and Jesus was becoming sin for us, taking our place. In that dark hour, the innocent one experienced the abandonment that the guilty deserved. The separation God felt in Eden when man hid became the separation Jesus endured on Calvary when the Father turned away.

Today, God is still asking, “Where are you?” In that question, there is a desire to walk with man again. It resonates through every generation, every culture, every human heart. It’s not an accusation but an invitation.

There is no reason to feel forsaken, alone, and forgotten when Jesus has stood in that place for you. He has absorbed the full weight of abandonment, so you would never have to experience true separation from God’s love.

God will not ask this question of you, as you worship Jesus, as you acknowledge the work of Jesus on the cross for yourself, as you bow in humble submission to His Kingship. The question has been answered by the cross, settled by the resurrection, and sealed by your faith in Him.

Her failure is well-known. No one forgets what she did. She’s the first woman in history, but she makes it into the pages of the New Testament for all the wrong reasons—because of her failure. In 1 Timothy 2:14, Paul refers to her as the woman who was deceived. Thousands of years later, Eve is still known primarily as the one who took what was forbidden, the one who listened to the serpent’s lies, the one who reached for the fruit and changed everything.

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ” 4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some 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 realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. (Genesis 3 v 1-7)

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil stood in the perfect environment as a test of obedience. In a garden where everything was provided, this one tree represented a choice: Would they trust God’s wisdom, or assert their own? But the tree also stood as a prophetic marker of the kind of life that would exist in the place of disobedience, the fundamental human desire to determine for ourselves what is right and wrong, to be our own gods.

The phrase “knowledge of good and evil” signifies experiential knowledge, the kind that comes from doing and experiencing. Eve wasn’t just reaching for forbidden fruit; she was reaching for the right to make all her own determinations about life, morality, and truth.

Eve’s fall followed a predictable progression:

First, she began to doubt what God had said (v1). The serpent’s question—”Did God really say…?”—planted seeds of uncertainty. The enemy didn’t start with outright denial but with a question that made God’s clear command seem unclear, restrictive, perhaps unreasonable.

Second, she began to disbelieve what God had said (v4). “You will not surely die,” the serpent declared, directly contradicting God’s warning. Eve found the lie more believable than God’s truth. She began to see God not as a loving Father who protected her, but as one withholding something good.

Third, she disobeyed what God had said (v6). She “saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom.” What God had marked as forbidden now appeared good, attractive, and beneficial. She took the fruit, ate it, and gave some to her husband.

In that moment, Eve claimed autonomy. She chose her own wisdom over God’s explicit instruction. And the consequences were catastrophic.

The immediate effects were devastating: shame replaced innocence, fear replaced intimacy with God, blame replaced responsibility, and exile replaced home. Sin entered the world.

How do you recover from such wilful, stupid, selfish wrongdoing?

How do you deal with the consequences when they don’t just affect you, but everyone around you? When your children inherit the brokenness you created? When your legacy is defined by your worst moment rather than your best intentions?

How do you live knowing things will never be the same again? When you can’t undo what’s been done, can’t restore what was lost?

You do your very best at covering over and pretending that nothing has happened. That is one option. One that both Eve and Adam chose to do.

God has created us all for connection. Whether married or single, it matters not, He desired for us to connect with Him first and then with each other. These verses will encourage the marrieds into further intimacy, to embrace the union over independence and understanding over being understood. But it will remind us all, regardless of marital status, that we are created for relationships. Being known in authenticity, in a spiritual community and above all, with God Himself. He wants us to go beyond surface level connections. He cares about our relationships.

“So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.” (Genesis 2 v 21-25)

It is v25 that I would like to focus on. “Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.” This wasn’t merely about physical nakedness. It describes complete vulnerability without fear, emotional, psychological, and spiritual transparency. They had nothing to hide from each other and no reason to hide. No past failures to conceal, no insecurities to mask, no fear of rejection or judgment. They could be fully known and remain fully loved.

This original design reveals something profound about how God intends relationships to function. The Garden represents more than a physical paradise; it was a sanctuary of relational wholeness. Adam and Eve experienced what many of us spend our entire lives searching for: unconditional acceptance and genuine intimacy. Their nakedness symbolizes the absence of pretence, performance, or protective walls. They lived in perfect harmony, unmarred by comparison, competition, or criticism. This divine blueprint shows us that true connection requires courage, the willingness to be seen as we truly are, trusting that love can hold our imperfections without withdrawing.

We now live east of Eden, where shame has become our default. We hide our true selves, fearing that if people really knew us, they’d reject us.

Yet this passage reminds us of God’s original design and ultimate intention. Through Christ, God is restoring what was broken. He is calling us back to authentic relationships: first with Him, then with others. The question is: will we answer that call?