Sin and Nature

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MONDAY

March 14

Sin and Nature
Whatever wonder and beauty we can find in nature, it’s today a double-edged sword. Beauty and marvel are there, but so are famine, earthquakes, pestilence, and disease. Something has gone terribly wrong.
Read over Genesis 3, the Fall. What immediate changes came to both humans and nature as a result of sin?  

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Sin brought immediate physical and spiritual consequences to human life. Nature, too, suffered the effects of sin. Sin caused devastating effects upon creation in at least three ways:

1. The ground was cursed (Gen. 3:17). After departing from the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve encountered immediate obstacles in working the soil. The ground began to produce undesirable thorns and thistles. Most probably, too, pests got in the way of healthy growth. Things got worse after the devastation of the Flood.
2. Human beings experienced significant changes. Fatigue and pain became a reality. The relationship between the man and the woman changed. The chapter seems to imply that Eve would have originally not had pain in childbirth. The relationship of Adam to the earth had changed, as well, and work now was going to be much more difficult than it would have been before. We do not know how the awareness of their own impending deaths affected the first couple, but it must have changed their outlook on life completely.
3. Sin affected human and animal behavior. Hatred, jealousy, selfishness, arrogance, etc., caused aggression against fellow humans and animals. Other unknown ways of damaging the environment (perhaps comparable to what we are witnessing today) may have taken place. Animals started to kill each other for food and for power. As described in Genesis 3–6, corruption and violence escalated to the point that God was grieved for having made all creatures (Gen. 6:5–7). The true extent of all these transformations is not revealed to us, but we can assume that profound changes took place. Yet, God, in His infinite mercy, preserved a great deal of the magnificent original creation for the benefit of human beings.
   

Look around at the wonders of nature wherever you are. What echoes of the original creation seem to remain? What hope can you draw from those echoes that point you to the promises of a better world?