Welcome to Day 2 of my 40 day devotional leading to Easter. Today we go back to the very beginning of the journey. Our passage for today comes from Genesis 3:1-15

 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’?”

 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden.  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.’ ”

“No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 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. 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.

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. So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

And he said, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”

Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

The man replied, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.”

So the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

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.

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.

Genesis 3:1-15

This past summer, my family and I traveled to Anaheim, California to attend the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting. Long before we left, we began preparing for the trip. We had to save up some money. We had to decide if we were going to fly over or drive. Then we had to get some minor repairs done on our car to make sure it was ready to travel that far. We had to plan out where we would stop along the way there and on the way back. The planning stage was pretty intensive. But before we did any planning or preparation, the first step was making the decision to go. It doesn’t matter if it is a long trip or a short trip. Every trip begins with a decision to go.

Jesus’s journey to the cross began with a decision made long before it began. It began back in the garden of Eden. Humanity’s parents, Adam and Eve, rebelled against God’s command. We use the term sin. Sin means anything that goes against God’s desire. It is rebellion against God’s plan for us. Even in the midst of punishing Adam and Eve’s sin, God declared His intent to conquer sin and to make all things new. God would restore everything that sin had broken.

Thousands of years later, we read

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole empire should be registered. This first registration took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So everyone went to be registered, each to his own town.
Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family line of David, to be registered along with Mary, who was engaged to him and was pregnant. While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. Then she gave birth to her firstborn son, and she wrapped him tightly in cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

Luke 2:1-7

Long before Jesus was born, God planned His journey to the cross. Long before Jesus riled up the religious leaders and made enemies who stirred up the crowd to demand His crucifixion, Jesus was destined for the cross. He was born to die, and to do so for you.

God made this decision purely out of divine love. Jesus Christ set out toward the cross because He wants an eternal relationship with you. In His death, Jesus accomplished the Father’s declaration. The promise is fulfilled.

As you pray, thank God for the great pains He has gone through for you to be in a restored relationship with Him. Ask Him to give you a thankful heart.

Thank you for joining me for Day 2. If you missed yesterday’s devotion, you can read it here. Please join me tomorrow for Day 3.