Creation And The Fall - God Shows Us His World

Bible Text: Genesis 1-3
Memory Verse: Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.”

Hello boys and girls! Our lessons in this unit are called “God’s Greatest Show On Earth!” We will be talking about 5 of the greatest things that God has done on Earth to show us Himself. Listen closely boys and girls, because we are in for an EXCITING show!

We are going to start at the beginning. That’s always a good place to start, isn’t it? Whenever you tell a story, or read a book, that’s usually where you start right? At the beginning. Well, the first 10 words of the Bible tell us one of God’s “Greatest Shows on Earth!” Does anyone know what they say? Does anyone know the verse Genesis 1:1? That’s right, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

WOW! Just 10 little words, but oh, what amazing things they tell us!! First of all, they tell us that God was there, in the beginning, and always! God is eternal, which means that He was always there. Forever back, and forever forward. ALWAYS! There has NEVER been a time when God didn’t exist. He was in the beginning when the heavens and earth were made, because He is the one who made them. It wasn’t a “Big Bang” that made everything; it was God! But, that’s not all God did on the first day. The earth was dark and empty. Then God said, “Let there be light!” and immediately there was light! And God separated the light from the darkness, and God called the light “day” and the darkness “night” and that was the end of the first day. But boys and girls, this was only the beginning of God’s Big Show!

God said “Let there be a space between the waters above and the waters below.” And it happened! There was a space, and He called the space “sky.” This was the end of the second day.

God said “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together unto one place so dry ground may appear.” And it happened! And God named the dry ground “land” and the waters He named “seas.” The Bible says God saw that what He had done was good. That means that God was pleased! Then God said “Let the land burst forth with grass and plants and seed bearing fruit trees. The seeds will then re-produce the same kinds of plants that they came from” and that’s exactly what happened! There were apple trees, and rose bushes, and oak trees, and banana trees, and grape-vines, and grass and tulips and clover and wheat and pine trees, and any kind of plant you can imagine! They all had seeds that would re-produce the very same kind of plant that they had come from. God again looked at all He had created, and He was very pleased… it was ALL good! This was the end of the third day.

God said “Let bright lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. These will help to mark off days, seasons, and years. Let their light shine down on the earth.” And it happened! God made 2 big lights, the sun to rule over the day, and the moon to shine at night. God also made the stars to twinkle at night. God looked at it all, and was very very pleased! It was all very good! This was the end of the fourth day.

God said “Let the waters be filled with fish and all types of sea-life. Let the skies be filled with birds of every kind.” So God created whales and trout and eels and sharks and squid and catfish and jellyfish and starfish and snails and any other sea-life you can think of! God created robins and eagles and pelicans and owls and buzzards and crows and nightingales and doves and blue jays and any other kind of bird you can think of! God told them to all have babies just like them. And guess what?! God looked at it all, and He was very very very pleased! It was all so good! This was the end of the fifth day.

God said “Let the earth be filled with every kind of animal and creeping thinks and all types of wildlife.” To every animal and creeping thing that He created, God told them to all have babies just like them to fill the earth. So God created giraffes and elephants and turtles and lizards and frogs and toads and bears and cats and dogs and rabbits and sheep and pigs and cows and horses and armadillos and skunks and porcupines and spiders and ants and bumblebees and praying mantises and worms and any other kind of animal or creeping thing you can think of! When they had babies, the babies were just like them. Pigs had piglets. Bears had bear cubs. Frogs had tadpoles that grew into frogs. All the animals had baby animals that looked like their mommy and daddy. God looked at all that He had created and was very very very VERY pleased! It was all extremely good!

God wasn’t finished yet. There was one more thing to create. The very BEST thing in all of God’s creation. The reason He had created everything in the first place. God had saved the best of His creation for last… like the Grand Finale of the Creation Show… God the Father said to [God] the Son and [God] the Holy Spirit, “Let us make mankind in our image, after our likeness; and let them have rule over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the animals, and over every living thing that lives on the earth.”

“So God formed Adam out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into Adam the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” (Genesis 3:7) Then God made Adam fall into a deep sleep, and God took a rib from Adam, and formed Eve. When Adam woke up and saw his wife, he was very pleased! God had given Adam a wife and partner who was perfectly suited for him.

God placed the man Adam, and the woman Eve, now man and wife, into a beautiful garden called the Garden of Eden. God was EXTREMELY pleased with ALL of His creation, but especially with Adam and Eve, who God loved very much. It was all VERY good. It was PERFECT! This was the end of the sixth day.

God rested on the seventh day. He sat back and enjoyed all that He had made. He especially enjoyed spending time with Adam and Eve. God walked with them and talked with them and laughed with them in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve enjoyed their time with God too.

But boys and girls, there was someone who was NOT enjoying all of this creation and happiness. Someone hated it. Someone wanted to destroy it. The Devil. God had created an angel called Lucifer. Lucifer decided to rebel against God and become God’s enemy. That’s when Lucifer became the Devil. The Devil hated God, and His creation, and Adam and Eve.

Now, the Devil went into the Garden of Eden disguised as a serpent. When Eve walked by he hissed at her and said, “Did God really say you must not eat any of the fruit in the Garden?”

“Of course we can eat the fruit” Eve told him. “It’s only the fruit from the tree at the center of the Garden that we are not allowed to eat. God says we must not eat it or even touch it, or we will die.”

“You won’t die!” the serpent hissed. “God knows that if you eat it, your eyes will be opened and you will become just like God, knowing everything, both good and evil.”

Boys and girls, that is not what God had said. The only rule that Adam and Eve had been given was not to eat the fruit from the one tree, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They were not told they couldn’t touch it, and they could eat from any other tree in the Garden. They wouldn’t be like God if they ate from the tree, but they would lose their innocence & righteousness, because they would be sinning. The Devil was trying to trick Eve, and it worked. She saw the fruit and all of a sudden it looked like the most delicious fruit in all of the Garden of Eden. The Bible says Eve took the fruit, ate of it, gave some to Adam, and he ate it too. The Bible says that Eve was deceived, or tricked. The Bible also tells us that Adam chose to sin on purpose, knowing full well that he was disobeying God.

God knew too, what had happened. His perfect creation was now under the curse of sin. God, who is always perfectly holy and righteous, had to punish Adam and Eve for their sin. The Bible says in Romans 6:23 “The payment for sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Yes, Adam and Eve would now have to die one day. Their bodies started to “die” right after they sinned, meaning they could now get sick and get weak, and eventually grow old and die. But, sadly, their spirits died immediately! Our spirits are the part of us that can have a friendship with God. Now that Adam and Eve had sinned, they no longer had a friendship with God because God cannot accept sin. But, remember, I told you that God LOVED Adam and Eve very much! So God made a way to fix the friendship. It was through Jesus, the Perfect Son of God. One day, Jesus would come as a little baby, a descendant of Adam and Eve. Jesus would grow up on this Earth that He Himself had created. Jesus the perfect, sinless, Son of God, would die on the cross for the sins that Adam and Eve had done, and their children had done, and all their descendants (except Jesus!) would do, and the sins that you and I have done. All our sins were put on Jesus on that cross. He took the punishment that we deserve. Jesus died and was buried. But that was not the end. On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead; He came alive again! Jesus had the victory over sin, and death, and the Devil.

Boys and girls, our spirits are dead too, before we let Jesus fix us! That was the result of Adam’s sin. The Bible says that “In Adam, all die, but in Christ, shall all be made alive.” That means that because of our sin, we are born spiritually dead. We are born with no friendship with God. But, if we ask Jesus to forgive us for our sins and come into our hearts & lives, our spirits are made alive, and we are friends of God. God even calls us His children! Then, one day, we get to live eternally with God in Heaven!

Is your spirit dead today? Are you God’s child? You can be today!