Adam's Leadership into Death

As I made some poor choices in my family and the Lord begins to work to clean up the mess, I believe God is giving me some revelation through this that will be helpful in the future.  As the Lord again drew me back to Genesis 3 and the pattern of "The Fall" I began to see another mystery start to be revealed.  After both Adam and his wife (later called Eve) ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, then their eyes were opened and they saw that they were naked.  Then they came up with this plan to sew fig leaves and make loin covers.  Where did this plan come from?  We don't know but when God asks Adam "Where are you?", it was Adam that says he heard the sound of God in the garden, and out of fear he says that hid himself.  Adam was not skilled in lying yet that would come later, so he is very honest that fear led him to hide and the woman says nothing about hiding.  Interesting.  So was Adam first to react in fear and hide himself, thus leading his wife and others into further deception?  I have learned in my own marriage the painful fruit of hiding myself and thus not letting my wife and children know me.  I made it a priority for my wife and children to feel safe to share what was going on in their lives, but if I am hiding I am not modeling what I am asking them to live.  I find that I am reacting to fear just as Adam did then turning around and expecting my family to be open and vulnerable.  I thank God that He put me "in Christ" and there is a new way to live, I am still in the process of having this new way revealed.  God announces the curses after the woman's confession and one of these curses is "Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you."  The word for desire in the Hebrew is "tĕshuwqah" which means craving or longing, it seems to refer to an unfulfilled longing.  The word for rule over is "mashal" to rule, have dominion, or reign; these aren't exactly wonderful touchy/feely words of intimacy but one that infers control from fear.  I am just beginning to see what the patterns from the Fall are that have twisted the beautiful intimacy Adam had with God and then his wife.  As God reveals the shock waves of destruction that have gone forth from "The Fall", then I believe God will reveal more of what He has done "in Christ" to restore.  I want to experience this freedom first for my family and then for others.  I heard one person say you don't read The Word of God, it reads you.  As the Light of the Holy Spirit takes the Word of God penetrating into the thoughts, motives, and intents of the heart.  Intimacy takes risk but we were created for intimacy with God and intimacy with our spouses and others.  Yet we live in a culture that doesn't value intimacy but independence and control.  To have true intimacy with God and others means death to our masks, protections, hiding, and our false ways of living.  God in His Word holds up intimacy and oneness with Jesus as the abundant life.  I pray that this longing for intimacy with your Father and others would be stirred.

In His Amazing Love,
Bret