Genesis 3:1-7 When God Steps Aside Most people do not see it, but people are bad to repeat the same patterns of behaviorsometimes some very bad patterns of behavior with some very bad results. I. Please notice a pattern. A. Adam and Eve 1. God had a will (desire). Gen 3:3 Ye shall not eat of (it) 2. \\#6\\ Eve decided to disobey. Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise she did eat. 3. God stepped aside and allowed her to do so. a. There was no second warning. b. No angel appeared to stop her. c. No lightning bolts, no thunder. 4. Eves decision created great trouble, not only for her but for the entire creation. B. \\#Numbers 22:2-6\\ Balaam and Balak 1. Balak was a Moabite king who wanted Balaam, a prophet of God, to curse the Jews. Balak offered Balaam a lot of money to do so. 2. God had a will (desire). Numbers 22:12 Thou shalt not go with them 3. Balaam decided to disobey. Numbers 22:21 And Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab. 4. God stepped aside. God allowed him to do so. 5. Balaams disobedience got him into great trouble. a. \\#Numbers 22:22-35\\ He was almost killed by the angel of the Lord before he arrived at Moab. b. \\#Joshua 13:22\\ Although \\#Num 24:25\\ tells us that Balaam went home, he must have returned because he will be slain by the Israelis when they are forced to fight the Moabites. He will be on the battlefield with the Moabites. C. Israel and Saul 1. \\#1Sam 8:4-7\\ God had a will (desire). The Lord was King over Israel. 2. The people decided to disobey. 1Sam 8:5 now make us a king to judge us like all the nations." 3. God stepped aside. 4. Israel got into great trouble. Saul became a very bad king \\#1Sam 8:11-19\\. D. In all of these situations, there is a pattern, 1. God has a desire. 2. People want something else. 3. God stepped aside. 4. People had to deal with the consequences. II. God allows people to exercise their own free will. A. The Bible is clear. God gives people the opportunity to make some choices. B. To understand, consider the will of God as a sphere (circle). 1. The center of the circle is what God wants. a. Every circle has only one center and God has only one will. b. That is the perfect will of God. c. God wants us to find His perfect will. d. He has given us the Word of God and the leadership of the Holy Spirit to reveal it to us. e. He has also given otherswho if they are wise can help direct us: parents, pastors, leaders. f. The place of our greatest happiness and usefulness is in the center of Gods will. 2. Outside the circle are things that God simply will not allow to happen. Those items are just not possible. a. Example – No matter how long I flap my arms, I am not going to fly. b. More practically, no matter how hard you try to work your way into heaven, you will not. c. Many Christians spend much of their life wanting things that are outside the will of God for their lives. (1) To be younger, to be older, to change time, to change the past (2) Those kinds of things are obviously impossible, but not all things that are impossible are that obvious. (a) I can want to be a millionaire but, for me, it wont happen. (b) It is not what God wants for my life and I do not think I could be wealthy if even if I worked diligently at. (c) Such wealth may be within the possibilities of some, but God has a different desire for me. (d) As long as I pursue things outside of the will of God for my life, I will be miserable and waste my life. 3. Within the sphere are many choices and possibilities, some God can bless. Some God must curse. a. Some things are possible, but they are not what God wants for you. b. Eve had a choice. (1) She could obey God concerning the fruit or not. (2) There was one actand only one act that God wantedbut there were other actions that God would allow. (3) Those others actions were within Eves sphere. (4) If Eve chose one of the acts that was within her sphere of choices, God would not be pleased, but He would step aside and allow it. (5) Afterward, Eve would have to deal with the consequences of making that choice. c. Balaam had a choice. (1) God did not want him to goat least not like he went. (2) Not going was the center of Balaams sphere. It was the perfect will of God. (3) But God would step aside and allow Balaam to go, then Balaam would have to deal with the consequences of making the less than perfect choice. d. Israel had a choice concerning who would be their king. a. It could be God or a man. b. God wanted the people to want Him to be their king. That was the center of the sphere. c. But the people wanted a king like all the other nations. d. God stepped aside, but Israel had to deal with the consequences of their less than perfect choice. C. We should always seek the perfect will of God for every decision. 1. Sometimes we will miss it, but the choice will be close enough to what God wanted that He can still bless us. 2. Sometimes we will miss it, and the choice will be too far away from what God wanted to bless us. 3. Sometimes we will deliberately disobey, and God will discipline us to get us back to the place He wants. III. When God steps aside. A. Lets focus on Gods response to our decisions. B. No rational thinking person should want God to step aside. 1. The further from the center of that sphere we are, the more trouble and heartache we will experience. 2. God steps aside, within the sphere, to allow us to make our own choices. C. There are various actions God takes when He steps aside. 1. If we are trying to do His will, God works with us. (a) We can make a wrong choice, but God convicts us, works to bring us back. (b) That is what happened to Peter and Jonah. (c) Things could have gotten worse for both of them, but they eventually yielded to Gods dealings and were brought back to Gods will. 2. In some cases, God lets sin run its course. Jeremiah 2:19 Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee. (a) If God does nothing, sin will lead to more sin. (b) Saul is an example. (1) Saul choose to do wrong. (2) God stepped aside and did nothing. (3) Saul liked controlling his life so he went deeper into sin. (4) He even began to justify his sin. i. When we justify sin, we begin to grow a reprobate mind (a mind that knows the truth but turns away from it). ii. America has a reprobate mind about many sins – alcohol, tobacco, promiscuous sex, abortion, euthanasia, evolution, homosexuality, drugs. 3. In some cases, God will even help sin along. (a) The saddest of all situations is when God not only steps aside, but gives sin a favorable wind. (b) You might even say God blesses the sin. (c) Examples: Exodus 9:12 And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had spoken unto Moses. Deuteronomy 2:30 But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him: for the LORD thy God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into thy hand, as appeareth this day. (d) God not only stepped aside but helped these mens sins along. (e) Why? (1) I dont know for certain but I believe God says something like, "If you wont get as close to Me as you can so that I can show My glory, I will push you as far from Me as I can to show My glory." (2) Some dont like that it but it is what God does. IV. Conclusions A. If you are determined to have your way, God may step aside but you will pay a greater price for it. B. The worst thing that can happen to a person is to sin and God step aside! C. Sin is not defined by our enjoyment of it or our prosperity while in it, but by the Bible. I do not know the perfect will of God about everything but I do not the perfect will of God about one thing. God wants you to be saved right now. Turn to God today. Get into the center of Gods will.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Genesis 3:1-7 When God Steps Aside Most people do not see it, but people are bad to repeat the same patterns of behaviorsometimes some very bad patterns of behavior with some very bad results. I. Please notice a pattern. A. Adam and Eve 1. God had a will (desire). Gen 3:3 Ye shall not eat … Continue reading “Genesis 3:1-7 – When God Steps Aside – Bible study”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1896\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}