I have decided to start a series of lessons with my kids that will cover the entire history of the Bible.  I will be using the World English Bible (WEB).  I prefer the New International Version but it is copyright protected, whereas the WEB is public domain.

I covered the creation story in a previous Life Lesson with Dad so I’m jumping right in with Genesis 2 & 3 and the story of Adam, Eve, The Garden of Eden and The Fall.

For easy reference, here are today’s verses

Questions for the kids:

How many days did it take God to create the heavens and the Earth? (7, if you count the day of rest but only 6 days of actual work)

Do you think they were a literal 7 days? (we reviewed the theories listed HERE)

What did God do when he finished His work? (He rested)

How many days are in a week?  (7)

What is the day of rest called by many Jews and Christians? (the Sabbath or the Lord’s day) For details click HERE.

Why do we have two days of rest now instead of just one?  In other words, why is our weekend two days long instead of just one? (Discuss how Jewish tradition was to observe the Sabbath on Saturday’s but many Christians celebrate the Sabbath on Sunday (the day of Christ’s resurrection).  To accommodate both religious groups Western culture began observing a two day weekend.  If it wasn’t for Jesus we would likely still be working 6 days a week! )  For details on this click HERE.

When God finished making the earth were the plants seeds or fully grown plants? (seeds)

How did God water the first seeds? (with a mist/steams that came up from the ground – Gen 2:5-6)

How did God make the first man? (he used dust from the ground, molded it into a man, and breathed life into him)

Where did God place the first man? (in the garden of Eden)

Describe the garden of Eden….what was in the center? (it was a beautiful garden filled with edible fruits and had two trees in the center)

What were the two trees? (1. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and 2. The Tree of Life)

Which tree did God command them not to eat from? (The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil)

What did God say would happen if they ate from that tree? (They would surely die)

Where was the Garden of Eden located on the Earth? (Click HERE for details)

God said it wasn’t good for man to be alone so what did he make first? (all the animals)

Who decided what the names of the animals would be…God or Adam? (Adam)

None of the animals were comparable to the man so God made a woman….how? (he put the man to sleep, took one of his ribs, and made the woman from the man’s rib)

Do men and women have a different number of ribs?  (No, Adam had a rib removed….his children’s ribs were based on the DNA of their parents so they still had the same number of ribs as the original design – 12 on each side. If a doctor surgically removed one of my ribs today it wouldn’t mean my future children would have one less rib)  Click HERE for more on this topic.

Why do children leave their parents when they get married? (there are probably lots of other reasons but one reason dates back to Adam, from when he said ““This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken out of Man.” The Bible says for this reason “a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh.”)

Were the man and the woman embarrassed that they were naked? (No, not until after they ate the fruit.  They were not ashamed or embarrassed of their bodies)

The serpent’s first question is already a lie? Why? (He says “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?’”…when God only said there was one tree…not sure why, just wanted to get the kids’ perspectives)

Eve’s reply is also a lie, how did she change what God said? (she said if they even touched it they would die)

Eve may never have actually heard God give this command as only the man was alive at the time it was first made.  The woman saw that the fruit looked good and she gave some to Adam and they ate it together.  Why do you think Adam went along with it? Why do you think Eve offered it to him? Why do you think God forbid the fruit of just this one tree?  Why did he even put it there at all? (these are just open ended questions to get the kids thinking)

After they ate the fruit they made clothes for themselves…why? (they became aware of their nakedness, they became aware of the difference between good and evil, and they felt ashamed for the first time in their lives)

When God confronts Adam he blames Eve, and when God confronts Eve she blames the serpent? Why? (again, open ended questions)

God cursed the serpent, the man, and the woman? What were the curses? (review the curses starting in Genesis 3:14)

Notice that God made clothes out of animal skins for the man and the woman?  Do you think its morally acceptable to kill animals and use their skins for clothing? (open for discussion)

Why did God kick Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden? (Because of their disobedience and because He didn’t want them to eat from the Tree of Life)

In verse 3:22 God says “like one of us“….who is the “us”?  (I think the “us” is God the father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  It’s interesting to me that both the Jewish scriptures (Genesis 3:22) and the Quran (Surah 50:38) both use God in the text as a plural even though they believe in only one God….and not the Trinity.)

What did God put at the entrance to the Garden of Eden to protect it? (Cherubim and a flaming sword) Biblical description of Cherubim can be found HERE.

Do you think the Garden of Eden is still on the earth? How is it hidden? Or was it destroyed by the flood? (things to think about)

Is the story of Adam, Eve, and the Fall factual (historical), an over simplification of something factual (allegorical), or completely made up (fairy tale)? (open for discussion)

Some people refer to Jesus as the “Second Adam” or “the last Adam”.  Why? (There are two passages that contribute to these expressions.  One is in 1 Corinthians 15.  In verse 22 the Bible says – “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.” and then in verse 45 it says – “So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.”  The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”.  The other is in Romans 5:12-21 with the key verse being verse 19 – “For as through the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous.”

Here are the complete passages for easy reference:

There are two expressions, “son of Adam” and “daughter of Eve”, found in the children’s series “The Chronicles of Narnia”.  Are we the sons and daughters of Adam or are we the sons and daughters of God? (Depends on if we have been adopted into God’s family or if we are still living under the “Law” in the fallen state we were born into.  We are all descendants of Adam by our physical birth but we can become children of God through a second birth, a spiritual birth.  Some times this is referred to as being “born again”.)

John 1:12-13 says “¹² But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name: ¹³ who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

In Ephesians 1:5 it says “God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.”

Galatians 4:4-7 says “⁴ But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. ⁵ God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.⁶ And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” ⁷ Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child.  And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.”

John 3:16-17 says “¹⁶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.”

Jesus is like the original Tree of Life.  The Bible teaches in John 15 and Romans 11 that we are like branches and that by faith we can be grafted into the vine of Christ.  It also teaches that God prunes the tree and removes dead branches and bad growth.  He prunes us so that we might bear more fruit.  Have you been grafted into God’s Tree of Life?  Have you felt Him trying to prune bad things out of your life?  God is a master gardener and knows what’s best for you.  There is no lasting life apart from Him.