The Fall of Man (Genesis 3)
Resources
- Sheet Music: Download
- Audio:
Long ago in the cool of the garden
While the bees sang along with the birds,
A serpent with cruel intentions
Muttered wryly with mischief these words:
“Did God really suggest you must suffer
By not eating the fruit of that tree?
Rest assured, mark my words, it is certain
Good and evil henceforth you will see”.
In a trice that audacious suggestion
In the depths of their hearts stirred desire;
Overturning the warning God gave them
They entrusted their souls to a liar;
Then imagining savour delicious
And bewitched by its form in their eyes,
They drank deep from that well-spring of fury
Presupposing they’d thus be made wise!
But the voice of the Lord God their Master
Rang forth in the breeze through the trees,
Where perceiving their shame and their danger
They crouched beneath leaves on their knees.
Then excusing their shameful behaviour
They blamed others for what they had done.
‘Tis unlikely they knew how much trouble
In earth’s future that bite had begun!
In the wake of that grievous transgression
Sin and death came to all humankind
Who, as slaves to the impulse of passion,
To the truth of God’s word became blind.
So today we the offspring of Adam
Are corrupted in all that we do,
Having shunned and ignored ‘revelation’
We decide for ourselves what is true.
Yet the of trauma of labour in childbirth
And the burden of struggles and pain
Serve as token reminders of Eden
And the Laws of our God we disdain.
“Re-awaken us Lord from deep slumber,
Let autonomous thinking give way
Till the light of Your Word in our knowing
Constrains every sentence we say”.
Steve Layfield
