Bible Story Lessons

God had told Adam and Eve that it was their job to take care of the Garden of Eden and look after all the animals.  God blessed Adam and Eve and said, "All that you see is for you to use and eat, but never touch the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil" in the middle of the Garden.  That tree teaches you all about good and evil, and the day you eat its fruit, you will die."

What a terrible punishment for disobedience!  God meant that they would no longer be able to talk and see Him face-to-face, but would die one day and be buried in the ground.

One day, while Eve was gathering fruit for a meal she heard a silky voice behind her say, "Has God told you that you can eat the fruit from all the trees?"  Eve looked around and saw a snake was talking to her.   Eve answered the snake, "God told us we can eat all the fruit except for what grows on the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil."

"I don't think such lovely fruit will do you any harm," lied the snake, "God knows that if you eat from the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil", you'll become just like God and be able to decide for yourself what is right and what is wrong."

The woman looked at the fruit and thought how good and tasty it looked.  She thought it would be wonderful to be as wise as God.  She believed the snake's lie and ate some of the fruit.  Suddenly she felt guilty as she had disobeyed God and knew she'd done something wrong!

Do you feel bad when you have done something wrong?  (Let the children respond). Well do you know what Eve did?  She picked some more fruit and took it back to Adam and he ate the fruit as well!

A change came over Adam and Eve and they became unhappy and fearful of God.  They became very shy when they realised that they had no clothes and were naked!  They tried to make themselves some clothes out of fig leaves, but Adam would laugh as Eve's leaves blew away.  He got cross when the same thing happened to him and Eve rolled on the ground laughing at him!

Later that day, they heard God calling them.  They quickly hid in the bushes, for they knew that they had done wrong.  But, God found where they were hiding and asked them if they had eaten from the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil" that He had told them not to touch.  They hung their heads in shame and started to blame each other for their disobedience.  "It's your fault!" shouted Eve.  "No, it's your fault because you gave me the fruit!" yelled Adam.

But it was too late.  God was sad that Adam and Eve had disobeyed Him and had sinned.  To give them clothes, God had to kill some animals and make them clothes from the skins.  He told them that they would now have to work hard to grow their food.  Nothing would come easily, and weeds would grow and spoil their crops of food.

God commanded them to leave the Garden of Eden and put an angel with a big sword at the entrance to stop them returning.  But, the worst thing was when God said, "You can't come near Me again, and one day you will die and be buried in the ground!"

God made rules to protect us, but we all have broken God's rules and disobeyed Him.  Sins are when we disobey God, like telling lies, disobeying your parents and being naughty.  God knew that we could never please Him by trying to be good.  And so God sent His Son, Jesus, to die for us on a cross and take our punishment for everything we have done wrong.

We need to ask Jesus to forgive us our sins, and come and live in our hearts.  And then one day when we die, we will go to Heaven to live with Jesus and God forever.  You also need to ask God every day to help you to be good and to obey your Mommy and Daddy.

Let's ask Jesus right now to forgive us for all we have done wrong.   That will make God very happy!

God bless.