Sabbath School Lesson for March 27-April 2, 2021
For daily videos about the lesson, see https://www.youtube.com/teresathompson
Overview for Lesson 1
This week we will see God’s covenant from the very beginning…
- Sunday: Remembering that God is our Creator
- Monday: We are made in His image
- Tuesday: God’s relationship with Adam and Eve
- Wednesday: The first test of our relationship with God
- Thursday: How sin broke our relationship with Him
In order to understand what it means to live in a covenantal relationship with God, we must go back to the very beginning of our existence. Throughout this quarter, we will learn that God’s relationship with us is not based on fear. The whole foundation of His government is love.
Adam and Eve had the first opportunity to be close to God in a very special way. They were not faithful in their relationship with their Creator. Understanding their situation helps us see our relationship with God and with each other more clearly. We get a glimpse of the kind of relationship God intended, but also God’s role, and ours, in restoring it.
Sunday: Turtles All the Way Down…
Faith is the only way we can come to grips with how we got here. There are numerous theories that attempt to explain our existence. Some of them seem rather odd and clever. The story of an elderly woman telling a scientist that the earth was flat and sitting on the back of a turtle…with turtles going all the way down, amuses us. But, since none of us were there to witness the event, we must rely on our inner faith to determine our belief for how we got here.
For the Christian, the biblical explanation must be explored. The creation story in Genesis is all we have to guide us. We read in the Gospels that Jesus quoted from Genesis, so it must be a book to rely on when it comes to understanding our beginning.
Genesis 1:1, along with John 1:1-3, must be taken seriously. God created us through His Son, Jesus Christ, also known as the Word. Accepting that, through faith, is vital to understanding our covenantal relationship with God.
Bible Verses to Read and Discuss:
Genesis 1:1 and Psalm 100:3
- How does knowing that God made us affect our relationship with Him?
Hebrews 1:2
- Why is it important to know that God created everything, even other worlds?
Monday: In the Image of the Maker
As God completed each day’s work of creating this world, He pronounced what He had accomplished as “good”. But at the end of the sixth day, in which mankind was made, He said it was “very good”. There was something special indeed about the man and woman God created at the end of Creation week.
Genesis 1:26 helps explain why humans were celebrated above all the other creatures. God tells us that both male and female were made in His image. Just as proud parents rejoice when their children resemble them, God took special pride in the perfect pair that inhabited His beautiful new world.
As members of the godhead are equal, it was God’s purpose to create male and female as equal partners and caretakers of the newly-formed earth. He, no doubt, looked forward to the companionship He would enjoy with Adam and Eve.
The relationship between God and humanity was meant to be a close one. No wonder He has gone to such extreme measures to restore that relationship that was broken so cruelly and suddenly in the Garden.
Bible Verses to Read and Discuss:
Genesis 2:7, 21, 22
- What difference do you see in the way God created Adam and Eve, and why do you think there was this difference from the way the rest of the world came about?
Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 2:24
- How were Adam and Eve to relate to God, and to each other?
Tuesday: God and Humankind Together
God’s first conversation with Adam and Eve, as told in Genesis 1:28, 29, tells a lot about the relationship God expected to have with the first couple. It sounded very much like a wedding ceremony, with God blessing them and outlining their duties to each other and the larger world they lived in. He even reminded them of the bountiful supply of food they had available to enjoy.
Although He spoke to them from a position of higher authority, they, too, were given authority over the natural world around them. Being made in God’s image, one would expect them to have this ability to be masters of other creatures that were found in their beautiful garden home.
As intelligent beings who could respond to their Maker’s love, there seemed to be much reason to expect a close relationship developing between God and this perfect pair. Knowing what kind of relationship God hoped for, helps us as we struggle to regain some semblance of that relationship in our own lives.
Bible Verses to Read and Discuss:
Genesis 1:28
- What do you think God had in mind when He told them to subdue the earth and have dominion over all living creatures there?
Genesis 1:29
- What was God’s original diet for mankind?
- What might be the value of returning to that diet now?
Wednesday: At the Tree
As free moral agents, Adam and Eve had the opportunity to continue their privileged relationship with their Creator, as long as they remained loyal and faithful to His requests. His only request at the beginning was to stay away from one tree in the Garden. How simple and straightforward was God’s warning to them. If only they had taken it seriously enough to obey, they would have remained in their beautiful home forever.
Not only did God explain their one prohibition of not eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but they were reminded that all the other trees in the Garden were available to them. God’s test was not a hard one. But the test was necessary to affirm their trust in Him.
By neglecting to follow God’s will, they were rejecting God and aligning themselves with the enemy they were warned about. Their action indicated that they did not need God, and the result for them both was tragic. Guilt, alienation, loneliness, and finally death followed their tragic decision.
Bible Verses to Read and Discuss:
Genesis 2:16, 17
- Why was God’s test a fair one? And why was it necessary?
Thursday: Breaking the Relationship
Satan, speaking to Eve through the serpent, did not directly dispute God’s words. He deceptively caused Eve to question them, however. The serpent’s compliments, coupled with half truths about God’s motives, were enough to make her fail God’s loyalty test.
Had she alone yielded to the temptation, all would not have been lost for the human race. Unfortunately, she was successful in convincing Adam to join in her rebellious act. And the result was catastrophic for the entire planet.
All was not lost, however. With the guilt-ridden pair attempting to hide from God in the Garden, Moses tells us that God called out for them, knowing full well where they were and what they had done. He lovingly explained what their sin would mean for them in the future, eliminating some of their fear and anxiety over their impetuous act.
Included in the conversation was a prediction that gave them hope. Genesis 3:15 mentioned a Seed of the woman that would cause damage to their enemy. There would be a way to mend the relationship with their Maker after all.
Bible Verses to Read and Discuss:
Genesis 3:1-3 and 2:16, 17
- Why was touching the fruit as dangerous as eating it?
Genesis 3:4-6
- How did Eve’s senses contribute to her eating the forbidden fruit?
- Why are senses important to us, but how can they do us harm as well?
Genesis 3:8, 9
- What does this tell us about God’s desire for a relationship with us?
Genesis 3:15
- Although this may have been a rather vague statement to us, how do you think Adam and Eve understood it?
Friday: Final Thoughts
Most of us have experienced what it feels like to lose a loved one. Imagine how God must have felt, as He searched for Adam and Eve and called for them in the Garden, after they had sinned. How His heart must have ached for the separation He knew would result from their foolish act of disobedience.
We can also only imagine the anguish and guilt that must have already overwhelmed the hearts of our first parents. So many fears of the unknown must have entered their minds.
But, God tenderly outlined what their future would hold, in language they could only partly understand at the time. That brief Messianic prediction (Genesis 3:15) indicated that there was hope for their situation, a chance for them to redeem themselves and return to their former relationship.
The Seed of the woman, which God would implant there, would help them defeat the enemy that had deceived them. Together, they would find a way to mend the wrongs that had been committed. The “gospel seed” was planted in the hearts of God’s children that day in the Garden.
Next Week: Sabbath: Covenant Primer
To read the Sabbath School Lesson Quarterly or see more resources for its study, go to
