Series: Broken 
Message: Potential 
Preacher: David Smith
Daily Walk: David Smith

Refresh: Open with prayer. Read or listen to Psalm 78:9-16.

Read: Genesis 3 (ESV). Re-read in the English Standard Version for new insights or questions. 

Reflect: Once Adam and Eve had sinned and realized they were naked, they quickly went to work designing makeshift clothing out of fig leaves. Illustrations often make this attempt look entirely effectual. Adam and Eve are depicted wearing leaves neatly stitched together in a fashion rather similar to the Jolly Green Giant. Have you ever stopped to consider how poorly leaves would work for covering the body? Even when newly stitched together, the leaves would be easily susceptible to tears. One ill-advised move and you’d be left with a gaping hole. Once the leaves began to dry out, the problems would only increase. The leaves would shrink and become less durable. Fig leaves are hardly an adequate remedy to nakedness. Adam apparently recognizes this pretty early on—because when God arrives on the scene, Adam tells Him that he hid because of his nakedness. Even after attempting to cover themselves with fig leaves Adam and Eve still feel naked. And that’s precisely the point of this detail in the story. 
By making fig leaves, Adam and Eve are attempting to use their own abilities and resources to cover themselves, but the reader knows that ultimately this won’t work. The works of their own hands are useless.This provides a striking metaphor for humanity as a whole. How many times do we try by our own actions to make ourselves better people? How many times do we try to reverse the shame in our lives by “pulling ourselves up by the bootstraps” to become better people? There’s a word for this tactic in the New Testament—“works." No matter how hard we try to better ourselves through our works, we will ultimately end up exposed in our shame. 
Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,  not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Recalibrate: ​ 

1. In what ways do you attempt to deal with your shame on your own? 
2. How would accepting God’s grace impact your life today?   

Respond: Pray for the ability to rely on God’s grace rather than your own works.

Research: What are other uses of the fig tree found in the Bible and how might they relate to Genesis 3?