Explanation: Our world is not the way it is supposed to be. Much of the goodness of God’s creation is lost – so much of life is filled with bad. The Bible teaches that mankind’s disobedience brought sin and misery into the world. This is a basic feature of a Christian worldview. Children need to understand what went wrong before they can understand how Jesus will make it right once again.
This story deals with the concept of God’s punishment and anger toward sin. Remember that God is loving and his goodness requires an appropriate response to evil. So his anger toward human rebellion is another way we can see his goodness. The promise given in Genesis 3 is a beautiful foreshadowing of Christus Victor. God continues to love his disobedient children and will one day rescue them from the mess they have made.
This lesson plan is part of my series based on The Big Picture Story Bible by David R. Helm and Gail Schoonmaker. These lessons can be used with other story Bibles or by telling the Bible stories in your own words. However, I strongly recommend this book for it’s excellent illustrations and unifying approach to salvation history.