Apple Pickin’

“Thus by their fruit you will recognize them.” Matthew 7:20 NIV

 

 

 

Apples have gotten a bad rap…biblically speaking, that is.

 

THE very first sin had to do with an apple. Well, not really an apple, in fact the actual type of fruit is unknown, but somehow the “forbidden fruit” that ol’ Eve ate has turned into an apple over the centuries.

 

But a lot has changed since that rough first day.

 

Apples are good. Apples are good for you. Apples are pretty much enjoyed everywhere.

 

And yet they are the symbol of both good and evil in the beginnings of our existence.

 

Good, because God had made one tree, just one tree, full of some very powerful fruit. Fruit that would give Adam and Eve super human powers!

 

“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…” Genesis 2:16-17a

 

Evil, because the fruit had a bad side to it. The apple was in essence man’s kryptonite.

 

“…for when you eat of it you will surely die.” Genesis 2:17b

 

Did they listen?

 

No.

 

Did Eve take matters into her own hands?

 

Yes.

 

Did they die?

 

Sort of.

 

Did they mess up?

 

Big time.

 

 

You might as well plop me down in the Garden of Eden and call me Eve because I know I would have done the same thing. For crying out loud, I barely stay away from the cookie jar when it calls my name, let alone major temptation.

 

And that’s the lesson today.

 

How many apples do we pick in a day?

 

How many times do we eat the proverbial forbidden fruit that God clearly says to stay away from?

That first command wasn’t a one and done. He’s been saying the same cautionary words from that day forward—All for our own good.

 

Oh, but we’re just like Eve aren’t we?

 

“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.” Genesis 3:6

 

I seem to pick the low fruit constantly…it looks desirable. I see the draw to the fruit and all the wisdom it will give me:

 

Do your own thing.

Do what makes you happy.

Self first.

God will understand.

(The list is endless you know?)

 

Picking apples. That’s what I call it.  Eve did it once; I do it daily.

 

But…

(you know there’s always a but…)

 

God redeemed that fruit picking.

 

God knew—

We will always be sin pickers.

We will always get it wrong.

We will always choose worldly over Godly.

Tough to say always but it’s true. One bad apple literally rotted the entire world.

 

Yet God said I won’t let it destroy you.

 

And Jesus was sent.

 

One man, one Savior, one Good Friday.

 

For that which destroyed the world under an apple tree, was later redeemed nailed to a tree.

 

And why did He do it?

 

Because you and I are the forever apples of His eye.

 

“For this is what the Lord Almighty says: “After the Glorious One has sent me against the nations that have plundered you—for whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye—“ Zechariah 2: 8 NIV

 

 

You see it’s all in the way we harvest our fruit.

 

We can continue to pick the daily apples that will surely cause us to die. The decisions that bring us down and tear us apart. The decisions that put us first and God second.

 

Or we can choose the fruit that sustains our lives. The fruit that matters when this life is over and we’re in the presence of the great Master. The fruit that comes from living out His word.

 

It is a daily choice–

To be set apart,

To be called a follower,

To live a life worthy of being a child of the King.

 

Every day we pick fruit.

Which apple pickin’ will you do?