Read with Me
Genesis 3:1-7 (HCSB)
Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’ ”
“No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman. “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
Listen with Me
Some critics of the Bible point to this episode with derision, believing that a talking snake betrays that the whole thing is folklore or myth. But as is later revealed in Revelation 20:2, this was not a run of the mill snake, but satan himself using the form of a serpent.
To both Adam and Eve (he was right there with her at the time – verse 6), a talking serpent didn’t seem strange at all. They had only been alive for a short time, and they had no idea yet of all the things that were in the world, or what every animal was capable of.
The serpent was near the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the center of the garden, near the tree of life (Genesis 2:9). Before Eve was created, God had instructed Adam that he was allowed to eat from every tree in the garden except one: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam was warned that if he did eat from it, he would die. God then relied on him to convey that warning to the woman.
Some wonder why, if God is truly omnipotent and omnipresent, He allowed the enemy into the garden. But, just as Jesus had to be tested before he began His public ministry, so Adam and Eve had to be tested before they could be trusted to be God’s representatives, his emissaries in the world. So, just as God allowed satan the freedom to test Jesus, he allowed him freedom to test the first human couple.
Satan began with a misstatement that he knew the woman would correct, thus entering into conversation. No, God had not told them that all the trees were off limits. The fruit of only one tree was not to be eaten under the threat of death. In fact, Eve added, they were not even to touch it or they would die. That last statement was not part of God’s original instructions. But it is easy to see how Adam, wanting to clearly communicate to his wife the danger inherent in that tree had, out of an abundance of caution, warned her “Don’t even touch it!”
The serpent didn’t dwell on the error. Instead, he attacked the heart of the matter. The fruit wasn’t poisonous. In fact it was quite beautiful and tasty. And he directly attacked God’s own character. The only reason God wanted to prohibit them from eating the fruit is that it would confer on them the knowledge of both good and evil. (So far they had known only good.) Thus, if they ate of the fruit, they would become God-like themselves, something God supposedly was purposefully denying to them.
Instead of simply trusting God’s word, Eve decided to get “scientific”. She looked at the fruit. It certainly look good. A little closer, and she could smell its aroma, which was wonderful. She chanced a touch, and she felt no ill effects. Thus, on the basis of her own tests and thought processes, she assumed that the serpent was right after all: the fruit wasn’t poisonous. Indeed, it seemed to be highly desirable for attaining divine wisdom.
She ate the fruit, gingerly at first, then with gusto. And when she didn’t fall down dead, Adam was willing to eat the fruit she offered to him.
Neither dropped dead. In fact, God had never declared the fruit poisonous. The truth is that the only thing special about the tree or its fruit was the fact that God had prohibited it. The knowledge of evil came not through magic or chemistry, but through the choice the couple made to disobey God. Thus, the effect of the fruit was subliminal, only seen by its effect.
As soon as the couple disobeyed God, their connection to Him was severed. Cut off from the true source of their physical life, they became mortal. Because they were both created perfect, with bodies built to last forever, they would go on living for a long, long time (for Adam, 930 years – Genesis 5: 5). But they would ultimately die. And because they had chosen their own will over God’s, that rebellion caused them to die spiritually as well. They would still know God, but now they would know Him not as their intimate friend, but as a being completely other than them, one who would spark fear in them, not desire.
The first indication of the brokenness that had now become a part of their lives was a sense of shame in each other’s presence. Their awareness of being naked was not wisdom, but guilt. And their instinctive solution was not repentance but hiding their nakedness with hastily constructed fig-leaf loincloths.
Pray with Me
Father, some have seen this event as a failure in Your plan, a place where the enemy snuck in and spoiled all You had designed. But in reality, this was merely a test that the first couple could have passed, but that they chose to fail by believing the tester and turning away from Your truth. Thus, Adam and Eve are the ones responsible for the brokenness introduced into the world through their disobedience. They were not victims; they chose, and they chose badly. It is so easy for us, too, to claim victim status when facing temptations. “The devil made me do it!” may have had its origins in a comic sketch, but it precisely corresponds to the way that far too many people, even Christians, see ourselves. But according to Your word, with Your help we are never powerless, never victims of the enemy. You promised to provide the inner transformation and the power to pass any tests You allow into our lives. You even specifically promise to provide a way out of any temptation if we will only look for it and take it (1 Corinthians 10:13). Help me, Lord, to always live in obedience to your commands, never listening to the voice of the tempter, and looking for your way out in every test. Amen.