In the Garden, shortly (at least by text) after God had made Eve out of Adam, they were presented with a choice. Up until this time they only knew a healthy relationship with God and had no basis for understanding deception. Their existence was very much based on their relationship with God and now also with each other. I think it's also important to remember that God had done the imaginable and given a creative being made in His own image the power to choose! He gave them free will. Even in the beginning He's given them absolute and complete freedom to do anything. Literally everything was permissible for them…yet soon they would learn that not everything is beneficial.
However, out of His goodness and love He did give them council. He told Adam that there was a tree in the middle of the garden called the tree of life and they could and should eat from it as much as they'd like. Then He told Adam about the tree of "the knowledge of good and evil." This tree wasn't to be eaten of because it would bring death.
Now I'm sure all of you are aware of the next set of circumstances where the serpent deceives Eve (actually using predominantly truth) to take a bite of the fruit. Likewise, Adam follows his girl and they've now both eaten of it.
Let me pause for a brief second to mention that the bible later mentions that this is the point where sin entered the world through a MAN…For those of you men who are reading this, take note of the cowardice and hesitancy of Adam. It was his job and responsibility to stand between Satan and his girl and say "back off and don't you ever try to bring death into her again!" Yet, even though God had given him the instructions with the tree (yes, Eve knew), he stood there behind her and watched to see what would happen…then when she didn't fall over dead right away, he decided it would be a good idea to follow her…
Today we still have a generation of women who are taking abuse firsthand because the men in their lives won't step up in front and say enough is enough…
Immediately their eyes were opened and they saw that they were naked. They quickly took action to cover themselves and while they were working on their leaves God came walking through the garden and called out to them. Adam responds by saying "I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."
OK let's look at this. They had always been naked and God was it ok with it before. Assuredly God would have still been ok with them being naked now. Beforehand they had felt no shame and not only is their shame involved, there is fear! What Adam feared God would do when He found out He was still naked is beyond me. However, this passage is foundational in understanding a few things.
4. Fear is introduced. Fear has got to be one of the strongest deceivers and influencers in the world and it's not a huge surprise since it's been around so long.
5. Judgment is introduced. Fear is often tied with judgment and this is even revealed quickly here. I'm assuming the fear that drove them to hide when they heard God was tied with judgment. Likewise, when God asks Adam point blank if he ate from the tree, Adam replies that the woman He gave her made him do it…So God stays patient and asks the woman about her thoughts on the matter and she says that the serpent deceived her and got her to do it. It's amazing how quickly they learned not to own up and instead just blame someone else…sound a little bit like our world today?
God then takes some time to tell everyone involved what the consequences of their choices were…For the longest time I read that with the frame of mind that He was making just judgments on their sins through disobedience. I've come to realize that kicking Adam and Eve out of the garden was the most gracious and merciful thing He could do and that the curses that came out of this had a bit more to do with cause and effect from choices made than judgments from anger or being upset. (You can read some more thoughts on this subject from one of my old blogs: http://bennyv.theworldrace.org/?filename=just-workin-it&bookmark=true)
to be continued…
