The Fall, Part 1

In my comments on our beginnings as presented in the Bible, the Fall of Man, the rebellion/sin of Eve and Adam found in Genesis 3 is a familiar theme.  It has been played out in many ways over time highlighting the power of temptation and the consequences of rebelling from God’s order.  Since I am talking in these Retirement Blogs about significant passages of scripture that have shaped my life and my ministry, I must include my thoughts here and those thoughts revolve around five questions:

Why the Tree and “Thou Shalt Not”

Why is Eve blamed

Why did the serpent pick Eve and not Adam?

Where was Adam

If they didn’t, “You shall surely die,” what happened, what were the consequences?

Is there a surprise in the story?

Why the tree? 

God created a good world.  It functioned well in an intricate balance of life, substance and relationships.  Within this Paradise, God set only one rule which the man and woman, Adam and Eve had to obey, 

16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”

Why would God even create this option.  Because the only part of creation created to love have a love relationship with God were human beings.  To love, a person must choose otherwise the person is only a robot, a machine.  In the midst of Paradise, the presence of a “Thou Shalt Not” gave Adam and Eve the opportunity to follow God’s rule because they respected his direction above all else.  They had to believe that God knew best and follow that best.  They had to trust God.  They had to “Love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength” (Mark 12:29-30).

Underlying this issue of TRUST was what I believe God saw within the character of the created human beings.  It appears to me that Eve (and Adam as a 2ndary person) had the innate ability to desire something good (“she saw that it was good for food…3:6)  but not the innate ability to discern between good and evil at any given moment in time or ultimately over the long term.  It was the trust in the ways of God that would assist them in discernment because God is Good.  Trust (and the obedience that flowed from it) was a means to love God. 

It was the issue of TRUST that was Challenged by the serpent.  Not the underlined parts of the passage from Genesis 3:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; 5 for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Why is Eve blamed? 

The commandment, given to Adam, obviously had been shared with Eve.  She knew the boundaries within the Garden.  The message of the serpent was, “You can’t trust God.  God set a boundary that is arbitrary and not true.  God lied to you.”

Eve believed the liar.  She did it under best intentions because she thought it was good.  But, she still did not obey God’s direction and took it into her own hands her method of becoming wise. 

6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate;

It is this action that caused the Apostle Paul to blame Eve and give as a primary reason as to why the early Christians were not allowed to place women in teachers/leaders roles in the early church. 

12 I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve; 14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. 1 Timothy 2:12-14

Where was Adam?

I find it interesting that Eve is blamed for the sin that caused The Fall.  It seems that she was the one who was seeking deeper things.  She ate because she saw the fruit to be valuable “to make one wise.”  It is she that saw this fruit as not just something on a tree bust something that was beautiful, “A delight to the eyes.”  She seems to have been spiritually curious.  She seems to have been the one who wanted to color outside the lines.  If Eve had a sin, it revolved around her spiritual curiosity.

But where was Adam.  Genesis 3:6b concludes with a fascinating statement:

and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.

Adam was standing right “with her.”  She “gave it to him and HE ATE.”  He seemingly watched this whole temptation thing go down.  He seemingly didn’t say a thing.  He didn’t confront the serpent.  He didn’t confront the lie.  He didn’t protect his woman whom God had created just for him.  Maybe he thought, “I have always wondered about this.  If she eats it first and doesn’t die, then I am good to go.”  Whatever his inner thoughts were, his decision seemingly became choosing between a love relationship with God or his wife.  He chose the woman over his God. 

It is always dangerous to paint broad strokes from an account like this.  However, I am going to conclude this blog by painting some broad strokes and hopefully you will see them as observations and not revelation.  I also acknowledge anytime someone makes broad generalization that there is a good percentage of people who do not fall into the broad categories.  However, these broad strokes may also contain some truth to be considered.  Here mine are:

With Eve the spiritual sin of women often leans toward spiritual inquiry.

With Adam the spiritual sin of man often leans toward spiritual passivity. 

Do you agree with these generalizations?  Why or why not?  In which direction do you lean?  How do you respond within the boundaries of trusting God versus testing the limits? 

In conclusion I will leave it to you to determine which was the greater sin.  I will leave it to you if spiritual curiosity or spiritual passivity should be the greater disqualifier in terms of church life today.  I will leave it to you to determine from what Jesus redeemed us in terms of our forefather/mother’s sin and, once forgiven, what we should be set free to do within the family of God.    

Next blog I will focus on “you will surely die.”