The Fall, Part 2

My last blog on The Fall focused in on the reason for God’s command to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and Adam and Eve’s involvement in that primordial rebellion.  Today I want to address the last two questions I raised in relation to the story of The Fall in Genesis 3.

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

Is there a surprise in the story?

The Death of Adam and Eve.

It is obvious from the story that Adam and Eve did not immediately die the moment they bit into the fruit and swallowed.  If they had, we wouldn’t be here.  We are here, therefore,…  What gives?

Anyone who has worked with death know that death occurs in a variety of forms.  The two broad categories are those of sudden death, such as from a traffic accident or massive heart attack.  The other is the long and drawn out form that occurs from illnesses such as cancer, Alzheimer’s or other debilitating illness.   If you have lived long enough you will have seen family and or friends pass in both ways.  We find both in the Genesis 3 story.

Upon eating the fruit from the tree Adam and Eve began a long drawn-out death.  Even though we do not fully understand the length of years recorded in the Bible, it does say that Adam died at 930 years of age (Genesis 5:5).  The Bible does not tell us the age of Eve at her death.  The rebellion from God’s way did in fact result in death. 

That being acknowledge, I believe there were somethings that died the moment they ate.  Remember the four relationships we talked about in the 2nd Creation story?  Each of those four relationships died with the eating of the fruit.  Here is what I see.  Read the account in Genesis 3.

8 They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.”

The first relationship that died was that of Spirituality.  It would seem that it was a common occurrence for God to visit the garden to walk with Adam and Eve “at the time of the evening breeze.”  How special those spiritual times must have been with the One who had breathed into them the breath of life.  They may have even anticipated those times each day.  But, instead of anticipating them, they feared God’s arrival.  They hid instead of running to embrace the presence of God.  Spirituality had died.

The second relationship that died was death of the psyche.  Upon eating the fruit they realized they were naked (3:7), exposed, and they created clothes to cover themselves.  It seems that in the eating of the fruit they truly had obtained “knowledge of good and evil” but didn’t quite know how to handle it.  Knowledge had revealed their true state.  Seemingly they felt shame and tried to cover it up.  We have been trying to cover things up ever since.  A healthy psyche had died. 

The third relationship that died was that of Intimacy.  Upon God confronting them with their choice to break with God’s command and eating the fruit they immediately began to blame.  Adam blamed Eve (I love how the text says it: “The woman you gave to be with me”).  Not only did he observe the whole thing unfolding and do nothing but he then went the next step and blamed Eve for his choice to eat.  I wonder how many times that topic was brought up in the hundred of years that followed.

Adam was not the only one to avoid accepting responsibility for one’s actions.  Eve blamed the serpent.  She did recognize that she had been tricked, but regardless, she had eaten. 

Intimacy had died. 

Finally, the beautiful relationship of Adam and Eve to creation, the relationship where they were the tenders, the stewards of God’s Garden, the relationship where they were able to enjoy eating from every plant whenever and wherever they pleased and being with the great variety of animals without fear, the intricate balance between humans and the natural world died.

This death was symbolized in three ways.  The first was that serpent and the animal world would not function in the freedom it had known.  The snake would slither on its belly and be at odds with the woman.  CS Lewis in his Chronicles of Narnia presents this in a wonderful way by highlighting a small portion of the creation that retained its ability to communicate with each other and humans from before the fall.  It you go back and read those children’s books keep this theological presentation in mind. 

As for Eve and all woman who would follow, they would experience greater pain in childbirth. Even though God chose the woman to be the avenue by which children entered the world, God never intended birthing to be as massively painful as it is.  Our tells us that such pain is a consequence of the fall not God intention. 

The other consequence for the woman was the shifting of what we now would call an egalitarian relationship with her partner to one of subordination of woman to man.  How this must have irked Eve then and how the power struggle between man and woman continues to play out now.

(As a little side light to think about, when Jesus died for the sin of the world, from what did he die to redeem us?  Did he set us free from the consequences of The Fall?  Did he also die so that we might begin that incredible journey of restoration to what God had originally intended for we humans in Genesis 1 and 2?  I believe that is why he died.  For we who have accepted his redeeming love we must work, under the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit, to live as God intended us to live from the foundations of the world.)

As for Adam, the joy of tending God’s Garden would become work.  The freedom of eating the bounty of the Garden at anytime would become limited.  The ground would also be cursed and begin to bring forth thorns and thistles.  What God had intended to be a lifetime activity based on joy would become labor.  The intended relationship of humans and the planet had died.

The Great Surprise

Paul Harvey of broadcasting fame had a daily radio program that aired about noon across America.  It was called “The Rest of the Story.”  It was magnificent.  There is a “Rest of the Story” here in Genesis that has often been overlooked.  In verse 21 of Chapter 3 we read:

And the Lord God made garments of skins for the man and for his wife, and clothed them.

The implication of this verse is that an animal took the consequence of sin, i.e., death upon itself and in so doing presented skin to provide a covering for Adam and Eve.  It is interesting in the Hebrew that the word “Kaphar” which means “covering” is often translated as “atonement.”  The Ancient Hebrew Research Center provides this definition:

The Hebrew word kaphar means “to cover over,” but is often translated as atonement.  The work atonement is an abstract word and in order to understand the true Hebrew meaning of a word we must look to the concrete meaning.  If an offense has been made, the one that has been offended can act as though the offense is covered over and unseen.  We express this idea through the word of forgiveness.  Atonement is an outward action that covers over the error.   

God covered over the sin so that Adam and Eve could continue to live their now temporal life.  God covered over their sin so reconciliation could begin with the now “fallen” humans and a holy God who loved them. 

This covering continued through the Old Testament into Jesus’ time.  How powerful it is when we read John’s statement upon seeing Jesus just before his baptism.  John 1:29 tells us,

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

Jesus came not to cover our failings, our sin.  Jesus came to remove them, to “take them away.”   I truly hope that sinks in.  We all sin and fall short of the life God intended for us (Romans 3:23).  But “God so loved the world that God gave his one and only son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). 

From the very beginning, God is not only presented as the Creator but also the initiator of a reconciled relationship with the pinnacle of creation, human beings.

• God initiated walking with Adam and Eve in the cool of the garden.

• God called for them when they were in hiding.

• God confronted them in the midst of their sin.

• God disciplined them in response to their failure.

• God atoned for them so reconciliation could begin.

This is the heart and character of God then, and through Jesus Christ, today. Thanks be to God.