Almost everyone is familiar with the
following story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and how they gave
into temptation ruining man’s relationship with God for all the rest of
us:
Genesis 2:15-17 “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of
Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man,
“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, for when you eat of it
you will surely die.” Then God decided it was not good for the man to be
alone, he needed a helper, so God took a rib from Adam and created a
woman. The man and his wife were both naked and they felt no shame.
Genesis 3:1-7 “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild
animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really
say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the
garden, but God did say, “You must not eat fruit from the tree that is
in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will
die." “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows
that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like
God, knowing good and evil.”
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. 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
realized they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made
coverings for themselves.” When God found out He was very displeased
with them.
Then in Genesis 3:12-13 “The man said, “The woman you put here with me,
she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.” Then the Lord God
said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “the
serpent deceived me and I ate.”
They were told not to do something but they did it anyway, but is there
an underlying meaning to this account? Why would God tell them not to
eat from that one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? What
was so important about it that they were told “you will surely die.”?
Well there are several ideas that come to mind; one would be that God
gave man the freedom of choice. Man could choose to follow the
directions or commands of God or he could follow his own desires. God
said not to eat the fruit or to even touch one certain tree, because He
knew what would happen if they did, but he did not stop them, he let
them choose. From the very beginning God did not force His will on man,
but let man seek Him out on his own. He doesn’t tell them that they
can’t; but His warning is that they shouldn’t. The death that God had
hoped to have Adam and Eve avoid was the death of their innocence, like a
parent with a child longing to keep them safe from the horrors of the
world.
Another thought is that this is the beginning of the “blame game” that
has been handed down from generation to generation since the creation of
the world. First Adam blames Eve for giving the fruit to him, then Eve
blames the evil snake for telling her it was ok to eat it. So there it
is, the practice of passing the blame to someone else instead of taking
the responsibility for one’s own mistakes.
This is still prevalent in the world today; it’s always someone else’s
fault when things go wrong and not ours. We never want to step up and
take responsibility for our own problems or short comings. The reason
being we don’t want to deal with the consequences; we want someone else
to take the punishment.
Still another thought would be that God knows what is best for us and He
gives us fair warning not to go against His commands. God is like a
loving parent, giving us guidelines to follow throughout life. Things
such as the Ten Commandments were meant to help us avoid the pitfalls of
life on earth and keep us out of trouble. The whole Old Testament of
the Bible is all about God trying to teach His strong willed and
stiff-necked people a lesson in love.
Maybe we need to pay more attention to the warnings God has given us and
learn how to deal with the consequences of our own actions instead of
placing the blame on others. Now is the time to stop being a stiff
necked and strong willed people and let God lead us in the right
direction through the salvation given freely by His Son, Jesus Christ!
