I love it when you can read a very familiar part of scripture, and you get to see something new…giving you a new perspective on this life.
While reading genesis 3, it stuck out to me that the enemy asked Eve, “Did God really say…?”
I’ve always thought he was simply questioning God’s character. But I’m wondering if he was making her doubt her ability to hear God. It doesn’t appear he’s questioning God or trying to get her to doubt God, rather to question what she heard God tell her – to second guess her relationship with God. Our logic will often trump our faith. That’s pretty slick of the enemy. The strange reality is, that what the enemy said was true…just twisted with evil intent.
He said they wouldn’t die, and they didn’t…immediately. The truth was, they didn’t even understand what death was yet, but death had begun on the inside. Sadly, it would not be until their own son’s death that they would experience the seeming finality of it.
Then the enemy tells Eve exactly why God doesn’t want them to eat from that tree – Genesis 3: 5 says,
God knows that your eyes will be opened when you eat it. You will become just like God, knowing everything, both good and evil.
God did not want them to deal with or know evil, and that was 100% true.
The enemy was there in the garden the whole time, but God didn’t want their life experience to be hindered by that reality. Evil was God’s problem… and then, after we ate from that tree, it became ours.
Before Adam and Eve disobeyed, they only knew good. They only knew God’s pure and holy perspective. They felt safe and loved because they were safe and loved. Then the ate of the Tree of Knowledge.
Then the Lord God said, ” the people have become as we are, knowing everything, both good and evil. What if they eat the fruit of the Tree of Life? Then they will live forever! So, the Lord banished Adam and Eve from the garden (Gen 3:22-23). He then stationed mighty angelic beings and “a flaming sword flashed back and forth” to guard the way to the tree of life.
The fact that the sword is moving back & forth by itself is a little crazy, but I digress.
Adam & Eve sinned. They disobeyed and went against God’s best. The wages of sin is death (Rom 3:23). The same death that in Revelation gets thrown into the lake of fire along with the beast, the devil & Hades. Death is a thing we gave authority to through our disobedience. We are now dying. Had Adam and Eve had continual access to the Tree of Life following their choice, they would have lived forever knowing & wrestling evil. It makes me wonder if the dying, although brutal, is, in God’s perspective, grace to protect us from having to mess with the enemy ourselves forever. Revelation 22 says,
“And the Angel showed me a pure river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the lamb, coursing down the center of the Main Street. On each side of the river grew a tree…”
This is life and God is the source. That tree still exists. That’s just amazing to think about. We who know & follow Jesus will eat from it again!
I HAVE SOME FINAL THOUGHTS:
Was God mad at Adam and Eve?
I don’t think so.
Did he have to hold them accountable and punish them?
I don’t think that is true either, despite that being what I’ve always assumed.
Their choice actually invited in a perspective that changed everything. God, in love (his consistent character), tells them the new realities of their newly acquired life: kids would make life harder, we would no longer function as equals, life would be a struggle because of the pressure and necessity to have money, we would now sweat & stress to produce and achieve (Gen 3). That sounds about right. Under the enemy’s leadership that is our reality. It stinks, and we either fight against it or look for ways to cope all the time. We intrinsically know it’s not right. He would also have to implement rules later (think Moses) in order to manage life amidst the reality of sin, but that is for another entry. This new reality Adam & Eve were now living (that we all live), would be the first example of a natural consequence. Wow, I can’t imagine the deep pain in God’s heart…and the deep compassion and love He felt for His kids in that moment.
Amidst it all, I love God’s heart for his kids. It says he made clothing from animal skins for Adam and Eve. He doesn’t appear to be angry while doing it. He knew the ultimate plan was playing out and we would be OK if we let him lead. He sacrificed a life to literally “cover” their sin. That was the cost. It was the first death. A cost that would later be paid in full.
It would appear there was a story before our “in the beginning” in Genesis. I’m guessing it’s one involving a continual battle between good and evil. We enter that story quite unaware of its magnitude. God had a plan to take care of the evil all along…and it would seem we, in our fragile broken state, played right into the story. We unknowingly were used to set the stage for Jesus to come down, die, and then defeat death once and for all.
The Truth – we are God’s precious creation. He loves us so much. He yearns for relationship with us despite our screw ups and brokenness. None of that shocks him. He knows how the enemy works. He’s been dealing with him way before we came to be.
He sees the bigger picture…one we can only “see in a mirror dimly” (1 Cor 13:12). He would and is taking care of everything…We just must trust him in the meanwhile.
And, because of God’s Holy Spirit, we can hear Him…and trust what He says to be true.
It gives much deeper meaning to what Isaiah says in his book,
Though the Lord gave you adversity for food
and suffering for drink,
he will still be with you to teach you.
You will see your teacher with your own eyes.
Your own ears will hear him.
Right behind you a voice will say, “This is the way you should go,” whether to the right or to the left.(Isaiah 30:20-21)