When Adam and Eve ignored God’s request not to eat from the Tree of knowledge of good and evil, and ate the fruit, their eyes were opened and they came, like God had spoken about the knowledge of good and evil, to see what was good and what was bad or evil.
We have no idea how long Adam and Eve had lived in unison with their Creator. But we are told that they themselves choose to go against God’s Will. It was their own choice to close their ears for God’s commandment not to eat from that tree. It was by their own choice of will that they made an irreversible act and created a different history for themself and, in fact, for all mankind.
Normally it was foreseen that they could live for ever in a paradise, but know, as God had warned them they had to face death. Now their days of life became numbered.
They had thought that in the day they were eating thereof, then their eyes would be opened and then they could be as wise and knowledgable as God. Having the same knowledge as God attracted them. They also wanted to have the same power as Him.
The metaphorical use of elements, like animals speaking, is often used in the Bible Books. Concerning Balaam the apostle Peter endorsed the account
2 Peter 2:16 NHEBJE but he was rebuked for his own disobedience. A mute donkey spoke with a man’s voice and stopped the madness of the prophet.
opening his ears, where previously his eyes were opened involving an occurrence with an angel.(Numbers 22:31) In later books of the Holy Scriptures references are made to the many lies which continue to live in this world. The lies Eve and Adam heard are like we may hear the lies of the false teachers (Genesis 3:4 vs 2 Corinthians 11:13) and want to follow them. The world may spread subtile or beguiling beliefs. (Genesis 3:1 vs 2 Corinthians 11:3,13) and get people seduced bringing them in danger of loosing their life (2 Corinthians 11:3).
After their own choice doing that act, Eve’s fall was disastrous.
1 Timothy 2:14 NHEBJE Adam was not deceived, but the woman, being deceived, has fallen into disobedience;
2 Corinthians 11:3 NHEBJE (3) But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
Today in Christendom we still can see how people let their ears be tangled by human teachings, instead of listening to the Biblical truth, and accepting God’s Words for what they are and say. In the same way as the serpent beguiled Eve by its craftiness, so are many minds corrupted from the simplicity which belongs to Christ, the sent one from God. Lots of so called Christians keep to the false idea that Jesus has to be God because they do not want to believe that Jesus is the sent one from God, who as a man of flesh and blood managed to do what the 1st Adam and the 1st woman did not succeed, namely to put his own will aside and only doing the Will of god, his heavenly Father, the Only One true God of gods.
The selfish thoughts of Eve, represented by the serpent, led Eve away from the Elohim יהוה YHWH Jehovah God, in small steps leading to self-assertive independence. Today also there are the personal wishes to be in control of everything and there are still other people who desire to draw people away from God. The serpent, by its poison and its loathly form, is the natural symbol of such an enemy of man, the adversary of god or a satan. The insinuating slyness of the suggestions of evil is like the sinuous gliding of the snake, and truly represents the process by which temptation found its way into the hearts of the first pair, and of all their descendants. For it begins with casting a doubt on the reality of the prohibition.
‘Has God said?’
is the first parallel opened by the besieger.
Often we also hear others say
“What does it matter” or “There is no harm in it”
this is even more dangerous than by Eve, who was warned that there was something bad to happen. But now that message of the badness that can happen to us is also blurred by what happened in the garden of Eden.
The woman could have been protected from her serious fall if she had referred the matter to her husband, who had been given the place of headship. Because she ignored this she was deceived into deliberate disobedience to God. She saw the tree was good for food: it appealed to her taste. It was pleasant to the eyes: it appealed to her sight. It was desirable to make one wise: it appealed to her pride (See 1Jonn 2:16). she therefore trusted her own inclinations and ignored the word of God (v.6). Before consulting her husband she ate the fruit of the tree. {L.M.Grant}
Like doubt may have been filtered into the ear of Eve today we also see the reality of moral distinctions, the essential wrongness of the sin, being obscured by a mist of sophistication. Where often scholars say to the people they can not understand it because God is too complicated. But God is a God of order and a God of love, Who wants clarity and righteousness. He would not withhold something for certain people because they had no opportunity to study or to learn certain things.
Mankind came to see, like they were warned. There was the temptation. They could have chosen to let it pass, like later on Jesus did several times. Going against the Wish of God is called sinning. The promise of knowing good and evil was indeed kept, because God always keeps His promises. Though their minds were hoping for things which were not for them. Instead of their eating of the fruit making the sinners ‘like gods,’ it showed them that they were like beasts, and brought the first sense of shame.
Perhaps they now got more knowledge, but this knowing of good and evil was not such a blessing as they hoped for. Their ignorant innocence was changed into bitter knowledge, and conscience awoke to rebuke them. The first thing that their opened eyes saw was themselves, and the immediate result of the sight was the first blush of shame. Before, they had walked in innocent unconsciousness, like angels or infants; now they had knowledge of good and evil, because their sin had made evil a part of themselves, and the knowledge was bitter.
Before their act God had left them to do the things in the easy way, but now with the relation disturbed, them having questioning the power of God and His right to govern the world, got the admission to take care of themselves and the world themselves.
Before their sinful act they had not to fear God but now sin had broken familiar communion with God and turned Him into a ‘fear and a dread’. Hearing His Voice (asking them in what condition they were) but not answering or showing themselves, they brought up an excuse that they were afraid because they were naked, so they hid themselves.
Genesis 3:9-12 NHEBJE Jehovah God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” (10) The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” (11) God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” (12) The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”
After eating of the fruit the man and mannin found they were no longer fit for God’s eye, and that made them hide from Him, forgetting that God always sees us and knows our thoughts and feeling of our heart. From all this, as shown in the previous part, it is thus the work of conscience which is to expose us to ourselves, like it did to Eve. Shame had come over man and it will not go away until God gives us the tools to take that shame away. If man’s shame was to be effectually removed, God must do it.
Adam and Eve tried to submerge such feelings of guilt by sewing fig leaves together to make aprons for themselves. Since that time people have resorted to every kind of artifice to cover up the guilt of their sins, perhaps these may be professed “good works” or religious ceremonies or observances, but all are ineffective. The fig leaves were so unsatisfactory to Adam and Eve themselves that when they heard the voice of the Lord God in the garden they hid themselves. So today our own consciences tell us that our efforts to cover our sins fail so badly that we are afraid to face God. But fig leaves and trees are only part of God’s creation: they can give neither protection from sin nor a hiding place from God. {L.M. Grant}
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Preceding posts:
The very very beginning 2 The Word and words
A multifold of elements in creation and a bad choice made
Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 1
Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 2
Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 3
What others think about the tree of knowledge of good and evil
First mention of a solution against death 1 To divine, serpent, opposition, satan and adversary
Next: First mention of a solution against death 3 Tempter Satan and man’s problems
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Additional reading
- Creator and Blogger God 3 Lesson and solution
- Does God stands behind all evil on earth
- The giving and protecting God
- Good and bad things in this world
- Why do we need a ransom?
- Belief of the things that God has promised
- Message from the family tree in the Tanakh
- Epicurus’ Problem of Evil
- Sinning because being a sinner
- Our life depending on faith
- Let us become nothing, and Christ everything
- What is life?
- Coming to understanding from sayings written long ago
- The faithful God
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Further reading
- Recap: What Every Christian Should Know About Genesis 1-4
- Half the Earth
- The Calling of Genesis 3
- Genesis 3 – would you Adam and Eve it?
- The Serpent in the Garden
- The Fall of Man 1
- The Fall of Man 2
- The Original Sin
- Augustine and Evil (knievel)
- Pastor Wrinkles: Unintended Consequences Pt. 1
- Pastor Wrinkles: Unintended Consequences Pt. 2
- The true nature of God – 4
- The Darkness of This Age
- Eyes
- Why We Sin…and the Truth That Sets Us Free
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Messiah For All 
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