My dad used to take us camping in the Sierra Nevada mountains when I was a kid. One time, my sister and I were taking a bucket down to the stream to get some water when we heard a sound like water rushing through a garden hose. There, right in the path before us, was a great big timber rattlesnake. My sister said I literally jumped 10 feet straight backward.
Genesis 3
“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'?" 2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 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.'" 4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 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." 6 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. 7 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. 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" 10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." 11 And he 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 you put here with me--she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." 13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." 14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." 16 To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." 17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." 20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. 21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." 23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.”
History blames Eve for this whole debacle, which is not at all fair. First of all, the serpent was there to stir up trouble. He is later identified in Revelation as none other than Satan himself in disguise. Why did Satan disguise himself as a serpent? Maybe because Eve would’ve recognized him in his original form. Who knows what the first man and woman saw, with eyes untainted by sin? They may have been able to see all of eternity, but because of their downfall, we barely see at all.
Next, we need to notice Adam and the role he plays in all of this. Consider this: the only time Adam says anything at all in the whole Bible is when he is blaming his wife for eating the fruit. The problem with this – and I think a lot of people miss this little tidbit of information – it says right there in verse 6b that Adam was right there with her at the same time! He knew all about where that fruit came from and who induced Eve to take it in the first place. Sorry, Adam, nice try.
The real issue here is not whose to blame. I think this is what irritated God the most. If Adam had stepped up and said, “God, I ate this fruit even though I was told not to, and now I am sorry I disobeyed,” I doubt if his punishment would’ve been as severe as it was. But both the man and the woman tried to shift blame onto one of the others instead of owning up to what they had done. So they were cursed. Thanks a lot, guys.
So, if the part of the serpent’s curse was to crawl on its belly and eat dust, does that mean it stood upright and walked around before?
now aday's we call it the prisoners dilema!! :)
ReplyDeletegreat post. thanks