Genesis 3 (i)…

Bible Exploration

When God created Adam, He gave one warning commandment to him, which was “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; ¹⁷ but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17).

It was a straightforward commandment – about what not to do and what the corresponding consequence would be. God did not offer an explanation for His prohibition.

When the devil came onto the scene to tempt Eve to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, his words to her were, “You will not surely die. ⁵ For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4-5).

The devil’s first statement was an outright lie, a total opposite of what God had explicitly said. His direct counter to God’s words sought to nullify the clearly-stated ill effect that would result from a contrary act. For some reason, between God’s words vs the devil’s words, Eve chose to believe the devil’s words. Why she would do that, I have no idea.

• Was she too innocent or naïve, having no concept of evil and deception, and thus could not process the fact that the serpent meant harm toward her?
• Even so, in the face of obvious discrepancy of facts, why did she not exercise just a little bit of her critical thinking, to at least think of checking in with God?
• Were there already predisposed tendencies or desires (described as “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” in 1 John 2:16) within her to make contrary decisions? But how would this gel with God’s verdict that everything that He had made was “very good”?
• Or was God’s verdict only a judgment of the state of being as it stood current then, its validity lasting only as long as His creation remained sinless, i.e. it was an only an assessment on the state and not of the nature of being?
• If so, how do we then reconcile a nature that is corruptible with God’s “very good” verdict?
• And then, there is the chicken and egg question: was it sin which entered first and corrupted the nature of man, or was the nature of man corruptible in the first place, which then facilitated the entry of sin?
• Also, Eve could choose to listen to the devil because she was given the power of choice – was the power of choice evil or a bad thing then? But why give man the power of choice when there was supposed to be only one option in the first place?
• Believers have the Holy Spirit to strive against our fleshly nature and guide and empower us to make the right choices from within, how had God intended for Adam and Eve, who did not have this advantage, to constantly and consistently make the right choice at that time?

And where was Adam during all this time, by the way???

To be continued…