The Fall

             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 certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.  “For God knows that when you eat from 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. (Genesis 3:1-7)

 

Someone has said that when the Devil wants to tempt you, he invites you to a Bible study. In today’s passage, he starts out asking Eve if God really said what she thinks He said. Some people have criticized Eve for adding to God’s Word when she said that God had said they were not to touch the fruit. They’re right, but Eve’s logic is good. In order to eat, you have to touch.

It's also only fair to point out that the text says that Adam was with her, and apparently, he didn’t object. Was the conversation psychic, that he didn’t hear what was said? There is no record of his having objected, argued, or run to God about the matter. She handed him the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and he chowed it down.

A third tidbit to be considered is the whole “knowing good and evil” bit. There are at least two ways that knowing can be used. The first is acquaintance, generally, with facts. We know George Washington was the first president of the United States of America under the present constitution.

This is the way we prefer to know good and evil – at a distance, theoretically, and as something subject to our judgment. Murder and rape are identified as evil. Helping little old ladies across the street is identified as good. We get to stand in judgement of something that goes on out there.

The second way to know is experiential. You know your way around your home because you’ve lived there. If a loved one has been murdered, or someone has tried to murder you, or if you or your loved one has been raped, you know evil, up close. You’re on a first name basis with it. If you’ve been helped across the street, or someone has cleared the snow from your driveway for free, you know good.

God had told them that if they ate of the tree, they would surely die. In that sense, they knew evil; eating of the tree was evil. God had told them to be fruitful, to multiply, and to rule over the animals. They knew good. They probably also knew good because they had acted on what they were told to do. When the serpent talked to them, they could have known evil and fled. Instead, they chose to listen and then to act against what God told them and came to know evil.

There’s one more tidbit here. Notice Eve’s reaction to the tree once the serpent told her God had lied. She looked and saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food. It was ripe. She looked and saw that the fruit was pleasing to the eye.  It looked good. She connected the fruit with the attainment of something that she thought had to be good. How could gaining wisdom be bad? (Hint – you gain wisdom by sticking a metal knife into a live socket, but I don’t recommend it as your means of gaining that wisdom.) She took it. She ate it. She gave some to Adam and he ate it.  

The next part is strange and at the same time, typical human nature. They had done something wrong. They knew they had done something wrong. Did they discuss the fact that they’d just eaten the forbidden tree? No. They realized they were naked. I must wonder who noticed whom first. Did Eve notice she was naked, or that Adam was? Did Adam notice Eve was naked, or that he was? Who noticed because the other did? In psychology, this is an example of deflected responsibility. It’s not our fault, it’s our genetics, parents, education level, socio-economic status. In another sense, if the problem is that we’re only naked…well, we can fix that and there’s no reason for death to be involved. No big deal because the problem isn’t what God said. It’s something we can handle.

And that’s the  problem when we do evil.