LESSONS FROM EDEN

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

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 surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of 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.

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. But the Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?"

He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."

And He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"

The man said, "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."

Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"

The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

Genesis 2:25, 3:1-13

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Most people are somewhat familiar with the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. It follows this general script:

Sin has still not entered creation and everything is perfect just as God planned it. The scriptures tell us the first man and woman didn’t feel any shame although they were naked. There was no need for shame because they were created in the image of God and no wrongdoing existed.

But then, like in a lot of movies people watch, a plot twist happens that causes all that seemed to be perfect and well to come crashing down. This twist comes in the simple entry of temptation into the mix, temptation that was surrendered to leading to all mankind being impacted and changed forever.

Let’s look again at our passage for today to revisit what happened.

Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

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 surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of 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.

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. But the Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?"

He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."

And He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"

The man said, "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."

Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"

The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."  Genesis 2:25, 3:1-13

The serpent here is none other than Satan himself and as we see within these verses, he quickly establishes a reputation as the father of lies as Jesus referred to him (John 8:44).

The deception begins with the serpent questioning whether God had really commanded them to "not eat from any tree in the garden." Responding to this, Eve speaks up and makes clear what her Creator had said. Both she and Adam were told to not "eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden", adding that if they even touched the tree, they would die.

Now, the serpent, who is described as "more crafty than any of the wild animals", puts the finishing touches on his enticement saying:

"You will surely not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Here, nothing but pure evil speaking to Eve and trying to get her to blatantly disobey God’s command but she couldn’t see it because the forbidden fruit looked oh so good. And so without stepping back for a moment to collect her thoughts and consider what she was about to do, she took the fruit in hand and ate as did Adam.

And with those first bites, sin entered into the world, right in the middle of Eden, God’s perfect garden paradise.

The saddest thing about this is that it didn’t have to happen and if we don’t learn some lessons from Eden, we are destined to repeat the mistakes of the past as we live within a world far more wicked than Eden ever was.

With this, I believe the Lord offers these four things to consider from these verses in Genesis, chapter 3:

1. Follow God’s commands, no matter what.

God had given Adam and Eve very clear instructions.

They could eat of every other tree in Eden except for the tree of the knowledge of tree and evil. There was plenty of food for them. They would never go hungry as God provided for His first created couple.

And yet, Adam and Eve allowed an alluring serpent to convince them to violate God’s order and ruin the good and perfect mankind that He made.

Friends, the same holds true today. God has given us commandments to follow and Jesus, His Only Son, did likewise. Yet, how many times do we, like Adam and Eve, choose to violate His commands and surrender to the world’s temptations. On too many occasions, we listen to modern day "serpents" who lurk around and do a good job of convincing us that sin is acceptable and okay. In the midst of these failures, we should be able to hear the echoes of the serpent’s words to Adam and Eve:

"Surely you won’t die."

It couldn’t have been further away from the truth then and it isn’t today either.

2. Consult God before doing anything.

If you really want to know whether something is right or wrong, whether something is of God’s will or not, just ask Him and He’ll let you know.

Every. Single. Time.

The knowledge of everything good and evil is found in God, not some fruit on a tree. But in choosing to eat the fruit from the tree, Adam and Eve were essentially choosing to seek discernment on their own apart from God. In other words, if they could see good and evil as it was for themselves, then there would be no need for God in their lives. They would be as He was.

The bottom line here is that God will always lead us right. He will lead us to do the right things and guide us away from wrong. And so, when the "serpents" of the world try to lead us to believe we can have the same vision as God, that we can be His equal in some way, we need to immediately turn to God and realize that we are nothing separate from Him. This realization of our subordination before Him will drive us to always consult Him, and more importantly, listen to Him when He advises.

3. Never let anyone speak to you on behalf of God without validating for truth.

If only Eve had turned to God after the serpent spoke and simply asked:

"God, is this true?"

All it would have taken is a brief question to the One who would have revealed truth and prevented the sin from happening, the sin being the eating of the forbidden fruit.

But that’s not what happened.

The serpent convinced Adam and Eve that he was speaking on behalf of God and unfortunately, they believed Him, ushering disobedience and the destructiveness of iniquity into the world.  

Our lesson to learn here is that if we don’t turn to our Lord to validate truth, then we run the real danger of being misled and convinced that a lot of things are proper and pleasing to Him when they aren’t. I urge you to not be complacent or so comfortable with the matter of truth that you believe anyone, including pastors or even me in this blog.

Always seek ground truth and you will if you make it a habit of always turning to God and consulting Him. Trust me when I say that He will never let you down.

4. When you error, take accountability for your actions and don’t play the blame game.

Did you catch what happened when God confronted Adam and Eve in the garden?

It was the first edition of the blame game.

After eating the fruit of the restricted tree, we read where the first couple realized their nakedness and now ashamed, they quickly fashioned some “fig leaves together” so to make “coverings for themselves”. Then, after hearing the Lord walking through the garden, Adam and Eve hid “among the trees of the garden”. Indeed, shame had entered creation with sin and since Adam and Eve now had knowledge of evil, they surely knew they had committed it themselves.

Now, the Lord called for Adam but let’s not pretend that He didn’t know right where he was as well as what the first man was going to say. It’s interesting that Adam gives a full confession here, one that does nothing but implicate him, first saying he was afraid and then sharing the reason for his fear, that being his nakedness.

Of course, this led to two very pointed questions from the Lord:

"Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"

Adam was on the spot and under the burning hot spotlight of God’s inquisition where we find him wilt and point a finger.

"The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."

Here we had another first, a husband blaming a wife over something that was as much his fault as hers.

Eve had a chance to show Adam the errors of his ways, right?

Well, she failed badly because as soon as God turned His attention to her, she deflected the culpability to Satan, the serpent saying:

"The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

Neither Adam nor Eve took accountability for their sinful actions and we need to learn from this. Because of them, we all are sinners that fall short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23) but that doesn’t mean we try to pass on the fault for our transgressions onto others.

No, God expects us to take ownership of our wrongdoings, confess them to Him, and then repent seeking His mercy and forgiveness. That’s the way we’re supposed to handle sin when we commit it.

My brother and sisters in Christ, we can’t escape the fact that sin is here and here to stay. We all are afflicted by it and none of us can escape it. It’s innately in our nature, passed down by the couple that everyone’s family tree traces back to, Adam and Eve.

The good news is that we can navigate our way through life avoiding evil’s enticements if we only place God central to everything we do. We need to uncompromisingly follow His commands, consult Him always, validate everything through Him for truth, and take accountability when we happen to fail, avoiding passing blame to someone else.

Indeed, the Garden of Eden offers us important lessons.

Are we learning from them?

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.