davidbowerkingwood

The End of Edenic Bliss

Another point where the Bible is silent is the time involved after the creation of Adam and Eve and the beginning of Satan’s deception of Eve through the serpent. If I were to guess I would say a longer, rather than a shorter time lapse was involved; in other words I don’t think it happened on day eight or nine or even anywhere close to that.

Human nature being what it is, Eve may have repeatedly questioned Adam about that one forbidden tree with the forbidden fruit. Adam may also have experienced frustration with Eve and perhaps told her “Look, just don’t eat the fruit from that tree, in fact, don’t even touch it!”

I doubt that there was anything poisonous about the fruit of the tree; it is possible Eve observed birds and perhaps other animals eating the fruit and doing just fine. That could have made Eve all the more curious about why she and Adam shouldn’t eat that fruit because the animals ate it and they didn’t die.

The problem wasn’t in the nature of the fruit, it was a question of obedience to a direct command of God. If Adam choose to disobey God’s command, he was embarking down a path that would change everything; he would lose the fellowship he had enjoyed with God and would immediately die spiritually, and then die physically later.

One other point it appears had not been clarified was the spiritual death of the entire human race at Adam’s disobedience to God’s command. All human generations including ours died in Adam when he disobeyed God, all of us!

The Deception of Eve

In Genesis 3 we are told of Satan’s deception of Eve using the serpent. During verses 1-5 I believe that Adam was not present. I also believe there was a lapse of time between verses 5 and 6 during which Eve considered what she had been told.

In Genesis 3:1b we read, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” Satan starts with a lie which Eve then proceeds to correct; “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.'”

Now where do you suppose the not touching part came from? See the second paragraph from the beginning for my theory on that.

Satan responded with a direct challenging lie, contradicting the word of God he said through the serpent: “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.”

I believe at this point there is a period of time that goes by during which Eve considered what she had been told; whether it’s day or weeks I don’t know but I’m of the opinion that some time passed.

It’s likely Eve spent time looking at the tree, it was apparently a beautiful tree to look at and she would watch the animals eating and enjoying the fruit and began to develop an irresistible urge to try that fruit herself.

The animals weren’t dying and they seemed to enjoy the fruit, so why couldn’t she enjoy it too and on top of everything else it would make her wise. One fateful day she decided to reach up and take some fruit and she ate it; and what do you know, nothing happened so had the serpent been right all the time?

To be continued.