Adam and Eve Studies - Part 1: The First Couple #adamandeve #gardenofeden #originalsin
What was all that business about an apple and a snake? How could a couple of bites of apple cause so much trouble for thousands of years?
Adam and Eve were created intelligent, thinking beings, with a free will, capable of making choices and decisions. God created man for freely given fellowship and worship and for his glory. He did not create the first man as a half-animal grunt to follow him about, obeying commands like a puppy on a leash. He created man in his own image.
This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; - Genesis 5:1
Adam definitely made decisions about naming the animals and we don’t know how long God and Adam and then God, Adam and Eve walked and talked in the garden in the cool of the evening before Lucifer (Satan) showed up taking the form of a snake. It could have been weeks or months on our calendar, or it could have been eons of time. And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. – Genesis 2:19
Why did Satan care about this first couple? He cared because God loved Adam and Eve. What was it in it for him? At some point in eternity, Lucifer, (the archangel in charge of God’s material creation), led a failed coup against God.
Lucifer was/is a created being and was the most physically beautiful of all the angels. He decided he would REJECT God and assume authority and power equal to God’s. The plot failed miserably and Lucifer and the angels who chose him over God were cast to earth.
And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Revelation 12: 7-9.
And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Luke 10:18.
Lucifer is consumed with hatred for God and harasses God in any way possible, always hoping to accomplish his first objective. Because of God’s immeasurable love for his creation, man, mankind is Satan’s greatest weapon.
It wasn’t the bite of apple (some scholars think it was a tomato) that caused all the trouble. It was that Adam and Eve voluntarily made a conscious decision that Satan was right and God was wrong. They concluded God had been short-changing them, holding out on knowledge that should be theirs. Here’s how it went down in the garden:
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Notice that Satan begins to erode Eve’s obedience to and fellowship with God, not by a direct accusation against God, but by creating the first doubt in Eve’s mind by asking the question—Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Eve responds by confirming God’s command not to eat of the tree in the midst of the Garden or touch it lest she and Adam die. And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. (Genesis 3: 2-3)
God did not give this information directly to Eve but she undoubtedly was told this by Adam because she quotes what God said to Adam about this matter very closely although she does add not to touch it which God did not say to Adam (at least such a statement to Adam is not recorded).
Now that the first seed of doubt has been planted and Satan has Eve’s attention, he comes on stronger and tells Eve she will not die, asserting that God is, in fact, a liar.
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die- (Genesis 3: 4-5)
Now that Eve has opened the door just a tiny crack with the slightest doubt, Satan presses this advantage. He goes further by saying that God has been holding out on her and Adam and keeping from them something that could change the balance of the relationship between Adam and Eve and God. He is saying that God has not been fair to the couple; that he has cheated them by withholding something that He knows would give them knowledge and put Adam and Eve on the same level as God Himself.
--your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. (Genesis 3: 4-5)
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. (Genesis 3:6)
The couple REJECTED GOD and embraced Satan’s lies as truth. Their sin was not eating the apple; it was rejecting and turning away from God and choosing his arch enemy instead. In that instant they became saturated with sin, body, soul and spirit. They knew it and so did God. So, what happened next? See Part 2: Adam and Eve –