In previous studies, it can be understood that I’ve come to the conclusion that, first of all, it was Adam, not a powerful spirit being, who tempted the woman in the Garden of Eden. Secondly, Adam had been lying or bearing false witness about what God had told him, prior to his eating of the forbidden fruit. In other words, sinning is **not** the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Certainly, Adam sinned, when he ate of its fruit, but the tree didn’t represent all sin, only a particular sin. The fact that Adam had lied to his wife, saying God said touching the tree caused death, is proof that normal sinning, everyday types of sin, was not what the Lord prohibited. In other words, God doesn’t expect perfection from humanity!
The fact, that the Lord made all the other trees of the garden available to Adam, seems to show the Lord had character building in mind, not giving mankind a list of dos and don’ts. In other words, partaking of the other trees was not sinful in itself, but participation in them could lead to sin, if abused. Mistakes will occur, and this seems to be vital part of the human model, which was always intended to reflect the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27; cp. John 13:15; 2Corinthains 3:18).
When Adam and the woman heard the voice of God (Jesus) walking in the garden, they hid themselves from his presence by taking cover among the trees (Genesis 3:8). In Genesis 3:9 we are presented with the first question in the Old Covenant text, “Adam, where are you?” Interestingly enough, the first question presented in the New Covenant text is, “Where is he who is born King of the Jews? (Matthew 2:2). Knowing these things may give us an idea of how difficult our relationship with God actually is. From the beginning the Lord had sought to have a relationship with us, but it had taken millennia for us to turn around and seek him! The physical and the spiritual don’t seem to mix well, or one may put it: they don’t have much in common. Yet, we’ve been made subject to the flesh in hope (Romans 8:20), that we would eventually be seen as God’s children (images – Romans 8:19).
Adam responded by admitting his shame, saying he was naked, so he hid from the Lord’s presence (Genesis 3:10). Of course, Adam’s answer gave it all away. The Lord knew he had eaten the forbidden fruit, so the Lord asked, “Who told you that you were naked?” (Genesis 3:11). As I mentioned in a previous study, this is a really silly question, if the intent implied Adam had no clothes on. It doesn’t take a mental giant to understand he’s naked, if he’s not wearing clothes.
Paul makes an interesting statement in his letter to the Corinthians that may apply to the context of Genesis 3. He speaks of death and becoming unclothed, vis-à-vis lacking a body, hoping he’d be given a spiritual body to keep him from appearing naked (2Corinthians 5:1-3). Earlier, in his letter to the Thessalonians, Paul told them he prayed that the Lord would preserve their whole “spirit, soul and body” to the coming of the Lord, Jesus (1Thessalonians 5:23). However, in the context of God crating mankind in Genesis 2:7, he originally breathed into the man the breath of life (spirit) and the man became a living nephesh (soul). Nothing is mentioned there about the man having a physical body, which would corrupt and die, like all physical bodies. Death wasn’t introduced into the human race at the beginning. Death came later, but how?
Immediately, Adam pushed the blame for his wrongdoing on the woman and ultimately upon God, who gave her to him as a helpmate (Genesis 3:12). You won’t find much moral character here, but in the end, the Lord takes what Adam claimed, seriously, and he took the blame for mankind’s rebellion upon himself, and in due time he would rectify it all in Christ.
When Adam blamed his wife, the Lord demanded that the woman confess what she had done, and she put the blame back on Adam, saying he, the serpent, deceived her, so she ate the forbidden fruit. Thus, the Lord turned once again to Adam (the serpent) and said he was cursed above all the animals that the Lord God had created. Therefore, he would go or exercise his life upon his belly. In other words, with a physical body, it would become necessary for him to eat food in order to live, so he would eat the dust of the earth all the days of his life (Genesis 3:13-15). All food, even the animals that we eat, comes from the ground. Vegetation is produced from the earth, and God created the animals out of the dust of the earth. So, if the curse is that we eat these things all the days of our lives, logic demands that mankind wasn’t created with the need to eat physical food. Our diet was to build character and become like God. Now, we live under the curse of God.
God once again turned to the woman and told her he would greatly increase her pain during childbirth, because the body he would cloth her with wasn’t according to the original plan, so childbearing would be a problem. Moreover, because she listened to her husband, this would greatly magnify her perceived need to please him (Genesis 3:16).
Finally, the Lord told Adam that the ground, itself, was cursed because of him. It wouldn’t yield its fruit like it did in the past. It would bear thorns and thistles, and he would have to labor hard to bring good food to his table (Genesis 3:17-19). Rebellion reaps its own consequences. Man thought he knew better than God what was good and what wasn’t good for him. Therefore, in pushing God away and out of his life (cp. Romans 1:28), man brought the curse of living without God to his table.
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