The Fall of Creation: The origin of sin

 This is the third part of the trilogy about the Garden Of Eden. Creation has been finished for an unknown period of time, but there has been enough time elapsed so that certain customs (like God visiting Adam and Eve in the evening) have been established. 

So, we start this chapter with a naked Adam enjoying a naked Eve as they go through the garden enjoying the fruit of the garden as well as sex with each other. This was the world that God had made for us to live in.

Now the Antagonist appears in this story. He is called the Serpent. A lot of time and ink has put forth many ideals of what this serpent was or was not. Most will agree that this either was Satan, or an animal that Satan was working through. The thing that I wonder about all of this is - Did Adam and Eve realize that they were talking to an angel of God?  Even in his fallen state, he still was an angel. I tend to think that they did.

So we now have Satan inquiring Adam and Eve about what God had told them about the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. We see that Eve does not quote God - word for word, but instead she puts a bigger hedge around the command of God.   She adds that they are not to even touch the tree.  I have heard sermons criticizing her for this, but I disagree with that thought.  Building hedges around  things that will cause us to sin, is not only biblical,  it is also recommended in the Bible to the point of even self-mutilation to prevent one from sinning.

So where in the story is the origin of Sin.  I believe that we see that when the serpent says, " The serpent said to the woman, “Surely you will not die,  for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."  (NET)  When the serpent (or Satan) says that, then Eve (along with Adam) looks at the fruit of the tree and sees it as being  "good,  attractive, &  desirable".  They saw the tree as a mean to exalt themselves to be equal with God. You see I believe that the root of sin is the desire to exalt oneself or to abase others (including God). When you look at the commandments and/or the law, this is what you see is happening that results in bad behaviors.  So now Adam and Eve want to eat the fruit of the tree and this is what happens.

When they eat the fruit, they see that life is not better, it is worse. This is always the lie of sin and Satan. So they make clothes for themselves and hid from God.  God exposes then for what they did and kicks them out of the Garden. Man's work just got harder. Woman's labor just got harder. Instead of husband and wife being a perfectly matched pair, they would now be trying to dominate one another. and the serpent would forever be despised.  

So fast forward to today and we see that same thing happening in and out of the church with people trying to exalt themselves and debasing others.  However we also have the answer to all of this and that comes from Jesus coming to this Earth, being borned from a virgin, living a perfect life, and dieing a cruel death, only to rise from the grave on the third day. And if we take him to be our Savior, He will make his abode within us and others can see his love through us.  It is this love that changes our attitudes from being self absorbed to seeing others as they should be seen.  

 Adam and Eve in Eden

Adam's and Eve's life in Eden were not talked about very often in the Bible lessons that I had as an adult.  Creation was, and the fall was, but not their lives in Eden. I would like to take a moment and reflect on the "forest" (think of seeing the forest instead of only the trees) of thoughts about this subject.

First we come to the Creation of Adam and Eve.  This is the only part of the creation story where we get specific details about the creation.  I think that it is important to note that both Adam and Eve were form from substances that were already created.  Adam from the earth, and Eve from Adam. It seems to me that the main part of the Theory of Evolution is that creation came from creation.  We also see that Eve came from (or evolved) from Adam by God forming her from one of Adam's Ribs. 

Going on from there, I find it fascinating that after Adam and Eve are created, the first thing that we notice is God saying to them - "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth" (from the Holman Christian Standard Bible). In other words, Have sex and keep having sex until you fill the world (I take that to mean until there is not enough room for another person to come out of the womb) with humans from all of your sex making. Plus to add to this statement, God places them in Paradise naked. 

Now the there is a temptation to jump ahead from this point, but let's stay here a moment.  The meditation that comes from here can and will affect one's viewpoint of the rest of the Bible.  Sex is something most evangelicals have a problem talking about, unless they are preaching against something. But, right here at the start of the Bible, we see God making us sexual and He desires for us to be sexual. Now keep this thought of Adam and Eve naked in the garden being sexual, with what Paul would later write about in 1 Corinthians chapter 7:   

“It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.”[a] 2 But because of immoralities, each man should have relations with[b] his own wife and each woman with[c] her own husband. 3 A husband should fulfill his marital responsibility[d] to his wife, and likewise a wife to her husband. 4 It is not the wife who has the rights to her own body, but the husband. In the same way, it is not the husband who has the rights to his own body, but the wife. 5 Do not deprive each other, except by mutual agreement for a specified time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer.[e] Then resume your relationship,[f] so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control." (from the NET Bible)

If you look at this verses of scriptures while thinking about Eden, you see that Paul is restoring the sexual relationship between a husband and wife to where it was in Eden. If you can see that, then you will see the importance of reflecting on Eden.  For me, I started seeing things like the law showing us a picture of how far sin has caused us to fall, and how the sacrifices point to something beyond ourselves to redeem us.  I started seeing this thing that we call sin as a disease that is devouring us.  The acts that we see as horrific acts of God, that give rise to the thought of how can a God be good and commanding genocide like that, changing to a place where we see a doctor removing a limb or appendage that is so eaten up by disease and decay, so that the rest of the body can live.

Now we can't really talk about sex without mentioning the rest of the statement that God tells Adam and Eve, so let us go there now.  So from Genesis 1 we also get these verses:  "Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.” (From The New Living Translation).  Adam and Eve along with having sexual relations with each other, were given authority over the creation. Now while many look at this as being being told to "enslave the Earth", when I put it in context with the rest of the Bible, we are rule as caretakers.  We are under God, taking care of his creation.  Now the garden was self sustaining, and didn't need Adam and Eve to tend to it in a way that we think of gardening, yet. (That part came after the Fall).  To take care of the garden was simply something like this - when they ate something like an apple, they would simply look for a vacant place to dispose of the seed so that a new tree would spring up.  

Now let us look at the third part of God's word to them.  Genesis 1: "29 Then God said, “Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food. 30 And I have given every green plant as food for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along the ground—everything that has life.” And that is what happened.31 Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!" (From The New Living Translation).  From this we see that Adam and Eve, as well as every other animal were vegans.  Now that is hard for me to accept, since my whole life, it seems that vegetables are just better if you add a little pork to them or as least cook them in a frying pan with pork grease.  They however didn't eat meat with them (Again that came later, and since Jesus ate fish in his resurrected body, then maybe eating some forms of meat will be done in the New Kingdom).

Now there is one final thing that I would like to mention here, and that is the relationship between God and Adam & Eve.  Now if we skip over to Genesis 3 we read this: "8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze" (From the Holman Christian Standard Bible).  This shows God coming by and visiting them like a good neighbor and a good friend.  Now take this statement and compare it to how you see the relationship between God and us today.  Now-a-days, we talk about a God who is foreign to us, like he is on another world in another solar system out beyond our reach.  However now I see that the 1st Good Friday, the 1st Easter, and the 1st Pentecost (In the Gospels and The Acts of the Apostles) as one big event then we see that they are restoring that close relationship with God.  Since that Pentecost, when the Spirit of God came down, true believers  now experience God as being always within them.  We now know God even closer than Adam and Eve did.

There you have a few thoughts coming from my head. I hope that I gave you something to mull over in your minds and to take to God as you meditate upon them.