A Scripture Reading #1: Adam & Eve

[Ayen]

Every story that has ever been told has a beginning, middle, and end, and when it comes to a new year we get a chance for a fresh start. A new beginning, and I thought it would be appropriate to start off the new year 2021 with a story as old as time. I am of course talking about the story of Adam and Eve.

We all know the story. God created the Earth in six days, and then rested on the seventh making it holy. In that six days God created man in his own image, and the first man to ever be created was none other than Adam himself.

Genesis 2:7

7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Here we see God forming Adam from the dust and creating the human soul to enter the body that was created. Adam’s home? The Garden of Eden. A beautiful paradise that fitted his every need, but of course it didn’t come without rules. There was only one rule Adam needed to follow.

Genesis 2: 15 - 17

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

So here’s Adam all alone in this huge Garden of Eden with only one rule. Don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What always interests me is that there was a tree of life where if one ate from it they could’ve lived forever, but that tree wasn’t off limits. Only after they ate from the forbidden tree was it off limits. So Adam could have chosen to live forever. But that thought may have never entered his mind. However he wouldn’t be alone for long, as God saw that it was not good for the man to be alone.

Genesis 2: 18 - 25

18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
23 The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”
24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

So there you have it. The first words that were ever said about a woman was basically, “Wow!” We now have Adam and Eve living in peace in the Garden of Eden. However paradise would only last so long.

Genesis 3

3 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’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 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.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 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. 7 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.
8 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. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,
“Cursed are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15
And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
16 To the woman he said,
“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19
By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

Sorry for the long read, but there you have it. The fall of man. Now the bible doesn’t say where Adam was or what he was doing when Eve gave the fruit to him, but he must have known what it was or he could have claimed ignorance which he never did. He did however try to pass blame off to Eve, who in turn passed blame off to the serpent. You could say Eve was seduced into sin and that her desires weren’t completely evil. It’s okay to want to be more like God, but it’s not okay to be gods ourselves. That simple desire was twisted and led to the fall that caused the whole world to suffer in sin.

I’m sure both Adam and Eve felt remorse for their actions after they were done blaming each other for the sin committed. They had to adapt to life outside the garden and live in a world that would prove challenging to them, and all they had were each other. When things get rough like this we need to stick together as believers through both the good times and the bad. Sin may have entered the world, but there was still hope as the words “he will crush your head” spoke of the victory Jesus would have over death, the grave, and Satan when he would be resurrected after death on the cross many years later.

We can learn from Adam and Eve that there are always rules to follow no matter where we’re at, and that there are consequences for our actions that must be carried out. But no matter what we can always repent of our sins and be forgiven thanks to God unfailing love. For God doesn’t want to see any one of us go to hell. He wants a relationship with us. All you have to do is let him in.