Welcome to Part 2 of Phil’s series.
𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐀𝐍𝐓, 𝐆𝐎𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐋, 𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐄, 𝐅𝐀𝐈𝐓𝐇, 𝐁𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐈𝐒𝐌
𝐈𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠…
God created the Heaven and the Earth. God also created the plants and animals.
Then God created Man and put him in a garden. He called the man Adam. God put a tree in the midst of the Garden and told Adam not to eat from it, because in the day he eats from it he will surely die. This is a covenant between God and Adam: The Covenant of Sin and Death. So long as Adam remained obedient and didn’t eat from that tree he would live.
God brought all the animals to Adam and Adam named them. However, no suitable helper for Adam was found among the animals, so God put Adam into a deep sleep, took from the side of Adam a rib, and formed it into the Woman Eve. Eve was the downstream offspring of Adam and God. Adam said, “this is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh”. This is why a husband and wife are considered one flesh.
Some time later in the Garden the Serpent asked Eve, “Has God really said you shall not eat of every tree?”
Eve replied, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, 𝒏𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒐𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒊𝒕, lest you die.'”
But that is NOT what God said! There was no prohibition on touching it. That was most likely added by Adam. I can imagine Adam saying, “Look Eve, don’t even touch it!” Adam’s added regulation was a misrepresentation of the covenant.
It was this added regulation, the first “religion” through which the deceiver gained a foothold. Eve bundled her answers about eating and touching together.
So the Serpent addressed the two points as if they were one. The unspoken part of the serpent’s reply in parentheses was (if you touch it) “you will not surely die.” It was a very subtle and cunning attack. And it worked.
Eve ate.
~
𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐇𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐝
𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐄𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐭𝐞…𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆!
It wasn’t until she gave it to Adam and he ate then BOTH of their eyes were opened.
Why?
It was Adam’s disobedience of eating that broke his covenant with God. Eve’s disobedience had no power to break that covenant. This is because she was the offspring of God and Adam. She was downstream of the Covenant. She was not a party to the Covenant made before she was created. She was not the Covenant Representative, Adam was.
So long as the Covenant between God and Adam remained intact, even though she transgressed, sinned, it was not accounted to her. After she ate, the Covenant between God and Adam still remained intact. She was protected by Adam’s obedience. His obedience maintained the Covenant. It was one man’s act of disobedience that broke the covenant.
Why did Adam choose to eat knowing it would bring death? It was because seeing nothing happen to Eve caused him to disbelieve God’s word. It’s the result of his choosing to act on his disbelief which led to disobedience resulting in death.
Understanding what happened leads to the realization that Eve is not to be blamed for the fall of mankind. It’s all too common for people, especially men to have animus towards Eve, and women in general. But understand that God placed enmity between her and the serpent. If you find yourself having animosity towards Eve or women in general, then be careful, you’re playing the role of the serpent.
The story of Adam and Eve is the very first model of Christ and the Church. This is a very important model upon which the whole Bible is based.
All who are offspring, downstream of the covenant between God and Adam are now subject to the conditions of a broken covenant. The consequence of that broken covenant is separation from God who is Life Itself and therefore that separation is Death.
Eve is the “mother of all living” our greatest grandmother. In this very first model of Christ she represents us, the Church. We should therefore have forgiveness towards Her and others in the Church. We’re no better than her.
That brief interval between Eve eating and Adam eating which is the unbroken covenant between God and Man in the face of sin is the fulcrum around which all of human history pivots.
When you begin to get your mind around what happened there in the Garden, the entire Bible begins to make sense.
