M-G: 5.4.13 // I Am Adam

God had warned Adam about eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – “In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die [Heb, muth, H4191]” (Gn 2:17b).  The emphasis of the text is obviously on the certainty of death – “in dying you shall die” or another way of saying it, “You will die.”  The verb muth occurs over 800 times in the OT and means to die, to kill, to put to death, or to execute. Muth appears more times in the book of Genesis than in any other OT book. The first week of creation was all about creating an inhabitable world. The fall of man ushered in a world for the dying. For human life, it meant a reversal of God’s original plan for man. Rather than being in a relationship with God, Adam and Eve were separated from Him because of sin. The Book of books is all about getting us back into the right relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ.

When God gave Adam that prohibition and the consequences of not honoring it, how could Adam relate to the threat of death since it had not made its entrance into the world yet (cf. Rom 5:12)? In this we can only speculate. Let’s just say that Adam wasn’t created in the image of God in infant form; he was created with the appearance of age. What age is anybody’s guess, say thirty? The record is silent about him growing physically. It is obvious that Adam was created with a high degree of sinless intelligence (cf. Gn 2:19, 20). We can only imagine what degree of intelligence he possessed. His cognitive prowess more than likely exceeded ours since we were born in the image of God, marred by sin (Psa 51:5; Rom 5:12). But there is nothing suggesting that Adam didn’t understand the danger of disobedience. The threat would have no meaning otherwise (Gn 2:16-17).

Adam entered into this violation with “both eyes wide opened” (Adam was “with her” as Eve succumbed to the seduction (cf. 1 Tim 2:14; Gn 3:17). “She … ate;” “he ate” (Gn 3:6). Now the eyes of Adam and Eve were witnessing something previously unobserved – their own nakedness (Gn 3:7). They would have never known that they were naked had they not eaten of the forbidden fruit (cf. Gn 2:25). Now they were feeling something that they had never felt before – embarrassed and ashamed of their nakedness – “They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.” They tried to camouflage their nakedness with flimsy fig leaves and made a feeble attempt to hide from the all-knowing and everywhere fully present God, another first for fallen man, a misconception of God.

For the first time they experienced – fear; 

“I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself," 

answered Adam speaking for both of them when asked by the LORD of his whereabouts (Gn 3:9). 

Remember, this was not a solicitation for information from God because He is all-knowing. Such questions from Yahweh are always for the benefit of the hearer. God knew exactly what went down, and why Adam was hiding. The question was meant for Adam’s awareness and acknowledgment of his situation. God always gets to the heart of the matter (Jer 17:10). Both Adam and Eve shared a guilty conscience. Oh, they will share a lot more together in this far-reaching transgression, such as suffering, sickness, and physical death (cf. Gn 3:15-19).

Speaking of death, Adam and Eve didn’t die physically immediately (Gn 3:7, 8), but they did die, spiritually, right off the bat; they were spiritually separated from God which is spiritual death (cf. Eph 2:1-2; 4:18; Gn 3:21). But the decree, “You shall surely die” (Gn 2:16-17) eventually arrived; Adam would live to be 930 years of age, “and he died,” physically, part of the ripple effect of rebellion (Gn 5:5). He was a member of the 900 Club, one of only 7 people who lived beyond 900 years in Scripture. All members were part of the antediluvian (before the flood) civilization; only Noah saw the postdiluvian world. Methuselah was the only one to come close to hitting the big 1,000 mark; he fell short by 31 years (Gn 5:27) but his eyes escaped the destruction of the world for in the year that he died the flood came. The Bible is silent on how old Eve was when she finally passed away.

How could Adam and Eve have allowed themselves to trash the goodness of God, the will of God, and everything that the Garden represented in their lives? Remember what the serpent said to Eve in the Garden when she made reference to “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Gn 2:17)? She referred to it, not as God did to Adam, but as “the tree which is in the midst of the garden” (Gn 3:3)? She certainly put her own twist on the things of God; we are never guilty of that are we? 

She also added a second prohibition, “nor shall you touch it” to the one and only restriction given to Adam by God, “in the day that you eat (emphasis mine) of it you shall surely die” (Gn 2:17). Adding to the Word of God will always get you into trouble (Gal 1:8-9; Rev 22:18, 19).  What was probably running through her mind was, “If I eat or touch that fruit I will die.” It was good that she was kind of "paranoid" about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for good reason; but did it help her or hurt her that she personally interpreted her own behavior toward the tree?

Actually, it got her into trouble for it opened the door for a blatant lie to enter, clothed in a half-truth from the serpent, “You shall not surely die” (Gn 3:4), if the serpent was referring to “touch” it spoke correctly, but Satan is a slithering seducer. Eve took that lie to embrace both touch and eat. It is doubtful Adam was present during the seduction and seed planting by the serpent – divide and conquer, right? She may have even reached up and touched the fruit before leaving the serpent’s presence, and she was still alive! Maybe, she reasoned if she didn’t die by touching she wouldn’t die by eating. Her doom was sealed by her own lust (1 Tim 2:14).

Perhaps it was after a brief touch by Eve of the skin of the forbidden fruit the serpent seized its opportunity to go in for the kill by offering a coupe de grâce, but this was no mercy killing; just cold-blooded complicity leading to her death and the death of Adam by insinuating that God had an ulterior motive, “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gn 3:5). Its work was done. It would only be a matter of time now (Gn 3:6).

Sometimes we look at the circumstances of life and rosy it up a bit with our rationalizations, invariably causing us to doubt God’s Word. We know what we are doing; we see it coming, but we do it anyway! Right at the precipice of sinning, we are for a brief moment realizing that we should turn away, but we follow Eve’s pattern of being seduced by that old serpent, Satan (Jas 1:14-15; Rom 7:21-25). Then the excuses arrive (cf. Gn 3:12, 13)...

The reality is that though Satan may tempt us he can't make us sin if we choose not to do so; it's still a matter of choice to obey or disobey God. We can't say that someone made me do it, or the devil made me do it; that's lame and rejected by Yahweh. Adam and Eve tried to pass the buck but were in deep, deep trouble. It seems like such a simple warning that even a child could understand, “Eat and you shall surely die.” It cannot get any clearer than that! Then one day Adam heeded the voice of Eve (Gn 3:17) and plunged themselves and the world into chaos, catastrophe, and death, but Adam and Eve were not alone in this matter…

Should the Lord not return during my lifetime, I will die like Adam one day (Heb 9:27; Gn 5:5). How could I be angered over Adam’s and Eve’s reckless decision! For I was there in Adam’s loins making the decision with him to seek that which was not mine to have (Rom 5:18; Heb 7:7-10). Do I understand this? No, not any more than I understand Christ paying the penalty of my sin on that wicked wood on a hill near Jerusalem. My guilt was imputed to me in the Garden by a decision I had made in Adam, and when I came into this world I was born a sinner (Psa 51:5; Rom 5:12) and will eventually die in God’s own timing. A choice got me in this sin and death mess, but another choice gave me eternal life when the righteousness of Christ was imputed to me by grace or put to my account (Jn 3:16; Rom 4:23-25)!

When you or I fail to heed God’s Word as the authority in all matters of faith and practice, even in the simplest of instructions, we surely run the risk of trashing fellowship with God, reputation, peace, and essentially everything. We never will know just how far the ripple effect of disobedience will run, even after forgiveness (1 Jn 1:9). Consequences can run deep and long after restoration. So Adam and Eve found out by not heeding the warning of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This is one of the reasons their story is given to us (cf. Rom 15:4)! 

How many times did they replay that fateful day in their minds over the centuries? O, the tears that could never wipe away the sin, only the blood of Jesus can do that for you and me. Do you think they would have given anything and everything to turn back the hands of time and done things differently? If only... 

If we could ask Adam and Eve if it was worth it disobeying Yahweh, what do you think they would say? You and I know the answer because we have said it ourselves! “It doesn't pay to disobey the LORD” (cf. Eccl 12:13-14). You and I were there in Adam making the wrong choice knowingly, willingly! We have all in Christ felt this pain. I am Adam, and I am a son of the last Adam, the Son of God (1 Cor 15:22, 45, 47). Is it well with your soul, Adam? <><