A
story was shared with me while Beverly and I were down visiting family in
Florida about a friend of theirs who had a parrot show up out of nowhere in his
backyard one day. After capturing it, nobody laid claim to it in the
neighborhood. So, they kept their cat outside the house until they were able to
get a large cage to accommodate this new pet that dropped out of the sky! The
cat was finally allowed to come back into the house after the parrot was
situated. All cats are attracted to new additions in their territory, yes? And
we also know that generally speaking, birds and cats simply do not mix very well.
It has something to do with a feline penchant of consuming anything avian, except
pterodactyls, of course!
What
the new owners didn’t know was that their beloved cat was trying to get at the
parrot in the cage whenever its “owners” were gone. Until one day, they came
back home, and it just so happened that they witnessed the parrot clamping down
on one of the cat’s front paws reaching into the cage. Apparently, the parrot had
enough of this feline nonsense of sticking its paws through the cage!
From
that day forward, the cat kept its paws out of the house of the parrot. Now, there
is a twist of irony in all of this on who was baiting who? If you know anything
about parrots, they are famous for picking up on words and phrases from their
owners. One of those phrases was, “Here kitty, kitty!” The cat apparently
didn’t take the bait any longer! The kitty was never seen again hanging around
the birdcage and trying to snag the parrot with its paws, and they lived
happily ever after.
Well,
that “baiting” reminded me of the exchange between the serpent and Eve in the
Garden of Eden in Gn 3:1-5. A short time later, the scene changed in Gn 3:6,
And Adam was with her at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. No physical
sign of the serpent! You remember Eve in v6 was cogitating over the forbidden fruit
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Amplified, it went something
like this,
So
when the woman saw that the tree was good for food [the lust of the flesh,
appealing to the physical appetites], that it was pleasant to the eyes [lust of the eyes,
appealing to the emotions, the aesthetic senses], and a tree desirable to make one
wise [the
pride of life, appealing to the mind and spirit of knowledge and spiritual
insight],
she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he
ate (Gn
3:6, notes mine).
I
interjected that triad of troublemakers from 1 Jn 2:16 into Gn 3:6 by way of
illustrating how ironic but not surprising the similarity of these three negative
elements, not
of the Father but of the world, and the progression of Eve’s temptation. As an FYI, I
realize that the first woman (Eve) was not even given that name until Gn 3:20;
I incorporated it anyway in our discussion as a matter of convenience to me and
to you.
Admittedly,
it is kind of awkward for me to refer to the husband by name and the wife as
female or woman. So, I wanted to let you know I was being anachronistic on
purpose. I am so used to calling Abraham, Abraham when he was known as Abram or
Sarah for Sarai, et al. Call me anything you want; just don’t call me late to
dinner, yes?
Eve
sustained a spiritual shotgun blast from Satan at every level of her being in
Gn 3:1-5 and later in Gn 3:6 (even though Satan’s physical presence was not mentioned),
whether you consider human beings as dichotomous (body and soul) or trichotomous
(body, soul, and spirit).
The
serpent unloaded double-aught buckshot (00 Buck), with both barrels on Eve. All
we know of Adam in this whole ordeal was that he ate the fruit (Gn 3:6b) and was not deceived (1 Tim 2:14), but sin entered the world through him because of
his disobedience (cf. Rom 5:12). It was Yahweh who held back the hordes of
demons surrounding the gardeners of Eden (cf. Job 1:10), but He allowed the
serpent to approach Eve and speak to her with its forked tongue and no more,
unlike Job.
To
be clear here, Eve was a willing volunteer, not a victim; she twisted
her own arm (cf. 1 Cor 10:13); there are no victims sinning against Yahweh,
only volunteers! Rather than believing what Adam told her regarding Yahweh’s
prohibition of eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gn 2:16-17), she was
taken in (being
deceived, fell into transgression, 1 Tim 2:14) by the craftiness of the serpent
and chose to ignore the lethality of violating the one and only prohibition
(cf. 1 Tim 2:14; 2 Cor 11:3). All the other trees in the Garden, including the
tree of life, failed to meet what Eve thought she needed from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil! Scary, eh? It ought to be because she is so us!
My
good friend, Dr. Michael Womack, made this comment concerning this Divine warning,
“When you sin with knowledge, you invite all of the consequences: personal, familial, and eternal” (Lectures on Genesis, FBC Cleveland, TN.,
7.24.13). That’s a heavy load when you consider the ripples or consequences of
disobedience to continue even though forgiven by Yahweh upon confession and
repentance (cf. 1 Jn 1:9).
The cunning serpent had appealed to Eve’s thinker, feeler, and chooser. The source of this temptation (Jas 3:15) can be accurately described like this.
Earthly [wisdom]: physical, not from above, in opposition to heavenly (Jas 3:17), unspiritual (cf. Jas 1:17; 3:15-16),
Sensual [wisdom]: natural, man’s lower nature, a person who
evaluates life by the five senses, having not the Spirit (cf. Jude 1:19), as
opposed to the supernatural guidance of one having the Holy Spirit,
Demonic [wisdom]: supernatural darkness, devilish thinking and
behavior (cf. Jas 3:16; 1 Tim 4:1; Eph 6:12). Ironically, Eve sought wisdom, a tree desirable to
make one wise but she sought it through dark “wisdom” in disobedience to God
(cf. Jas 3:15).
Eve
blamed the serpent but to no avail (Gn 3:6a, 13, 16). Adam blamed Eve directly
and Yahweh indirectly (Gn 3:12; cf. Gn 2:18), but he was guilty of sin, too (Gn
2:16-17; 3:6b, 17-19; cf. Rom 5:12-21). If Adam’s actions were so noble and
loving to share in the dreaded consequences of Eve’s foolishness in violating
the prohibition – you shall surely die [literally, “dying to die,” cf. Gn 5:5, a physical
process of 930 years for Adam), then why did he throw her under the bus (cf. Gn
3:12)? There was nothing admirable about Adam’s love for Eve that he was
willing to suffer the consequences alongside of Eve for violating the Divine
prohibition! Love is never a reason in sinning against God; for there is not a
legitimate reason or excuse to sin against Yahweh.
Adam’s
actions should not be interpreted as some undying loyalty in the face of death from
the Genesis narrative or from Paul’s words to Timothy (1 Tim 2:14)! There is absolutely
nothing courageous about sinning against God. Ultimately, all sins are against
God (cf. Gn 39:9; Psa 51:4), yes? I agree with others that the actions of Adam
were “deliberate, wicked, and inexcusable,” and so were Eve’s.
Adam
sinned against direct knowledge (Gn 2:16-17; 1 Tim 2:13); Eve sinned against
indirect knowledge of the prohibition (cf. Gn 3:2-3, save for her addition, nor shall you touch it). Just because she
didn’t receive the warning about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
firsthand (from Yahweh Himself) did not relieve her of her responsibility to
the command. All of Scripture is secondhand, technically speaking, through
inspiration (cf. 2 Pet 1:21), and we are still responsible to Yahweh. She found
that out firsthand about secondhand authority, yes!? We read nothing about touch in the prohibition
given to Adam (Gn 2:16-17); that was all on Eve.
Where
did she get this idea of not touching the forbidden fruit? The Bible is silent
in that regard. Gn 2:15 indicates that the LORD God took the man [Adam] and put him in the
garden of Eden to tend and keep it. We do not read of Yahweh telling Adam not
to tend [care, cultivate, serve,
work] and
keep [maintain,
protect, watch, guard] the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gn 2:9, 17) or the tree of life (Gn 2:9; 3:22). There
was no restriction placed on any fruit of the trees of the Garden but the one, the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil – don’t eat its fruit, Adam! <><
