(Alternate title: Snake snake snake snake snake...)
[Genesis 3: 1-6]
Anyone read on Youversion? Their NKJV translation prints the first verse twice.
Anyway.
It's interesting that the first attempt at temptation here is "So, I heard God doesn't let you eat down here," to which Eve replies "Oh no, we can eat. Just not that one in the middle. That one kills us."
It sounds like he's trying to paint God as a bad guy right off the bat. Running into someone (Or...somesnake...) who is suspicious or antagonistic towards someone you respect is jarring. I imagine's Eve response has her thinking "Why would you accuse God of something like that?"
Satan's next attack of "Nah man, He's just trying to keep you down! He knows that once you eat that, you'll be like Him and He won't be able to be up in your business anymore! Fight the power!" is a classic play on everyone's weak point: ego. Forget that their life has been absolutely perfect: living naked with the sexiest person alive, eating perfect food, getting to study animals without fear of being mauled by them, with your only responsibilities being to learn about all this stuff and have a lot of sex, obviously the God who put you in this situation is out to get you.
Oddly enough, the only lie that Satan told was that the tree did not ensure death (It did, just not immediately.) He laid out exactly the reason God did not want them to eat the fruit: doing so would open their eyes to the world of good and evil, and they get to be like God in the awareness that not everyone is good and that there are parts of our nature that just plain suck. But the temptation of having some extra power, of being in charge, was enough for both of them to cave and disobey.
[Genesis 3:7-10]
As soon as they ate the fruit, they realized they were naked and shame came upon them. Since they declared that they want there to be a line between good and evil in their world, then their shame receptors had to turn on. They broke the one rule God set down for them, so God opened their hearts to all the other rules He had. So when God comes walking in, their shame receptors reveal to them the one main thing God was trying to hide from them: that they don't deserve God.
When the only rule was that they shouldn't eat this one fruit, they were oblivious to how unworthy any creature is of being in the presence of Almighty God. They had no trouble just walking up to Him and going "Hey God, why did you make those naked cats? They're creepy." But now that they had chosen to disobey, they got a sense of just how screwed up they actually were. They weren't really even created perfect, they were just created in a system where they were oblivious to their imperfection. But making this choice broke down the blinders, and they got exactly what they wanted.
[Genesis 3:11-13]
God: So who's responsible for this?
Adam: Eve gave it to me.
Eve: Satan made me do it.
Satan: trollolololol pwnd
So God calls them out on it, and mankind begins its first excursion into one of its greatest pastimes: blaming anyone but themselves for their problems. Their shame made them realize "Wow, I'm a putz," but their new found pride stopped them from admitting it. How lovely.
[Genesis 3:14-20]
God says "Fine, you want a world where you're aware of right and wrong? Then you get a world closer to the one you deserve." Flowers used to just be pretty, now they have thorns and random bushes that are just sitting there have sharp things too. Taking care of the plants used to be just talking to them and untangling vines, now you have to rotate crops and fight off bugs and have the government pay you to kill it all with milk. Your relationship was great, now you're going to bicker and argue. Having a baby was going to be like pulling out a splinter, now you have to break yourself in half. And now you have to die. So have fun with that.
[Genesis 3:21-24]
But then God shows a bit of mercy and makes them some clothes. He knows they now have to cover up their shame, but He provides the way for them to do it properly. He does this because this is not the end of what He created, it is just the beginning of the ultimate plan. He knows that there is no satisfactory plan for man that does not include them being pig-headed enough to screw up this bad. So He lets them screw it up, lets them see their shame, and then covers it for them. He let us screw up and then sacrificed an animal to make them a covering, because He wants to establish the pattern of us being aware of how foolish we are, and needing a gift from God to cover it up. This entire episode, which Satan thought was a victory for him, was exactly the first step God needed to establish the system that would eventually lead to our salvation through Jesus. He let us fall from a world where we were not aware of our sin and covered up that sin so that later we could fall the from the law and, through Jesus, enter a world where we are aware of our sins but they are paid for.
No comments:
Post a Comment