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Lessons from the Garden: Crime and Punishment

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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.
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.” Genesis 3:14-15 NIV

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.” Genesis 3:16 NIV

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.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
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.” Genesis 3:17-19 NIV

When we left our protagonists in Lessons from the Garden: Hide and Seek they were standing before G-d, along with the serpent, and had just admitted their guilt; albeit with qualifications. The only thing left now was the sentence. Since G-d started with the serpent, I will start there as well.

G-d’s judgement on the serpent has two parts. First G-d curses the serpent with crawling on the ground. Why curse the serpent, that was used by Satan? One assumes that the serpent itself was just a “dumb” animal, and in that sense innocent of any guilt. Admittedly, I had to do some research here, so of course, I Googled it!

G-d cursed the serpent because the serpent was the physical manifestation of Satan. In making the serpent crawl on the ground and eat dust, G-d is reminding man and Satan, of Satan’s fallen state and humiliation. Elsewhere scripture indicates that Satan, as Lucifer (the Light Bearer), was the most beautiful and intelligent of all of G-d’s creation. Now, he had made himself the lowest of G-d’s creation.

In addition to being humiliated and made the lowest of the low, there is another part to G-d’s punishment of the Satan. Before going there, it does well to remember that when man sinned and put his faith in Satan instead of G-d, he turned the title deed of Earth over to him. Man was no longer ruler, Satan was (and is). We can now go on to the second part.

Just as Satan had enlisted man in his rebellion against G-d, G-d was now going to use a man to ultimately defeat Satan. But there would be something unique about this man. He would be the from the women, not from the man. This “seed” of the woman, as some texts have it, would be injured by the serpent, but He would, in the end, crush the head of the serpent. Satan would be defeated and one presumes that man would once again hold the title deed to Earth.

The question here is, why from the seed of the women? I believe it is because the law had been given directly to the man, and only secondarily, through the man, one presumes, to the woman. This made the man responsible. The woman of course shares the guilt, but ultimately not the responsibility; that goes to man. It wasn’t until the man ate the fruit that “their eyes were opened”. As such, the corruption of man due to the sin of his rebellion would be passed down through the man, but not through the woman.

This, of course, is interpreted by many to be the first prophecy of the Messiah, and the first indication of the virgin birth. Somehow, the woman would bear a child that would not come from the man, but from the woman.

This brings us to the punishment of the woman. G-d said that she would have pain in childbirth, and that she would be dependent on the man. These two things go hand in hand. Since the woman would bear the children, this leaves it to the man to protect the woman and the children, and to provide for them.

For man, the punishment was hard work for his entire life. G-d cursed the ground so that man would be able to produce food from it only with great labor. In the end, he would die, as promised, and his body would return to the dust from which it came.

One thing I think I see is a qualitative difference between the punishment meted out to Satan and the punishment meted out to the man and the woman. While they were all under a death sentence, Satan is offered no hope. His head would be crushed by the seed of the woman. Man, on the other hand, would live on, if only through his progeny. In fact, it would be a descendant of the woman that would crush the old serpent’s head.

All this begs the question though, “What is its purpose?” If all men were going to die, and that was actually the end, what would be the point? Isn’t the implication that man’s death is not a permanent state? Now, ok, I can be credibly accused of reading back into the story something that isn’t there, yet, but I see hope for man in this story. For man, it is not the end, but the beginning.

Next installment: Lessons from the Garden: Exile and Mortality

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Lessons from the Garden: Hide and Seek

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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.  But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” Genesis 3:8-9 NIV

When we last left husband and wife, they were hiding from G-d in the garden, having realized that they had done wrong and worse yet, they were completely exposed, physically and morally. Knowing this, and hearing G-d walking in the garden, they not only hid themselves from the presence of G-d, but hid their nakedness with fig leaves (“and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.” Gen 3:7 NIV).

The Lord G-d, as he was walking, called out to the man, “Where are you?” Gen 3:9 NIV

Now G-d, being all knowing, certainly knew where the man was, so why did he call out for him? I am reminded of a game my wife and I would play with our children. We would place our hand over our eyes or alternately, over our child’s eyes, and say, “Where’s…” followed by the child’s name. Removing our hand, we would then say “There she is!”

As they got a little older, they themselves might look at us and put their hand over there own eyes and we would dutifully say “Where’s…?”. They would then remove their hands and of course we would say “There she is!”.

I was curious about why we play this game, a variant of “Peek-a-Boo, I see you”. As it turns out, there are many practical benefits to this game. First and foremost, it is a reinforcement to the child that while the parent may be gone for a time, there is a reunion. It conveys the message to the child that he is never abandoned, and he learns to feel secure, even when the parent is not in sight.

The story relates that G-d was walking in the garden, and that it was in the cool of the day. This suggests a leisurely stroll. The point is, G-d was not angrily rampaging through the garden, “looking” for the man and the woman, to harm them. He calls out “Where are you?”, giving them the opportunity to reveal themselves rather than Him having to “find” them.

G-d calling out for the man also emphasizes the spiritual separation that has occurred, as does the man’s hiding out with his wife; which indicates that the man himself sensed this separation. After all, what would be the point of hiding from One in which you are in constant communion?

Adam, his fear likely easing somewhat, sensing that G-d is not “out to get him”, replies “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

G-d responds to the man, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

Here, Adam admits that he ate from the tree, but, as men are want to do, he blames G-d, and he blames his wife, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

G-d then says to Eve, “What is this you have done?”

Eve, clearly not wishing to be the “fall guy” responds, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

When we become convicted of doing wrong, we can respond in a number of different ways. We can simply deny it; we can admit it and accept responsibility; or we can admit it, but make excuses and blame others.

The man and the woman chose option three. This makes some sense because, on the one hand, it would be pointless to deny it. The evidence of their transgression was obvious; their hiding from G-d, their understanding of their exposure and vulnerability, all pointed to their disobedience of the one law that G-d had given them. And on the other, the culpability of the man in disobeying that law, the woman in initiating the rebellion; but more importantly of the serpent in deceiving them, particularly in deceiving Eve, is undeniable.

Adam and Eve possibly believed that their blame game and excuses would somehow allow them to escape the consequences of what they had done. It did not, as we shall see later.

What strikes me here is how true this story rings. Did these events actually occur in the manner described? I believe so; but that is not what I am referring to when I say that it rings true. I am referring to how well the story explains our current behavior and our current predicament.

We are born into this world helpless and innocent of any wrong doing of our own. From the beginning, we are given laws, rules and regulations. Initially, these rules are designed primarily to protect us from ourselves. “Don’t put that in your mouth” or “Don’t run on the steps”.

As we get older, these prohibitions continue, such as “Don’t walk alone down dark, deserted streets” for example, which also helps protect us from others. But we are also given rules that are designed to protect others from us. Rules such as “Don’t hit your brother” and “Don’t eat all the ice cream”. This last one in particular, I was often prone to violate. Hey, I like ice cream! All right?

In addition to the rules telling us what not to do, we are given rules which we are are obligated to actively do. From “Play nice” to “Honor your mother and your father”. Or how about the “big two”? When asked what the greatest commandment is, “Jesus replied: “‘‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” Mathew 22:37-39 NIV

Jesus taught that “all the law and the prophets hang on these two laws”. If you obey them, you will fulfill all of the law and the teachings of the prophets. Simple, right? Easy! Whoa, not so fast! Has anyone ever done this throughout their life, never disobeying them? That is, has anyone besides Jesus; who did fulfill them completely, to the point of torture and death?

The answer, of course, is no. No one besides Jesus has fulfilled the law and the prophets. I have two witnesses to this. First there is scripture: “…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of G-d” (Romans 3:23). Second, my life experience testifies to this, in myself and others. And third, there is the Spirit of truth that G-d sends to all who put their faith in Him, who also testifies to our wrongdoing.

What are we to do then? Romans 3:24 as well as elsewhere in scripture, provides the answer: “… and all are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus”. Faith in G-d, in Jesus Christ!

Just as Adam and Eve put their faith in the serpent, and only then broke the law by eating the fruit, when we put our faith in G-d and the salvation He provides in Jesus, who perfectly kept the law, we also keep the law in Him, not of our own doing.

Next, we will start to look at the consequences of our first parents’ rebellion, in “Lessons from the Fall: Crime and Punishment”.