And the Lord God commanded the man, saying “…but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Genesis 2:16-17 NIV

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4-5 NIV

In the Bible story of The Fall, we have three players: G-d, mankind (Adam and Eve), and the serpent. G-d is the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, and most importantly, loving Creator. In the overall context of scripture and history, G-d is the protagonist, but in this story it is clearly mankind who is the protagonist, and it is their actions that take center stage. And then there is the serpent. Considered as either representing Satan or actually being Satan, the serpent is the evil tempter who contradicts G-d and leads mankind astray.

After G-d created everything (with the exception of Eve), he placed the man Adam in the Garden to tend to it. G-d had also placed two trees, among the many, in the Garden. The Tree of Life was one, of which it is presumed that if eaten from would bestow eternal life on the partaker. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was the other. G-d did not place the man in the garden just to tend to it, but to also derive his sustenance from it. In fact, G-d told Adam (remember, this was before Eve was created) that Adam could eat from any tree in the Garden except from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He told him that if he ate from that tree, he would surely die.

A short time later, less than a day, G-d created the woman Eve as man’s partner and helper, and the single man becomes mankind. Significantly, G-d gives mankind dominion over all of creation: to tend to it, care for it, manage it and rule over it.

Eve eventually finds herself in the presence of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and by the coincidence of coincidences, there is also the serpent. Adam is also nearby observing the proceedings.

The serpent sees Eve looking at the tree and asks her, “Is it true that G-d said that you may not eat from any tree in the Garden?” “No”, Eve responds, “He said we could eat the fruit of any tree in the Garden, except for this tree. He said we could not eat the fruit of this tree, nor even touch it, or surely we would die”

Now this was a curious thing to say in this one respect and that is nowhere does the Bible relate that G-d said the man could not touch the fruit. Also, neither does the Bible anywhere say that G-d told Eve about the rule; He told Adam. So how did Eve know about this rule at all and where did she get the “don’t touch” prohibition?

There are two possibilities: G-d told her, or Adam told her. My money is on the latter. I do not think that Eve came up with the “do not touch” part on her own and G-d wouldn’t add that embellishment for reasons we shall see shortly. This only leaves Adam. He probably thought that telling her she shouldn’t touch the fruit would help insure that she did not eat the fruit.

This is what is known as a “fence law”. It is a law that does not proscribe something that is wrong, in and of itself, but is designed to prevent you from doing that thing that is wrong. Fence laws are ineffective because people do have a knowledge of right and wrong and are more likely to break a fence law, since it does not seem intrinsically wrong. However, once the fence law has been broken, it makes it that much easier to break the law that the fence law was designed to prevent. If this was Adam’s “plan”, then, as we shall see, it appears to have backfired big time.

The serpent responds by not only directly contradicting G-d, “..you certainly will not die…”, but he also impugns G-d’s motives by saying that G-d just wants to prevent Adam and Eve from being wise like G-d, knowing good from evil. At this point, the fruit of “that tree” is looking pretty good to Eve and she plucks from it. What doesn’t happen here is that Eve does not die. Eve, probably noticing this, decides to take a bite. Still, she does not, at least in appearance, die.

As I mentioned, Adam was nearby watching and listening and I am sure he noticed that Eve did not die and is now convinced that G-d was pulling a fast one on him. When Eve offers the fruit to Adam, he also took a bite. Instantly their eyes were opened, they realized that they had done wrong. They also realized their nakedness and out of fear and shame, they hid from G-d.

There is certainly a lot to unravel here. First, why didn’t they die? The short answer is they did. The long answer is that once they disobeyed G-d, their relationship with Him was broken, resulting in their spiritual death. They died spiritually and their physical death was an eventual certainty.

Another result of their disobedience and the breaking of their relationship with G-d was that they now had “independence” from G-d, but at a steep price. Prior to The Fall, Adam and Eve lived in paradise. All of their needs were provided for by G-d. This would include the knowledge of good and evil. So, they did not need the knowledge of good and evil of their own, since G-d would provide that guidance through his Spirit, directly to man, as needed. Now, though, this relationship was broken and the spiritual communion and communication could no longer take place.

It is Interesting to note that the very act of disobedience that gave them a certain independence from G-d also gave them the very thing they needed to survive as “independent” beings; the knowledge of good and evil.

Given the title Lessons from the Garden, what can we learn from the story up to this point and what does it mean to us today?

On the surface, man disobeyed G-d, and as a result, felt shame, guilt and fear; but what actually happened and what is its significance? Man disobeyed G-d because he put his faith in the serpent, and not in G-d. This resulted in two important events. 1) G-d withdrew His Spirit from man resulting in man’s spiritual death and 2) Man switched allegiance from G-d to the serpent, thereby giving dominion of creation to the serpent (Satan). Let’s take a closer look at each of these.

1) G-d withdrew His Spirit from man resulting in man’s spiritual death

What does it mean to be spiritually dead? Maybe a better question is “What does it mean to be spiritually alive?”. To be spiritually alive is to have G-d’s Spirit and a man’s spirit united and in communion. Mankind was created to be dependent on G-d. G-d would provide, directly or indirectly, for all of man’s or woman’s needs. This would not just be physical needs but also spiritual, emotional, and intellectual needs. He would provide for all of mankind’s needs and would do this primarily through the guidance and inspiration of His Spirit within the spirit of each man and woman, and through His creation.

When G-d withdrew His Spirit from mankind, their spirit died and they could no longer draw on their spirit as a source of strength, guidance, and inspiration. As for God’s part, since He could no longer inspire, guide, and strengthen mankind from within their spirit, he had to use another means to communicate with them. As we later see in scripture, He did this through burning bushes, pillars of fire and smoke, through his messengers both human and angelic, and ultimately by Himself taking on human form in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

2) Man switched allegiance from G-d to the serpent, thereby giving dominion of creation to the serpent

G-d had given Adam and Eve dominion over all of creation. They turned this over to the serpent when they put their faith in him instead of in G-d. This is demonstrated in Mathew chapter 4 where Satan offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if Jesus would only bow down to him. Jesus does not dispute that the devil can do this, give Him all the kingdoms of the world; and not doing so is tacit acknowledgement that those kingdom’s do in fact belong to Satan. He simply responds by saying that according to scripture, one should bow down to G-d alone.

The next time you wonder why there is evil in this world, or you question why a good G-d would allow evil to exist, think about the story of the fall, and who, at least for the time being, really has dominion over this world. Thankfully, there is a remedy. His name is Jesus, the G-d-man who paid the price of redemption and is allowing time for all to be saved who will be saved, before He reclaims His dominion.

The man and the woman now find themselves in a difficult position. They have disobeyed G-d and turned G-d’s creation over to the serpent. Out of fear and shame, they are hiding out in the garden, separated from G-d. What can be done? The story continues in the next post: Lessons from the Garden: Hide and Seek.