Where He Leads I Will Follow: In Defense of Adam and Eve

 

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.  Genesis 3:6

 Adam and Eve catch a lot of flack for their choice in the Garden and how it has led to all of humanity being slaves to sin ever since, but if we’re honest, I’m not sure any one of us would have done differently. Sure, with the benefit of hindsight we can say that we would choose to obey, but they didn’t have that. That’s a key fact we, as humans, tend to overlook. You don’t know what you know until you know it. Before that, we’re all ignorant.

 Just imagine Adam and Eve bopping around in the Garden of Eden. Every day is wonderful and fresh and new. They have the animals. They have each other. They have God walking with them every evening. How cool is that? At this point in human history, there is no sin. Realistically, we can’t imagine this. No one had ever disobeyed God. No one had ever caused intentional harm to another. Love was all anyone ever knew. Into this picture comes the serpent.

 I do wonder if all the animals in the Garden of Eden talked to Adam and Eve or if this was an exception, scripture doesn’t tell us. It does say in Genesis 3:1, depending on the version you read, that the serpent was: subtil, cunning, shrewd, crafty, subtle and wise. I’ve always been taught that Satan inhabited the serpent, but today the fact that this was an assumption stood out to me. It never says this in the Bible. The Genesis account simply says that the serpent spoke to Eve. The only other times the Bible mentions animals talking are Balaam’s donkey (Numbers 22:21-35) and an eagle in Revelation (Revelation 8:13). I’ll be honest, I hadn’t noticed the eagle until it was pointed out to me today. In the case of the donkey, scripture specifically says that the LORD opened its mouth, and nothing is said regarding the serpent or the eagle. It’s as if it is supposed to just make sense that these animals are talking, when we don’t have any personal experience with this being the norm. So, then we come back to Satan. The two schools of thought say that either Satan possessed the serpent, as the demons did with the pigs in Matthew 8:28–34, or that he appeared personally in the form of a serpent. But, again, I caution you that neither of these cases is clearly supported by scripture. The only connection we have is that in Revelation 12:9 and 20:2 Satan is referred to as “that ancient serpent.” I guess this is supposed to tell us that in prior times Satan appeared as a serpent because it says, “that ancient,” but it’s very vague and I’d hesitate to build a theology on just those two references. So, with all that, I leave you with the mystery. Was the serpent inhabited by or a manifestation of Satan, or was it just acting on its own, and thus earning the curse put upon it? I mean, it seems like it would be awfully unfair for all serpents throughout history to be cursed for something one was forced to do outside of its will, right? So, maybe the serpent itself came up with all of this on its own, or was influenced by Satan or his minions, and chose to pursue it. That kind of makes more sense to me in context but goes against everything I was ever taught. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

 After that rabbit trail, I bring you back to Adam and Eve. These two have believed everything ever spoken to them. They had no reason not to. They had never been introduced to the concept of deceit; they had no idea it existed. So, when the serpent told them the fruit was good, their lived experience would have them take that at face value except that God had told them otherwise. Here they were faced with a moral decision, presumably the first one ever made. Adam had made a lot of decisions in naming the animals, and I’m sure they made decisions every day about where they would go and what they would do, but none of them were inherently good or bad. Here they are given a choice, do you believe God or the serpent? The Bible tells us how Eve went about her decision-making process in today’s verse which begins, “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.” She saw that the fruit looked good, and she believed that it would give her wisdom. Eve made the classic mistake of taking her circumstances at face value, one that we all have made ever since. But remember, for Eve this was the first time ever. She hadn’t been raised learning about, telling, or being the victim of lies as each of us have. She’d never been lied to in fact. The only tell in this scenario is that the information she was given was different than what God had said, and in that lies the crux of the issue. This is the underlying basis for every sin – do we believe God or something else whether it be the world, our flesh, or even a seemingly trustworthy source?

Here’s the Thing: I’m not any different from Eve and I can’t blame her for her choice. Was it wrong? Yes. Would I have done better? Probably not. I’d like to think that with the benefit of my wisdom and experience, today I would be able to choose better, but do I? Sometimes but not always, I’ll be honest.