Day 35: How Did Adam Respond?
We continue to address the question, “What Went Wrong?” The Lord God gave the first Man – Adam – the responsibility of overseeing and protecting the Garden in Eden. Yet when faced with an “alternative option” to the Lord’s instruction, The Man chooses to listen to someone other than the voice of the CREATOR.
WORDwork:
Genesis 3:1–6
Now the serpent was the most cunning [shrewd, crafty]of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”
3:2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. 3:3 But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’”
3:4 “No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman. 3:5 “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
3:6 Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
What is the first question that the serpent asks the woman (Eve)?
How does Eve respond?
How does the serpent respond in verses 4 and 5?
How does this response fit with what God had commanded?
How does the woman respond in verse 6?
How does the man (the husband, Adam) respond in verse 6?
We have an Enemy, an Adversary. Here we see him enter the story for the first time. Satan comes, using the body of a serpent, to deceive the first man and woman. He is called many things in the Bible—a murder, a liar, the first sinner—but here we see Him in his role as the Great Deceiver (see Revelation 12:9).
God allowed Satan to offer Adam and Eve an alternative to serving Him and submitting to His instruction and counsel. We know from the Bible that Satan persuaded one third of the angels to rebel against God with him (see Revelation 12:3). Now he entices the first man and woman—Adam and Eve—to rebel against God as well. In later studies, we are going to come back and look at this in some detail as it relates to key issues in the Great Spiritual War that is going on around us. For now, just notice some key points of Adam’s failure:
Adam believes the Enemy’s lies about God and His truth. The Enemy attacks the God’s Truth through the Thoughts.
First, we see that the Adversary challenges everything that God had said. In verse 1, he says, “Is it really true that God said…” As a master persuader, the Adversary calls God’s very words into question to raise doubts in the heart and mind of Adam and Eve. Then, once the doubts are raised, he contradicts what God has said—“Surely you will not die…” The Adversary is blatantly saying, “God is lying to you!” This moves him to the next step.
Adam believes the lie and becomes discontent with God’s provision. The Enemy attacks God’s Goodness through the Emotions.
Once the doubts are placed, Satan aggravates the confusion—“for God knows that when you eat from this fruit your eyes will open and you will be like divine beings who know good and evil.” Satan is saying, “God is holding you back from something better!” The first step in moving away from God is to doubt His concern and care for you. Satan tempts the man and the woman with the idea, “There is a better life for you, but God is holding you back, He doesn’t want you to have it!!!”
Satan assured them that it would not hurt them to disobey God and that their active disobedience would actually benefit them by making them become as or like God. It was Satan’s way of telling Adam and Eve that if they rejected God’s rule, they would be free to rule themselves.
Adam believe’s the Enemy’s alternative option to God’s wise counsel. He attacks God’s Glory through the Desires.
Once there is doubt and confusion, the Enemy moves in for the kill. Notice how all of this comes together. God’s wise instruction and God’s good provision have been called into question. So the Adversary offers them an alternative—“Reach out, take the fruit and become like God!!!” The subtle and subversive idea here is, “God is not going to provide the best for you, you have to grasp that for yourself!!!”
As we have already seen, God uses the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil to test Adam and Eve to confirm their relationship with Him. Yet the Adversary twists this test into a temptation to walk away from God, to rebel against Him and His good desires and purposes. Eve chooses the fruit. But where is Adam during all of this? He is there the whole time (3:6)!!! He also chose the fruit rather than God.
Because he was given the responsibility of watching, guarding the Garden (and his wife!!!) he is blamed for all that happens. He had failed miserably. Unwittingly, he had just allied himself with the Devil, the Adversary—the Enemy of God and all that is true, good, and glorious.
Adam had willfully rejected the rule of God and asserted his own self-rule. Instead of living for God’s purposes, he would now live for his own purposes. No longer Deo-centric (God-centered), he now became ego-centric (self-conscious or self-centered). But their change of attitude and declared independence from God and His rule over them did not bring Adam and Eve the benefits the Serpent had promised.
As you think about your own life, do you see similar patterns of temptation? Take a minute to think about the following questions:
What thoughts do you have that you know are in conflict with Father-God’s Word?
What emotions do you struggle with that keep you from trusting in Father-God’s goodness completely?
What desires do you struggle with that drive you to put yourself first before others and before Father-God?
*You can find a complete list of all the MilktoMeat readings here.
