“Wisdom is yours. You
shall know everything the moment you eat of the tree. Your job to find every living thing and its
purpose in the universe will be complete in an instant. For you shall know everything.” Soft and smooth, the serpent spoke. Somehow not alarming although none of the
other creatures ever spoke in the same manner she and Adam did. But the longer she stood here the more the
coiling sensation left. Maybe she should
find out more. Maybe it would help. Just maybe.
Looking up she saw the branches heavy and ready to
harvest. Large bluish orbs the color of
the night sky glistened with ripeness.
Without hesitation her hand reached out and felt the velvety skin of the
fruit right in front of her. She should
be able to tell him all she could about it,
shouldn’t she? How heavy it
looked, but the only way to gage it would be to hold it. The voice of the serpent spoke into her mind
“pull it from the tree”. And she did,
the fruit filling the palm of her hand, yet surprisingly light for its size. If she took a bite she would be able to tell
him if it would be a food for them or for the animals, as some plants seemed
more for one than the other. After all,
they were to categorize everything. Her
lips touched the velvet smooth skin and her teeth bit into the softness of its
flesh. A bitter sweet juice filled her
mouth. Looking down Eve’s heart began
racing, the fresh fruit was rotting in her hand. Rancid sourness met her tongue and she tried
spewing everything from her mouth. A
pain hit her stomach and she sunk to the ground unable to move.
That’s where he found her.
Lying at the base of the forbidden tree.
His mind whirled. Why was she
there, they never came here, there was no reason to, no purpose in it. Running to her, confused at the contorted
look on her face, one he’d never seen nor recognized. Her eyes opened, and filled with water, at
the sight of his face. Holding out her
hand to him she revealed a piece of rotting fruit. Looking back to her face, he shook his head. No, he
thought, no she didn’t eat it. She wouldn’t, she knows not too. But his eyes beheld the truth.
“I thought to eat of it for food, I thought it would be a
good thing, I thought to bring you new knowledge.” She whispered.
Listening with disbelief, he took the fruit from her hand. Perhaps if he ate of it then God would spare
her, perhaps He would believe that he, Adam, was at fault. Perhaps he could save her. Gagging at the smell of the fruit he brought
it to his mouth and bit into it.
Everything in
the Old Testament is supposed to be a reflection of what would happen in the
New. Adam a reflection of Jesus Christ
to come, 1 Corinthians 15:45 So it is written:
“the first Adam became a living being; the last Adam, a life giving
spirit.” And the thought of what if it
wasn’t a seduction.? A temptation on
Eve’s part to get him to join her in sin, as often portrayed. Have you ever had a loved one in a
circumstance of their own doing because of the bad decisions they made, which placed them in a place of hardship
difficult to watch? Have you ever wanted
to take on that pain yourself just to make it a little easier for them? I have.
I have wanted to take their place.
To make everything better. To
carry their load for them. Of course, it
doesn’t work that way. Try as we might
we can’t carry their sin, or their guilt, or the pain. Only by their own repentance are they able to
give it over to Jesus Christ, who alone can wash away their sin. Is it plausible then that perhaps she did not entice him. Perhaps she merely held out her hand telling
him of what she’d done and in his humanness he sought to take her sin upon
himself and ease her suffering. Adam,
the reflection of Christ to come, could he have attempted to take Eve’s sins upon
himself revealing the greater plan to come that Christ would take all our sins
to the cross.
Grace is a
blanket. A big one. Have you ever fought over a blanket? Those tug of wars when it’s too small to keep
everybody comfortable and warm? We have
fifteen blankets in the bin downstairs because don’t anybody even think about
sharing my blanket when I’m curled up on the sofa, get your own! But grace isn’t like that. Our actions, unfortunately affect more than
just ourselves. Sometimes we, including
myself, hold onto our sin because of how
it affected others. We sell grace short
of the fact that His grace is sufficient for all. His grace covers every part of the situation. In that same way were Adam and Eve both
covered, God did not just cover Adam and leave Eve to her mistake…see Genesis
3:21…but he covered them both.
Lastly, after the mistake.
Despite the fact that they were told how they were to endure the pain
and suffering of life (Genesis 3:16-19)
Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all
living. She still had purpose, value,
and place in the plan of God. A mistake
does not define us, it does not define our purpose, it most certainly does not define God’s will
for us. He always intended for Eve to be
the mother of all living, it’s what he created her to be and we find that is
still who she became.
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