The Fall
Genesis 3:1-7
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
I’d like to slow down today and look closely at the Fall of Man. Let’s work our way through it.
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.”
What do we know about the serpent?
He was made by God;
He is a beast, i.e., not a man;
He is wise. The other times the Hebrew word “arum” is used in the Bible, it has a positive sense, like “prudent” or “clever.” Here, the serpent is using his wisdom to undermine the harmony of God’s creation.
So, who is the serpent? Some kind of spiritual being who is in rebellion against God. Putting together what we learn from the rest of the Bible, we learn the serpent is the devil, who is some kind of fallen angel.
We are totally free in our actions, and totally accountable for our actions. But it is also true that there is a dark power that tempts and trips and teases us into making the wrong choice. Who among us has not felt it? If you have ever given over to sudden, snarling rage, for example, you know exactly what I’m talking about: you made the choice to be angry, but there was also a strong pull towards anger, as if something were urging you on.
“He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’”
Notice how the serpent insidiously flips around what God actually said.
Rather than focusing on ALL the trees that God gave the man and the woman, the serpent draws her attention to the ONE tree that’s forbidden.
Whenever we focus on what we lack rather than on what we have, we are imitating the devil’s voice, so to speak.
“The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’’”
The serpent’s work is already bearing fruit:
Although the woman correctly states that God gave the humans the trees in the garden for food, note how she nevertheless focuses on the prohibition, and even intensifies it; God, as far as we know, has not forbidden them to touch the fruit.
“‘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.’”
As we will shortly see, it is literally true that they do not drop dead the exact temporal moment when they eat from the tree, but it is the case that their innocence immediately dies, and, once lost, can never be regained. And, because they are now cut off from the Tree of Life, literal death inevitably follows. The serpent cleverly mixes in just enough truth to bait the woman.
The devil is a liar. Don’t ever believe what he says.
And here’s the other thing: the man and the woman already are like God. What do we read on page one of the Bible?
“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
So, the serpent tricks the woman into forgetting what God has already given her, namely his own image.
See what’s at stake when you focus on what you lack rather than on what you possess? You end up totally forgetting the most important things about you.
“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.”
Although God’s prohibition was as clear as possible, the woman decides that she knows best and reaches out and takes and eats the fruit. She is “wise in her own eyes.”
“She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”
I’m convinced that passivity is the primal temptation of men. (I’ll have a lot more to say about this idea in the future.)
“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.”
They were beguiled by the serpent’s prediction that they would become god-like, but the only result of their sin is their awareness of their own shame.
Sin always works that way: promises the world, but delivers woe.