Adam and Eve: Resisting Temptation
For the next two and half months I will be preaching and leading a Wednesday evening Bible study on Leadership in Critical Times. Some people hear the word “leadership” and think of very powerful well-known people like presidents and prime ministers, senators and representatives, CEO’s, and other influential people. The truth is in various contexts we’re all leaders and followers.
September 4, 2011
Genesis 3:1-13, Adam and Eve: Resisting Temptation
Douglas Scalise, Brewster Baptist Church
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We’re leaders and followers in our families, at work or school, in church and other groups of which we’re a part. Certain qualities make for good leaders while other behaviors are characteristic of ineffective or unethical leadership. Each week in worship we’ll look at a person or two from the Book of Genesis and see what they have to teach us about leadership, both in terms of things we don’t want to do as well as those we want to emulate in our lives. The same traits that make for good leaders also make us good followers and disciples of Jesus. Not surprisingly, Jesus is the best example of good leadership that one can find.
So let’s begin at the beginning. The verses I am about to share from Genesis 3 have inspired countless artists, authors, preachers, and theologians, for centuries. More is often read into this biblical passage than is given in the text, while some of what is given is missed. The first temptation we need to resist is believing we already know exactly what this story is about, the serpent would delude us into thinking, “You don’t need to listen to this, you already know this story, day dream about something else until he sits down.” I hope we won’t make the same mistake as Adam and Eve, which is listening to the serpent. Instead, let us listen to God’s word for our lives.
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman,
“Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’”
But the serpent said to the woman, “You shall not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 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. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.”
Understanding this story begins with the first two chapters of Genesis that affirm God is the Creator of the world and all its creatures. Among all the fish, birds, animals, and mammals, God created human beings with a unique purpose and role revealed in Genesis 2:15-17. If you look in your Bible you will see that humanity’s vocation is to till God’s Garden and to keep it. God grants permission for man to eat freely of every single tree in God’s Garden except one. God only prohibits eating from one tree and this prohibition is given as a boundary to protect man from death. So the Lord God gives a vocation or purpose – “care for my garden and all its creatures and plants,” permission to enjoy and savor it all, and only one prohibition for man’s protection. God took the initiative and created this beautiful place and God calls us to be God’s creatures, living in God’s world, on God’s terms. This story is largely about the purposes of God and the trust of humanity. God’s desire was to live in intimate loving relationship with Adam and Eve, unhindered by guilt or fear. Sadly this mutual relationship of love and trust doesn’t last too long.
The oldest temptations in the Bible are found in these verses and they begin with failing to trust God; a willingness to listen to voices that cause us to mistrust God’s love and good purpose for our life. Among the wild animals that the Lord God made was the serpent. The serpent has been interpreted as representing death and Satan among other things; neither is suggested by the story as presented. The serpent opens up an alternative to obeying God’s command and from then on things go down hill. The first woman’s original mistake was not eating the fruit, but listening to the serpent. Before she reached for the fruit she had already surrendered her position of leadership and responsibility and she let the serpent tell her what to do. Doubt, suspicion, mistrust, and anxiety are all present before Eve takes a nibble. In a sense, Adam and Eve represent EveryMan and EveryWoman and how we fritter away our freedom and our God given destiny by letting some serpent tell us what to do. Fear and the abdication of responsibility figure prominently in poor leadership and in the biblical notion of sin, which is far more than just rebellion or insubordination. According to Genesis, to be human means to care for other human beings, for all God’s creatures, and for God’s good creation. To fail to carry out any of these responsibilities is a sin.
The snake plays on the human desire to focus on God’s prohibition, rather than what God has given and provided. “Did God say you shall not…?” Mistrust leads to focusing on what we can’t do and or can’t have –this is path to discontentment, dissatisfaction, and disobedience. Trust leads to focusing on what we can do and on all we’ve been given – this is the path to contentment and satisfaction.
The snake questions the consequence God explained in 2:17. Rather than viewing it as a protective and helpful warning (“but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die”) these words are regarded as a threat. This dynamic still plays out in relationships and families today. Prohibitions that are provided for our protection and to be helpful in leading a healthy life – don’t use drugs and tobacco which help you die faster, wear your seatbelt, don’t drink and drive, – are seen as threats to our personal freedom rather than expressions of love and concern.
If the first temptation we need to resist is failing to trust God and a willingness to listen to voices that cause us to mistrust God’s love and good purpose for our life. A second temptation is pride and the desire to be like God. The snake wants us to believe the prohibition which seemed a given is just an option rather than a command to be taken seriously and violated at the risk of hurting not only of ourselves, but others as well. Interestingly, in 2:17, God says, “don’t eat,” God doesn’t say they can’t touch the fruit of the tree. In 3:3, the woman says, God said, “you shall not touch it, or you shall die.” God’s instructions are either not being remembered correctly or they are being twisted. God’s rule is no longer the boundary of a safe place but a barrier to be circumvented so we can be like God and therefore be in control. The language of obedience, trust, and loyalty gives way to analysis and calculation. The woman saw the tree was good for food; pleasing to the eye; and made one wise. She makes a rational assessment and God’s command fades and she eats and so does Adam. Verse 6 reveals that Adam is with Eve during this whole conversation with the serpent and he says nothing and does nothing to intervene or stop it. He is in theological terms, a wuss.
Failing to trust God, to resist the temptation of pride, and to obey God’s command leads to sin and sin has a strong social component. We can contribute to the disobedience, delinquency, or pain of others not just by actively leading them astray, but also, like Adam, by standing by and doing nothing to stop people from doing something wrong. Our schools have a strong emphasis on stopping teasing and bullying, and a significant part of reducing these behaviors is getting bystanders to intervene when someone is being picked on. The interpretation that sin came into the world because of Eve fails to accurately account for the fact that Adam was standing there the whole time and he fails miserably to correct the serpent, to drive it away, to help his wife, or to defend God. He is absolutely just as much to blame as Eve because he is passive and does nothing.
With their eyes opened to their act of disobedience and distrust – shame comes to Adam and Eve – they can no longer be open to each other or to God so they pathetically try to cover themselves. There is no more mention of tending, or caring for God’s creatures or God’s creation. They have no energy for that. Adam and Eve had wanted to be like God more than to trust God. They now know more than they wanted to know and there is, to quote Martha Reeves and the Vendellas, “no where to run to, no where to hide.” But God the Gardener cares for the garden and its creatures and the Gardener asks a hugely important and poignant question (Genesis 3:9), perhaps the most plaintive question in the entire Bible is the Lord God asking humans, “Where are you?”
If you think about this, it is enough to make you cry. God created people, a beautiful earth, everything necessary for life and happiness – including purpose, and relationships – and the very people God created are hiding from the one who made them and loves them. The response of Adam reveals the sad state of someone who is full of and focused on himself rather than being focused on God.
Listen to the preoccupation with “I” in verses 10-13. “I heard, I was afraid, I was naked, I hid, I ate, I ate.” “I was afraid” is the same pitiful answer that will be given by Abraham (Genesis 20:11) and Isaac (Genesis 26:9) both of whom lied about their relationship with their wives and put their wives at risk because of their fear-based decisions. The temptation to make decisions out of fear is still a temptation we face and there is a lot of this going on in our world today. There are a lot of people who want us living in fear and making fear-based decisions. God isn’t one of them. But fear can become more important to us than trusting God. We can also use fear, distrust, and anxiety consciously and unconsciously, as weapons to get people to do what we want. This is to act the part of the serpent rather than as a Christian.
Adam and Eve are condemned by their own speech that makes clear they have lost their preoccupation with the Gardener and the Garden. Their interest has focused completely on self, on their new freedom and the fear that comes with it. We share a kinship with Adam and Eve – we need to learn to resist temptation in all its forms, including the temptation to pride and disobeying God’s word. We are like Adam and Eve in that many of us are still seeking to hide ourselves from God and from others. We’re not who we’re meant to be and we’re afraid of being exposed, of being seen for who we are. And we don’t want to accept responsibility for our life and the choices we’ve made that lead us to hide from God among the trees. So Adam cannot answer God’s question, “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” with a simple “Yes.” Sin not only leads to disobedience, it leads to excuses, lying, and a refusal to accept responsibility for our actions. So Adam blames Eve, even though he was with her the whole time.
Eve blames the snake, claiming she was tricked. And so it goes throughout history, humanity has been blaming it on the snake every since. This is a temptation for ordinary people like our selves as well as those who are powerful – to fail to accept responsibility for our actions and to say straight up, “I blew it, I was wrong, it was my fault.”
The destiny of people was, and still is, to live in God’s world with God’s other creatures on God’s terms. When we fail that ancient mandate, everyone and everything suffers. This means knowing that our purpose involves being properly related to the God who created us, loves us, and wants to have a personal relationship with us. God is trustworthy and not only has a purpose for our life, but the commands and prohibitions of the Lord are not threats but boundaries given for our health and well being.
Looking at Adam and Eve, one can say they were tempted by pride (wanting to be like God) and that they failed a test of humility and obedience (failing to trust and follow God’s word), and then compounded their mistake by failing to accept responsibility for their actions. So it is crucial for us as individuals to understand the importance of humility, obedience, and accepting responsibility. We cannot hide ourselves from God. Regardless of the heart ache we have caused the Creator through our lack of trust, our fear, our failure to carry out our God-given responsibility to be in communion with God and other people while caring for and tending God’s creation – God still seeks us out, God still is asking, “Where are you? Why are you hiding from me? Is life in the trees, hiding in shame, eyes open to your weakness, failure, fear, and anxiety where you want to stay?”
God is so gracious and loving that God spares Adam and Eve – they don’t die right away for their transgression. They are given another opportunity to live life in God’s world on God’s terms, but because of their sin, that life will now be more painful, difficult and challenging – just as it often is for us when we sin.
The good news is even though God sees us for who we are, God still loves us and wants to be in relationship with us and to help us become who the Lord desires us to be. We can confess to God how we have fallen to temptation and pray for forgiveness. God’s love is shown in the extent that God goes throughout all the rest of the Bible and of history to get back the people God loves. When you wonder if God loves you or how much God loves you – the answer is Jesus’ blood stained arms stretched out on the cross. Even in this ancient story God responds to human failure, not with death, but with life.