The news report says he is an airline pilot and has been placed on special leave whilst there is an internal and police investigation. The news media reveals a picture of this man, with a rather long handled axe, chopping away at a boom gate that provides access out of the staff’s parking lot. He chopped away until the boom fell off its hinge. When being charged, he said he was trying to help several drivers exit the parking lot and … “just hit his breaking point.” Would it not be so easy for one to blame sin on … “I’ve just hit my breaking point?” Some authorities might accept that as a valid excuse, but God does not issue easy “get out of jail cards.” Please read again:
Ge 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 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.’” 4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 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 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. 7 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.
1) Trapped … the woman was trapped.
Ge 3:6 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.
Look at how this verses starts … When the woman saw. It’s almost as though she had not seen the tree before … or better, she saw the tree in a different way after the tempter caused doubt and mistrust in the Lord’s Words. Now she saw what the devil wanted her to see. We may not miss this … she suddenly had greater trust in the tempter’s words than in the words of God. She was trapped. There was no way out. She was like that airline pilot … she passed her breaking point because she listened to the enemy. She was seduced. At the point of looking, seeing … the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye … she had not yet eaten, but she was at the point of no return!
This happens when God’s Word is not listened to and loved and obeyed. The evil one will draw you to hear his seductive words into your inner ear and into your heart. Block out God’s Word and the only alternative is the devil’s words and offerings. Once at this point there is no turning back. It is too late. This is why Jesus prayed:
Jn 17:17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
The Truth does two things.
(a) It separates us from lies, falsehood and the devil.
(b) It makes us holy unto God. The truth sanctifies. It protects. Allow yourself to stop receiving God’s Truth (Word) and you have been captured. That was the woman in the garden! No one is able to evaluate the offering before them when they have wandered from God and His Truth. This was the woman. The way the devil set her up caused the inability to discern truth from error … God’s Word from the devil’s word. It’s not that she was unaware of the Probationary Command God placed before her husband. She knew about it because she referred to it. Yet having been charmed by the serpent she could not examine whether his words were right or wrong because she had listened to him and fallen into his clutches. At this point God’s Word was distant! All she saw was good food that was aesthetically pleasing. From fishermen we get the saying … “Hook, line and sinker.” She was caught … truly trapped so that what seemed like good food and aesthetically pleasing became … desirable for gaining wisdom. Remember that part of the serpent’s lie included:
Ge 3:5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Be like God … knowing good and evil … desirable for gaining wisdom … Be like God! The word “knowing” is pregnant with experience! At this point Eve did not know “good” because all she was to this point was good. There was nothing to compare “good” too. But as soon as she ate … she knew evil with experience.
Our eldest son came home from preparatory school and used a jaw breaker. We were stunned … shocked! He did not know he has sworn. We never used that word in our house because it was not within our vocabulary. As a six year old he had leant a new word. He was proud of himself. He was away from his parents, now mixing with his 6 year old peers. He heard their words. It was new, different and so expressive. Our words as his parents were forgotten. Now he knew good words and evil words by experience.
This was Eve by experience. She is going to eat … but have you seen what the problem has become? It is a heart problem. Allowing the devil’s words to enter her and fill her heart, she was controlled. There was palpitation … passion … for the fruit! No … not just the fruit … for the wisdom … no not just the wisdom … to be like God! She was filled with fantasy! It was all in her imagination. To be like God! The heart beat … palpitating. It was impossible to reverse the lust to eat … it was too late … and she ate! Trapped irreversibly.
2) Trapped … the man disobeyed God. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Dealing with the man will take some time, so let’s dealing with the fruit Eve ate and gave to Adam to eat … and remember he was with her.
(1) Adam with Eve. Does this mean he was with her throughout the serpent’s conversation as a spineless , silent participant or was he only with her as she ate? We do not know and in a way it really does not matter. It will not influence and affect the final outcome of what happened.
(2) What fruit was it? Here lies an interesting question. So convinced it was not an apple, I recall a Sunday School Superintendent calling the fruit a banana. The confusion comes in with two Latin words. Apple is malum in Latin and evil is malus. We really don’t know what it was, and whatever fruit it was does not influence or effect the fact that what happened was disobedience and sin.
There are times when we can’t unearth exactly what certain words in the original language of the Bible means. When this happens we need to ask a few pertinent questions such as … Will not knowing the meaning of this word affect belief, doctrine or theology? Could not knowing what the word means cause me to sin? Does not knowing what the word means prevent me from understanding the essential message of the Bible … Jesus’ substitutional death and resurrection for my salvation? Where Adam was with Eve throughout the temptation experience or whether the fruits was an apple, fig or nectarine, really does not matter because it does not influence or affect a negative answer to the questions I posed. The greater take away today is what happened in Eve’s heart.
Our Father, perhaps at times the woman’s experience being tempted as she went through the various stages towards eating might be what we go through with a specific sin. We can’t let it go because we don’t want to let it go. Please reach out into our lives and deliver us from the tempter so that we might live lives that please You Lord. Amen.