Story 3

This account that is described is very sad. It is the fall of man from perfection into sin. Sin means to miss the mark of perfection and the consequence is eventual death. The result was the ousting of the first human pair from paradise.

How the first couple were seduced to sin

3 Now the snake proved to be more cunning than any of the other wild animals that God had made. He said to the woman, “Is it really so that God has commanded you not to eat from every tree of the garden?” 2 The woman answered “We may eat from the fruit trees of the garden, 3 but as for eating from the fruit of the tree of good and bad, God has commanded, “You must not eat from it, no, you must not touch it, so that you may not die.” 4 At this the snake answered the woman, “You shall not die 5 for God knows that the day you eat from it your eyes shall be opened and you shall come to be like God, knowing good and bad.”

6 Being deceived the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was something desirable to the eyes, and she began to eat from its fruits in order to become wise like God. Then she persuaded her husband and he too began to eat of the fruit that she had given him. 7 Then their eyes were opened and they realised that they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made a covering for their loins.

8 Later they heard the voice of God walk about in the cool part of the day and the man and the woman hid amongst the trees. 9 And God kept calling to the man saying, “Where are you?” 10 Finally he replied, “I heard you in the Garden, but because I realised I was naked I hid myself.” 11 At that God replied, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man replied, “The woman whom you gave to me deceived me into eating from the tree.” 13 Then God spoke to the woman and said “What have you done?” To which the woman replied, “The snake, it deceived me and so I ate.”

14 God spoke to the snake and said, “Because you have done this, you are the cursed one out of all the livestock and out of all the wildlife of the field. Upon your belly you will crawl and dust is what you shall eat all the days of you life. 15 I shall put enmity between your offspring and her offspring. Her offspring shall crush your head and you shall bruise him in the heel”.

16 To the woman he continued, “I shall increase your sorrow and the pain of your child bearing, with pain you shall give birth and your desire shall be for your husband, who will rule over you.”

17 To Adam he continued, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree, which I have commanded you not to, cursed is the ground because of you. With labour you shall live from it as long as you shall live 18 and thorns and thistles it shall grow and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat your food until you return from the ground from which you were made. For dust you are and to dust you shall return.”

20 After that Adam called his wife Eve, as she would be the mother of all those living. 21 God provided clothes of hide for Adam and Eve, so that he could clothe them. 22 God continued to say, “The man has become like one of us, knowing good and bad. He must not be allowed to reach the fruit of the tree of life and live forever.” 23 God put him outside the Garden of Eden to cultivate the ground from which he was made. 24 And so he evicted the man and posted the Cherubim with a flaming rotating sword at the East of the garden, so as to guard the way to the tree of life.

So, man sinned against God and he could not eat from the tree of life. He was disgraced and fell from glory to stay in his imperfect state and to pass on death to his children. Because he was a sinner he grew ashamed of his nakedness.

From a romantic, prosperous and happy past the first human pair ended up destitute and like sinners, where Eve would suffer all manner of reproductive pains and man would work to the sweat of his face to cultivate the land in a hope for something to harvest. They were now ousted from their privilege and lived according to the curses.