For this first Sunday during the season of Lent, our Old Testament reading given in the Lectionary of the Book of Common Prayer takes us right to the beginning of Genesis, the second and third chapters. Here we will see the accounts of God’s creation of the first man and woman, His creation of the beautiful Garden of Eden for them to live in, and how they ruined it all when they fell into sin. Let’s look at what God can teach us from His Word.
The first chapter of the Book of Genesis gives a broad account of God’s creation of everything over six days. As we open here the second chapter, this section of Scripture fills in the details of mankind’s creation. Chapter 2 examines Day 6 of creation with a magnifying glass. As we read here, God took special care as He created man (vs. 2:7). He didn’t just snap His fingers and man appeared, though He could have done that. Instead, God formed him, just as a potter forms the bowl or pitcher that he makes from the clay. God is the Master Craftsman at work, shaping a work of art to which He gives life.
God also created a beautiful, lush garden, where He placed Adam and Eve to live and tend (vs. 8-9). The Garden of Eden was a magnificent garden paradise, where God had fellowship with those He created in His image. We read here of two specific trees, the Tree of Life, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. These were real trees. The Tree of Life had special properties to sustain eternal life. Such a tree will be in the new heaven and new earth at the end of time (Revelation 22:2).
When God placed the humans He created in the Garden, He gave them one command, and that was that they were not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (vs. 16-17). Rather than physically preventing Adam from eating from the tree, God gave him a choice. Adam chose wrongly. God gives us choices and a free will to choose wrong, which we often do.
As Chapter 3 begins we read of Adam and Eve’s response to the one command of God, their temptation by Satan, disobedience, and fall into sin. Satan was a fallen archangel, and here in the Garden he had possessed the body of a snake. This possessed creature was deceitful. Satan tempted Eve to doubt the goodness of God. He got her to doubt the truth of His Word. Satan wanted Eve to feel that God was stingy, selfish, and overly strict. He made her forget all that God had given to her and Adam, and to focus on the one thing that she didn’t have. Satan tried to make Eve think that sin is good, pleasant, and desirable.
These are all temptations that Satan still throws at people today, and which we see people frequently falling for. Satan hates God’s Word, the Bible, and he has gotten the majority of people today to doubt its truth, unfortunately even in many churches and denominations. He has succeeded in getting many people to doubt that God is good. Satan is a master at getting people to think that sin is good and desirable, and this favorite trick of his has brought down countless people over the ages.
As Satan had Eve’s attention with his temptations, and her interest in everything he was saying, he told her a direct lie (vs. 3:4-5). Believing this lie, and following through with their disobedience to God, led to Adam and Eve’s spiritual death, and eventually to their physical death. As Jesus rightly said, Satan is a liar and a murderer (John 8:44). Eve was deceived. She believed Satan’s lie Adam deliberately transgressed, not being deceived (I Timothy 2:14).
God gave Adam and Eve just one rule. They had plenty of choices for delicious fruit to eat, and only one was forbidden. They had fellowship with God, and no reason for insecurity, concern, or fear. God gave them the choice to obey or not, as He does not want mechanical, robot-like love. He tested their faith, and at the first opportunity they broke the rule.
Temptation’s appeal always comes beautifully wrapped in a false promise. However, its reward leaves us with a bitter taste. Satan tempted Adam and Eve to take and eat in order to draw them to death. Jesus invites us to take and eat from Him, and He points us to another “tree”, the Cross, in order to give us eternal life.
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