Ge. 3: It's the LORD. Oh no, run!

All right, now we meet the crafty serpent. You just knew it wasn't going to stay hunky-dory for long. Crafty is sly. Although with the naivete' of Adam and the woman who just fell off the turnip truck, how crafty did the serpent really have to be? I don't know. And maybe the serpent was a dragon. That's what I think of when I think serpent. Not snake exactly.

Anyway, the serpent says, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
I had to go back into chapter two...verse 17. God actually says "You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." The serpent twisted the words around. The woman corrects it, saying what God said in 2:17. What I never really noticed before was that God issued this command to Adam before the woman was created. So Adam must have emphasized this to her in some way that she was able to internalize it, and recall it later. Maybe that was obvious, but I never noticed that. I wonder what else they talked about?

While the woman had it right to begin with, the serpent started off with a statement that allows doubt to creep in. Before the woman knew it, she was listening, and then..."You will not surely die," the serpent goes on, directly and obviously contradicting what God said, playground style. It is a complete and total opposite. Something is the reverse of God here. The anti-God. Bizzaro God. He then goes on to inject the idea that she and her husband will be like God, knowing good and evil, like that is some wonderful gift. The serpent attached a perceived value to this thing that the woman bought into. I've...never done that. As though its worth you're ever-lovin' soul. The serpent causes them to question God's motives, as cynics, thinking God has some sinister motive for them not already knowing good and evil. As if God is hoarding all the knowledge for Himself.

We know what happens next: Fruit looks good, woman takes a bite, Adam is like, "I'm with you, babe," and eats it as well.

Now they know they are naked. It must have been some kind of cataclysm at that point. No longer was there perfection. Anywhere. I imagine they noticed spots and wrinkles and sags where there were none previously. The entire earth must have groaned collectively as paradise was closed. The lamb got up from his spot next to the lion. Or was devoured in a gory, tendon-snapping, entrail flinging mess.

They had to cover what was created in innocence and beauty, as it now became a taboo. So they hide, and God asks where they are, but He knew. It seems like God wants to open a dialogue, rather than be accusatory. As if He wants Adam to recognize that he missed the mark on his own, rather than be put in the hot seat. Adam doesn't lie to God. And like any loving husband, he blames his wife. She blames the serpent. Interesting that the first punishment is handed out to the serpent. What a bleak, horrible future the serpent is given. The bride...er...woman will have enmity (conflict) with him, and his head is going to be crushed by a Son of Adam, although there will be some heel-strikage.

The woman gets it bad too...childbirth will be painful...moreso, as the punishment is the increase. The desire for the husband is apparently also a part of the punishment, not in some sort of wink-wink, unfunny stand-up comedian way, but perhaps that speaks to the tribulations of marriage...especially the divine marriage?

The ground is cursed because of Adam. Of course, he has to work the soil, and get pricked by the thorns suddenly sprouted by roses and the like. His food will have to be cultivated, it won't just be pluckable. ( I just wanted to say, "pluckable.") As Adam noticed imperfections in his naked body, so now the earth begins its decay. So, I guess, man is responsible for earth changes.

The woman is named Eve...the mother of all the living. My great-great...great...etc...grandmother. Your great-great-and-so-on grandmother.

Man now knows good and evil. It was good to know only good, I imagine. With knowing good and evil, you have to now know evil as well. Great prize, Bob. Hope that fruit was tasty. It's like matching all the numbers in the lotto, and winning 80 cents...and a trip to the guillotine. God says that now Adam cannot reach out and take fruit from the tree of life and live forever. That's all it would have taken? God's original design was eternal life. Probably better that Adam isn't alive today, he'd be seen as the guy that spoils everything, like when you set up a family photo and he streaks through the background, or he drops the pop-up with the game on the line...you just want to say, "You blew it!" Its easy to throw Adam under the bus for our human condition...but the serpent would have gotten to someone eventually.

So one man ushers in sin...

My Bible says the man was driven out. I'm assuming it wasn't like a limo drives someone out. I don't get the impression that God pointed to the gate, and Adam hung his head and trudged out. I think Adam did what he could to stay in that place, and would have done anything to get back in. I wonder if there was full scale tantrumming. I wonder if he thought the tree of life could still save him?

Kind of a downer chapter, outside of the serpent with a crushed head. Things will get better for this Adam guy though, right?


Questions I have for God:
1. What was the serpent?
2. What was the fruit? (Meaningless in the grand scheme of things, but...don't you want to know?)
3. What would childbirth have been like without pain? How could pain not exist?
4. At what point did you realize you didn't need the cherubim and the flashing sword by the tree of life?