Expelled from the orchard
This week's verses are Genesis 3:8-24:
When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden by eating the fruit of the forbidden tree, they became aware of their sin and tried to hide from God. First they hide physically behind the trees, and then they hide behind a wall of blame-shifting. They've sinned against the God they once loved, and now they fear his judgment. But they don't repent the way the tax collector repented during his prayer. They point fingers like the Pharisee. God rejects them, just as they feared he would. Their defenses were worse than useless.
God punishes all of the parties involved, and then drives them out of the orchard that was their home. They will never love God or each other the way they used to. Nothing will be as easy as it was before. Nothing will be as sweet and painless. This is the state mankind has lived in collectively ever since, which Christ's death on the cross changes for us individually: Our rejection is reversed. Death becomes temporary. Labor and service become rooted in love again, and no longer done just out of survival. As men and women, we relearn to live in peace and harmony despite the shrill cries of the world trying to turn us against each other. And most importantly, we learn to love God again and approach him more innocently.
These verses are the first serious conversation God has with man and woman in their fallen state. The way Adam and Eve act is the way we ourselves act when we fear being found out and pushed away. Who among us openly admits their sin? Who isn't even a little afraid of rejection when they lay it all out in the open? When people avoid the church, and religion, they are like Adam and Eve trying to lose themselves amongst the trees, hoping if they can just keep moving they can avoid being seen and judged. As a strategy, it's worse than useless.
Imagine you married the man or woman of your dreams and were then struck with this Eden-fear of your new spouse: Imagine hiding behind the furniture, lying to them and changing the subject whenever you realized you'd made a mistake. Do you think the marriage would go well? Do you think there would be any lasting reconciliation for those mistakes? This is basically mankind's story from the early days of creation until now: delusion and crushing insecurity, even after the crucifixion, because we don't understand God's love.
When you approach God in prayer, do you hide among the trees, losing yourself in busyness, avoiding a face to face meeting? Do you change the subject, leave certain things out, explain your motives and argue for clemency like a lawyer? When Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent, their words weren't necessarily false; they were incomplete. What they left out was humility. Eve failed because of the serpent but she mostly failed because of Eve. Adam failed because of Eve but he mostly failed because of Adam. What we choose to omit is revealing.
It's not wrong to fear judgment. It can actually be a healthy motivator to behave ourselves. Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, right? The problem comes when we try to avoid judgment in our own strength. We try to not be around when God is visiting. We try to change the subject or argue the defense with our clever words. We put on a show, but God is not fooled. And worse, he is disrespected by someone he loves.
So this first meeting of God and fallen man is a pattern on what not to do. Don't run. Don't hide. Don't fight. Mankind has fallen, but Jesus Christ's sacrifice brings us lasting reconciliation. The curse is over. Angelic sentries will no longer cut us down for approaching. In the Garden of Eden we were expelled from the orchard, but on Calvary we were invited back into the presence of God.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God moving about in the orchard at the breezy time of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the orchard. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” The man replied, “I heard you moving about in the orchard, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” And the Lord God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave me, she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.” So the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman replied, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.”
The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all the cattle
and all the living creatures of the field!
On your belly you will crawl
and dust you will eat all the days of your life.
And I will put hostility between you and the woman
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
To the woman he said,
“I will greatly increase your labor pains;
with pain you will give birth to children.
You will want to control your husband,
but he will dominate you.”
But to Adam he said,
“Because you obeyed your wife
and ate from the tree about which I commanded you,
‘You must not eat from it,’
the ground is cursed because of you;
in painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
but you will eat the grain of the field.
By the sweat of your brow you will eat food
until you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust, and to dust you will return.”
The man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. The Lord God made garments from skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them. And the Lord God said, “Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not be allowed to stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God expelled him from the orchard in Eden to cultivate the ground from which he had been taken. When he drove the man out, he placed on the eastern side of the orchard in Eden angelic sentries who used the flame of a whirling sword to guard the way to the tree of life.
When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden by eating the fruit of the forbidden tree, they became aware of their sin and tried to hide from God. First they hide physically behind the trees, and then they hide behind a wall of blame-shifting. They've sinned against the God they once loved, and now they fear his judgment. But they don't repent the way the tax collector repented during his prayer. They point fingers like the Pharisee. God rejects them, just as they feared he would. Their defenses were worse than useless.
God punishes all of the parties involved, and then drives them out of the orchard that was their home. They will never love God or each other the way they used to. Nothing will be as easy as it was before. Nothing will be as sweet and painless. This is the state mankind has lived in collectively ever since, which Christ's death on the cross changes for us individually: Our rejection is reversed. Death becomes temporary. Labor and service become rooted in love again, and no longer done just out of survival. As men and women, we relearn to live in peace and harmony despite the shrill cries of the world trying to turn us against each other. And most importantly, we learn to love God again and approach him more innocently.
These verses are the first serious conversation God has with man and woman in their fallen state. The way Adam and Eve act is the way we ourselves act when we fear being found out and pushed away. Who among us openly admits their sin? Who isn't even a little afraid of rejection when they lay it all out in the open? When people avoid the church, and religion, they are like Adam and Eve trying to lose themselves amongst the trees, hoping if they can just keep moving they can avoid being seen and judged. As a strategy, it's worse than useless.
Imagine you married the man or woman of your dreams and were then struck with this Eden-fear of your new spouse: Imagine hiding behind the furniture, lying to them and changing the subject whenever you realized you'd made a mistake. Do you think the marriage would go well? Do you think there would be any lasting reconciliation for those mistakes? This is basically mankind's story from the early days of creation until now: delusion and crushing insecurity, even after the crucifixion, because we don't understand God's love.
When you approach God in prayer, do you hide among the trees, losing yourself in busyness, avoiding a face to face meeting? Do you change the subject, leave certain things out, explain your motives and argue for clemency like a lawyer? When Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent, their words weren't necessarily false; they were incomplete. What they left out was humility. Eve failed because of the serpent but she mostly failed because of Eve. Adam failed because of Eve but he mostly failed because of Adam. What we choose to omit is revealing.
It's not wrong to fear judgment. It can actually be a healthy motivator to behave ourselves. Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, right? The problem comes when we try to avoid judgment in our own strength. We try to not be around when God is visiting. We try to change the subject or argue the defense with our clever words. We put on a show, but God is not fooled. And worse, he is disrespected by someone he loves.
So this first meeting of God and fallen man is a pattern on what not to do. Don't run. Don't hide. Don't fight. Mankind has fallen, but Jesus Christ's sacrifice brings us lasting reconciliation. The curse is over. Angelic sentries will no longer cut us down for approaching. In the Garden of Eden we were expelled from the orchard, but on Calvary we were invited back into the presence of God.
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