Did God actually Say?
Genesis 3:4-6
We are confused about the fall. We think somehow we are all
punished for someone else’s mistake. Let’s be clear that well before age two
every single one of us chooses sin. And lets be clear that if Adam and Eve had
not sinned someone was going to at some point. So there is that. Now do we
still have consequences because of the fall? Well there does seem to be truth
in that. But that is next, not first. First we have to arrive at what went
wrong. There are so many theories about this moment. There are so many ways to
look at the moment where Eve and Adam chose death over life. Or more accurately choose to do what they want to do. Here is the deal
though. While there are many theories there is only one truth. There is only
one answer, only one way to understand what happened. The word of God makes
clear what happened. Eve was not overwhelmed with desire for the forbidden
fruit. She was not tempted at all. We have assigned temptation to sin. For some
reason we are convinced that these two things go together. As if we just don’t
naturally choose sin over righteousness. And let's just be clear the default is we choose sin. That is why we must be reset. The truth is that we fill our desire for fulfillment with
things that are other than God. Pretty simple at the end of the day. And in
this original sin moment it should be clear that there is no temptation. There
is just not wanting what God wants. The eating from the tree is just the acting
out of what was already occurring internally. This is the heart of sin. We so
often think sin is an external action. And while sin is played out in an action
it is always born internally. It always comes from our own disconnect from God
and it results in our acting out in unrighteousness. So the sin action is eating
from the tree but the sin itself is born out long before the moment of eating,
long before the conversation with the crafty serpent.
In Genesis two God has a little sit down with Adam. He tells
Adam, “You may surely eat of every tree of the Garden but the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it
you shall surely die.” (2:16-17). Now here we have to ask ourselves why Adam
didn’t press God for some specifics. Did Adam just get it; no worries. Or was
he like all embarrassed that the obvious seemed confusing so he lets it go. He
makes a mental note. “Just avoid that tree,” he tells himself. I mean we have
no indication that Adam even gets the concept of life, let alone death. Also,
God does not just bust out and say, “don’t eat of that tree over there. Avoid
the one with the red fruit” (waxing poetic there) He literally tells Adam.
“Don’t eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” The tree has a
pretty ominous name. Now here I’m thinking Adam might just be wondering what good
and evil is. (I think most people on earth still debate this topic) So we can
go two ways here. Way number one Adam knows this stuff already so no further
explanation is required. Adam just
knows evil is not good so it’s not desired. Way two: Adam checks out at a critical moment. He misses an entire
sentence. He has no clue what God is saying. He’s thinking about what he will
name next. I have no clue here. But I do know that this is a massive miss
because later we see Eve telling the serpent what God has told Adam. Remember,
she does not exist when God and Adam have this talk so it must be Adam’s job to
lead Eve, to let her know the rules of the place. So when Eve is having a
little chat with the serpent he asks her, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not
eat of any tree in the garden?’” Whoa. This is where sin begins. (I literally
mean stop and just feel that moment) The fall of man is moments away but it has
already happened. (Side note: Adam is hanging out with Eve, doing nothing. Just
kinda standing around. I can just see him all cool, head nod to the serpent.
“What’s up?” Don't forget Adam and the serpent already know each other. Adam gave him the cool name.) It’s the same question that gets everyone of us. It is the same
question that keeps my oldest daughter awake. It is the same question that
makes her afraid that everything I tell her about Jesus might just not be true.
“DID GOD ACTUALLY SAY?” And it is over right there because most of us just
can’t live with the things God actually says or does. Which is why we gravitate
to metaphor. It is why the whole world sits in darkness but a few. He is so
other than, that we literally bog down because when we go to say what God says
it is embarrassing because it does not sound like something some really smart
guy would say. When we go to say what God says it just sounds so lame, so
unlike what we can see around us. I just want to say what He says and be steady
in it. I don’t care that it makes no sense or that it sounds all made up and
counter intuitive. I want to say what God says the same way I say what John
Maynard Keynes says. (Oh Economics) I want to say it like it is truth and all
other ideas are a lie. I want to
say it the same way I say Keynesian school is the only proper school of
Economic thought and Chicago school is just wrong.
So anyway, Eve goes and says what Adam told her that God
said. And here is what she says to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the
trees of the garden but God said, ‘you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree
in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.” Hold on
just one second. Ok so what just happened? Eve does not refer to the tree by
name but by location. How did location replace the name? Why is that critical? It
must be critical. At least I’m thinking it is. So did she and Adam go and check
it out, have a little look-see. When did she figure out the location? Is that when she and Adam had a chit-chat
about what God said? Adam’s like, “Hey Eve, look at that amazing cool tree.
Don’t eat it or touch it.” Also, super critical. God never said touching it was
any kind of a deal, only eating it. So Eve get’s God wrong and this is where we
go off the rails. We add to God or we take away. Either way it leads to death,
not life. We create something new from the original truth. We make a photocopy
that is not quite the same. It seems innocent enough. How could you go wrong by
adding in an extra safe guard? What could possibly be wrong with a fail safe.
God said don’t eat so we add don’t touch. It helps to keep us a step away from
the eating problem. But you see where that leads? Pretty soon God said a day is
however many years it takes to match scientific years. Pretty soon creation in
the bible is just a metaphor for millions of different beginnings. Pretty soon
Jesus is one way not the only way. (These are but three ridiculous ideas I hear
and read, not from secular man, but from people who claim to know Jesus. Heck, I listened to crazier ideas while I was at Seminary.) Pretty
soon we start helping God so much that nothing He did or said in the bible is
the truth we teach. So when Eve adds in don’t touch, it is the first step
towards the corruption of who God is and we all make this same mis-step and we
need to retrace our steps and get back on His exact word and leave it at that.
How we get from
what God says to what Eve says God says we will never know. But we know they
are absolutely different things and when we get what God has said wrong we get
it all wrong. It is not good enough to kind of get the gist of what God means.
That is what we all start to live with and pretty soon we are following a
completely different God other than the Great I am, The Ancient of Days. Pretty
soon we are just following some god named (insert your name here). And that
right there is my biggest fear. I don’t want to follow the (insert your name
here) god. So I want to say what He says and call it truth.
Notice the technique of the crafty serpent. He says did God really
say you could not eat of any tree? (hyperbole)He is going big. Like he is blown
away. God said you couldn’t eat from any trees? What will he take away next?
(Hyperbole is always a good way to start when you want to make someone doubt his or her stance. Unsaved me had this perfected.) And Eve is all no-no He
said we couldn’t eat of that tree in the middle. Everything else is all good.(Super
paraphrase) And the serpent is all “oh ok but heck that whole dead thing can’t
be true.” He’s like, “that doesn’t sound like God to me.” (totally made up. The
serpent did not say that line. But we have heard this countless times from
people who say they are Christian.) And as it turns out the serpent isn’t even
lying when he gets down to the details. He tells her that “you will surely not die.
. . your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and
evil.” And we know that they don’t
die (right then. Adam lives 930 years. Way longer than anyone I know) And here
is where people argue it is the death of innocence. What? Now God is all into
figurative language? This is the death of perfection not real death? It is
easier to believe God is metaphorical and not literal? Hmmmm? We know that the only thing that happens
is that they now know the difference between good and evil. We know this
knowledge leads to embarrassment and shame. We also know that after they eat of
the fruit they are still breathing and their hearts are still beating. We know that the consequence of that
knowledge is that for whatever reason we choose evil over good nearly every
single time.
So when people ask me well then what did God mean when He
said death? I am going to go with, “I don’t know. Maybe He means separated?”
But probably He means death. Like they were never going to die but now they are
going to die someday. It’s like when I tell Judah she is going to get a
spanking. When I don’t deliver it that moment but 10 transgressions later she
is confused. But I am not a liar.
I meant it would happen when I felt it should happen. I also make it go away with
hugs and kisses and reminders of my love. So I think that is what God is doing
here. So His warning is true. They will die. The problem is they imagined it
must be something right then. That’s not God’s bad, that is their bad. They
should have asked about death at some point. At any rate God feels tenderness
for us so He fixes the death problem by sending his Son. He makes a way because
that’s what God does. So now we live forever again, problem solved.
Adam is standing right there, doing nothing. Just waiting to
see what happens next and He and Eve eat of the fruit and they don’t die and
they gain knowledge and they know everything is ruined. Oh how I know that
feeling. I know that one for sure. I usually feel
sick. I usually want to hide. That, my guess is, is the consequence of sin.
So here is something hyper interesting that literally came
to me last night.(which is now like two weeks ago) The entire fall of man is
borne out of truth, not a lie. We get so caught up in this thing that Satan
came and lied to Adam and Eve and caused the downfall of mankind. Now to be
clear, Satan was not there so back to some truth. We all tend to believe that
the crafty serpent lied to Adam and Eve and caused the entire downfall of
humanity. But again this is not true. In fact, the talking serpent did not tell
one single lie that day. He told Adam and Eve that they would not die and they
didn’t. I am going to be all crazy
and guess the crafty serpent didn’t know what death was either. At any rate I’m
going with the serpent was not all knowing. That would be crazy that God made
the serpent all knowing and didn’t make man that way. Anyway, I just think they
didn’t get death. And here is another epiphany: I am going with most of all the
earth does not get death. That is why they live in darkness. Simple really.
The serpent told them they would be like God and know good
and evil and that is what happened. God says as much, “Behold, the man has
become like one of us in knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:22) So cool when
God talks to himself/themselves. It is so insane that this moment is so matter
of fact for most of us, casually taught in Sunday school or not. I mean this
whole moment is actually pretty well known by all people, including those who
have never been to church. It is so over-learned that it is never learned at
all; just filed away somewhere in the “I got this” file. We hear the story and
move on. (Hint: trying to connect us to Adam’s mistake) This is why the whole
world is swept up in sin. Sin is born out of a truth that leads us from God. We
see a tree and figure out how God probably was not talking about this tree; probably
some other tree. Or we figure God probably is over that tree thing. After all,
our world is more complicated and God could not imagine all the trees we have
to deal with. Everyday we make these choices that don’t involve destruction or
mayhem, lust or greed. They just don’t involve God. I think God would call that sin. “Did God actually say?” Yes,
yes he did.
