Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took some of its fruit, and ate. Then she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate it, too.”
Genesis 3:6

Instead of standing on the Words of God to defend their position (James 4:7), the woman tested out the words of the snake. She LOOKED at the tree, noticing it in detail. Paying attention to it. It wouldn’t have been a temptation if she had not given it attention and time (James 1:12-16). God tells us to keep His words in our ears and before our eyes (Joshua 1:8; Proverbs 4:20-23). He doesn’t say that because He is an egotist. He says that because it PROTECTS us. If we hold to the TRUTH, temptation cannot get a hook in.

She did four things. She noticed the tree as a fruit-bearing tree pleasant to behold. She examined it and saw that it was a desirable thing to be wise and that in truth the tree COULD impart wisdom. She TOOK the fruit – and saw that nothing happened to her (she WASN’T killed by touching it). And THEN she ate it. It was progressive (1 John 2:16). Leaning into the temptation and proving HER words wrong – not GOD’s words wrong. When we add to God’s commands, instructions, and corrections, we only give ourselves more opportunities to fail.

“to her husband with her” The male was there. He was there beside her. He remained silent. He did not correct her mistake in adding to God’s words. He did not challenge her or the snake. He did not turn her down. He KNEW it was wrong (1 Timothy 2:14). He rebelled ON PURPOSE. He CHOSE it. He BETRAYED God’s trust. It seems to me that he chose his wife over God. He put the woman he loved before the God he loved. She ate, he knew what it meant, and he seems to have chosen to follow her to wherever she would end up instead of living life without her. How often do we let our FEELINGS hold sway over the TRUTH that obedience to God is better than ANYTHING? How often do we give into a PASSION and forgo the POSSESSION that God gave us? In truth this is the only way any of us sin. We choose to do what WE want instead of what GOD wants. We follow after the pattern that our ancestor Adam laid down for us, instead of the pattern our Father created us in.

It was not when the female ate that the sin was incurred. It was when the MALE ate. Why? The pre-separated male was the one who received the command, the instruction, the law of the garden. And where there is no law (the female had no direct command), God doesn’t impute the sin – it’s still SIN, but He is merciful and gracious (Romans 4:15; 5:13). But when the male ate, knowing it was wrong and being given the command face to face, Sin was imputed and creation fell. What could Adam have done INSTEAD of taking the fruit? “But if her husband forbids her in the day that he hears it, then he makes void her vow which is on her and the rash utterance of her lips, with which she has bound her soul. Yahweh will forgive her” (Numbers 30:8). AFTER the fall, husbands had authority to help their wives out of a bad place. I think if Adam had stepped in, he could have used the authority that God had given them in the beginning (Genesis 1:26-28) and done something about this BEFORE she ate or even after she did. Speculation, but I think everything would have worked out QUITE differently if they had used their God-given authority (or even if only Adam had).

Once she was fallen, broken from fellowship with God because of sin, she immediately looked to share her state. Sinners seek to make others sinners too – it salves the conscience. That’s what the devil has been doing since the beginning.

The sage Ibn Ezra writes: ‘[UNTO HER HUSBAND WITH HER.] The meaning of with her is that they ate together of the fruit and that she disclosed to him the secret that the serpent had revealed to her. Adam thus did not sin unwittingly and was therefore punished for violating God’s command. Many commentators say that the tree of knowledge was a fig tree. They base their assertion on and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves girdles (v. 7). However, if this interpretation were correct, the Bible would say, “And they sewed leaves of the tree of the knowledge.” Many others say that it was a wheat plant. However, in my opinion the two trees in the midst of the garden were unique species not found anywhere else on the face of the earth.’