Saturday, September 21, 2013

In The Beginning - Chapter 14 (Part 2 - The Decent of Man)



Part II

The Descent of Man


Chapter 14


It was a bright and sunny spring day.  Adam and his wife frolicked in the river that converged in Eden from four other rivers and then diverged back out into four branches as it left the garden.  The day was calm and warm; birds chirped and small animals played on the stream’s shore.

The sky was bursting with deep blue color as the sun rose high above the peaks of the surrounding trees which were in full bloom.

Life was good in paradise.  Eden was a garden which grew every fruit and vegetable.  It was watered by a mist which came up from the ground every night covering all the plants with enough water to keep them lush and green.

When they were hungry the two of them walked through the garden picking whatever food they desired then ate together drinking in all God had provided.

Deciding it was time for lunch, they came up out of the spring and sat on a rock at the edge to dry off in the warm sun.  Just behind them rose a large shade tree.  As they sat, they looked toward the middle of the garden where there rose a huge tree from which dangled luscious fruit.

Adam and his wife thought little of it.  God had warned them not to eat of that tree and with all the other trees and fruit and vegetable bearing plants in the garden they had not up to this moment had any problems denying themselves the pleasure of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Just behind them in the tree they heard a rustling noise and turned toward it expecting to see a bird or some other small animal playing there.  What they saw instead was a snake, a long serpent with legs running down each side.  It was wrapped around a branch with its head dangling just high enough to make good eye contact with the humans.

In Eden animals, birds, and humans all lived together in peace, and the sight of a snake in the tree was not at all frightening for them.  Adam set off to find some vegetables for their lunch as the woman looked around the garden for fruit to go with it.

“Is it true,” said the snake, “that God has told you that you cannot eat of any of the trees in the garden?”

“Of course not,” she replied.  “We are free to eat of any tree we choose.  Any tree, that is, except that big one in the middle over there.  If we eat from it or even touch it we will die.”

If a snake could grin Satan would’ve achieved it at that moment.  These humans were even more gullible than the angels he had corrupted.

“You will not die,” he said condescendingly.  “God just doesn’t want you to eat of that tree because He knows if you do, you’ll be just like Him, knowing good and evil.  When you eat of that tree, you will finally be able to see the world for what it is, just like He does.  You will be like God!”

The woman sat for a minute and considered what the snake had said.  She had never been exposed to a lie before.  God had clearly told them not to eat of the tree, but right here in front of her was a snake telling her it was okay.  The snake spoke with such authority, why would he say that if it were not true.

She wandered over to the tree to inspect the fruit and the snake followed behind her.  She looked up at the fruit of the tree with a scrutinizing eye.  She neared it with her face and inhaled its sweet aroma, a fruit that smelled that good could not be so bad.  The snake had said that if she ate the fruit she would be wise, she would be like God.  Wow … like God!

At first she reached out her hand like a chef tapping the edge of a skillet to see if it was hot, she quickly tapped the fruit and then jumped back in fear.  She did not die.

She walked up to the tree again and put her hand around one of its fruits and squeezed firmly and still she did not die.  The snake climbed up the tree and encircled the branch just above her.  He dropped his head and said, “I told you so.”

Eve looked at him in defiance and gave a sharp tug.  The fruit came off in her hand.  She grabbed another that was beside the first and pulled it off as well then ran quickly back to the rock to wait for Adam.

He approached a short time later and found her sitting beneath the tree, the serpent hanging from the branch behind her.  He looked at the serpent for a moment then at Eve and the fruit she was holding, one in each hand.

“I touched it,” she said, “and I didn’t die.  The serpent told me that if we eat of it we will be wise – we will be like God!”

At this she raised the fruit to her lips to take a bite and then stopped.  She extended her hand to Adam, turned her palm up and opened her fingers.

Adam looked at her for a long moment without moving.  Eve sat quietly and looked directly into his eyes.

This was clearly against God’s rules - but then, hadn’t God given the woman to him to be a helper?  To be his confidant and faithful companion?

He looked at the serpent who gazed back and tasted the air with his tongue, savoring every moment of his imminent victory.

Adam looked back through the garden and up at the sky.  Where was God when he needed Him?

“Don’t you want to be like God?” asked Eve.

“He told us we could not eat of the fruit of this tree,” replied Adam.

“The serpent said that’s because He knows if we do we will be like Him, knowing good from evil.”

“Has God ever given us any instruction which resulted in any ill coming to us,” asked Adam?

“Not that we know of,” replied Eve, sarcastically.

This was a side of Eve that Adam had never seen.  He didn’t much like her tone of voice nor her body language.  It all made him very uncomfortable.  She had never done anything before that had made him uncomfortable.

“Do you love me, Adam?”  she asked.

“You know that I do,” he replied.

She stood, walked over him and lifted the fruit up just under Adam’s nose.  It smelled sweet, sweeter than anything he had yet tasted in the garden.  He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply through his nose, savoring the amazing aroma.

Wrapped loosely around the branch, Satan was engrossed in the scene before him.  “My, my, what a man would do at the bidding of a woman,” he thought.  “I wonder what a woman might do for a man.”

The lessons from this scene were many.  It also seemed that mankind was by nature hedonistic.  Given the right circumstances and a choice between good and bad he could be convinced to choose the bad despite what his intellect knew to be the correct choice.

“And it is so easy,” he thought.  “This is going to be fun.”

Adam took the fruit from her and she held the other fruit up to her mouth and grinned.

He put the fruit to his lips and together they each took a large bite.  The flavor was fantastic, unlike anything Adam had ever tasted.  He closed his eyes savoring it as he slowly chewed and then swallowed.

What a taste!  What pleasure he experienced in the flavor.  Chills went up his spine as he took another large bit and then another.  He didn’t think he could ever get full of it.  Nothing could taste this good.  How could anything this good be bad?  Why would God forbid them from partaking of something like this?  This was ecstasy like nothing he had experienced before.

But then something changed.  The taste that was so sweet in his mouth turned bitter.  He tried to spit it out, but he had already eaten it all.  A feeling of dread began to overshadow his spirit.  His stomach hurt and he had an overwhelming sense of sadness.

He opened up his eyes and turned back to Eve who was staring at him in horror.  He saw her face and realized he was sitting in front of her naked as was she.  He felt what seemed like the oppression of a huge weight being dropped onto his shoulders and he visibly slumped under its weight.

He looked to the tree, but the snake was nowhere to be found.  He turned back to look at his wife but she had fled into the woods crying, leaving him there alone.  Realizing the trouble into which he had gotten himself, he ran the opposite direction into the woods, looking for something he could use to cover himself.

Eve called to him from the other side of the woods.  “Adam!”

“Yes, my wife?”  he replied, only barely loud enough for her to hear.

“What have we done?”

“I fear we have disobeyed the command of our God and that he will be very angry with us when He sees what we have done.”

“Do you feel what I feel?” she asked?

“It is a feeling I have never experienced,” he replied.  “What is it that makes me want to stop living?  How could one fruit have such an effect?  I have no joy left in me.”

“I feel the same way,” she said.  “I was naked and ashamed.”

Adam didn’t reply and a long uncomfortable moment passed.

“I have sewn fig leaves together with a vine to cover myself," said Eve.  "I have made one for you, too.  I’ll leave it for you on the rock where we ate of the fruit.”

A moment later Adam approached the rock and found the fig-leaf loincloth that she had sewn for him.  He quickly put it on and turned to see her emerging from the woods wearing hers.

Neither could speak.  Their shame was profound, their fear overwhelming.

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