August 5: Heavy-handed Control?

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Genesis 3:6

The conversation that had previously occurred between the serpent and Eve was out of earshot from Adam. It is glaringly obvious that he did not intervene, even as the conversation quickly moved from shady to calamitous. Some blame Adam for “lack of supervision,” but shouldn’t a relationship be about freedom and total trust? Constant supervision in order to control someone would come across as heavy-handed, accompanied by the potential to become totally repulsive. Think about what the Good Shepherd meant when He said that the saved . . . shall go in and out and find pasture (John 10:9). Implied in this verse is the concept of safety. The only safety that exists is in Christ.

Now Adam comes upon a terribly difficult situation. He quickly grasps that his beloved wife has overstepped the one boundary, the only prohibition that God had built into their ‘classroom,’ the garden of Eden. Eve, having accepted the serpent’s message, believed that she could not die. But Adam, immediately upon seeing what had just taken place, knew that she would begin to die that very day, just as God had said (note: the Hebrew word translated die in English is a present active participle meaning: dying you shall die).

“There was a terrible struggle in Adam’s mind; he mourned that he had permitted Eve to wander from his side. But now the deed was done.” PATRIARCHS AND PROPHETS by E.G.White (p.56)

Oh, how he loved her! And now he couldn’t bear the thought of living without her. Heretofore, Adam was yet sinless. Although he clearly knew what he was doing—for Adam was not deceived—he accepted the forbidden fruit from his life companion who had been deceived. Eve, in a matter of minutes, had moved from sinless to deceived to sinning and influencing another to sin. Adam partook, but certainly not due to deception.

It is a human tendency to lay blame. But there are intricate lessons laid out thus far in this account that are worth gaining. In Eve’s case, there was a combination of her own failure to “ingest” every word of God and Satan’s exploitation of her innocence. Adam took every word of God seriously, but his love for Eve was most definitely exploited by the enemy. In summary: the duplicitous strategy of our adversary includes employment of both deceived and undeceived humans to gain power in the world. A war is raging. Even so, all hope is not lost. Our education continues…

My son, if you receive my words, and treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding; Yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. Proverbs 2:1-6