Lessons From Adam and Eve

What might we possibly learn from Adam and Eve?? A number of things, I guess. (Don’t be angry ehn. I know y’all are angry with Adam and Eve for doing this to us). I know they’re mostly always blamed for the trouble that befell man, but there is a very high probability that if it were to be you, you’d do the same (I’m not saying it categorically, but it is most likely possible). Adam caused the fall of man. I mean, the female gender is always blamed for falling short of God’s glory, but Adam is at fault. I’m not saying this because I’m a lady, but because it’s true. The serpent deceived Eve, right? But Adam wasn’t deceived; he ate the fruit willingly. We even see it from research that Adam was there with Eve when the devil was speaking with her. Why he didn’t take his wife away or he didn’t shun the devil is what I demand explanation for.

“The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.”

(Gen. 3:6 NLT)

Okay, let’s say he wasn’t listening to the conversation, but when Eve passed the fruit to him to have a bite (mind you, it’s not an apple. Ehn, yes. The Bible never mentioned what kind of fruit. It just said it’s a fruit. So erase that thought of apple from your mind please).

 “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”

(Gen. 3:3 NLT)

If we were to be honest, it’s not to be denied that Adam knew the different between the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, the tree of life, and the other trees whose fruit are very much edible. There’s always the argument that, “why did God put the two trees in the garden that were forbidden to be eaten?”

Answer: God didn’t create man to robotize him; i.e. he wanted man to have a choice. If Adam had eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil instead, he’d have become like God, and live forever.

“Then the Lord God said, “Look, the human beings have become like us, knowing both good and evil. What if they reach out, take fruit from the tree of life, and eat it? Then they will live forever!” So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made.”

(Gen. 3:22-23 NLT)

That was why both trees were there, but God had given him an instruction ahead of time that he shouldn’t eat the fruit off of those trees.

“The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden— except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man. “At last!” the man exclaimed. “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’” This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.” (Gen. 2:15-25 NLT)

I know you skipped the Bible verse above, just go back to read it. It lays the foundation for the next few paragraphs. Eve had not been created as at the time when God gave Adam the instruction as touching those trees. Therefore, we’d agree that the information was passed down to Eve by Adam. The devil didn’t go to Adam probably because the instruction was given to him directly. If both Adam and Eve had not eaten of that fruit, and they kept passing down the instruction God gave, I’m sure by the time it got to the 7th person, the information would be slightly different from God’s original instruction. There was an experiment that was done that I watched. People were lined up and someone told the first person something in the ears, and told that person to pass the information to others, and they kept speaking into each other’s ears until it got to the last person. By that time, the information had totally changed. The same happened with Eve. She added something extra to the information God gave Adam. Or maybe Adam was the one who added to it, who knows? Don’t come for me please, I have nothing against Adam. (Compare Gen. 2:16-17 & Gen. 3:3). If I were you, I’d check those scriptures. On second though, lemme (let me) just drop it here for you.

The instruction given to Adam.

“But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden— except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” (Gen. 2:16‭-‬17 NLT)‬‬‬

The message Eve passed to the serpent.

“It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’” (Gen. 3:3 NLT)

Let’s divert for a minute or two (we divert most times from the lessons, right?? Well, despite the fact that I have a template of what to write, I let the Holy Spirit take the wheel still. So if you come across anything like a diversion in some of the articles, it’s Holy Spirit inspired, and believe me, you’d see more in the articles to come). So yeah, what dropped in my heart even as I write now was what I listened to in a message some days ago, I think.

Let’s take a look at the succeeding verse of Gen 3:3 and see the devil’s response to Eve. Note: the response wasn’t in reply to Eve’s word, whether or not she added an extra information. The reply was a directly opposite information to what God had earlier instructed (shey this English is correct laidis??)

“You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.” (Gen. 3:4‭-‬6 NLT)‬‬‬

If there’s one thing the devil is a demon at, it’s deceiving people; believers most especially; believers that do not hold God’s Word tightly. Take a look at this scenario- Let’s agree you’re a lover of water (I said let’s agree because we’re not all fans of water. We’re fans of soda [soft drink]. Not me though. I’m a fan of water till tomorrow! Say I’m old school, but I like my water). Now, you just bought a bottle of water from the store. We’ve been taught since secondary school that water is colourless, odourless and... (you know the last word). Then someone comes along and tells you... “this drink you’re holding is blue in colour.” I want to guess your first reaction is either to laugh at the person so to use one corner of your eye to look at the person, thinking if the person is mentally unstable, because it’s obvious even to the blind that the drink is colourless! Whereas, the bottle is transparent so you can see through it that the water is actually, not coloured. But the person stood on their word that the water is blue in colour and not colourless as you claim.

You see, that person is a deceiver, and if you don’t know your water, you might be forced to believe it’s actually coloured especially if the water is in a container that you can see through it, like a water flask or something. But you know you poured water in that flask yourself and you’ve been carrying it around with you all day, you won’t easily or ever fall into the trap of believing the water in the flask is actually blue. That person trying to convince you is the devil. And that water you’re supposedly holding is God’s Word. If God’s Word is not real to you, I’d be a smooth slide into deception for you because the devil will have a field day toying with your intelligence; most especially your under of God’s Word. That’s why our pastors never get tired of telling us to equip ourselves with God’s Word. Even Apostle Paul told us that we should let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly (Col. 3:16).

God’s Word is more realer than the water you held with so much assurance that it’s not blue in colour. God’s Word is so sure than the water you’ve been holding on to all day, and so sure that no colouring has tampered with it. God’s Word is true and faithful! It never lies! Dear reader, it is necessary that you hold on to God’s Word. Whether or not it looks real. The fact that it comes from God is enough reason for you to hold on to it. This is where the devil comes in... He will bring thoughts and images to you that contradicts what God has said to you. The ball is in your court if you now decide to be deceived by the devil or to be enriched by the living Word of God! If you don’t know God’s Word, the devil will come for you. If you know God’s Word, he will come for you. How about you get ready for him with God’s Word as well so when he comes with his lies, you clap back with that which God’s Word supplies! (May the Holy Spirit shed more light on this on your heart, Amen).

Guess you can take this as lesson number 1.

Err, we were talking about Eve adding an extra information to that which God told her, right? I think that’s where we’re coming from. So now, we’re back on track,

(If you’re lost, you can just go back to check Gen. 3:3, read the paragraph before it, and jump back here).

I’m sure by the time the information will get to the 5th person, someone would have added,

“If you look at it, you’ll just faint.” OR

“If you pass beside it, fire will burn you.” OR

“If you think about the tree, the ground will just swallow you up.”

By then, the serpent would have a nice time convincing anyone. The serpent being referred to is not a literal snake, but satan, the devil (the devil used the body of the serpent to approach Eve. It wasn’t weird for animals to talk then, I guess. If not, Eve should have taken to her heels when she saw and heard the serpent speak). So you see, either way, someone somewhere would have still decided to try the fruit out. So please, quit the blame game with Adam and Eve. Look on the bright side, Jesus Christ came to give back to us all that Adam lost. Just so you’d know, you’re much more better and blessed than Father Abraham, Moses, Enoch, even my favourite character; the fire bender (you know who) and others. They didn’t have the covenant of grace and redemption we have today. They didn’t have the Holy Spirit living inside of them, but the reason it seems and you think they’re better than us is because you haven’t yet come to the understanding of what Christ came to do for us. We have God’s Spirit living inside of us to guide us into all truth and help us in our walk with Him (John 14:16-17). So just quit complaining that because someone fell, that’s why everything is like this. The only reason you keep complaining is once again “because you haven’t yet come into the full understanding of what Christ did for you and I at the cross of Calvary.”

We’re still trying to lay a foundation. We haven’t yet gotten to lesson 2. Please, follow closely.

We know the story; When God asked why they did what they did, Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent, the serpent had no one to blame. God then distributed punishments as He deemed fit. Here’s where the lesson comes in…

Sometimes, if not most times, it is most noble that we take responsibility for our actions, and bear the consequences with your full chest. I don’t know but you should be able to relate; when we were young, if you committed an offense, and you owned up to it, the consequences is always lesser than if you lied or you tried to blame someone else for what you’ve done. There’ll be consequences, fine, but it’ll be less graver than denying and trying to heap the blame on someone else. Sometimes, there are no consequences because the person (maybe a parent now) that’s trying to judge the matter might consider the sincerity of the heart of the one who confessed and owned up to his faults and just decide to let sleeping dog lie! (African, especially Nigerian parents think otherwise sha. But still... Upon though...). There’s every probability God would have issued a less graver punishment if both Adam and Eve had owned up to their fault with their full chest, instead of trying to blame the next available person. There’s also a very high possibility that God would have forgiven them on the spot and saved them right there and then!

There are cases and instances in the Bible where people committed great sins (mind you, there’s no big or small sin. Every sin is equal. There’s no difference between a murderer and a liar or someone who picks a fight at the slightest provocation. All sin nah sin! All sin is sin!); I’m using the word great sins so we can understand the weight of that action. These guys did something very bad and God pronounced their punishment right there on the spot. However, at some point, God turned and either eased the sentence or forgave or reduced the consequence once and for all. We’ll take David as a case study (2 Sam. 12). When he had a carnal knowledge of Uriah’s wife and killed the man, God sent Prophet Nathan to him to deliver his punishment, and the punishment was the death of the young child that sprung from the illicit affair. Immediately Nathan the prophet pronounced God’s punishment to David, he went out to appease and beg God. God forgave him, still the child died. Although, other punishments were attached, but the immediate one was the child dying. God is such a God, sincerely. Same woman whom David had a carnal knowledge of her now gave birth to another son, putting it in Bible terms, “God loved the baby.” (2 Sam. 12:24). Should I tell you the beautiful thing about the situation? Though Bathsheba got married to David through the wrong channel, it was her child that succeeded David. Yes. Solomon is Bathsheba’s son. So you see, even when he married her through the wrong channel, God, because of the sincerity and humble heart of David, gave the kingdom of David to the son Bathsheba had for him next. For the records, she had three more children. She wasn’t the first wife, neither was she the last. Neither was she the favourite (the Bible didn’t specify though). David owned up to his mistake. He didn’t tell God that the woman was bathing at the wrong time or that he is human and had the right to develop sexual feelings towards her, so that God will because of that have mercy on him. I mean, that’s a legal reason.

Before you go ahead blaming Adam and Eve that they didn’t apologize ahead of time, look at yourself. Do not play the blame game. Own up to your mistakes and make a change! If it’s something you cannot do yourself, ask God for help! When it’s time to give account to God on the judgement day, He won’t hear that fighrheb caused you to fall into sin, or xjbygbdsyh is the reason you use idle words on people. It won’t be justifiable that it’s because jbyugih offended you that you’re now been hostile to others when in fact the Bible said we should live peaceably with all men. Learn not to play the blame game. Quit the sentence, “vhbisjbdi made me do it.” Instead, you can say, “I’m sorry. It’s my fault it happened.” Or “Please forgive me, I will make sure such doesn’t repeat itself,” and truly, stick to your words. Don’t forget to ask God for help.