Title: Road to Freedom, Road to Division, February 13
Genesis 3:1-7
The road to freedom, the road to division
Snake and Eve
People who like snakes may feel a little offended, but according to today's text, snakes seduced humans and corrupted them. The person telling this story wouldn't have had any problems if Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit on their own, but it wouldn't have been a big deal, so why did the snake appear among the many animals living on Earth? If the snake can participate in the judgment of history in the future, it may be able to express its injustice. With a slightly different mind, there may have been some religions in the ancient Near East that worshiped snakes as gods. Or maybe the Jews had a bad experience with snakes. There was a time when they were bitten by a fiery serpent and almost died while they were in the wilderness after the Exodus. Of course, the Bible says that God sent fiery serpents to them because they resented Yahweh and Moses, but it is clear that they had a bad experience with fiery serpents. When they were about to die, as God commanded, Moses made a copper snake and hung it on a stake, and it is said that no one who looked at the copper snake did not die (Numbers 21:4-9).
The most obvious reason why the snake appears in today's text is explained by the text itself. “The serpent was the most cunning of the wild beasts that the LORD God made” (verse 1). The most cunning means that the brain is the best. To seduce an opponent, you have to be smart, and the snake was the smartest. However, the point that should not be missed here is the fact that the serpent was God's creation. Considering the great premise that there is nothing bad among God's creations, the serpent must not have been evil itself. It may sound a bit odd logic, but snakes aren't evil, they're just clever. But the problem is where to use that good hair. The good head of the snake completely changed the fate of man.
The serpent said to Eve, the first woman of mankind. “Is it true that God has told you not to eat from any tree in this garden?” (v. 1b). Temptation is attempted very implicitly, not explicitly. This serpent's statement clouded Eve's judgment by partially quoting God's Word. God's command regarding the fruit of the Garden of Eden is recorded in Genesis 2:17. “From any tree in this garden you may eat as you please. But do not eat only from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The day you eat it, you will surely die.” Almost everything was allowed and only one forbidden command was changed to describe everything as if it were forbidden. While this snake's words were not entirely wrong, they were fundamentally misleading.
Eve corrected the serpent's words. Not everything was forbidden, but only the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. But the fact that the woman has already begun to be shaken by the snake's words is in his answer. God only told them not to eat, but Eve twisted the situation a bit, saying, “I told you not to eat and not to touch,” as if this fact was very dissatisfying. People tend to inflate and express what they dislike without realizing it. It can be said that the serpent and Eve are similar in that they disliked the order that God had created.
Having already confirmed that Eve's heart has been shaken, the serpent now seduces her more explicitly. “Never die. God knew that if you took the fruit of the tree and ate it, your eyes would be opened, and like God you would know good and evil” (Verse 5).
Even though God said that if you eat the fruit of the forbidden fruit, you will die, but on what grounds is it that the serpent, which is only a creature of God, does not die? These words of the serpent were partially right, but totally wrong. If you follow the story behind today's text, you will find that Adam and Eve, who ate the forbidden fruit, did not die right away. But in the end they are doomed to death. “You are dust, and to dust you will return” (3:19).
The serpent's temptation goes one step further from the negative level of immortality, and it is stated at the positive level that the eyes are opened to know good and evil like God. This statement is not wrong, but it is not entirely correct either. Adam and Eve, who ate the forbidden fruit, had their eyes opened, but they did not become like God. Temptation unfolds in such a way that partial truths are disguised as whole or shamed. If it turns out to be wrong from the very beginning, you can easily defend it, but it is difficult to defend because it seems to be telling a very objective fact, but the fact is telling a distorted fact. That's why people seem to move on to Sinab even with obvious lies.
The vicious cycle of temptation
After stating that he does not die, only his eyes are opened, the serpent disappears from the stage of the Fallen event. Now the choice is entirely up to Eve and Adam. The serpent only provided a motive for the fall, never forced it. It is saying that the responsibility for the Fall lies entirely with Adam and Eve, not externally.
To some feminists, this may be a bit disappointing, but in the Genesis narrative of the Fall, Eve, the woman, plays a leading role. Persuaded by the serpent that she could become like a god without dying, the woman looked at the tree. When women go down the street and pay close attention to the clothes installed in the window, it means that they have already lost their mind.
Today's text expresses Eve's heart toward the tree of knowledge in this way. “It’s delicious, it’s luscious to look at, and I think it’ll make people smarter.” Three desires in humans can be found here. According to von Rath, to be edible is a wild impulse, to look luscious is a more aesthetic impulse, and to be clever is the most decisive temptation. According to the expression of 1 John 2:16, it can be said to be physical pleasure, pleasure of the eyes, and worldly pride.
Eve's temptation is an ongoing problem throughout human history. As the serpent explained (v. 5), it is said that if you can know ‘good and evil’, you think that it will give you satisfaction. Here, to ‘know’ good and evil did not merely mean to deepen our awareness, but also to experience, to become intimate with . . ., or to some ‘ability’. So, knowing something means being able to predict the good and the bad that will happen to you. The temptation to enjoy freedom, the ability to choose the good and the bad for ourselves, rather than dwelling in God's order and command, is the fundamental temptation experienced by the first humans. That pattern continues even today.
Now mankind seems to be standing in front of the second tree of good and evil. The natural sciences do just that. Through the natural sciences, we may gain the ability to distinguish good from evil. It's tasty, it's hearty to look at, and it looks like it'll make people smarter. We will continue to go down this path. Just as Eve could not stand this temptation, so we too will eventually choose to endure it. You have already chosen that path.
path of self-disruption
The text explains what happened to these two people who ate the forbidden fruit. “But their eyes were opened, and when they saw that they were naked, they sewed fig leaves together and covered their faces” (verse 7).
First of all, it is true that Adam and Eve's eyes were opened as the serpent said. It can be said that the novice that human beings take a step towards freedom is able to see and read the world. This means that human beings can think of nature as an object instead of staying as a part of it. The question of whether humans are part of nature or transcend nature will not be resolved until the end of time. Because in humans there is a mixture of natural elements and elements that transcend them. In general, we think of this world as an object, and by analyzing and processing it, we think that humans can live comfortably and happily. It is said to be the great cognitive capacity of man, and the human freedom given to him by it. Can we be happy and ultimately enter the place of salvation by being able to handle the world and nature at will?
When Adam and Eve opened their eyes, the first thing that was revealed was that they were naked. Of course, she was naked before eating the forbidden fruit, but before that, she didn't even notice that she was naked. That's weird. Even in the same situation, in some cases it is visible and invisible. Even though it is the same situation, it is visible to some and not visible to others. In this respect, isn't cognition changing from an organic relationship to an object relationship? They look natural when they are organically one, but they look different when they are relatively distinct. Seeing the fact that newly-born children are unaware that they are naked, but become conscious of it while adapting to human culture, I do not know whether this culture is a process of thoroughly objectifying us. In a place where civilization is less developed, people and nature live together as one, but in a place where civilization is developed, humans and nature, and humans and humans, become more distant.
Adam and Eve covered their fronts with fig leaves. It means being ashamed of being naked. This shame means that he has experienced a serious division in his inner world. Adam and Eve, knowing good and evil, became partly like God in a recognizable way, but, fundamentally, fell into their own division. Human beings who were mere creatures chose the same freedom and power as God who created this world, but the result was rather self-division. This is the process and result of the fall of man as the Bible speaks of it.
The realm of freedom is endlessly expanding for us today. Politically democratized, economically relatively affluent, and individual freedom continues to grow in the social realm. But we're not sure if we're actually free. It should be noted that the choices we make that we think will bring us happiness are seldom true. Because the good and the bad, the happy and the unhappy things we decide come into our lives and act differently than we expect.
In order to avoid this kind of internal division, we keep weaving fig leaves to cover the front like Adam and Eve. It's because there's something we're uneasy about somewhere. Whether it's buying clothes, buying a house, seeking fame, or raising a child in the future, we cover ourselves up. In this way, we cannot escape the path of self-division. Overcoming this is possible only from God. So we believe in Jesus Christ.