King James Version, with Nii Okai's journal notes · 13 notes
1Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
How did the serpent 🐍 enter the garden?
2And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
6And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
This has been the problem of man 👨🏿 since. We want to do what we've been asked not to do without being caught even when we've been told what would happen after.
7And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
There is a certain wisdom (lesson) that is learnt only after temptation.
Either you succumb to it and learn wisdom the hard way by facing the consequences or you escape the consequences by not succumbing and behold with wisdom what could have happened to you if you had defied wisdom.
That is what happened to Adam and continues to happen to us his children.
Of course, you can gain wisdom by observance, seeing what others are going through and avoiding them. Even though seeing what is happening to others does not mean you would heed.
That's how foolish and deceptive our hearts can be.
8And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
9And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
10And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
Oh, my lord and my God. Only God knows how that moment felt for them. These sudden berserk torrents of information and emotions.
For the first time, they felt fear 😱 and dread. They had broken the pot and it could not be repaired. They realized they had just attempted a failed coup. To usurp the powers of the God of the universe and failed.
They saw the deception of their ways and realized their own nakedness, and hid from the Lord.
11And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
THIS QUESTION 🙋.. "who told you that thou wast naked" is THE KEY 🗝 TO UNDERSTANDING THE TREE 🎄. A strange question 🙋.
12And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
Really. Of all the excuses that Adam could come up with he blamed his wife.
To stoop so low rather than man up... That should tell you how scared out of his pants 👖 Adam was.
He was dead scared and was willing to clutch at anything to gain pardon.
13And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
14And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
15And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
It is not only snakes 🐍 whose head we bruise.
Literally every animal harmful to us, we would bruise its head.
So what makes this case of the snake 🐍 unique?
Except that it did not make reference to just the natural enmity between man and snake but the seed of the woman, Jesus Christ and Satan.
16Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
17And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
18Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
19In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
20And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
21Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
Such a loving God
22And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
So it was true, man would be as God knowing good and evil 😈 but not as God ruling his own affairs and the universe 🌌 without consequences.
Man was frail and the decision to have knowledge was going to come at a terrible cost.
And man was without excuse. God told man the cost of knowledge i.e. death ☠.
But man chose to believe another than God.
It was such a big risk.
A bad choice man made and he reaped the consequences even to date.
Taking of the tree of life 🎄 to live forever would be another terrible blow to the universe 🌌.
Man would have literally become like Satan - living forever in wickedness and evil 😈.
23Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
Man had rebelled and committed high treason; he could no longer enjoy the privileges of the father. He was living in a garden already planted 🌿 by God. A garden he did not in any way contribute to yet enjoyed the fruits 🥝 thereof and only needed to tend and keep it.
Now he was driven out to go start his own. He wanted to be God. That was the allure of the temptation and now he was left on his own, to be his own god and see what life without the one true God was like.
24So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
How far did God drive them out? Also, the cherubims kept specifically the way to the Tree of Life at the east of the garden.... Could not someone go through the west and enter?
3rd January 2022 UPDATE: This sounds like a bit of an overkill. Cherubims and a flashing sword just to keep Adam and his wife out..??
😳 Yes. It showed and emphasized their complete rejection. They were now outcasts 🏰.
We've had the experience of visiting someone and suddenly wild dogs 🐶 bark at us from nowhere and you might even have a gun 🔫 pointing at you from the owners.
What did you do wrong?... You needn't have done anything wrong. You just do not belong there. However, see the sudden change in reception when they realise you are a friend to the family... 👪 Suddenly the dogs are put to rest, and guns disappear because you are family 👪.
Same thing with Adam. He was now an outcast and a potentially dangerous enemy. What would have been the consequences of Adam eating the fruit 🥝 and living forever in the sin nature 🏞?
Most likely — or should I rather say most definitely — unhindered wickedness. See how much wickedness man exhibits in a lifetime.
Now imagine the wickedness man 👨 would exhibit if he lived forever. This will bear more thinking...
Despite the complete and outright rejection of man, God was not going to let the devil 👿 win.
He was going to show the devil an aspect of God he, Satan, could not comprehend.
He was coming back for man in love 😍. Unrestrained love.
And he, God, was going to win.