Chapter 11

The Day Of Rest:

Paradise Marred

Bible Synopsis: Genesis 2:1-3 & 3:1-24

Entering God's Rest

It is not stated in the Scriptures how much time elapsed between the creation of Adam's wife and the deception of the serpent. But it is typical of Satan to attack after a glorious move of God. What better time to challenge these new creatures of the Lord, than when the Lord is resting? After receiving his baptism in the River Jordan, Jesus was tempted of the devil immediately for 40 days and 40 nights. How many believers can recall partaking in an anointed church service, or come back from some kind of powerful ministry to fall unexpectedly under demonic attack, and stumble into accidental sin? What better time for Satan to attack then when the Lord is at rest? Of course, God is sovereign and any move of Satan occurs only because He allows it for His purpose, not Lucifer's. God stepped back letting Lucifer tempt Eve to see how Adam would respond. Therefore, this writer places the fall of Adam on the seventh day when the Lord rested from his work.

The Lord resting on the seventh day seems to contradict other Scriptures. The psalmist said, "He [God] that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep" (Psa. 121:3b & 4). Isaiah cried out, "Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, Yahweh, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?" (Isa. 40:28a). Clearly this seems to contradict the Lord's resting on the seventh day. So what does this mean? This can't be a statement of God becoming fatigued. He is self sufficient and eternal.

When the dispensation of the Mosaic Law was given to the people of Israel, the fourth commandment said:

The Lord cited the seventh day of creation for the reason of the commandment. It became a point of Pharisaic pride when Jesus came on the scene. They accused him of violating the law when he healed on the Sabbath, or did any manner of work. His response was:

Why then did God include the Sabbath as a part of the ten commandments? Because, as Paul said, "Let no man therefore judge you in ... the Sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come" (Col. 2:16a &17a). The Old Testament was given to foreshadow the work of Christ. God hallowed the seventh day for our sakes, not his. The writer of Hebrews explained in detail what the "rest of the Lord" meant.

It is a statement of God's completion in creation. All of the future was accounted for in God's plan. He knew of Adam's probability of failure and was ready with the plan of redemption. The seventh day of God's rest is a declaration of rest for mankind if he will "trust in Yahweh with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding" (Prov. 3:5). On this day of temptation, if Adam completely trusted in God, then, God who is faithful, "will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it" (1 Cor. 10:13). Needless to say, Adam didn't trust God and fell away from the Lord's rest because of unbelief.

When the Lord rested on the seventh day, He didn't take a vacation and leave them alone. He did withdraw himself from active communication. All during their temptation he beheld everything. Proverbs says, "For the ways of man are before the eyes of Yahweh, and he pondereth all his goings" (Prov. 5:21). So, too, with Adam and Eve, He watched and waited to see their choice of actions.

The Fall of Mankind

THE SERPENT

While only the woman is being addressed at this time, there is no reason to assume that Adam was elsewhere. When the woman eats of the forbidden fruit, verse six says that she "gave also unto her husband with her" which implies that he stood by her side the entire time the serpent conversed with Eve. If Adam were by her side, then he had just failed in his responsibility to "keep" the garden. It is possible that God enabled the beasts to speak in the beginning. Jewish historian, Josephus, says, "All the living creatures had one language" [1], which indicates that Jewish tradition believed that all the animals could talk to humans at one time. A dumb animal is not stupid, but one that cannot speak to us. A talking snake wouldn't be that strange to Adam since he was still newly created. Also at this time, the curse had not been laid upon the serpent (Gen. 3:14), so the animal had legs. We know, however, that it wasn't just the snake talking for it was possessed by Lucifer who had by this time already sinned in his own heart and had become Satan, the accuser of the brethren.

If the naming of the animals was a test of Adam's spiritual perception, then it is peculiar that he didn't recognize a different spirit in the serpent. If he had, then he didn't say anything. Perhaps he wanted to see what would happen next. Perhaps his spiritual perception was weakened because the Lord withdrew himself from Adam, thus removing the gift of spiritual discernment (1 Cor. 12:10). It has been pointed out by many preachers that the first tactic of Satan was to plant doubt into Eve's mind concerning the veracity of God's word - "hath God said?"

It is noteworthy that the serpent and Satan are forever identified together because of this possession. Revelation says, "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world" (Rev. 12:9).

CONFUSION

It has also been pointed out by many preachers that Eve did not remember the Word of the Lord correctly. God said to Adam, "thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen. 2:17). Eve added the command, "neither shall ye touch it," which God never said. Furthermore, she said, "lest ye die," whereas the Lord said, "thou shalt surely die," which is a more dubious statement on her part. So Satan caused doubt upon God's word first, which then opened the door for confusion. "For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace" (1 Cor. 14:33). This confusion was the door of sin. To sin means, "to miss the mark," as in an arrow being shot at a target and missing it. Since God alone is right, hence righteous, to miss God's will is sin. Therefore missing God means one is no longer right.

It is possible that the Lord directly told Eve this same commandment, but the Scriptures don't say so. It is more likely that Adam fulfilled his role as head of the family in sharing the information to Eve so that she too would know the Word of the Lord. This tendency to be easily confused is one reason Peter admonished husbands to "dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel" (1 Pet. 3:7).

AS GODS

Satan through the snake brashly denies the Word of the Lord, refuting God's statement by saying, "Ye shall not surely die." He even demonstrates a better knowledge of God's word than Eve in saying "surely" as the Lord did say. He then adds a new lie in saying that "ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Jesus said of Satan, "He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it" (John 8:44).

It is noteworthy that the Hebrew word for God in the Old Testament is Elohim .*%-! which is actually the plural of eloah. It is translated in the singular because we know that God is one God, but it is really Gods. Therefore, Satan is actually saying, "ye shall be as Elohim, knowing good and evil." This is not a statement that they would be their own individual gods separate and competing against God, but they would be like God. Satan cannot sell a lie unless there is truth in the lie. All cults have some element of truth that is perverted into heresy and error. Jesus defended himself from the accusation of blasphemy for being a man and making himself God. He said, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, "Ye are gods?"' If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, 'Thou blasphemest;' because I said, 'I am the Son of God?'" (John 10:34-36). Jesus quoted Psalm 82:6 which states, "I have said, 'Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High,'" for his defense. His point is that it isn't blaspheme for him to call himself the Son of God, which he is in truth, if God himself calls the prophets "gods." Once again we are considering the Hebrew word, Elohim. God was not saying that they are separate gods in competition with him, but, rather, they were the extension of himself in the Earth. As Paul said, "we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us" (2 Cor. 5:20). The irony of Satan's lie to Eve was that he was not lying at all, although it was a lie since Satan knew how she was confused and willfully framed his question for her to draw that wrong conclusion. Eve's self awareness, or soul, was as a new born baby. She didn't realize that she already was like God in that she was made in his image. Therefore as Paul said, "Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression" (1 Tim. 2:14). To transgress means, "to be where one is not supposed to be," that is, in the devil's territory.

The sad truth of life even today is that Satan's original lie based upon confusion is still promoted and believed today. The evidence lends itself to the likelihood that the antediluvians continued to believe this lie, particularly since they had life spans averaging 800 to 900 years long. They fancied themselves gods, being cut off from the one true God and exposed to rebellious spirits, that is, demonic spirits, who continued to encourage the misconception. The postdiluvians also experienced longevity and ancient mythology deified these early people. Even up to the time of Christ, the Caesars from Julius up to Constantine continued to be deified as gods. The Christian Era has seen countless cults develop as well as dictators who claimed to be gods. Ultimately, the Anti Christ will come and proclaim himself god (Dan. 11:37 & Rev. 13:8).

THE WORLD BEGINS

The apostle John warns us all to "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world" (1 John 2:15 & 16). When the Bible refers to the world, it is not referring the creation of God, but, rather, the world system. This system defined by John as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Eve has yielded herself to these three things in the garden. The tree was good for food is an appeal to the appetite of her flesh. At this point, of course, her body has not become corrupted with sin. This is a test of her ability to resist these desires in favor for obedience to God. The tree was pleasant to the eyes is an appeal to covetousness for things seen. A tree to be desired to make one wise appeals to vanity and pride. These three desires: bodily appetites, covetousness, and pride all center on self. This focus on self is the center of the world system: iniquity. Iniquity is self-will. It is seeking the needs of self above all else. The world system has three parts: Satanic control ("the god of this world" 2 Co. 4:4); self-will ("...every man.. is drawn away of his own lust" James 1:14); and struggling with the curse ("Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward" Job 5:7). Without our self-will, Satan would have no impact, for he can do nothing without our yielding to him, nor would there be a curse on this world if we wholly followed God. This is the point of the cross. This is why Jesus said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake the same shall save it" (Luke 9:23 & 24).

The strength of iniquity is self rationalization. Proverbs says, "Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but Yahweh pondereth the hearts" (21:2). God watches us closely and meditates on the thoughts of our hearts. This innocent and nascent soul of Eve's began slipping away from it's proper submission to the spirit toward obedience to the body. When the desires of the body usurp the spirit, and the soul works for the sake of the body, then comes into being what is called in the Bible as the flesh.

The folly that Eve is falling for is knowledge without experience. The Tree of Life could be likened to wisdom. Wisdom comes from experience. Knowledge instantly gained without the effort of life creates pride. "Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth" (1 Cor. 8:1). Sound knowledge is tempered with wisdom. Proverbs says, "The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge" (Prov. 1:7), and Eve did not begin with this fear. Since they did not go through wisdom first, the fruit of the tree of knowledge corrupted into worldly wisdom. "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man" (Rom. 1:22 & 23a). Instead of using God as the standard of measurement, man became his own measure. Paul warned the Corinthians, "For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves; but they measuring themselves among themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise" (2 Cor. 10:12). Self rationalization inevitably leads to self justification. All of which is the fruit of iniquity.

ADAM'S DILEMMA

As stated earlier, it is probable that Adam stood by and beheld the entire sequence of events. It is still not too late for Adam to act. Neither she, nor he, have yet eaten the fruit. He could still speak the truth in love stopping Eve and expel Satan from the garden. Sadly for us all, he didn't. Perhaps he wanted to experiment with God's word to see if it were true. Let Eve be a human guinea pig. If she eats and dies, then he won't eat it. Fault is usually found with Eve because "she being deceived was in the transgression" (1 Tim. 2:14). But a far greater fault is to be found with Adam since he wasn't deceived, and willfully chose to disobey God.

Before Adam's incredulous eyes, when she ate the fruit she did not die. Was God's word untrue after all? Jesus said, "For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost" (Matt. 18:11). What was lost? The people? God knew exactly where Adam and Eve were as well as everyone else. What was lost was faith in God's word. He also said, "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8b). To see Eve standing without dying reinforced Adam's doubt. What Adam did not perceive, was that she did begin to die. The process of being cut off from God began with that act of disobedience. To be cut off from God was to be cut off from the source of life. In that first world, their spirits gradually failed so that some 900 years later, their bodies failed, too.

"Love covereth all sins" (Prov. 10:12b). If Adam loved Eve as Christ loved the church, then it is possible, though it never happened, that Adam still could have redeemed Eve from her transgression. If he had told Eve not to eat, and she willfully disobeyed him, and ordered Satan out of the garden, then Adam would still have remained perfect and sinless. He understood what type of love he was to have for Eve, the same as Christ's love for the church. If his faith had remained strong, then he would have believed in God's ability to do anything. He, too, could have offered his own life for her sake, to redeem her, knowing that God would raise him up from the dead. He would have totally proven himself to God and would have sat down at the right hand of the Lord forever. Perhaps, too, it would have been necessary for Eve to kill Adam to understand the depth of her transgression. However, all this is merely idle speculation, for no such thing happened.

As the proverb says, "If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; if thou sayest, 'Behold, we knew it not'; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works?" (Prov. 24:10-12). In Adam's case this was so. His strength was small. He did nothing to stop the death about to occur. He had no excuse and the Lord would bring due judgment upon him.

DEATH AND THE OLD MAN

After willfully disobeying God in partaking of the fruit with his wife, they both were changed from perfect people in God's own goodness to fallen man in evil desire. Spiritual death came on them immediately. They experienced it in their shame of nakedness, that is, the removal of the Holy Spirit from them. This became the state of all mankind. As it is written, "Wherefore, as by one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Rom. 5:12). "For the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23a).

Death not only came to Adam and Eve, but to all creatures; plants, animals, birds, insects, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and germs. The only part of creation not subject to death is the spiritual world. Human spirits either live on in heaven or hell (until the White Throne Judgment of Revelation 20:11-13) and animal spirits, it seems, are recreated (Psalm 104:29 & 30). The holy angels live forever as servants of God and demonic spirits face judgment and damnation in the Lake of Fire (Rev. 20:10) where they will be tormented night and day forever. This same fate awaits death, who is the power of the devil (Heb. 2:14), called by the world the "grim reaper", and hell with all the rebellious souls who denied Christ (Rev. 20:14). Those souls cast into the Lake of Fire won't be just spirits; they will be bodily resurrected and tormented forever in the second death (Rev. 20:14 & 15). Nonetheless, in torment, these spirits shall continue to live a living death. And before bodily death, all mankind, because of Adam, live a walking death, being alive in the body, but dead in their spirits because they are cut off from the source of life, which is God.

Spiritually severed, their hearts, now tainted by sin, became Jeremiah's cry, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" (Jer. 17:9). Not mankind. We are all deceived by our own hearts until the light of Christ shines on us. Not only does sin blind us, but "the god of this world [Satan] hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them" (2 Cor. 4:4). Satan succeeded in blinding both Adam and Eve to the truth of God's good character. Fortunately for us God says, "I Yahweh search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings" (Jer. 17:10).

This error on Adam's part created a new living entity within him, which the New Testament calls the "old man" (Eph. 4:22). Paul describes this conflicting life in Romans chapter seven.

We see here the seed of insanity birthed in mankind: a split personality; the flesh warring against the spirit. The "old man" is our life in Adam where the flesh dominates the spirit. The will of sin exists in the will of the body being in rebellion against the spirit. All people in the world, outside of Christ, exist with their flesh dominating their spirit. Since the human spirit is cut off from God, it has no strength to control the flesh, being "dead" from God.

The coming of Jesus Christ is directly due to the fall of Adam.

The fall of Adam is crucial to the doctrines of Jesus Christ. If there were no Adam, and man evolved as the atheists say, then there is no need of salvation through Jesus Christ. Evolution, even theistic evolution, is contrary to Christianity for this one reason. Likewise, the evolutionists cling to their theory because it is the one theory that ties all their sciences together while denying God.

For those who accept Christ's salvation through regeneration, their human spirits unite with the Holy Spirit, thereby becoming stronger than their flesh. ("according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man" Eph. 3:16b). Paul's explanation of Jew and Gentile coming together as one group of believers in Christ (Ephesians 2:11-17) provides a spiritual metaphor of the inner healing of the believer.

While he is speaking specifically of the separation of Jew and Gentile because of the Mosaic law, the spiritual picture of the flesh and spirit in man being reconciled is appropriate. The old man was insane, the new man is sane. The old man was divided, the new man is united.

It is orthodox doctrine to say that Christians are more aware of the struggle than the unbeliever. The unbeliever is dominated by the flesh and is only vaguely aware of the spiritual conflict. The believer is much more sensitive to the conflict of flesh and spirit because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. On the surface, this doctrine is correct. However, it makes it seem like the believer is worse off than the unbeliever. Paul's cry in Romans seven is, "0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (verse 24). He answers himself in verse 25, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." How, then, does Christ deliver us? What freedom from sin do we really have? For we know that complete deliverance will be experienced when Christ "shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body" (Phil. 3:21). Where is the victory over sin today? The freedom from sin and the old man that Christ has given us today is in the will of our spirit, which agrees with the Holy Spirit. We have the freedom to choose righteousness. "For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live" (Rom. 8:13). In other words, when we choose righteousness, the power of the Holy Spirit mortifies the will of our flesh via the work of the cross. Why is there still a struggle? Why aren't we glorified now? Because Christ "dwell[s in our] hearts by faith" (Eph. 3:17). Faith is an act of the will. When we focus on the things of the flesh, our faith in the flesh rises. When we focus on God, our faith in Christ rises. Therefore we are exhorted to "put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4:22-24). We are not glorified now because the Scriptures say, "we have this treasure [the new man] in earthen vessels [the old body], that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not us" (2 Cor. 4:7). For the sake of the lost, our lives remain in the old body so that unbelievers can see the power of God moving on our behalf, thereby giving God the credit for salvation, and enabling us to be used by God to draw them into the kingdom.

For the unbelievers, their spiritual death left a void in their lives that needed filling. By choosing not to believe the Lord, their faith needed to be redirected. That left three sources: themselves, creation, or demonic spirits. As it is written,

This is especially seen in the post-diluvian world where the ancient mythologies portray their gods as unstable men, or hybrid creatures of man and animal, and also in worshiping idols carved in the image of animals. Today it is in humanistic philosophies which serve the idols of the heart (Col. 3:5).

GOOD BECOMES EVIL

The prophet Isaiah cried out, "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" (Isa. 5:20).

Being spiritually cut off from God and having hearts blackened by sin changed the natural man (which is united to God) into unnatural man (cut off from God). The unnatural is considered natural because the unregenerate cannot see anything else. Therefore it must be natural. Because the spirit is cut off, spiritual perception is lost. This makes the spiritual world invisible. Demonic spirits take advantage of this to make man not only unnatural, but demonic in extreme cases. A natural desire such as excellence in work becomes unnatural as pride in self and demonic in delusions of deity. Or, another example would be the natural drive of sexual procreation which is commanded by God to multiply in the marriage situation, becomes unnatural in wanton lust over many women. Demonic influences takes the unnatural lust to the extreme of rape, incest, sexual abuse and molestation. Consider the natural God given fear which is the source of reverence for God and protection from natural danger. It becomes unnatural in possessive and jealous love which is self centered and demonic in imaginary fears, phobias, and anxiety. Anger is another example. There is a righteous anger that rises up against wrong doing and sin. It becomes unnatural in selfishness when one doesn't get one's way and expresses itself in tantrums. It is demonic forces that leads this anger to murder and vile hate. The natural is the God given. The unnatural is self-centered. The supernatural is demonically moved. So, what is today called natural is actually unnatural. Both the commands of God and the natural character of man became perverted in this sin.

However, even with the unregenerate, there is a smattering of understanding of what is truly good because the human spirit still contains the imprint of God's goodness upon it. It can be corrupted, too, but it is this in mankind which is often called, "the spark of the divine." The Bible says of this, "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness" (Rom. 2:14 & 15a). When an unbeliever strives to achieve that goodness in some altruistic act or by an act of heroism, it is called extraordinary. But in truth that was the natural state of man before the fall.

Not only did mankind become subject to this perversion, but all of creation became unnatural since man was given dominion over it. As it is written, "For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now" (Rom. 8:22). What is considered natural for animals is to be wild, but this is the unnatural state of animals. All creatures were to be in relation with man. It is probable that during the antediluvian period, animals were friendlier with man, which is why Noah was able to easily gather the animals into the Ark. Not until after the Flood did the "fear of man" (Gen. 9:2) come upon the animals, and the wild state known today came into being. The true natural state of animals will be experienced when Christ rules and reigns on Earth. Then, "the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them" (Isa. 11:6).

RELIGIOUS WORKS BEGIN

Knowing they were naked means that they realized that they were no longer covered by the Spirit of God. Of course they saw each other naked before the Fall, but their existence was still right. Not only did the Shekinah (Aramaic for, "resting place," or visible presence of God's) glory depart from them, but they realized that they were no longer righteous. To cover their shame they sewed leaves together, which was a crude attempt in recreating God's covering. Thus was the first religious act performed.

Religious works are all the attempts of man to create his own righteousness. God's view of such effort is scorn. Isaiah said, "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away" (Isa. 64:6). The expression, "filthy rags," has been said to mean menstrual cloths. The leaves about Adam and Eve will "fade." Apart from God, there is no righteousness, for He alone is the standard of right. Anything not in Him is wrong. To declare oneself right apart from God is to declare God wrong, and He is not wrong since He is life itself. Religious works are always the effort of self-justification to salve one's conscience. Adam and Eve began life with the grace of God, freely given to them. If their works could justify them, then they would have no need of God, for they would be independent of Him. That, of course, would be impossible since their very lives were drawn from Him and have no independence apart from His giving it to them. Even their free will, which has been granted forever, is still dependent upon His granting them it and His obeying his own word. The psalmist said, "for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name" (Psa. 138:2b), and "Forever, 0 Yahweh, thy word is settled in heaven" (Psalm 119:89), which shows the finality of His word. All religions of the world today, except faith in Christ, are works of self justification that try to establish righteousness apart from God and have their roots in this first act.

THE COMPASSIONATE FATHER

God knew very well where Adam was. He beheld the whole sequence of events. It was His desire that Adam would repent and confess his sin. Adam almost confesses. He knows that the leaves sewn upon him and his wife fail to cover his nakedness, so he had further tried to cover his nakedness by hiding. He wasn't trying to hide from God. Like the psalmist, Adam could have cried, "Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there" (Psa. 139:7 & 8). His hiding was more of his religious works.

God's question of, "Who told thee," and "Hast thou eaten?" are rhetorical questions. He knew what happened. He was giving Adam a chance to confess and repent. As the Lord said concerning Jezebel, "And I gave her space to repent" (Rev. 2:21a), the same compassion was given to Adam. Unfortunately, Adam couldn't confess because he "was afraid." Not with the godly fear of the Lord, but the unnatural fear of God based on false assumptions of his character. As in most religious portrayals of God, He is depicted as a terrible tyrant who is quick to judge and cast out. Such images of God are not based on the true character of the Lord, but upon the god of this world, to whom Adam and Eve had just bowed down to in believing Satan and not God.

THE BLAME GAME

Adam is still unwilling to confess his sin. He first blames the woman, then blames God for giving him the woman. The Lord graciously ignores the accusation. Adam no longer comprehends fully what righteousness is all about. In his unnatural, fallen state he has adopted the nature of Satan, who is the accuser. When we accuse others, and point the finger at others, we are acting according to the Satanic way. Such behavior is reprehensible to God. He corrected the hypocritical religious leaders in Isaiah's day, by saying, "If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, . . .Yahweh shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones" (Isa. 58:9b & 11a).

Neither does Eve understand God's goodness anymore. She, too, points the finger of blame at the serpent. The sad thing is that they don't understand that they had chosen self will over God's will, which is the heart of iniquity. Their eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, never gave them real understanding of the difference between good nor evil. As blind as they were to understanding evil, because they were wholly good, now they were just as blind in understanding good because they were almost wholly evil. But not completely evil. They skirted around confessing their sin, but their language shows that they still knew they were wrong. If they were wholly evil, then they would have no concept of their being wrong. Lucifer and his cohorts are wholly evil. They don't understand they are wrong, that is why there is no chance of repentance for them.