MAN’S FIRST FAILURE –SIN

But Adam and Eve failed in this one all–important test that their generous and loving Lord asked of them. They failed to give Him their love. We can again read it in the Bible-this time a tragic story. Here too, it is related in the form of a drama to drive home to the simple people of that time a religious lesson that explains our human situation.

“Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. He said to the woman (Eve), `Did God say, “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?” “The woman answered the serpent, `Of the fruit of all the trees in the garden we may eat: but of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, “You shall not eat it neither shall you touch it lest you die.”

“But the serpent said to the woman, `No, you shall not die, for God knows that when you eat of it, yours eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil’. Now the woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for the knowledge it would give.

“She took of its fruit and ate is, and also gave some to her husband and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig-leaves together and made themselves coverings.

“When they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, the man and his wife hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. And the lord God called the man and said to him, `Where are you?’ And he said. `I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid.’ Then He said, `who told you that you were naked? You have eaten then of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat.’ Then the man said, `The woman you placed at my side gave me fruit from the tree and I ate.’ Then the Lord said to the woman, `Why have you done this?” The woman said, `The serpent deceived me and I ate.’ Then the Lord God said to the serpent.

`Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals, and among all beasts of the field; on your belly shall you crawl, dust shall you eat, all the days of your life; I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed: he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.’

To the woman he said:

`I will make great your distress in child bearing; in pain shall you bring forth children: for your husband shall be your longing, and he shall be your master.

“And to Adam he said, Because you have listened to your wife, and have eaten the fruit of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat:

Cursed be the ground because of you; in toil shall you eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, since out of it you were taken, for dust you are and unto dust you shall return.”---Genesis 3, 1-2