This reflection was first published on Monday, January 17, 2011. The realities of 2021, and ensuing events, have made it so that I must edit, and update it. I decided not to highlight where changes were made.
Here, the human has become like one of us, in knowing good and evil.
Seeing the crowds, he went up the mountain, and as he sat there his students came to him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying . . .
The God of the early Old Testament is in many ways different than the God of the early New Testament. He is still the same God, still consistent in every way. But as a parent changes his approach to a growing and maturing child, so too does God change His approach toward us.
The great crisis of the Garden of Eden story is that humanity went against God's will. We insisted upon our independence. We were created to be be curious, and to want to grow. We want answers, and we want to investigate. So it is that the serpent used reason to get our first parents to disobey God. Please take note - the Serpent used reason. We do not know the full identity of the Serpent. But we do know that he was more crafty than any other creature that God had created. The Serpent understood logic, and Science. The Serpent had credentials that enabled him to be considered an expert.
Against God's direct instructions, Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. They now had much of the knowledge of the Serpent. Or that is . . . they knew as much as the Serpent wanted them to know. They knew more than they did before; but their knowledge was skewed in such a way as to steer their attitudes about the Serpent, themselves, and God Himself. Their "eyes were opened" to things they did not see before. The Serpent selectively showed them things about the world, to engender an emotional response: pain, fear, injustice. They began to doubt God.
Adam and Eve experienced fear for the first time. God asks them to trust, and obey; to have faith. The Serpent asks them questions such as "Have you considered the power you would have, if you just ate this fruit? God just doesn't want you empowered." Adam and Eve feared that they would die . . . even though they were not sure exactly what that was. They did not feel safe. The Serpent's words had made them concerned that they would become harmed . . . now that they (thought they) understood the world "exactly" as it is. They wondered what else God wasn't telling them - when the real problem was what the Serpent wasn't telling them.
Something like scales fell from their eyes. They felt naked, exposed, and in danger. They felt unsafe. They hid their faces from God.
to be continued . . .
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