The Fall

Prayer

Good God intended

So apparently Prince Harry has a new book out (maybe you’ve heard a thing or two about it!), the title is Spare, it’s a memoir, a tell-all about his growing up, what it’s been like being the second born son of the British royal family.

By all accounts, it does not portray a flattering picture of royal family - Harry blames much of his woes on his dad and on his older brother and most of all, his stepmom (isn’t that just the absolute stereotype - a royal family and a wicked stepmother?)

You can imagine why the book has been so popular - and it has been phenomenally popular - the day it was released, it sold 1.4 million copies. It’s an airing of dirty laundry, an inside look of the life of the royals, who are typically very guarded about their private lives.

Which seems perfectly natural - who wants all your stuff, especially the ugly stuff, played out for public fodder, for the entertainment of the masses? That’s the stuff we’d rather folks not know about, we’ll keep that to ourselves, thank you very much.

Rather revealing that even though Harry is writing a “tell-all”, what that really means is telling all about his family - they’re the ones whom he makes look bad, they are the ones who get the blame.

And that desire to keep those things private, to cover over certain parts of who we are and our lives, started a long, long time ago. That’s what we’re going to talk about this morning as we take a look at Genesis 3, story of Adam and Eve eating of the forbidden fruit, the sin that started it all.

Over the last two weeks, we looked at the very beginning of the story of the Bible, beginning with creation, God making the heavens and the earth, and making it all good. But today we’re moving to what is referred to as “The Fall”, the fall from grace due to our disobedience, when things became not good.

We’re going to begin where we left off last week, this picture of perfection, God’s goodness in full display, everything just as it should be - Genesis 2:25, “And Adam and his wife were both naked and they felt no shame.” Nothing to hide. No need to write a revealing tell-all because everything was out in the open to see, they were an open book.

It’s almost impossible to imagine what this would be like, to live without any fears or concerns, trying to determine how others are responding to you, how much of yourself should you reveal, averting eyes or feeling insecure or uncertain or never being self-conscious. Instead, the absolute freedom of the experience of being fully loved…absolutely valued…persistent sense of purpose…totally secure.

That was the experience of Adam and Eve. Tragically, it doesn’t stay that way.

*The Fall - Genesis 3:1-24…*

The Great Temptation

First thing we see here is the serpent - we’re given no clue as to where he came from, why he’s doing this, how is it that he can talk?! All we learn is that of all the wild animals, he is the craftiest. You gotta watch out for this one - he’s clever, but in a sneaky, underhanded way.

We see his craftiness right away as he begins to sow seeds of doubt with the woman, he starts by asking what seems like an innocent question, Did God really say, “You must not eat from any tree of the garden?”

Do you hear the suggestion in the question? It’s meant to get Eve to start doubting God’s goodness. Is God really that restrictive? Of course it’s absolutely not true and Eve tells him as much, explaining to him that they are free to eat of any tree in the garden except the one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil - if they eat of that tree, they will die.

The second time, he outright lies to her, telling her, “You will not certainly die.” It’s another seed of doubt…really, I won’t die…I won’t suffer bad consequences…hmmm...

He adds to it, another seed of doubt, “no, God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The whole idea here is to plant the idea that God is not good, he’s holding out on them, he’s not being upfront and honest, he’s denying you what you really should have, just because he doesn’t want you to have what he has.

Some have actually argued that this was a good thing for Eve and Adam to do, that knowledge is always good, therefore they were right to desire that knowledge and eat the fruit of the tree.

But it’s a terrible argument - because it fails to recognize just how terrible evil is, what knowing evil, seeing it for what it really is, does to us.

Just think about the emotional toil people endure as a result of evil, especially to those who have had to confront evils that the vast majority of us can avoid most of the time, often because of their occupation, they’ve chosen careers because they want to do good - but in doing so, they face great evil.

Consider all the evil police officers face on a regular basis…walking into a home in midst of a domestic violence dispute - all vitriol on full display (which inevitably turns on you), or walking through the remnants of a brutal murder or facing reality of children who’ve been used in sex trafficking.

Social workers having to deal with children with burn marks and bruises on their body, or living in neglect and filthy conditions because their parents are strung out on drugs

We could go on, talking about soldiers - who not only have to face evil, but in a real way, have to engage in it themselves.

Then even to “know” evil within us, which is why we work so hard to minimize our own sin, rationalize what we did - because of how hard it is to bear when we see the evil we participate in. All too often those who can’t ignore what they’ve done deem themselves unforgivable, the stain of sin upon them is too strong, goes too deep, to be wiped away. Maybe you know what that’s like.

God knows evil, he knows how terrible and destructive and death-inducing it is - and he does not want that for his beautiful creation, which is why he says, don’t eat of this tree.

Adam and Eve had no clue what knowing evil would do to them, what participating in evil would do, couldn’t fathom it. Satan was crafty enough to play on that innocence, that ignorance.

His actions here reveal what is at the root of all sin: desire and deceit, or more accurately, desire distorted by deceit.

We all have needs and desires that are natural, good, God-given. Desire to eat good food, to experience beauty, to feel significant, desire for justice, to feel safe, secure, for intimacy, for companionship, a sense of belonging, connection.

But what always happens - it happens here - a lie, deceit, skews desire. We seek to meet these desires with wrong things or in wrong ways, we become enslaved to certain desires, as if they could meet all our needs.

Beforehand, Adam and Eve didn’t give a second thought to tree of knowledge of good and evil, God said no, they trusted that because they trusted him, and they were perfectly content - he had provided for all their needs and desires in wonderful ways - planted all trees in garden that were both pleasing to the eye (beautiful) and good for food (beneficial)

Adam was alone, so God have him the gift of Eve, a suitable helpmate, to meet that need for companionship, intimacy. He gave them significant work to do, working the garden, ruling over the animals. They had all they needed - it was good!

Serpent - with his lies begins to stir their desire for the fruit of that particular tree, God’s holding out, there’s something special there, you’ll be like him.

Their whole perception begins to shift, they look at tree with new eyes - that fruit does look good, think how much wiser we’ll be, and we won’t certainly die if we eat of it. So Eve ate it, and then she handed it to Adam, who was right there all along with her and he ate it, too.

Our sin is always the same, desire distorted by deceit

Desire to see ourselves as good or as significant, so we judge others because in that act is a sense of moral superiority. Gossip does the same thing, but it has the added bonus of the social connection - we’re the good people and that person is not.

Lust and other forms of sexual immorality, at their root are ways we seek to fulfill our God-given desire for intimacy.

Vengeance is a desire for justice that’s been skewed. We’ve been wronged or hurt in some way - maybe it’s not us, but someone we care about - so we act to get that person back. Harm them in the same way (or even worse) than way they wronged us - that will right the wrong.

All things we look to because of our desire to feel loved…to feel significant, like we matter…to feel secure…so we look to have lots of money, put all of our effort into our career, we think that one person, that relationship, that’s going to do it for me. But it never works, it never has.

And it didn’t work for Adam and Eve. And here’s where we see the great tragedy of sin entering into the world, The Fall

Terrible knowing of evil - their eyes are opened (just like the serpents said, sadly). Their eyes are open to their nakedness, their vulnerability, possibility of being rejected, hurt, diminished…evil

They immediately become self-conscious, start living in fear, sense of guilt…death has begun

What’s the first thing they do? They hide -they hide from each other by covering up, making clothing from fig leaves, and hiding from God

Eden was a place of rest, to be with God, work was a delight, fulfilling. They were free. Now they have lost that rest, they are restless, they work to avoid and to hide.

God comes sauntering in the garden, where are you? Of course he knows where they are, he always knows.

Adam’s response is so telling, “I heard you in the garden and I was afraid, so I hid” Adam and Eve hid because they heard the sound of God walking in the garden. Before, to hear God was a source of delight, they’d be excited, they’d be eager for his presence. Now to hear God is a source of fear, guilt, shame…I don’t want you to see me in my nakedness, I don’t want you to see me as I truly am.

This is why grace is so vital, to know and trust who God really is, his love and forgiveness. God’s grace is the one thing that enables us to quit hiding, avoiding - to be able to come to God, even in our sinfulness. Exactly the grace we see in God at the end of this story (pay careful attention here, you might miss it)

As the story goes on, God confronts them all and the sinning continues - He confronts Adam, what have you done? Adam turns and blames Eve (while he’s at it, slips in a dig at God, too) - the woman you put here with me gave it to me so I ate it. God confronts Eve and what does she do? She blames the deceiving serpent.

Then God utters his curses upon them - first the serpent, then the woman. Eve is now cursed in her childbearing (you can see where the curse strikes right at the heart of what blesses them, Eve is to become the mother of all the living), and in the relational dynamics with her husband. Adam (remember his name is related to ground), and the ground is cursed as a result of his sin - his work will now be toilsome and painful. He will return to that ground, for dust you are and to dust you will return.

Now you may be wondering, where’s grace here? I thought you said there was grace! What was a blessing is now cursed.

There’s grace in pain. It tells us something’s wrong, it alerts us. Remember, our tendency now is to hide from God. Pain - if we willingly acknowledge something is wrong, can bring us back to him (that certainly is my story).

Then, after the curses, they are kicked out of the garden! Where’s the grace in that?

They are banished, kicked out specifically so that they cannot have access to tree of life, which is now guarded by a cherubim holding a flaming sword, flashing back and forth.

But this, too, is a grace - God does not want us to live forever in this state of sin, brokenness - which is what would happen if we continued to live in Eden, where the tree of life exists. We’d live forever with this knowing we are naked, afraid and wanting to hide.

God will grant access to Tree of Life to us one day, when Jesus returns and the earth and the heavens are made new. But not before the great work of redemption occurs - which God begins to reveal even here, in the midst of the curses. Listen to verse 15, as he speaks the curse to the serpent: And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.

This is a promise to the serpent, to Satan, that there will be clear division between those who belong to Satan and those who belong to Jesus - and in the great battle between them, though Satan will strike Jesus by killing him through the cross, Jesus will crush his head, destroying Satan and destroying sin by willingly dying on the cross and rising to new life.

We see same thing in 1 John 3:8 - The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. To undo the damage the serpent wrought by tempting Adam and Eve, sin entering the world - The Fall. As soon as sin enters in the world, God reveals his plan to destroy it. The promise of redemption. Grace.

One of the essential Spiritual Disciplines is the discipline of confession (repentance). If sin causes us to avoid and cover and hide from God and others, this is our intentional act to keep coming before Jesus, to keep turning toward him instead of away. A couple of things to consider, to put into practice this week:

Invitation of the Holy Spirit, to guide you, to help you see, shine his light

Reflect on this question of hiding / avoiding…how do you find yourself hiding from others? Covering over? In what ways are you avoiding God - and why might that be?

Another way is to work your way through the 10 commandments, or the seven sins (anger, lust, greed, etc.). But not just the act, but the why? Remember, desire distorted by deceit. What’s spurring you to this action or attitude, and what harm is it causing?

Finally, to do this all in light of Jesus Christ and his grace, approach the throne of grace with confidence, that Jesus died for this, he longs to help us in our sin.

Inspiration

Question that has plagued me - how does it work now that we all have knowledge of good and evil, we can’t return to that state, we can’t “unknow” - as much as we may want to. And there are certainly things I wish I could unknow - to not have seen, to not have learned about others, to not have participated in when it comes to evil.

So how can it all be good again? How will God’s kingdom be made new with the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil having been eaten from? There’s only one way - the healing power of grace. Image from Revelation 22:1-3, Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal…on each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations . No longer will there be any curse.

It’s not that we will unknow evil. It’s that we will know Jesus in the fullness of his grace and truth, the tremendous love and mercy he has for us revealed in the cross. It’s this healing grace that will enable us stand once again, naked and unashamed, no inclination toward being afraid, of wanting to hide - because of how fully we will know and trust Jesus.