I have often wondered what the allure to the forbidden fruit was. Satan told Eve that if she ate it, she would know good from evil. But didn’t she already? She knew staying away from the forbidden fruit was good…touching it was evil. The difference between the two was as plain for her as the nose on Adam’s face. So what did she hope to gain by tasting the fruit? So many have made much of the temptation being an entrance into a moral awakening, that God was keeping Eve and Adam from understanding what good was in contrast to evil. That was not the case at all. Good and evil were both known to Eve. She stated as such when she told Satan what she was to do and what she wasn’t to do. That is the knowledge of good and evil.
What Eve was being led to enter was a whirlwind of terror. The Hebrew words translated good and evil are not so centered on moral opposites They are rather decribers of outcomes. “Tov”, translated good means pleasant, good, agreeable. Evil, “rah” means misery, calamity, injury, That was what Eve had never tasted. The good she knew. Peaceful living, quiet contentment, loving relationships. That was all hers. She had tov. The misery, calamity and injury was nowhere to be found in her world though. What Satan was inviting Eve was entry into a nightmare, into rah. He was taking her from Technicolor dreams to black and white devastation. I once saw a black and white painting depicting a battle scene of blown up buildings, fire scorched trees and broken bodies littering the landscape. That was what Satan had for Eve, a world of Rah.
So why would Eve have any interest in entering a nightmare world? There are two parts to the temptation that battled fiercely against her. In Genesis 3: 6 we see the power brokers that make temptation work. The first is found in the comment, “the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye.” The word translated pleasing, means desirable. It has an attractiveness that works within the body, a physical longing. Within Eve’s body, Eve was being pulled toward the fruit. Shakira’s lyric that explains why she must decide to give in to her boyfriend’s sexual urgings, “my hips don’t lie” profoundly describes this. The body, whether it be the hips, the tongue or the eyes is a monster of strength when it comes to temptation. Physical desire combines with physical need to drive the mind to sin. Eve felt the fruit in her eyes pulling her to it.
The second part of the temptation is a bit complicated to explain but quite easy to understand. It is said that for Eve, the fruit was “desirable for gaining wisdom…” The Hebrew word translated “desirable” is most often used in a bad sense…a selfish desire, an ungoverned desire, a pleasure considered that is wrong. The Hebrew expression translated, “for wisdom” describes a pondering, a considering, a thoughtfulness. What Eve was doing was ruminating about the forbidden fruit. She couldn’t take her mind off of it. This longing for the fruit was all she thought about. It kept popping up when she was eating dinner, when she and Adam were walking through the garden and picking any of the other fruit they had. Selfish desires given free rein in the imagination are monsters to defeat.
Temptation powered by the mind and the body when both are pulling against the will can be deadly. Look at what Eve got for her money. The scripture says she and Adam when their eyes were opened realized they were naked. This was not the recognition of right from wrong as so many mistakenly interpret the outcome. Adam and Eve, by their sin, were brought into the world of nightmare. If you have ever had a dream that goes bad, quickly, you know the terror these two felt as they lived with their new choice. Once I dreamed I was drowned by a tidal wave that swept over my dad and me as we were enjoying a pleasant conversation. Sin is the dream turned nightmare…the hope made slimy and filthy. Eve, perfect in her form, lovely to her husband, confident in her endeavors, became naked. She suddenly was despised and forlorn and isolated.
Living for God could be defined as the fight against temptation. The battle to follow God is brutal and once we submit to temptation, it brings us into a nightmare that is uncontrollable and deadly and we never can be certain where it will bring us. Sin is not a servant, it is a master and it controls us, we do not control it. As the Apostle Paul put it, Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey-whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? (Romans 6: 16 NIV) Temptation on the other hand can be mastered but it is tough. Both our body and our mind push us unceasingly toward sin and there is only one way out. What Eve did not do, we can. Hebrews 4: 15-16 reminds us that Jesus, having been tempted in every way that we are tempted, sympathizes with our weaknesses…the press of our bodies and the pull of our distracted minds make it almost impossible not to give in to the nightmare sin brings. But verse 16 gives us the secret to not giving in to sin. Only one force breaks the power of our bodies and mind. The grace of Jesus! Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
The old game show offered three doors and only one could be chosen. If you chose poorly, you went home with junk, choose wisely, your fortune could suddenly be made. Life is an unbroken chain of door number ones or door number twos. Eve chose door number two and her life became a nightmare. What, might be behind door number one? Only God knows. But, it won’t be door number two. Just ask Eve what she thinks of that!
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