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03. The Language of Adam and Eve!
“The woman you put here with me—she gave me
some fruit from the tree,
and I ate it.” (Genesis 3:11)
One day, the serpent, the most cunning of all the animals, asked Eve, Adam’s companion,
“Did God really say, ‘
You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
Eve replied,
“We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,
but God did say,
‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden,
and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
Then the serpent said,
“You will not certainly die!
For God knows that when you eat
from it your eyes will be opened,
and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Eve, swayed by the serpent’s cunning words, looked at the fruit of the tree and saw that it was good for food and pleasing to the eye,
and also desirable for gaining wisdom.
So she took some and ate it.
She also gave some to her husband, Adam,
who was with her, and he ate it.
Thus, sin is first conceived in the human mind through subjective judgment and understanding, and then it is acted upon. The decision made from a flawed judgment and thought is already the root and beginning of sin. Tragically, Eve not only ate the fruit herself but also gave some to her husband, Adam, leading both of them and all creation under their dominion into the influence of sin. Because all creatures were placed under human dominion, the influence of their sin extended to all their descendants and affected all creatures under their rule.
When sin entered, the Bible records that their eyes were opened. This enlightenment was not about seeing something specific but about recognizing their disobedience. It was a cognitive realization that led to a kind of paralysis or hallucination, causing them to see things differently. As a result, Adam and Eve’s eyes were opened to a new perspective of sin and desire, recognizing their disbelief and disobedience to God’s word.
Had they not disobeyed, their eyes would not have been opened. With this new perspective, their thoughts began to deviate from the normal framework of thinking, and their visible perception also shifted to a self-centered, abnormal direction. The first manifestation of this was their realization of their nakedness and feeling ashamed. God had originally created them naked, and they lived without any sense of shame or problem. But now, they recognized their nakedness and felt ashamed, a problem that arose only after sin entered.
This change was because their thinking had shifted to a self-centered structure, leading them to view their specific appearance as shameful and something they did not want to expose. This is similar to how people living in sin do not want to reveal their sins. So they hurried to cover themselves with fig leaves. However, this covering was only external and temporary, and they did not realize that it was a futile action in the context of sinful thinking, which is inherently self-centered and selfish.
Despite needing to confess their sins to God, they were busy hiding their nakedness with fig leaves. While they were hiding in the forest, they heard the voice of God.
“Adam,
where are you?”
Upon hearing God’s voice, Adam and Eve, already unable to make sound judgments due to the consequences of their sin, were only concerned with hiding their bodies and their sin.
“I heard you in the garden,
and I was afraid because I was naked;
so I hid.”
Hearing this, God pierced their hearts even more deeply.
“Who told you that you were naked?”
God’s voice struck Adam’s heart deeply, already shrunken by sin. God thoroughly questioned Adam, not to learn something He did not know, but as a form of rebuke.
“Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
Adam and Eve’s actions already testified,
“We have disobeyed and sinned.”
Once they disobeyed God’s command, sin entered, and they began to make excuses and shift the blame to others, producing secondary and tertiary sins. This was the cunning strategy of Satan.
“The woman you put here with me—she gave me
some fruit from the tree,
and I ate it.”
“What is this you have done?”
“The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent. God did not question the serpent but immediately held it accountable and punished Adam and Eve. This was the difference between humans and other creatures, as humans were given the right to make autonomous choices. God created humans with love and gave them special treatment by granting them the power of choice. Despite this, humans misused this power, causing problems and disobeying God’s word. This issue continues to repeat itself in people today.
God first
punished the serpent that tempted Eve and then limited the authority of the woman who sinned and spread the sin to the man.
“Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 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.”
“To the woman he said, ‘I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.’”
After punishing Eve,
God also held Adam accountable for
not fulfilling his role properly.
“The ground will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
As their eyes opened to their own sins,
their inner suffering intensified.
Adam and Eve, who could have lived eternally with God, began to age and ultimately faced death.
Life was not determined by environmental conditions or food, but solely by God’s decree.
When God calls, one is summoned to Him.
We must also remember that Eve could communicate with animals, but after sinning, she lost this ability. This was a warning against humanity’s failure to responsibly govern the creatures, leading to the extinction of many species.
Shocked by the consequences of their sin, they began to blame each other and others, using language as a tool for this. Expelled from Eden, the most beautiful and happy place in human history, they wandered, sowing seeds of misfortune for all humanity. Attempts to resolve the resulting instability led to greater conflicts and wars.
Experiencing the immediate impact of being expelled from Eden, they lamented their fate, facing greater suffering. Language, once a tool for direct communication with God, became a tool of judgment due to disobedience. This pattern continues in our lives today, causing deep alienation and isolation among neighbors, especially for modern people living in high-rise buildings.
The consequences of sin disrupted the balance of nature, creating tools of eternal destruction for their descendants. Reflecting on this, we cannot help but feel a deep sorrow.
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