“Then the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.”
We have already been told of the end of chapter 2 of Genesis, that the first man and woman were naked and not ashamed. This may well indicate that they were indeed clothed with light, but there is something more important: they were not ashamed because they did not know shame. They did not know evil of any kind.
True to what the Serpent said, humankind now knew evil. As it turned out, evil was not something one wanted to know, but there was no going back.
Here, after doubting God, and partaking of the forbidden fruit, they suddenly see what had been unseen before. The old English word “nake” means “to peel.” The first couple big now becomes aware that the garments of light, or simply their innocence of evil, has been peeled away, and they now experience shame, as evidenced by their attempts to hide.
Genesis 3 records humankind’s first encounter with the seen and the unseen; it would not be the last. There are many more record of Scripture right up until the last great deception and Revelation 13. We all will encounter situations where our only option is to trust God for what is unseen. But like all the saints, we build that faith over time.
[Satan] prefers to insinuate or imply what he wants us to believe, and let us fill in the blanks, knowing that we will almost always do so erroneously, and that we believe the conclusions we come to, rather than those urged on us.
The Bible assures us that whatever is not from faith is sin, and it is a huge temptation to all of us to want to be in control, and think we know all. And we never shall. Faith will always be necessary. But faith is not ever blind. Faith in the Bible is always based upon the evidence of God’s saving actions in the past. But the fact that we will need faith is no excuse not to develop our senses, our ability to see, our perception of things which are not necessarily the focus of our attention.
The encounter with the serpent in the garden tells us two things at least. First and foremost, we must rely on God for what we do not know, what we cannot know. That is where faith comes in. We also learn that what the tempter directs our attention to, while it may be true, it may in fact be a distraction from the greater issue.
The woman saw that the fruit was good for food, that it was desirable for wisdom, and that the serpent had not died: he not only touched the tree, he was entwined within it, and still lived. But all that was a distraction from the fact that the serpent was asking her to choose to believe him rather than God. God had not said the fruit was poisonous, nor had he said that they would not learn anything if they ate it; he said that when they ate of it, they would begin to die.
If the serpent had simply said, “God is lying to you, God is not telling you the truth,” he probably would’ve been rejected. Instead, he concealed this bold lie in an apparent question, “Has God said…?” and with evidence which was accurate, but beside the point. Yes, the fruit look good. Yes, it tasted good, and it was not harmful. Yes, they would for the first time know evil, but he didn’t highlight that; he stressed that they would be like God in knowing both good and evil. And he lied about dying.
Whether or not the serpent actually had eaten any the fruit of that particular tree does not matter. Lucifer had tasted evil long before. And although it would take him much longer than it did Adam and Eve, he had already begun to die.
We learn several things from this: we learn that the serpent rarely presents his temptation in bold contrast. If he did, we would see it for what it was, and reject it. He prefers to insinuate or imply what he wants us to believe, and let us fill in the blanks, knowing that we will almost always do so erroneously, and that we believe the conclusions we come to, rather than those urged on us.
We also learn that He piles up all sorts of evidence which is accurate, so far as it goes, but is simply irrelevant, and therefore distracting. And in the end, it is always about whom should you trust.
The scientific method verified everything the serpent said except for one central assertion: they had begun to die.
It’s also useful to recognize that this is the first encounter between faith and science. “Wait a minute, what science?”
Merriam-Webster defines science as “knowledge about or study of the natural world based on facts learned through experiments and observation.”
Facts observed: the tree and the fruit were pleasant to look at. The serpent, though touching the tree, was not dead.
Experiment: taste fruit. Results: it did taste good, it was good for food. And, true to what the Serpent said, humankind now knew evil. As it turned out, evil was not something one wanted to know, but there was no going back.
The scientific method verified everything the serpent said except for one central assertion: they had begun to die.
And we see here a truth about science that is seldom discussed. Science is a way of discovering new truth, but it has no way of recognizing ahead of time which truths one would rather not know, would be better left unknown.
You might say that is one of the generally unseen problems with science.
