The Temptation and the Fall

BY Guest Writer

We have a painting in our home, one depicting a distraught Eve being comforted by a pregnant Mary, who is wiping away Eve’s tears. Her eyes focused on Mary’s belly, she reaches out to touch it, even as her own heel is trampling the serpent’s head (Romans 16:20). It’s an achingly beautiful, succinct depiction of what we lost in Eden, and of God’s never-ceasing pursuit to return us to right relationship with Him.

God’s pursuit of relationship with us is there from the start, in the beginning of His Word. From Genesis 1 and 2, we discover how God formed the earth and everything in it, including man and woman, who He made in His image (Genesis 1:27). He gives Adam and Eve the radical opportunity to rule over the world with Him, cultivating its growth. And out of His relational love for them, He gives them a choice about how they will live and work in this world: will they choose to follow God’s way and His wisdom and instruction for life, or will they choose a different kind of wisdom, one that relies on self-sufficiency and autonomy, apart from Him?

God has already provided Adam and Eve with everything they need to carry out this task, instructing them on what is good for them and what is not (“the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” [vv.16–17]). Prior to the serpent’s persuasive lie (3:4–5), enticing them to their own brand of knowledge, humanity dwelled in perfect harmony with God and one another. But after choosing to eat from the forbidden tree, “the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked” (3:7). From this point forward, discontent and shame would be a part of the human condition, disobedience would drive a wedge between creation and Creator.

When God asked Adam and Eve where they were that day in Eden (3:9), He already knew, of course. It makes me think the question was certainly more for their sake than His—it had to be. He asks where we are, too, all the while knowing all the dark places we run to, the many ways we attempt to hide our hearts from Him. But He pursues us all the same, fully aware that while He will ultimately defeat the serpent, that same enemy still actively seeks to destroy us (John 10:10), to lure us away from the God who adores us.

I looked at that painting again today. We’ve had it for maybe a decade, but to this day, if I look at it too long, it never fails to wake me to the indifference of my own sin, to the lie of self-sufficiency—it wrecks me.

Honestly, that’s where I’m at today. What about you?

If God were to ask, “Where are you?”, what would you tell Him? Do you believe it’s safe to come out of hiding? Do you trust that our Creator knows what’s best for His own creation? The God of Genesis 1 and 2, is the same God here in chapter 3; He does not change (Hebrews 13:8). He is still in the business of covering our shame with His own righteousness—even when we disobey Him (Genesis 3:21; Romans 5:8,19). Wherever you are, He waits for you.

Kara Gause is a content editor for She Reads Truth, happily residing with her family in Nashville, Tennessee.