120102 - Genesis 03-04 - you shall not add or diminish....
S: "But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die." Genesis 3:3, KJV.
O: Adding to what God has said is not harmless (Deut. 4:2). In this case, Eve's confidence in something she misunderstood about God's commandment may have been the foothold that Satan needed to cinch the garden temptation. He may have DEMONSTRATED that death did not come from touching the fruit by touching it, destroying Eve's confidence in God's truthfulness. Eating the fruit began the process of death. (Gen. 2:17 may be translated, "in the day that thou eatest thereof, 'dying thou shalt die.'") Eve then touches, eats, and passes sin on to her husband. Their eyes are opened, (3:7), and they're suddenly aware that they're naked. What was the knowledge of good and evil that came to them? It certainly wasn't simply the information that they were unclothed. What were clothes, anyway? Could it have been the burden of prophetic knowledge about good and evil to come from the human family? This would have brought shame and context for the evil that would corrupt God's original design. Their reaction? Cover-up. In their cover-up, they're essentially blaming God's design, as they would soon do when confronted.
A: Doesn't knowledge (experience) of sin work that way? Whatever I sought through the forbidden experience quickly corrupts into shame and the urge to cover up. After a while, the temptation to blame God's original design as the provocation of my sin sets in - but it's only an apron of leaves, maybe capable of salving my shame, but incapable of removing the actual guilt behind the feeling of shame. Only death expiates the actual guilt. That's what God was saying by using the skins of animals. (And presumably this reconciled Adam with the emotional pain and cost of his sin.)
P: Father, cause me to know temptation and myself better, to recognize the added rebellion self-protection and diversion of blame before the process begins and instead look to Jesus and walk in the light fellowship with Him brings.
O: Adding to what God has said is not harmless (Deut. 4:2). In this case, Eve's confidence in something she misunderstood about God's commandment may have been the foothold that Satan needed to cinch the garden temptation. He may have DEMONSTRATED that death did not come from touching the fruit by touching it, destroying Eve's confidence in God's truthfulness. Eating the fruit began the process of death. (Gen. 2:17 may be translated, "in the day that thou eatest thereof, 'dying thou shalt die.'") Eve then touches, eats, and passes sin on to her husband. Their eyes are opened, (3:7), and they're suddenly aware that they're naked. What was the knowledge of good and evil that came to them? It certainly wasn't simply the information that they were unclothed. What were clothes, anyway? Could it have been the burden of prophetic knowledge about good and evil to come from the human family? This would have brought shame and context for the evil that would corrupt God's original design. Their reaction? Cover-up. In their cover-up, they're essentially blaming God's design, as they would soon do when confronted.
A: Doesn't knowledge (experience) of sin work that way? Whatever I sought through the forbidden experience quickly corrupts into shame and the urge to cover up. After a while, the temptation to blame God's original design as the provocation of my sin sets in - but it's only an apron of leaves, maybe capable of salving my shame, but incapable of removing the actual guilt behind the feeling of shame. Only death expiates the actual guilt. That's what God was saying by using the skins of animals. (And presumably this reconciled Adam with the emotional pain and cost of his sin.)
P: Father, cause me to know temptation and myself better, to recognize the added rebellion self-protection and diversion of blame before the process begins and instead look to Jesus and walk in the light fellowship with Him brings.
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