GENESIS 3
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘Youshall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. – Genesis 3:1-7
GENESIS 3 SEDUCTION IN THE GARDEN
A poem by ILMA inspired by these verses
Sin begins with desires that was meant to trap you
It appears to be good for you but is really very harmful
As soon as the seduction becomes very appealing
You are about to embark in the matrix of sinning
Once you get a taste of the craving, you will want more
That will bring you on a cycle of addiction and obsession
Sin is designed to veer you away from God’s love and grace
It deceives you and questions the identity you have in Christ.
The third chapter of Genesis narrates to us how sin came about. The characters in this story are: the serpent (the devil), Adam (the husband) and Eve (the wife). Let us take a good look at each of the characters and observe the seduction in the garden as it happened.
The serpent was described as crafty in this chapter. King James bible dictionary defines “crafty” as cunning; artful; skillful in devising and pursuing a scheme, by deceiving others, or by taking advantage of their ignorance; wily; sly; fraudulent. From verse 1, we can deduce that the serpent is one of the beasts of the field. Many scholars have been intrigued if the serpent used to have legs because his crawling on the ground was an aftermath of this first temptation he plotted against Eve and Adam in verse 14. We will witness in this chapter how crafty this beast is. Eve was the main target of the serpent here. He probably thought that if he could get to her, it would not be as hard to take the husband down next because he will do as his wife does.
We don’t hear much of Adam here except in verse 6 where he was also given a part of the fruit. In other words, he was present when this seduction was happening. He just allowed Eve to be victimized by this creature. It is interesting to watch that God’s magnificent creation in man now became tarnished by the temptation that they succumbed to.
REFLECTION
- How did the seduction happen in this chapter? How was it manipulatively hidden?
