It Wasn't Me

Last time in Bible Understanding, the man and his wife had just sewed together some fig leaves to cover themselves after having eaten from the forbidden from human consumption fruit tree. The clothing was their futile and feeble attempt to hide their shame and their loss of innocence. Following the sewing and covering, they hear the sound of the Lord God as He walked through the garden in the cool of the day. They hide among the trees, like two knowingly naughty children, fearful of God. God calls out to the man with a rhetorical question "Where are you?". The man answers with a quick confession that he heard God walking in the garden and was afraid because of his nakedness and so, he hid. God wants a full confession, a fessing up and He asks the man "Who told you that you were naked?" and "Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?". Think of a child who was asked not to eat candy before dinner, with chocolate all over their face and the parent giving the child the opportunity to come clean, so to speak...the parent wants the truth, offers truth telling opportunities and alas, it is up to the child to choose how to respond. The man, he knows he has done wrong, that he had it all and broke Gods trust in him and yet his response is this: "The woman you put here with me-she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." Two things come up in the explanation presented by the man, number one, it would appear that he is perhaps blaming God for providing him with the woman as his companion and secondly, he is more than happy to pass responsibility and guilt onto the woman for handing him some fruit. God then asks the woman "What have you done?". She too, is given the opportunity to explain the choices she made and her response is this "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." Sadly, both the man and the woman decided that blaming another for choices they had each made was better than simply admitting the truth, they had betrayed God and set the tone for what their new relationship with God would look like...Until next time in Bible Understanding, when God deals with the serpent for what he has done.