Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Genesis 3:3

"'but God did say, "You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die."'"  Genesis 3:3

The woman then goes on to not only repeat God's actual command to the serpent, but she makes it even more strict by adding "don't even touch it."  We still do that today.  We take the way to God and make the path even more narrow with impossible rules and standards.  If she had been in the garden any longer, she probably would have added, "don't even think about it."  (Which, of course, would have made it that much harder to not think about.)  She does have a point, however.  Touching it maybe the first step to picking it and once it's in your hand it's so much harder to resist.  In Gill's Exposition of the Bible he argues that the woman wasn't actually adding to God's law-that the not touching was implied.

It's also interesting to note that the woman followed the serpent's example and only said "God" not "the Lord God."  She may not have even realized she did it.  If we bring God down to our level to be equal with us, it's not difficult to reason with ourselves that he doesn't have that much authority and it's okay for us not to listen all the time.  Quite often, it's not even on a conscious level that we do that.

What can we learn from the first woman?  First, don't entertain the tempter with conversation, and second, guard your thoughts and words to keep God as the holy divine king that he is.  What other lessons can be learned from the woman?

No comments:

Post a Comment