Blame it all on Eve? (Conclusion)

When we finished yesterday's study, we noted that Eve made a bad choice. And we said she was deceived . . .
Let's go back and see what else we can glean from the Word!

I wanted to share with you a verse that supports our study yesterday. Check this out in I Timothy, where Paul tells us:

                  And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived
                  and became a sinner. (I Timothy 2:14)

I guess I always figured both Adam and Eve were fooled by ole Satan. But that isn't what Paul says!
Eve was deceived.
Adam wasn't.
Wellllllllllll, so we shouldn't blame it all on Eve?
Let's dig in deeper!

You'd never know it from some of the sermons you hear, but if you look throughout the New Testament, you won't see Eve named as the bad girl of the story! The blame is really on Adam.

Look at these verses in Romans:

                      ....sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin.
                      Romans 5:12

Oops! It doesn't say "one woman," it says very distinctly "one man."

                      Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of
                      Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as
                      did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.  (Romans 5:14)

So Adam was not deceived . . .
Let's check back to our passage:

                      When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food
                      and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she
                      took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was
                      with her, and he ate it.  (Genesis 3:6)
                      
Oh, dear. Where does it say Adam was?
He wasn't back at the pool, chillin'.
He wasn't out naming some animals.
He wasn't home tidying up.

He was there with Eve when Satan deceived her.
Oh. My.
He was right there when Satan said that God lied to them.
He was right by her side when Satan said, "You won't die."
He was there when Satan deceived Eve into thinking that they would have the advantage of wisdom, if they ate that fruit.
And Adam was not deceived. That means he didn't believe what Satan said, even though Eve did believe him.

Why in the world didn't he grab Eve's hand and run? Why didn't he tell God that evening when they walked together? Why didn't he argue with Satan, and say, oh, no, you have it all wrong?

Why in the world did he disobey God? He chose to disobey. Are you wondering why? I sure am!

One of the commentaries that I studied suggested that perhaps it wasn't that Adam had a "belief" problem. He believed God. It may be that he had a "trust" problem.

Let's look at this through Adam's eyes . . . He knew that God said that the day they ate of that tree, they would die. And Eve just ate from the tree. What's going to happen to Eve? She's going to die, right? Right. He will lose her. This is the woman that God made for him, that Adam called "bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh." This is the woman with whom he has shared so much, and whom he has grown to love and cherish.

Perhaps Adam thought, "I sure don't want to lose her; but God will kill her for this. And he doesn't understand just how important Eve is to me. I don't know if He will take care of this the way that I want Him to."
Translated: "I can't trust Him to take care of this. I can't trust Him to fix this, so I have to fix it."
That is such a dangerous way to think.
Personally, I've learned lately that if I turn my seemingly insurmountable problems over to our Father, instead of trying to solve them myself, He has rewarded my faith my moving the mountains for me, either partly out of my way, or completely. Instead of my shoveling and shoveling and trying to do it myself. Just sayin'. (Grin)

But Adam may have thought, "Well, if I eat the fruit too, maybe God won't kill both of us. He might take one of us, but He loves us, and maybe He wouldn't want to lose both of us. So I think I will make God solve this my way . . . "

He believed what God said, but he didn't trust God. He didn't trust Him to fix this. That's called . . . wait for it . . . . a lack of faith.
Ouch.
Paul tells us about that one, too:

                    And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who
                    comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who
                    earnestly seek Him.  (Hebrews 11:6)

Believing in God, and trusting Him, are at the core of being a Christian. We need to trust Him, because if we don't, we'll be oh, so tempted to fix the problems in our lives OUR way. On OUR timing.  Or, like Adam, we'll be tempted to try to force God to do things our way. Not such a good idea.
When we are faced with trials, and problems, and even temptations, we need to a.) believe, and b.) trust Him. We must believe that not only does God exist (that part is easy, right?) but that He will take care of us. He will reward us when we sincerely seek His will in our lives. After all, as many mistakes as we humans make, to whom would we rather relinquish control, than to Him?  He has told us in the words of Jesus, that no One is a better Father -- no One knows better what we need:

                      If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your
                      children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to
                      those who ask him!  (Matthew 7:11)

And just because we don't understand what He is doing, or why, that's no reason to take matters into our own tiny, impatient, sinful hands:

                      As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than
                     your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.  (Isaiah 55:9)

But Eve didn't do that.
And Adam didn't, either.
Eve failed because she didn't trust God's words.
Adam failed because he didn't trust God to be faithful.
They ate one of the priciest meals in history; we can learn a lot from them, no matter who was to blame.

(Pass the bandaids, please?)