The Meaning Of Life

1 Now the serpenta was more crafty than any beast of the field that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’ ”

2 The woman answered the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, 3but about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You must not eat of it or touch it, or you will die.’ ”

4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent told her. 5 “For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom, she took the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.

7 And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed together fig leaves and made coverings for themselves.

The serpent was Satan in disguise. And he is smart, he is crafty, and he wants to draw us away from God. You see, the whole history of life is about the struggle between Satan and God; Satan wants to rule the world, He wants to be God. So, he tempted Eve.

The Bible doesn’t say, but some believe the “serpent” was actually a dragon like creature. Today when we think about the serpent, we think about a snake, but later in this chapter, it’s discloses that one of Satan’s punishment, one of the snake’s punishments, was to crawl on it’s belly the rest of its days. So if the serpent really was a snake already, why would the Bible mention that the “serpent” would now be on its belly?

So the “serpent” told the first lie, and tempted Eve to sin. He did so by creating doubt in her mind. “The God who loves you wouldn’t kill you!” the serpent said. And so far, they knew their creator. They likely walked in the garden with Him; they new he was a loving God. And the serpent was right! God wouldn’t kill us!

And then the serpent did to Eve what he was really feeling himself. He wanted to be God, so he told Eve that if she ate of the forbidden fruit, she would be like God. She would know all. She would be wise, would be able to see into the future.

And it didn’t take much for Eve to sin, just like today when it doesn’t take much for us to sin. We wake up with the best intentions, to have a good Christian day, to walk with the Lord and strive for righteousness, then the next minutes, we’ve been convicted of our sin. And it’s hard not to think of ourselves as failures. It’s hard not to have doubt about our own ability to live sin free, to strive for righteousness.

But you know what? Just like our earthly father, when we find ourselves disobeying, rather it’s unintentionally or on purpose, if we truly feel sorrow for what we did, confess our sins, and pray for forgiveness, God will forgive us.

After Eve ate, she gave some to Adam, and he ate too. And the Bible says their eyes were opened, they realized they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together for clothing.

Before they ate the forbidden fruit, which by the way, the Bible makes no mention of what kind of fruit it was, they did not feel naked, but after sinning, they do. I believe this to be that once they sinned, they removed themselves from God, and their righteous clothing, the clothing of the Glory of God, went away so they could now see they were naked. When we love God and obey him, not out of fear, but out of love and respect, God protects us, even when we are naked. But when we separate ourselves from God, we lose a lot.