Phariseeism and the fall of Adam and Eve
July 1, 2018 by
When we study what the scriptures tell us about what happenned in the beginning with Adam & Eve, God & Satan, we can learn about ourselves. When we study what the scriptures tell us it is almost like mankind is looking into a mirror that God is holding up so we may see our reflection of who we are, and it is sad.
Man is told in Genesis 2:16 as follows. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” 18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
Genesis 3:1-2 tells us what Satan and Eve tell us right before the fall in the Garden of Eden. Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat from the trees in the garden, 3but 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.’ “
3″You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 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.” 6When 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 eat it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. In order to properly analize these scriptures, first, we must take note of some basic facts and list them.
1.) Verse 6 says Adam and Eve were both together when Satan was talking to Eve.
2.) Adam never spoke up and corrected Eve, he was passive.
3.) Adam never correctly taught Eve word for word what God said in 2:16 for Eve had not been created until afterwards when God caused man to fall into a deep sleep in 2:21 (compare 2:16 with 3:2). 4.) The woman said that God said you may not touch the fruit or you will die, God never said that.
5.) 3:13 The woman says the serpent decieved her before she ate it.
The man lied when he blamed the woman, for he was standing right there listening to Satan not speaking up to prevent Eve from eating the fruit, he was passive because he also wanted to eat it to. They fell in sin at the same time together, not seperate incidences where she took it, ate it, then took it somewhere else to him where he was. He was with her and they fell in sin together.
Verse 3:6 appears to say Eve and Adam inspected the fruit first possibly touching it and holding it allowing Satan to call God a lier saying it was good for wisdom and good to eat.
What can we learn from all this?
God’s words are holy, and, we must cling to them with our very life. One word out of place and Satan can use God’s words against us.
Mankind always wants to add rules and regulation to God’s words. We are no different than legislature and congressmen. We keep wanting to add man’s words to God’s words. Eve told Satan in 3:2 “and you must not touch it, or you will die.”
God never said this. Look closely at 2:17 again. God only said you cannot eat it. I believe Satan did decieve them into eating it by throwing the fruit at them and they accidenly caught it, maybe.
It appears they were decieved like Eve said in 3:13
So they were decieved because they did’nt cling to every word God spoke like their life depended on it. They were also decieved because they were adding their own words to God’s words from the very beginning. Jesus Christ called this Phariseeism and even compared it to yeast in bread. For Christ warned to beware of the yeast of the pharisees, (Matthew 16:5-12) for it puffs up the bread with nothing.
For God’s people have had this problem since the beginning of time. Man always want to help God, but cannot. We can only follow God for God has no equel and we are like nothing.
Selah (meditate on this).