The Lesson they Failed to Learn

God took the form of a farmer and created a beautiful garden in Eden. It was filled with a variety of trees with delicious fruits in addition to countless plants with colorful flowers. It also had several different kinds of lovely animals living peacefully. The garden had four streams that watered the garden.  

God appointed two human beings, a couple, to take care of the garden-- Adam and Eve. They named all the plants and animals and took care of their well-being. In return for doing their job, they could stay in the garden and eat from there.

God would visit the garden every afternoon, and he would spend time with the couple. The close relationship that existed between them inspired them to live and work happily and actively.

They had the freedom to eat from any fruit tree in the garden except one – a special one at the center of the garden. It was called The Knowledge of Good and Evil, and God reserved it for Himself. God warned them that they would die if they ate them. There was also another kind of magical tree in the garden called Life. However, unlike the other tree, there was no restriction about this one.

Adam and Eve did not worry much about the forbidden tree because they had already got more than enough fruit to eat in the garden, and they didn’t think that this one fruit would make any difference in their lives. They continued in good terms with God, and they waited eagerly to receive God daily when He visited them in the evenings.  

As time passed, Eve got friendly with a snake in the garden. From the snake, Eve learned that the forbidden tree was a very special one, and its fruit would give them extraordinary knowledge and vision. Eventually, Eve shared the information with Adam. They pondered over the advantages of eating the fruit, and they forgot all about the warning given by God. The snake specifically told them that God had purposefully lied to them about that tree.

One day Eve ate the fruit, and gave some to Adam too, and immediately they saw its effects. They realized that they obtained the power to see what they couldn’t see before. They also miraculously acquired the knowledge of what was good and what was evil. Because of this knowledge, right away they felt ashamed of their nakedness, and they tried to cover their body with leaves.  

In the evening, as usual, the Lord came to the garden. When they heard the Lord’s footsteps, they hid themselves behind the bush. The Lord had to call aloud to get them out into the open.  The Lord rightly guessed the reason for such behavior from them.

The Lord asked, “Did you eat the forbidden fruit?” Adam had the option to take the responsibility for his action and to say sorry. However, he didn’t have such knowledge. Adam placed the blame on Eve, and thereby on the Lord for letting her be in the garden as his mate. Following Adam’s example, Eve refused to take the responsibility of her action, and placed the blame on the snake.  

Adam and Eve proved irresponsible. They were unfit for the job. How could they be trusted with bigger things if they couldn’t be trusted with such a little thing?  Thus they had to learn the basic lessons of life in the hard way.

Adam and Eve and their descendants have been out of the garden since then, suffering the consequences of their actions. They haven’t learned how to maintain healthy relationships. They haven’t learned the importance of being responsible either. Will they ever learn those lessons?

Reading this story, several questions rise in our minds. One is this: Why did the snake mislead them? The reason is not stated explicitly in the story. The snake was probably jealous of the special status enjoyed by the human beings in the garden, and wanted to break the love relationships that existed between them and God.

Another question that may rise in our minds is this: Who was really lying? God or snake? God told them that they would die if they ate the fruit. The snake told them that God was lying, and that they would not die if they ate it. They ate but they did not die. So it may appear that God is the one who lied.

It is true that they did not die in a literal sense, but they died in a metaphorical sense. What God told them was not to be taken literally, but metaphorically. So the problem was a misunderstanding.

They enjoyed a heavenly life in the Garden of Eden with love in all relationships. The tree of life seems to be a symbolic representation of such heavenly life. The snake injected some misunderstanding about God’s love for them, and their love and trust for God was replaced by suspicion and fear.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was also not to be taken literally. What was forbidden was the claim of possessing the ultimate knowledge of good an evil. God alone can have the ultimate knowledge of good and evil. If human beings claim to have it, they are usurping the seat of God. If they do so, they will have to forfeit the tree of life, which is the heavenly life.  Human beings lost the heavenly life of the Garden of Eden, which is the death they died. It was a metaphorical death.

God alone is omniscient. If man claims to be omniscient, he becomes self-righteous. He justifies himself, and places the blame on the others. He refuses to take the responsibility of his own mistakes. Thus the human beings keep the world like a hell. 

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