In the beginning, there were no schools or universities. But even without books, lecture halls, or internet-saturated electronics, knowledge—rich with wisdom and virtue—was still communicated. Through an irrigating mist (Gen. 2:6), one can just discern the form of God, a garden classroom, and two fresh clay pupils, recently animated by His life-giving breath (Gen. 2:7). One doesn’t often think of the Garden of Eden as a classroom in which God sits as Instructor, but this week’s lesson guides us in that direction.
Two layers of instruction emerge from the beginning of Genesis. First, Genesis permits us to walk in Adam’s and Eve’s sandals (or, rather, in the prints of their bare feet) and listen in on the master classes that God likely held on the history of Creation, the purpose and responsibilities of the human family (Gen. 1:26-28), lessons from nature, meditations on marriage (Gen. 2:18), and warnings about an enemy and the forbidden tree (Gen. 2:17). Second, we can learn from the Genesis narrative as we would from a textbook. Insights into the nature of the serpent’s temptation, consequences of distrust and disobedience, God’s character challenged and vindicated, and the provisions for salvation emerge as themes for instruction and contemplation.
Knowing the historical foundations of any branch of academia always brings greater perspective and nuanced understanding. Just as there is no substitute for knowing Euclid’s axioms in studying geometry, understanding the initial chapters of Genesis is essential for comprehending the rest of the Bible and the full story of Redemption.
Part II: Commentary
Innocence vs. Cunning
In Genesis 3, the opening description of the serpent as “shrewd,” “crafty,” and “subtil” (NET, ESV, KJV) highlights an important contrast between the snake and the adam and his ishsha, the man and his wife. The Hebrew word translated “shrewd” (‘arum) contains the same consonantal root and similar vowel sounds as the Hebrew word translated “naked” (‘arom), which is used to describe the condition of Adam and Eve in the previous verse. When reading the Hebrew aloud, this arom/arum is spoken virtually back-to-back and alerts the reader that a word play (paronomasia) is in use. We are about to see an innocent Eve step into the arena of a seasoned, cunning deceiver. She and Adam eat the fruit, and nothing has been the same since.
But how did the serpent do it? How was he able to leverage 26 words to cause a sinless being, completely content and cared for, to rebel against a God whose essence is pure love (1 John 4:8)? Whatever the serpent did, it was effective. By a careful dissection of the conversation between the serpent and Eve, you as the teacher can show just how shrewd Satan’s strategy was—and how effective it still is, millennia later.
The School of Eden and the Test of Obedience
Eden was not simply a garden; it was an education:
“The system of education instituted at the beginning of the world was to be a model for man throughout all aftertime. As an illustration of its principles a model school was established in Eden, the home of our first parents. The Garden of Eden was the schoolroom, nature was the lesson book, the Creator Himself was the Instructor.”—Ellen G. White, Education, p. 20.
But the continuance of Adam’s and Eve’s education was conditional upon their unswerving loyalty to all the precepts and commands of their divine Teacher. “So long as they remained loyal to the divine law, their capacity to know, to enjoy, and to love would continually increase. They would be constantly gaining new treasures of knowledge, discovering fresh springs of happiness, and obtaining clearer and yet clearer conceptions of the immeasurable, unfailing love of God.”—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, page 51.
Thus, to ensure their loyalty, God would test their obedience. “Like the angels, the dwellers in Eden had been placed upon probation; their happy estate could be retained only on condition of fidelity to the Creator’s law. They could obey and live, or disobey and perish. God had made them the recipients of rich blessings; but should they disregard His will, He who spared not the angels that sinned, could not spare them; transgression would forfeit His gifts and bring upon them misery and ruin.”—Page 53.
The final exam involved a tree and a prohibition. “In the midst of the garden, near the tree of life, stood the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This tree was especially designed of God to be the pledge of their obedience, faith, and love to Him. Of this tree the Lord commanded our first parents not to eat, neither to touch it, lest they die. He told them that they might freely eat of all the trees in the garden except one, but if they ate of that tree they should surely die.”—Ellen G. White, The Story of Redemption, p. 24.
God did more than simply instruct Adam and Eve not to touch or taste the fruit. He sent angels to give the pair additional instruction, telling them that they would be stronger together against temptation than apart. “The angels had cautioned Eve to beware of separating herself from her husband while occupied in their daily labor in the garden; with him she would be in less danger from temptation than if she were alone. But absorbed in her pleasing task, she unconsciously wandered from his side. On perceiving that she was alone, she felt an apprehension of danger, but dismissed her fears, deciding that she had sufficient wisdom and strength to discern evil and to withstand it. Unmindful of the angels’ caution, she soon found herself gazing with mingled curiosity and admiration upon the forbidden tree.”—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 53, 54.
Eve does not subordinate her curiosity to the cautionary instruction of her angel instructors, and to God, her Master Teacher. “Eve found herself gazing with mingled curiosity and admiration upon the fruit of the forbidden tree. She saw it was very lovely, and was reasoning with herself why God had so decidedly prohibited their eating or touching it. Now was Satan’s opportunity. He addressed her as though he was able to divine her thought: ‘Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”—Ellen G. White, The Story of Redemption, p. 32.
The serpent’s opening question is the wedge that will eventually erode Eve’s worldview and undermine much of what she had been taught to cherish and had held to be true. “To the tempter’s ensnaring question she replied: ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.’
“By partaking of this tree, he declared, they would attain to a more exalted sphere of existence and enter a broader field of knowledge. He himself had eaten of the forbidden fruit, and as a result had acquired the power of speech. And he insinuated that the Lord jealously desired to withhold it from them, lest they should be exalted to equality with Himself. It was because of its wonderful properties, imparting wisdom and power, that He had prohibited them from tasting or even touching it.”—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, page 54.
This narrative showcases an education in worldviews. Eve’s worldview before the Fall was grounded in the knowledge of a Creator God who abundantly provided for His creation, motivated only by unselfish love. The forbidden tree stood as a test and a symbol that Adam and Eve, though free, were not to live autonomously apart from the God who made them. But the serpent inscribed a different picture on the impressionable and innocent Eve. Using the same data all around them, he reinterpreted the dynamics of the garden in a way that painted God as: (1) maximally restrictive of that which is good, (2) threatened by those who partake of the knowledge-imparting powers of the forbidden tree, and (3) misinformed/deceptive as to the lethal consequences of the tree. One would be compelled to doubt the love of such a God. Once love is undermined, then the person questions the reliability of God’s words, and it is a short step from there to reject His authority. Adam and Eve did this, and we have all followed suit. It is the mission of Seventh-day Adventist education to reverse this initial twisting of God’s character in the minds of His creation and to replace it with the truth of who God is. Being created as God’s image bearers uniquely fits us for this task.
Part III: Life Application
The trio of shame, nakedness, and fear comprises a key motif in the temptation narrative. Nakedness and the absence of shame are the introductory descriptions of the first human pair before they succumb to temptation (Gen. 2:25). Realization of their nakedness and implied shame are the first results of disobedience (Gen. 3:7). Again, it is fear and shame that cause them to hide when they hear the voice of Adonai Elohim, the Lord God (Gen. 3:9, 10). The Lord even inquires as to how they know they are naked (Gen. 3:11). There is no use of the Hebrew words for sin, rebellion, or iniquity in the narrative. Why do you think that is? In what ways are shame and fear fundamental to humanity? How does knowing God and His salvation address these issues?
People still see the Christian God as restrictive. How often have we heard, “What’s wrong with doing” this or that? What is the most effective way to dispel this millennia-old smear on the reputation of God? One strategy is to show that God still restricts only one thing from His creation: sin. The fact that the one tree bears a thousand different fruits doesn’t mean that God restricts us from a thousand different things.
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In the beginning, there were no schools or universities. But even without books, lecture halls, or internet-saturated electronics, knowledge—rich with wisdom and virtue—was still communicated. Through an irrigating mist (Gen. 2:6), one can just discern the form of God, a garden classroom, and two fresh clay pupils, recently animated by His life-giving breath (Gen. 2:7). One doesn’t often think of the Garden of Eden as a classroom in which God sits as Instructor, but this week’s lesson guides us in that direction.
Two layers of instruction emerge from the beginning of Genesis. First, Genesis permits us to walk in Adam’s and Eve’s sandals (or, rather, in the prints of their bare feet) and listen in on the master classes that God likely held on the history of Creation, the purpose and responsibilities of the human family (Gen. 1:26-28), lessons from nature, meditations on marriage (Gen. 2:18), and warnings about an enemy and the forbidden tree (Gen. 2:17). Second, we can learn from the Genesis narrative as we would from a textbook. Insights into the nature of the serpent’s temptation, consequences of distrust and disobedience, God’s character challenged and vindicated, and the provisions for salvation emerge as themes for instruction and contemplation.
Knowing the historical foundations of any branch of academia always brings greater perspective and nuanced understanding. Just as there is no substitute for knowing Euclid’s axioms in studying geometry, understanding the initial chapters of Genesis is essential for comprehending the rest of the Bible and the full story of Redemption.
Part II: Commentary
Innocence vs. Cunning
In Genesis 3, the opening description of the serpent as “shrewd,” “crafty,” and “subtil” (NET, ESV, KJV) highlights an important contrast between the snake and the adam and his ishsha, the man and his wife. The Hebrew word translated “shrewd” (‘arum) contains the same consonantal root and similar vowel sounds as the Hebrew word translated “naked” (‘arom), which is used to describe the condition of Adam and Eve in the previous verse. When reading the Hebrew aloud, this arom/arum is spoken virtually back-to-back and alerts the reader that a word play (paronomasia) is in use. We are about to see an innocent Eve step into the arena of a seasoned, cunning deceiver. She and Adam eat the fruit, and nothing has been the same since.
But how did the serpent do it? How was he able to leverage 26 words to cause a sinless being, completely content and cared for, to rebel against a God whose essence is pure love (1 John 4:8)? Whatever the serpent did, it was effective. By a careful dissection of the conversation between the serpent and Eve, you as the teacher can show just how shrewd Satan’s strategy was—and how effective it still is, millennia later.
The School of Eden and the Test of Obedience
Eden was not simply a garden; it was an education:
“The system of education instituted at the beginning of the world was to be a model for man throughout all aftertime. As an illustration of its principles a model school was established in Eden, the home of our first parents. The Garden of Eden was the schoolroom, nature was the lesson book, the Creator Himself was the Instructor.”—Ellen G. White, Education, p. 20.
But the continuance of Adam’s and Eve’s education was conditional upon their unswerving loyalty to all the precepts and commands of their divine Teacher. “So long as they remained loyal to the divine law, their capacity to know, to enjoy, and to love would continually increase. They would be constantly gaining new treasures of knowledge, discovering fresh springs of happiness, and obtaining clearer and yet clearer conceptions of the immeasurable, unfailing love of God.”—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, page 51.
Thus, to ensure their loyalty, God would test their obedience. “Like the angels, the dwellers in Eden had been placed upon probation; their happy estate could be retained only on condition of fidelity to the Creator’s law. They could obey and live, or disobey and perish. God had made them the recipients of rich blessings; but should they disregard His will, He who spared not the angels that sinned, could not spare them; transgression would forfeit His gifts and bring upon them misery and ruin.”—Page 53.
The final exam involved a tree and a prohibition. “In the midst of the garden, near the tree of life, stood the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This tree was especially designed of God to be the pledge of their obedience, faith, and love to Him. Of this tree the Lord commanded our first parents not to eat, neither to touch it, lest they die. He told them that they might freely eat of all the trees in the garden except one, but if they ate of that tree they should surely die.”—Ellen G. White, The Story of Redemption, p. 24.
God did more than simply instruct Adam and Eve not to touch or taste the fruit. He sent angels to give the pair additional instruction, telling them that they would be stronger together against temptation than apart. “The angels had cautioned Eve to beware of separating herself from her husband while occupied in their daily labor in the garden; with him she would be in less danger from temptation than if she were alone. But absorbed in her pleasing task, she unconsciously wandered from his side. On perceiving that she was alone, she felt an apprehension of danger, but dismissed her fears, deciding that she had sufficient wisdom and strength to discern evil and to withstand it. Unmindful of the angels’ caution, she soon found herself gazing with mingled curiosity and admiration upon the forbidden tree.”—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 53, 54.
Eve does not subordinate her curiosity to the cautionary instruction of her angel instructors, and to God, her Master Teacher. “Eve found herself gazing with mingled curiosity and admiration upon the fruit of the forbidden tree. She saw it was very lovely, and was reasoning with herself why God had so decidedly prohibited their eating or touching it. Now was Satan’s opportunity. He addressed her as though he was able to divine her thought: ‘Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”—Ellen G. White, The Story of Redemption, p. 32.
The serpent’s opening question is the wedge that will eventually erode Eve’s worldview and undermine much of what she had been taught to cherish and had held to be true. “To the tempter’s ensnaring question she replied: ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.’
“By partaking of this tree, he declared, they would attain to a more exalted sphere of existence and enter a broader field of knowledge. He himself had eaten of the forbidden fruit, and as a result had acquired the power of speech. And he insinuated that the Lord jealously desired to withhold it from them, lest they should be exalted to equality with Himself. It was because of its wonderful properties, imparting wisdom and power, that He had prohibited them from tasting or even touching it.”—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, page 54.
This narrative showcases an education in worldviews. Eve’s worldview before the Fall was grounded in the knowledge of a Creator God who abundantly provided for His creation, motivated only by unselfish love. The forbidden tree stood as a test and a symbol that Adam and Eve, though free, were not to live autonomously apart from the God who made them. But the serpent inscribed a different picture on the impressionable and innocent Eve. Using the same data all around them, he reinterpreted the dynamics of the garden in a way that painted God as: (1) maximally restrictive of that which is good, (2) threatened by those who partake of the knowledge-imparting powers of the forbidden tree, and (3) misinformed/deceptive as to the lethal consequences of the tree. One would be compelled to doubt the love of such a God. Once love is undermined, then the person questions the reliability of God’s words, and it is a short step from there to reject His authority. Adam and Eve did this, and we have all followed suit. It is the mission of Seventh-day Adventist education to reverse this initial twisting of God’s character in the minds of His creation and to replace it with the truth of who God is. Being created as God’s image bearers uniquely fits us for this task.
Part III: Life Application