and he ate...

"So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden." Gen. 3:6-8

Notice that the eyes of both of them were not opened until Adam ate the fruit. He listened to his wife instead of being obedient to God's command. In fact, when God approaches them after they have eaten the fruit they make clothes out of fig leaves and hide from God. There is not much interaction between Adam and Eve written in the scriptures, but Gen. 2:25 says, "And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." Before their eyes were opened they were not ashamed, and did not even know what nakedness meant. They were covered and clothed in the purity of God's presence in the garden. The tree of knowledge of good and evil was named rightly. Adam and Eve only knew good. The serpents deception changed human kind forever, and evil entered their hearts. 

"Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?" So he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself. And He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?" Then the man said, "The woman who You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate." Gen. 3:9-12

I can't imagine the nerve of Adam at this point. Did you notice his response? He blamed Eve, and God! The woman You gave me. That blows my mind every time I read this story. He blamed Eve and God for his own disobedience. Mankind has been passing the buck ever since. It's not my fault. It's my circumstances fault. It's my parent's fault. It's my wife's fault. It's my children's fault. It's my boss's fault. It's the devil's fault. It's God's fault.  I want to speak to men for a minute. As men of God we need to say, "THE BUCK STOPS HERE." One of the true marks of manhood is accepting responsibility for our actions. It's to go against Adam's response, hold up our hand, and say, "It's my fault." 

I'm upset with Adam for a few reasons. Adam first stood right beside his wife, and let the serpent deceive her. He wasn't on the far side of the garden. He was standing right next to her. Why didn't he pick up a garden hoe, and cut the serpent's head off? Why didn't he protect and cover his wife? He should have stopped it right at the beginning. What if he would have stopped the serpent, and then told God about it. How can we apply this to our life? As men, we are called to protect and cover our wives from the enemy. We're to pray, and tell God about it.

"Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish." Eph. 5:25-27

As men, we're to pray and read the Bible over our wives and children. When we do this we protect them from evil and the enemy. Adam didn't protect his wife from the serpent, but stood there and let her get deceived. Adam wasn't deceived. In fact 1 Tim. 2:14 says, "And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression." Adam did something worse. He directly disobeyed God, and listened to his wife instead. When God spoke to Adam his attitude was one of blame and passing the buck. What if Adam repented instead of blamed God and Eve? The Bible calls King David a man after God's own heart. This is because King David was quick to repent. As men instead of passing the buck we need to cultivate an attitude of quick repentance. We'll never know what would have happened if Adam had repented, but we need to learn from Adam's mistakes. We need to learn to be quick to repent, accept responsibility, and cover our families from spiritual attack.

Adam and Eve made for themselves fig leaves as coverings and clothes to hide their nakedness. They tried to cover themselves and sin on their own strength and efforts. God had other plans. "Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them." Gen. 3:21 God sacrificed an innocent animal, and covered them with clothes. This was a foreshadowing of God's sacrifice of Jesus the innocent lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. We can not cover our sin by our works or efforts. It's only by the atoning cleansing blood of Jesus Christ we can be saved. 

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9

Let's not be like Adam. Let's be like King David, and quick to repent. The buck stops here.