Today we look at the immediate results of partaking of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.
It is feasible that the fruit contained a substance that would bring about a physical change that would alter the bodies of Adam and Eve, resulting in aging and eventual death, but the act of disobedience or defiance would have a more immediate effect.
Whereas the couple had, up till now, been innocent they now experienced new feelings and emotions.
Some of these we are told about.
Whereas before partaking of the fruit they had felt no shame about being naked, now they felt vulnerable and the need to cover up.
Their response was to sew together fig leaves to make aprons.
Then, when they heard the Lord was coming they attempted to hide themselves from his presence. When Adam was questioned as to why he had done this, he mentioned that he was afraid, because he was naked.
Obviously his feeble attempts at covering up, not only his nakedness, but also his willful disobedience, had been woefully insufficient.
It was a whole new world for Adam and his wife.
By starting to experience the opposite poles of emotion they were able to comprehend more fully.
What had, up till now, been a homogeneous paradisaical existence of neutrality, now began to condense into polar opposites.
Being able to experience both they were consequently beginning to understand and comprehend that some feeling, states and emotions were more desirable than others. They were beginning to develop a knowledge of good and evil by their own experience. Not unlike our own turbulent experiences as we exit the paradise of childhood and enter adolescence.
Adam was beginning to learn about cause and effect, that present actions have future consequences. The future would be affected by actions made in the now. No matter how unpleasant that future might have been to contemplate.
He and his wife were taught the consequences of their choices and from here on Adam refers to his wife as EVE as he contemplates that she will now be the mother of all living.
The interview is ended with a very small but intriguing aside.
Adam and Eve are not left to their nakedness, shame and fear, that the fig leaves were unable to cover.
GEN 3:21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
They were only considered and felt adequately clothed once a coat of skin had been provided.
This begs the question: What was the difference between a coat of skins and a fig apron?
In order to produce a coat of skin the animal would need to be killed and the leather cured. Hinting at a slightly longer process that just one simple interview. Also this hints at the shedding of blood or sacrifice and that the results of disobedience and transgression cannot fully be resolved through our own feeble efforts.
It was only the sacrifice and shedding of blood that would sufficiently cover the consequences of Adam's willful act of defiance.
This act of clothing Adam and Eve in coats of skin, that had been produced at the cost of the life of an animal, would also hint at the blood and sacrifice that would be required to overcome all of the results of the fall.
Previous parts of this Series.
Were the seven days of creation in Genesis seven twenty four hour periods? - Delving a little deeper
Were the seven days of creation in Genesis seven twenty four hour periods? - Into the detail
Were the seven days of creation in Genesis seven twenty four hour periods? - Some conclusions
Were the seven days of creation in Genesis seven twenty four hour periods? - Some more conclusions
Were the seven days of creation in Genesis seven twenty four hour periods? - The implications.
The evolution of Adam - a conundrum