Foolishness at Supper
Foolishness at Supper
The first recorded meal in human history shows an act of great foolishness by children. Let me explain.
At the first recorded meal, the serpent, a creature endowed by God with wisdom that no other creature shared, part of the creation over which Adam and Eve were to rule and subdue, joins Adam and Eve for supper. The serpent speaks only twice to Adam and Eve about what God had said. But it only takes two times to offset the balance of trust and obedience between the man/woman and God their Father, Provider, and Creator.
The hinge of the meal story is the serpent’s second statement about the knowledge of good and evil.
You are not doomed to die, the serpent said to the woman, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4-5
The serpent implied that God was keeping this knowledge to himself, keeping it from them, suggesting that they were entitled to have it. He appeals to their entitlement. God was withholding something they deserved, hinted the Serpent. But the true sense of the story is that God as their Father was keeping this knowledge for the welfare and benefit of the man and the woman. So, in faith, they must trust Him for that knowledge—of what is good—beneficial--for them and what is evil--not beneficial for him. They must trust and obey their Father’s word.
The question by the serpent is also a direct challenge to the main theme of Genesis 1-2: God alone knows what is good, what is beneficial, what is helpful, for us, and like a good Father, He will provide what is good for us. All we have to do to enjoy the good is to trust and obey His Word.
Our parents’ downfall occurred when they foolishly assumed the role of God; they occupied the role of knowing what was good for them. They knew better than God.
“The woman saw that the tree was good and pleasing to the eye and desirable for gaining wisdom…” Genesis 3:6
Up to now in the Genesis narrative, only God saw that it was good, beneficial. Now, instead of God, the woman sees what is good. God’s role as parent has been replaced.
The story shows us that our parents’ failure was not an act of great wickedness, but an act of foolishness such as done by a child. Their failure came as a quest for wisdom and a search for good apart from God’s loving, generous provision, expressed by His Word. Their downfall is depicted as an act of great foolishness.
Their fateful decision comes quick:
She took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he took[1] and ate it. Genesis 3:6
And what happened? Their eyes were opened and their new knowledge was that they were naked.[2] Ironically, they realized that they were no longer like each other: they were ashamed of their own nakedness and they sewed leaves from trees to hide from one another and they hid in the trees[3] to hide from God.
The irony of their new knowledge is that up to now in the story, they were already like God, being made according his visible image and visible likeness.
Thus, ends the complex story of the epic fall of humanity into sin and ejection from God’s presence on Eden Mountain and access to the tree of life. It is a failure of children to trust their Father’s word, wisdom, power and love. They failed to trust and obey their Father.
The failure of humanity at the first recorded meal is meant to give us hope. The story of the first supper foreshadows the first recorded meal in the history of a new humanity identified with Jesus Christ. It is at that future meal when the curse is reversed, access to God’s presence on Eden Mountain and to the tree of life is regained, and human eyes are also newly opened.
Thank you for reading.
[1] Jesus transformed these words of condemnation into verbs of salvation at the Lord’s Supper. He said to his disciples, in anticipation of the cross, “take, eat…”
[2] The tern naked in 3:7 is different in form and meaning from the same English term “naked” in Genesis 2:25; “The man and his wife, the two of them, were both naked and not ashamed.”
[3] Trees play a major role in the narratives of Genesis 2-3.