Genesis 3:1-24
The Fall of Man
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "
4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"
10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."
11 And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"
12 The man said, "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."
13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"
The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this,
"Cursed are you above all the livestock
and all the wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel."
16 To the woman he said,
"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;
with pain you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you."
17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,'
"Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return."
20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." 23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Matthew 18:20
Where Two or More Are Gathered Jesus is There
20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.
The Fall of Man is because we sinned...It was our first sin...We were disobedient to God for the first time...
Eve was approached by the evil serpent when she was alone...Had Adam been there maybe he would have helped her (and him) resist the evil one, since they were close to God...Sometimes when good bands together, we are stronger...When two or more are gathered in His Name, He is there...So if Adam and Eve were together with the evil one and brought up the Name of God in the Garden, He would have been with them...But Eve was alone when the trouble all started...
Adam was only given one rule, in the Garden of Eden...That rule was not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil...If they (Adam or Eve) ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, then they would die...When they both had eaten the fruit did they have more choices, any more freedom, any more knowledge...Did we have free will before we ate from the tree???...Did this one extra choice, that temptation, that was not theirs, truly keep them from freedom???...Do limiting choices to individuals allow us less freedom???...Does allowing one to do everything, and I literally mean everything (in this case, in the Garden of Eden, including eating from ALL the trees in the garden) give them more freedom???...One must ask oneself, is complete, unfettered freedom a goal, and what is complete, unfettered freedom of choice, and what is freedom in the spiritual context???...
Adam and Eve were able to do anything in the Garden...They had free choice...However, God did tell them of the one rule...Does more freedom, bring more happiness???...Does gaining more knowledge about both good and evil get us closer to God???...If one man or woman knew all things, would they have more freedom than others...The question of free will, free choices and freedom can become confusing...
Does getting more knowledge a bad thing or was the evil one lying and just speaking to tempt Eve???...Jesus tells us to love the LORD with all our minds...So knowledge of the Father, and the more knowledge of the Father the better...But it is the love of the LORD here we are talking about and us getting closer to God... Gaining more knowledge that separates us from God, is a bad thing...The Book of Proverbs teaches us much on wisdom...Proverbs 4:6 tells us that wisdom will protect you and wisdom will watch over you...Surely wisdom and knowledge is good as laid out by Proverbs...
There are two types of wisdom...Wisdom can can from this world or it can come from God...Wisdom through the knowledge of God is what we need to seek...
As we search for the purpose of life, we must ask if the purpose is to get closer to God...God gave our first parents a choice, maybe they didn't understand...Maybe they did not know the consequences...More knowledge and more freedom is not what we should be searching...We do not want to leave the Garden and be separated from our Father, but we must be close to Him...Temptation by the evil one was the reason for our first sin and our fall...Even today temptation lives ( with the evil one) and tries to separate us from Him...
Jesus tells us in John 8:31-32 about what it takes to be free:
31To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
Spiritual freedom is different than government freedom...Jesus tells us that to be free we need to know the truth to be free...When we know the truth then we will be set free...But this is qualified, by we must hold to His teachings and follow and obey His teachings..If we master His teachings and are His disciples, then we know the truth and only then are we free...Only in Him can we find this freedom we lost in the Garden...Only then are we closer to God...