Genesis 3

The forbidden fruit...

Last week’s post: Genesis 2

Before we dive into Genesis chapter 3, we should look at the last verse of Genesis chapter 2.

²⁵ Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.” (NIV)

All was well. Things were good. They were naked and they liked it and life was awesome. And…that lasted one whole verse. Very quickly, Adam and Eve go from naked and unashamed to ashamed and poorly clothed—frantically trying to cover themselves up. The remainder of the Bible from this point on—and post-Bible human existence for that matter—is the story of humanity generally making terrible decisions that lead to a sickening array of devastating consequences.

I do find it a bit ironic how the present time echoes this moment in the garden of Eden. Adam and Eve had this urge to be like God and access all of his knowledge. And they gave into it. They bit the fruit. With one bite out of fruit, they obtained knowledge of good and evil. And it ruined them. They couldn’t control it. It controlled them. A long, long time in the future, here we are. We’re carrying around these devices in our pocket that allow us to obtain, at 5G speeds, the knowledge of good and evil. And they’ve got these ironic symbols straight out of Genesis 2 on the backs of them. A piece of fruit with a bite out of it. And somehow we think we’ve now evolved enough that we can now control the knowledge. But the knowledge is still controlling us.

According to Pew Research Center study, the average social media user between the ages of 18 and 24 spent over 3 hours per day on social media. Users between the ages of 24 and 65 averaged around 2 hours per day. (https://www.statista.com/statistics/1484565/time-spent-social-media-us-by-age/). According to another study, the average American phone user spends 4 hours and 37 minutes per day on his or her phone (https://okwnews.com/news/lifestyle/health-wellness/black-mirror-or-black-hole-american-phone-screen-time-statistics/). Wow.

As a society, we’ve invented more means of connecting with people all over the world than we’ve ever had in human history. And yet, we feel alone at an epidemic level. See here: https://newsroom.thecignagroup.com/loneliness-epidemic-persists-post-pandemic-look. By and large, outside of funny cat videos, Dude Perfect, and a few others, social media isn’t making us feel joyful or connected. The social media posts of others are, much like Adam and Eve, making us feel more unclothed and ashamed and disconnected rather than confident and affirmed and connected. Far too often, our own social media posts make us feel the same way when we hit that “post” button just a little bit too quickly. I don’t know about you, but on more than one occasion I’ve had a sinking Adam and Eve-esque feeling. I post some moderately witty, sure-to-be-hilarious post on social media, only to very quickly thereafter feel naked and ashamed. One time I spelled the you are variant of you’re y-o-u-r rather than the correct y-o-u-‘-r-e. I’ve never felt so ashamed. I exaggerate (sort of), but you get the point.

For all its changes, mankind hasn’t really changed all that much since the garden. We still get that same sinking feeling that Adam and Eve got…now for over four hours per day. And, we still handle guilt the same way they did in the garden: blame someone else.

Do you remember Adam’s answer when confronted? Adam was like, um, this woman you gave me made me do it. Translation: it’s her fault, so really, God, if you think about it…it’s basically your fault that I ate the forbidden fruit…because you’re the one who gave me this woman.

Eve’s response was similar: Um, the serpent tricked me. Translation: it’s not my fault…it’s this horrible serpent’s fault.

Humanity hasn’t changed since then. Don’t believe me? Have children. I think many kids’ first words are “Momma” or “Daddy.” But, it doesn’t take them very long into the formation of their little vocabularies to get to “Not me!” or “He did it!” Of course, we sophisticated adults are not much better. Who did I immediately blame when I recently broke a rib skiing? Why, I blamed the rock in the middle of the run, of course. Not the 45-year-old trying to be a teenager. Of course not. To paraphrase the great Jeff Foxworthy: you never hear of someone go into counseling and say, “You know, my mom was great. My dad was great. My friends were great. I’m just an idiot who makes terrible choices.”

It’s just who we are. We’re blame-throwers, not blame-owners.

All that said, as I re-read Genesis 3, I feel like that is the message God is trying to get across to me, personally:

First, I need to spend more time building face-to-face relationships and less time scrolling social media. I need to be mindful that I’m prone to using my phone just like the forbidden fruit logo on the back of it symbolizes…as a gateway to shame, blame, and disconnect from God rather than the opposite.

Second, when I do spend time building face-to-face relationships, I need to stop blaming those people for everything that goes wrong in the relationship and or armchair quarterbacking their lives. And maybe, just maybe, I can start to use technology to help me build relationships rather than using it to isolate me from them.

I’ll close this week with two quotes:

“Everyone is interesting. If you’re ever bored in a conversation, the problem is with you not the other person.” - Matt Mullenweg

“It is not the experiences in our lives that change us. It is our response to those experiences. And, that should be a very noticeable distinction between the Christian and the non-Christian.” - Elisabeth Elliot

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™