When we talk about Adam and Eve, we wonder why Adam ate the fruit, even knowing God’s command not to touch that fruit.
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (Genesis 2:16-17)
Adam had full access to everything in the garden and could eat from everything produced in the garden, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Right after God gave the command to Adam, He creates a wife for Adam, a wife who would be his helper.
And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. (Genesis 2:22-24)
Here we see that God established the first family on earth. We could say that the first “marriage” was performed by God Himself.
Why Did God Create Eve from Adam’s Rib?
But why did God form the woman from the rib? We well know that, according to science, humans have 12 pairs of ribs. For many Bible scholars, the number 12 signifies governmental perfection. It appears as a multiple in matters related to government or dominion. We can understand that God is saying that the family is something perfect.
Everything God creates is perfect; He Himself, at the moment of creation, declares that it was good and blessed it. The family is something perfect, and what deviates from the original design is the work of the enemy, for he does not love the project called family.
Note that God first creates man and places him in the garden. Then, God commands man not to eat from the forbidden fruit, and then God creates the woman from Adam’s rib. Now here is the key. I would like you to share this view.
Adam and Eve were a couple united by God. Eve is the first to eat the forbidden fruit and then offers it to her husband. We observe that until Eve was created from the rib, the enemy does not appear, but from the moment God creates the woman, the enemy appears to make them sin against God.
Why Did Eve Eat the Fruit? What If Only She Had Eaten It?
Why did Eve eat the fruit? The serpent persuaded Eve’s heart, saying: “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Eve used her free will, that is, her power of choice.
What if only Eve had eaten the fruit? Why did Adam eat the fruit, even knowing it was forbidden?
First, we understand that it was God’s purpose, for everything that happens in human life is under God’s control and will. We must look at this passage from another angle, because Adam and Eve were a family, and God does not approve of separation.
The enemy manages to undermine Eve’s mind to the point that she eats the fruit. If only Eve had eaten the fruit, we could say that the first divorce would happen in the garden, for Eve would be removed from the garden and Adam would remain, thus separating a family.
Adam then ate the fruit, and both were expelled from the garden.
Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. (Genesis 3:23)
We understand that through disobedience, sin entered the world, and even though God knew the heart of man and that he would fail, God continued to preserve the family. The enemy may have caused man to sin against God, but he could not destroy the family that God had created.
Adam and Eve did not leave the garden merely as punishment for the fruit itself, but because of disobedience to God’s command. Eve set aside God’s counsels and followed the serpent’s counsels. Adam and Eve let themselves be seduced by the beauty of that fruit and by the serpent’s proposal that if they ate it, they would be like God.
The Preservation of the Family and the Sacrifice of Jesus
When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden and hid, upon discovering they were naked, God Himself prepared tunics of skin for them and clothed them. We understand that the blood of an animal was shed to cover man’s sin at that moment. We can see that this act already pointed to the sacrifice that would be made later by our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.
The sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross consisted of His blood shed so that we could achieve salvation and forgiveness of our sins.
John the Baptist, upon seeing the Lord Jesus Christ, says the following:
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)
The apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians that Jesus Christ is the last Adam.
So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man. And I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the prophecy that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:45-57)
The first Adam had full communion with God, but at one moment the first Adam failed in his mission. But later, Jesus appears, the last Adam, who came to show that it is possible to overcome death, to overcome sin, to overcome the afflictions of this world, and that it is also possible to regain communion with God.
Jesus Christ says: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” That is, the second Adam came to show us the way of salvation. Through the blood of Jesus shed on the cross of Calvary, we were redeemed from our sins so that we might have life and eternal life.
