Ah, why should all mankind for one man’s fault, be condemned, if guiltless? ~John Milton, Paradise Lost
Deceived, we choose door number two, and watch it slowly open. The promise of more, of better, of life without limits–we rush on the stage, to find
nothing.
Except a tuneless music box, alone on a barren floor, unwinding its last sour note.
And the picture of an apple, a serpent and the terrifying brink where we once teetered.
That one brief moment, all of heaven held its breath, and waited. And winced. What was ours, what was very good, we threw away.
But how did we fail, if we were not there? Why still the curse, when we have done nothing?
Let’s review.
Genesis 1 ends with Sabbath–all creation in harmony, with itself and with its Creator.
Genesis 2 ends with the joyous intimacy of human community, patterned after God’s own delight.
Genesis 3 ends with shattered glass and now with splinters we are born. Sabbath, replaced by sabotage–we shake our fists at God, exploit the creation we’ve been given, daily draw our battle lines between us.
Deceived, we all pick the same door, so enticing is its promise:
Open Here For Knowledge Of A Higher Kind.
The desire stirs in every human heart to experience what we’re not wired to know on our own. We want to profit from nearness to God, without dealing with God himself. We want to acquire the blessings of life while ignoring the hand of the blesser.
Would a child cry for a mother’s milk and demand she leave the room? Would mountaineers hire the most reliable guide and leave him behind at the base? We laugh at the deranged behavior of others, and then sign up for the same.
Because the serpent knows where to poke:
- I am not enough, just as God made me.
- What I have is not enough, as much as God has given me.
- Someone has it better, so God must be withholding.
- Someone else is better than me, so I will become as god.
In reaching for more, we got nothing. In over-running our boundaries, like petulant tsunamis, we brought chaos and death on ourselves. What was unthinkable in Genesis 2 has now become our norm. From self-worship to self-destruction–humanity itself in identity crisis.
Not Deceived
Later, in the wilderness, confronted by the same insinuating whispers, Jesus will resist, and stay within Father-made bounds. A way home will be made for us all. The night before he is betrayed, he will invite his disciples to “take and eat” the knowledge we’ve always desired. By his death on a tree, he will free us, for:
- Evil is not a thing of its own, but an un-thing, offering un-life and un-love.
- Knowledge doesn’t exist as an independent prize, but is wrapped in the person of God, who is good.
In Christ, in door number one, “lie hidden all the treasure of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2:3).
Do you hear the un-deceived invitation in those words?
In our series, An Alphabet Adagio, we are savoring the story of the Bible, our story, alphabetically. You can subscribe to e-mail above so you won’t miss a letter. Next: E is for Embraced.
