What was it like for Adam and Eve?

I’ve made Adam and Eve the focus of my last couple of posts. I chose to focus on each one separately because I wanted to see them as individuals. To imagine what life might have been like for Adam, for Eve, but there came a point in each of their lives where they were no longer individuals but a whole. They were no longer two people but one. They were married. Their lives were no longer theirs alone but theirs together.

I had planned to follow Eve’s life all the way through the exile from the garden of Eden but as I wrote I discovered that I couldn’t do that because I had reached a spot where Eve’s life so entwined with Adams that she wasn’t her anymore but Adam’s wife. Her life was his, and his was hers. There was no more separating them. To finish their story I had to combine it. And so I chose to end Eve’s story and begin another one with Adam and Eve together.

Now I must ask…

What was it like for Adam and Eve? What was it like to experience those first moments together? I remember well the early days of getting to know my husband. I remember the excitement of seeing a note from him, the joy of talking to him. I remember wanting to know so much about him but always finding more to learn.

Did Adam and Eve feel that way about each other?

I remember, too, the happiness of those early days of marriage. The need to constantly be near my husband…a need I still have. I remember how everything seemed so different, better, simply because he was there. I also remember the changes that I went through as I adjusted to marriage. Then figuring out life as a wife, finding out how I fit in my marriage.

Did Adam and Eve go through that?

They had no former life to leave behind, no family to say goodbye to, no home to give up, no connections to sever. They didn’t have to adjust to a new home because all of life was new to them.

What was it like for them to discover all of life together? What was it like for them to be married in a place where there were no other people, no one with expectations, no society telling them that over 50% of marriages end in divorce. They didn’t even have a Bible to tell them what was expected.

Instead they had each other.

And God.

They couldn’t call their mother, brother, or dad when they had a question. They couldn’t cry on their sister’s shoulder or email a friend when they were unsure of each other. They had only each other and God.

What was that like?

What would it be like to be taken from everything and placed in a natural environment that provided for your every need with nothing but your spouse?

When I wrote about Eve I wrote about how in times past husbands and wives needed each other in ways they don’t today. But how much would you need each other if your spouse was all you had? How much would you cling to them? How much would you quickly let go of all the trivial things that so many couples let come between them today?

I have family, friends, and all the other entrapments that come with life in today’s fallen world and yet…I cling to my husband. I hold tight to him. I get great pleasure in just being near him.

Did Eve feel that way? Did Adam feel that way toward Eve?

Sometimes I simply marvel that I am here and that I’m married to my husband. It’s a moment of thanksgiving, a moment of remembering all over again how blessed I was to become his wife.

Did Adam and Eve feel that way?

Part of getting to know my husband was falling in love with him. But from our first moment of discovering the other existed there was just something there between us. There was a connection. I couldn’t have not loved him. It was as if he was a part of me even when I barely knew him.

Was it that way for Adam and Eve?

Did they connect from the beginning? Did they love each other the moment they saw each other? Or did it take time? Did the love grow gradually as they got to know each other?

Did they fall into marriage naturally, from the beginning, or did they take time to get to know one another?

When I was a child one of my family’s favorite movies was about a couple of kids stranded on an island. As those kids grew into teenagers they began to see the other not as a playmate but as a spouse. They slowly grew into the physical side of marriage. There was no one there to tell them what they were supposed to think or feel about the other. No one there to tell them when a relationship became a marriage. No one to perform a wedding. They simply grew into the marriage naturally. It happened slowly, gradually.

Was that what it was like for Adam and Eve?

They must have spent many an hour walking through the garden. Did they walk hand in hand, talking about the plants and animals around them? Did they play like kids, tossing seed pods at each other, rolling in the grass, playing in the sand? Did they long for a way to capture those special moments or were they content to simply be there in that moment?

When did those ideal moments become tainted with temptation? Was temptation there before the serpent spoke to Eve? Had she thought about the forbidden fruit before or was she happy to have all the other plants and foods and leave that one alone?

In our woods we have wild berries, nuts, and trees that produce edible parts. I find joy in finding and picking those edible foods straight from the woods. I often wish I had more knowledge on which plants are edible. I would gladly gather more of the wild edibles around us if I knew which ones they were. There are some things that I know to leave alone though. I just assume all mushrooms are poisonous because for me they aren’t worth the risk. I know poison ivy is poisonous so I have no desire to go anywhere near it or to eat the berries it produces.

Did Adam and Eve see the tree of knowledge that way? Or were they tempted by the fruits from time to time?

How did Adam and Eve see God? He came and walked with them, talked with them. Did He instruct them often? Did He tell them what was expected of them? Did He reprimand them? Punish them? Did they see Him as a parent?

How did Eve feel when the serpent completely disregarded everything God had told her? Was she disappointed in God? Did she feel, as many children do, a sense of confusion at discovering her ‘parent’ hadn’t been truthful with her?

We know that the death God spoke of was Spiritual death but did Eve know that? The serpent told her she would not die if she ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge. That was in direct opposition to what she had been told, what she’d been taught.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You1 shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 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.” Genesis 3:1-5

How did she feel upon discovering that she could eat the fruit? What did it taste like?

Scripture tells us…

6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise,2 she took of its fruit and ate…Genesis 3:6

            We’re given no details on what the fruit tasted like. She took of its fruit and ate…that’s all we’re told. Was it sweet? Juicy? Bitter? Did she get her fill with one fruit or did she eat several, or many? After she ate, she…and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. So once she’d eaten her fill she picked some more and gave it to her husband.

            What did Adam think about eating the fruit? Did he know what it was when Eve handed it to him? Did she have to convince him to try it?

            There are foods that I like that my husband doesn’t. Some of those foods he won’t even touch. Some of them make him shudder. If I offered him one of those foods he wouldn’t take it. Did Adam refuse to eat the fruit the first time Eve offered it? Or did he accept it immediately and enjoy it, trusting that what she gave him was okay? Or did he take it knowing it was forbidden but wanting to please his wife?

            I have eaten things I had no interest in eating simply to please my husband. I knew it was something he wanted to share with me so I ate it with him. Was that what Adam did? Did he think as he ate it that he shouldn’t be doing it? Did he wonder if he should correct Eve for eating it and feeding it to him or did he just go along?

            What was it like for them when they ate the forbidden fruit?

7 Then the eyes of both were opened…

I can’t even imagine eating something that would give me knowledge with the simple eating of it. There are foods that we learn from. It doesn’t take a person more than one bite to discover a hot pepper is hot. It doesn’t take more than one bite of sugar to discover it’s sweet. But they don’t impart wisdom. They don’t take us from what we knew to all of a sudden knowing so much more.

And how much did they learn? How much wisdom was given to them with the eating of the fruit? We know that they learned that they were naked. As a result they learned that they shouldn’t be naked. Their actions prove that…

 …and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

Did they know they were in disobedience to God? They hid from Him but they did it because they were naked. Did they also know that they had disobeyed Him? Did they learn that they had when they ate the fruit or would they have already known because they knew that they weren’t supposed to eat it? Or did they know it at all?

8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”

About a month ago my daughter came in to tell on her brother. My son, knowing he was going to get in trouble, hid around the side of the house. He was easy to find, and his expression clearly told why he was hiding. He knew he had done wrong, knew he was about to get into trouble for what he did, and so he hid.

Did Adam and Eve have the same feelings my son had that day? Were they hopeful that they wouldn’t get in trouble but afraid that they would? Did they look at God the way my son looked at me, with those sad eyes full of remorse and hope?

11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

Here, God asks them the same kind of question I find myself asking my children often…did you do this? And what response did He get? The same kind parents get. The answer that shifts the blame to someone else.

 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”

Adam spoke the truth there but I can’t wondering if he wasn’t trying to shift the blame from himself to Eve. Did he say what he did simply to admit the truth of what happened or was he trying to keep himself out of trouble by laying the blame on Eve? Children will often justify their behaviors by saying ‘he did ____________ so I did this’ or ‘he/she’ made me’ or some other thing that they hope will keep them out of trouble. And sometimes it does.

Recently my son hit my daughter because she refused to move when he was trying to clean a certain area. Because my daughter wouldn’t move my son, out of frustration, hit her. When I asked my son why he had hit his sister he answered by telling me that he was trying to clean and she wouldn’t move. Hours later as I relayed the story to my husband, my husband told me that was almost justified. It was and yet our son’s actions violated the ‘do not hit girls’ rule.

Was Adam’s reply given much the way my son tried to justify hitting his sister? …the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate… She did this, so I did that. Or was Adam simply relaying the truth of what happened? Did Adam hope to shift the blame from himself to Eve? Or was he simply explaining?

What did Adam feel when God called out to him? And it was Adam that God called to.

⁹ But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

God didn’t call to the woman, it wasn’t Eve He was looking for. Before God ever created Adam and Eve, He knew what was going to happen. He knew where Adam was, knew why he was hiding, before he called out to him. Knowing that Eve had been the one to eat the fruit first, it was still Adam he was looking for. It was Adam that he questioned…

He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

God already knew the answer. Long before He asked the question, He knew the answer. Not only did He ask it anyway but He asked it of Adam. Knowing that Eve had been the one to disobey first, knowing that she had fed the fruit to Adam, God still asked Adam. He asked for an accounting from the man, not the woman.

Why?

Was it because the husband is supposed to lead his wife? Did Adam know that? Adam and Eve hadn’t been given the instructions that believing husbands and wives have today. Did Adam know that he was to lead his wife?

I recently told one of my daughters that as a big sister her actions set an example for the younger children. How she acts will in some way affect how they do. She is, without being aware of it, leading the younger ones. My husband sets examples for me by his actions. He leads me without saying anything. It is just there. His actions affect me, affect how I act and think and react. Did Adam know when he accepted the fruit that he was, by the simple act of eating something forbidden, leading his wife?

Was that why God called out to Adam instead of Eve?

We can’t know, Scripture doesn’t tell us. Whatever reason God chose to call out to Adam instead of Eve, Adam’s response gives us an idea of how he was feeling…

And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”

He heard God call out and he was afraid. That sounds very much like my son they day he went and hid because he knew he was about to get into trouble. Whether or not Adam knew he had done wrong he knew he was naked and he was afraid. He must have known he was going to have to answer to God for something.

Then God questioned Adam… He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”  It was Adam that he questioned, Adam that He essentially said ‘tell me what happened’. After Adam replied…¹² The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate…only then did God question Eve…¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?”

How did Eve feel when God turned His attention from Adam to her? Up to that point God had been speaking to Adam, questioning him. How did she feel when the focus, the blame, fell on her? Like Adam she replied in truth…The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”…but like Adam it’s possible that in truth she also attempted to shift the blame. The serpent deceived me…she didn’t merely say I ate the fruit, she laid the blame on the serpent…the serpent deceived me. Was that an attempt to shift the blame from herself? Or was she merely stating how it happened?

Did she fear what God would do as she admitted her actions? Did she fear the death God had said would come?

What was it like for Adam, for Eve, to stand before God knowing they had disobeyed Him? Knowing they had knowledge that they had been forbidden to obtain. Were they afraid? Did they wish they could hide again? Were their legs trembling? Did their hands shake? Did they want to beg him to forgive them for doing wrong?

¹⁶ To the woman he said,

“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
    in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be for^[f] your husband,
    and he shall rule over you.”

            God punished the serpent first then Eve. What thoughts went through Adam’s head as he listened to God punish his wife? Did he long to take her punishment on himself? Did he want to explain again why she made the choice she did, to justify her actions, so that maybe God would change his mind about the punishment to be delivered? Did he want to beg God to go easy on her?

            Did Eve understand what God meant when he spoke of bringing forth children in pain? Did she even know what children were? And what of her desire being for her husband? Did she see that as a good thing or bad? What did she think when God said her husband would rule over her?

            What did Adam think as God told her that? If he didn’t know it was his place to lead his wife, did he figure it out then? Did he already know that being the husband came with responsibilities toward Eve or did he learn that when God told Eve that her husband would rule over her?

            What did Adam think as God turned to him? Did he think ‘here it comes’ or did he assume that the serpent and Eve would take all the punishment for the wrongdoing? What was he thinking, feeling, as God handed out his punishment?

¹⁷ And to Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
    and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
    ‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
    in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
¹⁸ thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
    and you shall eat the plants of the field.
¹⁹ By the sweat of your face
    you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
    for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
    and to dust you shall return.”

God didn’t spare Eve because she was tempted by the serpent and He didn’t spare Adam because Eve was the one that gave him the fruit. Each was punished for their part in the sin. They disobeyed God. It didn’t matter how it came to happen, the fact that it happened was all it took for God to punish them.

How did Adam and Eve feel after the punishment was handed out? It was a far cry from the death they had been told would come. But the punishment wasn’t over yet. Did they stand there thinking it was while God clothed them?

 ²¹ And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

Did they think that was easy? God didn’t do to us what He said he would? Did they consider the fact that he was clothing them the end of the punishment. Did they feel that he was happy with them again and that no further punishment was coming?

How surprised were they when…

²² Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” ²³ therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. ²⁴ He drove out the man...

What did Adam and Eve think, feel, when God kicked them out of the Garden? Were they surprised? Hurt? Angry? Did they wonder what they would do and where they would go? Did they hurt for the loss of their home? Did they wonder around looking for somewhere that might be like the garden they had known? Did they try to get back into the garden?

What was it like for Adam and Eve?