The Fall

In this passage all the perfection of the world created by God is lost. A serpent, representing the devil comes to Eve and questions everything she has been told by God. He puts doubt in her mind over the goodness of good and she is led to question whether she will actually die if she eats from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The devil tells her that she will not die. Instead she will become like God, knowing good and evil. The desire for this much power is too much.

She takes the fruit, eats it and then shares it with Adam. After they realise they are naked and make clothes for themselves from fig leaves. They hide because they hear someone coming in the garden. That person is God. He searches for them and, realising what they have done asks them why they have eaten from the tree that they were forbidden to eat from. The man blames the woman and the woman blames the serpent.

God punishes them.

• For the woman

She would have pain in childbirth and her desire would be for her husband and he would rule over her.

• For the man

It would be difficult for him to get food.

• For the serpent

He would have to crawl on his belly, and he would bite the heel of man and they would crush him.

For all of them They would die and they were banished from the Garden of Eden.

However, God gave them clothes. He then sent them out of the garden and put a flashing sword and a cherubim to guard the tree.

In the lesson we discussed the character of God from the Fall. Here are the ideas we came up with. You could easily use some of these in a part c.) question.