by Pat Nordman

Adam and Eve sinned and they hid, and God looked for them. What a wonderful spiritual lesson there is here. The Lord God calls to us, "Where are you?" Where are we in our lives? God continually calls and finds us:

1) in conscience, the twinge of sorrow and guilt reminding us that we have injured Him and His;

2) in providence, for all is under His control;

3) and in revelation, whether written or spoken.

    The serpent convinced Eve that if she ate the forbidden fruit she would know good and evil. Up to then Adam and Eve knew only good; they disobeyed and then they also knew evil. Only in that respect was the serpent, that liar, right. It wasn't just one sin but many: pride, ingratitude, disobedience, disbelief, discontentment (let us remember that their sin was committed in the very midst of paradise!), unholy curiosity, presumption upon God's goodness, and doubt upon His sincerity.

"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil" Isaiah 5:20. This is exactly what the serpent did in the Garden. Adam and Eve fell through the senses and lost common sense. Our senses are our servants, to be guarded ever so carefully. The serpent assailed Eve's sensibilities. So one of our first lessons in life is that we must have boundaries for the senses that war against our spirit. We can be sure that it is through the avenue of our sensations that the serpent will be tripping us up. God cautions us in His call to beware of what we see and hear and feel. If we sin with these wonderful gifts, then it is of the serpent, that liar. Nothing but good comes from God: "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good" Genesis 1:31.