ADAM’S APPLE

For some reason, I grew up believing that Adam was not at home when Eve ate the forbidden fruit; he was probably at work or just taking a routine walk around the garden. The version of the story that was in my mind was that Eve was alone when she was conned and convinced by the serpent to take that bite that changed everything. She took the fruit, enjoyed the first bite and then kept the remaining portion to be shared with Adam on his return. When Adam came home, he took a bite and behold, their eyes were suddenly opened…and we know how the story develops from there.

You can imagine how shocked I was when I realized that I was wrong:

The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. Genesis 3:6 (NLT)

So, Adam was standing there, practically watching his beloved wife going off on the wrong trail and he could not intervene and correct her. Remember that he had earlier on described her as “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’” (Gen 2: 23), yet that extravagant display of affection did not translate to any modicum of correction.

Why is it that Adam could not correct Eve? I don’t know the answer, but I know that the answer will be similar to the reason why Sapphira could not challenge Ananias when he suggested that they should keep some of the money from the sale of their property to themselves and tell the apostles that they brought 100%:

But there was a certain man named Ananias who, with his wife, Sapphira, sold some property.  He brought part of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full amount. With his wife’s consent, he kept the rest. Acts 5: 1-2 (NLT)

One of the best things that can happen to us is to have friends or associates that can tell us every shade of truth that we need to hear at every point in time, especially when we are going off track. We need such people, not willing accomplices that always want to make us look good and feel good. If we don’t have such associates, one of the probable reasons is that we may not have handled past corrections or criticisms well and they are now scared of offending us. It’s also possible that we have created a shield of defence around ourselves that sends a message to people that we are irreproachable and beyond correction.

We need to make every effort to surround ourselves with people that will bluntly refuse to be willing accomplices; people that will not be clapping for us as we’re going off track at full throttle. We need people that can look us in the face and tell us the plain truth, no matter how we feel. We can consciously create the environment that will make that happen. It’s all in our hands.