Temptation

Temptation properly defined is “settling for less”. Temptation is settling for less. That is the human condition. The second chapter of Genesis, with the Adam and Eve story, is a story about temptation, right. If you brought your swords with you, open to Genesis 2 with me. God created a paradise for these two ancestors of ours, but in the midst of this paradise was a tree.

In Chapter 2, vs. 3 we read that God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'

And then the serpent, commonly understood in our tradition to be Satan, comes up with a counter argument. A better idea than God's plan.

4 You will not surely die, the serpent said to the woman. 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.

Here's a tip for you to pass on to your children and grand-children: if you think that you know better than God, you don't. Sounds obvious but how often do we ignore it. How often do we 'settle for less' than the abundant life that God planned for us?

And then what does she do? In vs 6. we read,

“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”

Let's be honest, most of the published theology in the history of the church has been by men. So, it is no surprise that Eve has gotten most of the blame throughout the ages. Well, this is one of those times when we need to reach past the tradition and go straight to the Scriptures, Eve didn't strap Adam down and put a feeding tube in his mouth. Adam was a big boy. He could make his own decisions. Whenever you see this story portrayed, whether it be Bette Davis on the Bergan and McCarthy radio program where she invents “apple sauce”, or in Milton's Paradise Lost where she has psychic control over poor Adam, or in the thousands of Renaissance artists who were looking for a respectable excuse for painting naked people, or in the way my own Sunday School teacher taught the story, we always have a reluctant Adam saying, “I don't know about this.” And Eve finally seducing him. But, as we just read, the Scriptures say, “She gave some to her husband, and he ate it.”

For that matter, the serpent probably gets too much credit from the narrator of the story as being “more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made”. It's not like he came up with a particularly clever argument. He didn't go to much effort to prove his (or her) statements. Just said, “oh it's O.K., God doesn't want what's best for you.” And then Adam and Eve succumbed to this pathetic excuse for a temptation. They settled for less than what God intended. Way less!

The could have taken the Nancy Reagan route. When a group of students asked her how they could remain drug-free, she replied, "Just say No!" Now, even though, when that became extrapolated into a national policy of a “Drug War” it ended up causing more harm than good, the truth of the comment remained, "Just Say No". On the personal level, the Bible makes it clear that we can resist temptation and sin by just saying No! Adam and Eve could have just said no, I want life and I want it abundantly. Snakes do not have better ideas than God.

Let's stop thinking of resisting temptation as depriving us from something that we want, and instead recognize it as merely settling for less!