Critical Essay on The Book of Genesis

Introduction

The book of Genesis presents an account of creation and it manifests God's kindness in creating mankind in His own image and likeness. Besides creating the world, God is also the sustainer of life. God's work of art is quite a masterpiece and we can trust Him to tackle the concerns in our lives. However, Satan is responsible for the sins and Godless life. Humankind's curiosity and mishandling of God-given free will separated mankind from the godliness of God's excellent creation.

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The fall of man in the book of Genesis begins when man commits the first sin. A serpent appeared without a proper introduction to confuse mankind. The serpent was one of God's creatures and was being used by Satan. The Serpent became the craftiest of God's creation. His rebellious nature is portrayed when he described God as a mere individual.

While the origin of evil might be confusing in this instance, God noticed how sinful mankind had become and could not take it anymore. Right before this happened, Satan's initial strategy was to deceive and to inflict doubts upon mankind. He started by distorting the command of God in a kind manner which was intended to confuse. However, one cannot put the entire blame on mankind. The conversation with the serpent should not have been initiated in the first place if Eve had remembered that it was a total overturn of God's chain of authority. Adam and Eve failed to indicate their authority over God's creation (1:26). However, Eve was duped into the conversation because of the manner in which it was conducted by Satan.

If Satan started by challenging her faith in God or the rule of God, her choice would be different and mankind would not have fallen short in the glory of God. Satan started by presenting a question to portray himself as one who needed assistance. It is a difficult thing to ignore involving someone and informing them of how wrong they. As such, Eve walked Satan's path with the intention of defending God's creation.

The Satan did not mention the tree of life and this intrigued Eve into thinking about the same without mentioning. It is a subtle way to approach a curious person and lure them into another trap. Eve brought the topic into play and she brought it up in a dialogue and he also succeeded in taking her mindset off of the substantial provisions of God and made her only believe in God's prohibitions (Reimer, 2010). He did not want her to sufficiently dwell in the grace of God but to defiantly meditate on the denials.

Eve underestimated the severity of God's prohibition when she talked to Satan about the tree which would cause death when eaten from. She downplayed the judgment of God by omitting words of emphasis and failing to recognize how death would be an ultimate punishment (2:17).

Firstly, Satan's impression was to appear as a religious seeker, in an attempt to establish doubts regarding the goodness of God and change her attitude on what was prohibited as opposed to all that was offered freely. The second, impression of Satan is bolder. Instead of deception and use of doubt, he utilized denial which was followed by the insult of the character of God. He told even that they would not die when they disregard God's command (3:4). And according to him, God's words of warnings were not as a representation of particular punishment but as a threat of self-indicted deity.

One may wonder the intransigence of Satan's denial, but this is what made Eve succumb to his desires. The ultimate attack by Satan is in verse five where he tells Eve that God does not want her to eat the fruit because that is what would open her eyes and make her like God and know evil and good (3:5). In this statement, Satan is trying to portray God as one who does not want mankind to be in the state like him. It is a way of telling Eve that she was in a state of incompletion and inadequacy of knowledge. As such, upon eating the fruit they would move to a different level and look like their creature in many aspects.

Satan's declaration is made in a statement which appears to be purposely unclear and elusive which stimulated the interest of Eve. For her to get to a state of knowing good and evil would be quite everything she needed to become wiser. In light of this, how would Eve understand the particulars of the offer if she did not try the same (Reimer, 2010). Women tend to be more curious than the men and this is maybe why the Satan approached Eve and not Adam. This nature attracted speculations and further considerations by Eve to know what is evil.

Satan succeeded in inflicting effective distractions on Eve's belief and course of action. Even though she had not taken the fruit at some point, she had already fallen short of God's glory and fallen away from His guardiancies. She became blasphemous and contemplated disobedience to God's commands. Eve considered touching the tree because she felt that the benefits were more than the disadvantages were apparently unreasonable and improbable. At this point is when she ate the fruit.

Eve invited Adam who also ate the fruit to experience the evil and good (3:6). The manner in which Adam fell for the deception makes one believe that he was present when Eve was confronted by the serpent but did not just take part in the conversation. And even if he was not present, he would be excited to experience what even had when she ate the prohibited fruit which was to open their eyes and whether it had detrimental consequences.

In the seventh and eight verse is practically insightful because they offer instruction on how sinning has adverse consequences. In this description, the particular repercussions are only mentioned as separation and shame. The text does not bring forth the aspect of death in this verse. Adam and Eve discovered their nakedness and they lost their innocence. However, while they did not die immediately, spiritual death occurred that very moment they all ate the fruit and their curiosity and mishandling of God's given free will separated them from God's glory and power.

Reference

Bible Gateway passage: Genesis 1 - New International Version. Retrieved from https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+1&version=NIV

Reimer, D. (2010). Book Review: Genesis and Theology. The Expository Times, 121(6), 322-322. doi:10.1177/00145246101210060911