And They Were Not Ashamed...
“And they were not ashamed…”
These were the last words of a world unstained by sin in Genesis 2:25, a world uncorrupted by deceit and treachery. Things were just as they should have been at that moment. It was the sound of peace between God and Man. A sound that echoes regret in the space between the Garden and the Cross. The irony is breathtaking.
God had created all things and placed man, His most prized creature, in a place of dominance. The first man, Adam, was given the grand privilege of naming all of the other creatures God had made. God knew Adam’s need and provided a wife, Eve, and it was very good. Man and wife now lived happily for a time meant to last an eternity.
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he create them.
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:27-28
God gave them dominion over every living thing that moves on the earth–even the serpent. Ironically, a living thing subordinate to the man and his wife was the very one that flipped this world upside down and was instrumental in the exile of the man and his wife from a place of peace and dominion. The serpent convinced Adam and Eve to leave their happy and holy state with little effort.
“And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” Genesis 3:8-9
Their joy had turned to shame. They hid among the trees as the Lord pursued them. The Lord knew where they were and what had happened. Still, he pursued them.
Then came the curse. But this curse was embedded with a promise. Yes, man would be cut off from the garden and from the tree of life; there would be great toil in pursuing fruitfulness and great pain in multiplying; the man and his wife would no longer have dominion as they once did and were now under the dominion of the serpent. But the curse upon the serpent revealed the heart of God.
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” Genesis 3:15
The second Adam was not like the first. The echo of regret that reverberated throughout the generations would be replaced with a cry of redemption just as drenched in irony:
“Eloi, Eloi! Lama sabachtani! My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me?” Matthew 27:46
