Why did Adam and Eve disobey God?

Adam and Eve disobeyed God for these three reasons:

• Unbelief
• Lust
• Desire to be like God, knowing good and evil

Before we examine each of the reasons identified above, let us first determine the exact commandment that Adam and Eve disobeyed. In Genesis 2:16–17, scripture says:

‘And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die”.’

It is worth noting that God gave Adam this command before creating Eve. This is proven by the next verse we read:

‘And the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him” (Genesis 2:18).

However, during her conversation with the serpent, Eve shows knowledge of this command, which means that Adam must have instructed her on what God expected of them.

In Genesis 3:2, we find these words:

‘And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”’

This is proof that Adam informed his wife about the commandments of God.

Now, the question is, Why did Adam and Eve choose to disobey God? Let us examine each of the reasons that were identified at the beginning of this discussion.

1. Unbelief

The first reason Adam and Eve disobeyed God was because they doubted God’s command because of the deception propagated by the serpent.

In Genesis 3:1, we read:

‘Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”’

We notice two important things in this passage:

Firstly, for reasons only known to the serpent, he decided to address the question to the woman and not the man, despite Adam being present.

Secondly, the question was asked in such a way that it would certainly plant seeds of doubt in the woman’s mind.

Before we continue, let us first examine the response of the woman to the serpent’s query as recorded in Genesis 3:2–3.

‘And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”’

In spite of getting the correct answer to his question and going away, the serpent decided to press on with his mission. And it was at this point that he threw the bait at Eve.

In Genesis 3:4, we see the serpent unleashing deception. We thus read:

‘Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.”’  

This is untrue because God had expressly stated that the penalty of disobedience would be death, and it happened anyway, though not that very day.

Therefore, by choosing to eat the forbidden fruit, Eve and Adam showed that they did not actually believe what God had said would happen in the event they ate the fruit.

If there is one thing God has shown displeasure for throughout the scriptures, it is any expression of unbelief toward His word by His children. Here are several scriptures to back up this statement:

‘Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God’ (Hebrews 3:12).

‘And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief’ (Hebrews 2:18–19).

‘Then they despised the pleasant land; They did not believe in His word (Psalm 106:24).

‘The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His son.’ (1 John 5:10).

2. Lust

The second reason why Adam and Eve disobeyed God was because they allowed lust to cloud their sober judgment. This point is qualified by the account of Genesis 3:6. We thus read:

‘So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and that a tree was desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.’

From the above Bible passage, we can make three profound observations.

The first observation is that the woman saw that the tree was good for food. This is lust on display because of one simple reason: despite God giving them the liberty to eat from ALL the other trees in the garden with the exception of one, she still developed a craving for the forbidden fruit. In Genesis 2:16, we read: ‘And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat…

Lust has been mentioned several times in the Bible as one of the things that displeases God.

For example, in 1 John 2:15–17, we read:

‘Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever’

For Eve, the lust of the eyes was too much for her to bear, so much so that she gave in to the deception of the serpent and reached out for the fruit and ate it. Adam also could not help but accept the offer from Eve, take the fruit, and eat it.

In Numbers 11:4, we read:

‘And the mixed multitude that was among them fell to lusting. And the children of Israel also wept again and said, “Who shall give us flesh to eat?”’

The lust for meat displayed by the children of Israel annoyed God so much that He struck them with a plague while the meat was still in their teeth. This led to the deaths of many of them in the wilderness, so as to serve as a warning to us against the dangers of lust.

In James 1:14–15, we read:

‘but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, which, when fully grown, gives birth to death.’

The desire in Eve got her enticed by the serpent into partaking of the forbidden fruit. She then went ahead and gave her husband the fruit, who also ate it. The outcome of their disobedience was death, as God had previously forewarned them.

3. Desire to be LIKE God, knowing good and evil

In Genesis 3:5–6, we thus read:

’For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and that a tree was desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.’

Here, it is clear that Eve had a desire to be like God in terms of knowing good and evil. This is because she was deceived by the serpent into believing that God was withholding certain information from them. She was not content with whatever information God had given them at that time. She felt that she needed more than what had been revealed. Thus, she reached out for the fruit and ate it.

This was an evil desire that can be equated to what we read about Lucifer in Isaiah 14:12–14: We thus read:

‘How you have fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations’ For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I WILL BE LIKE THE MOST HIGH.’

Here Lucifer was seeking equality with God and, if possible, dethroning God. However, the penalty for this desire proved costly to Lucifer, going by the reading of Isaiah 14:15, which says:

‘Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit.’

This is a pronouncement of judgment and doom for Lucifer as a result of letting evil desire overtake his rational thinking.

Just like Lucifer, the fate of Adam and Eve as a result of their disobedience to God was death.

Lessons learned from the disobedience of Adam and Eve

Unbelief may cause us to miss out on the blessings of God, leading to a life full of struggles. God knew what was good for them, and He made it clear enough to them. However, Adam and Eve did not believe in God’s plan for them but instead chose to believe the serpent’s point of view.

Hebrews 11:6 puts it this way:

‘But without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for He who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.’

Lust of the eyes and lust of the flesh, if not checked, may cause us to sin against God. The Apostle Paul encourages us to walk in the Spirit so that we do not fulfill the lust of the flesh. We find this admonition in Galatians 5:16:

‘I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.’

Our desire for knowledge should never, in any way, seek to replace God and all that He represents. We should instead walk in reverence for God at all times, humbly using the knowledge He has given us to honor and glorify His name.

Conclusion

This article identifies three reasons why Adam and Eve disobeyed God. There may be more reasons depending on your perspective regarding the account of Adam and Eve recorded in Genesis. Regarding our findings, it has been made clear how unbelief, lust, and the desire to be like God led to the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. Their failure serves as a lesson to us on how to conduct our Christian walk with the sole aim of pleasing our maker and not ourselves.

I hope the information was helpful. Thank you.   

Related Post: Did Adam and Eve go to heaven or hell?

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Source: https://www.biblegateway.com/