Our adversary kept watching all the while. He was waiting for an opportune moment to interfere with the perfect harmony that existed between God and man. He wanted to disrupt Our eternal purpose and foil it even at its nascent stage. He devised three weapons to attack mankind – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. He intended to launch all of them in quick succession to make sure he succeeded the very first time. He will use the same tactic over and over again – even on me during my sojourn on earth! And on you too.

The ‘old’ ‘shining one’ was very cunning and subtle. He approached Eve, the woman. Looks like Satan did not have confidence enough to approach man, the perfect being that possessed the glory of God, lest he fail outright even in his first attempt. He approached her with questions around the forbidden knowledge of good and evil. He raised doubts in her mind over the trustworthiness of God’s word and sowed the seed of unbelief. Eve immediately fell into the trap and disobeyed Our commandment. Adam followed forthwith without a second thought. He chose knowledge of life over life. He wanted to decide for himself what is good or evil for him instead of relying on his Creator. Don’t We know what is the best for Our supreme creation?

It is an irony that even today, long after the fall, man still chooses to do evil although he knows what is good. The desire to do good is in him but doing good is not in him. And any good he thinks he does, has its source in his selfish, evil, unrighteous heart. None but God is good!

Adam wanted to be his own god. He wanted to decide for himself. He wanted to gain freedom from what he thought was ‘control’ from God. “Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us”, is the attitude that all his descendants carry with them. Adam wanted to be self-reliant – ‘Aatma nirbhar’ / ‘Thanniraivu’ – or independent. Sad, he did not know that depending on God gives him true freedom – freedom to do good and shun evil. This does not require knowledge; it requires wisdom and humility.
Adam and Eve tried to hide from Us not knowing that nothing is hidden from Us. Mankind still tries to hide themselves from Us under various hoods – religion, self-righteousness, philanthropy, isms…

I set an open enquiry to let mankind know the implications of their misadventure and to handout judgement for their rebellion.

Adam blamed his wife. Eve blamed Satan. But both exercised their freewill to disobey me as did Satan earlier. I had to judge righteously.

I ruled that the Serpent would be cursed above any animal. This meant that he would be disdained even less than an animal from then on. This beast would fall prostrate unable to rise to his feet anymore. He would lick dust – face defeat – over and over again. The crime of deception deserved more than just this. It has implications in time and beyond it. I said, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed”. I would be that Seed of the woman. I will bruise Satan’s head in a predetermined time in history. However, he will manage to bruise only my heel.

Unto the woman I said, I will greatly multiply her sorrow and her conception; in sorrow she shall bring forth children; and (despite this), her desire shall be to her husband, and he shall rule over her. Long afterward, at the predetermined time in my story, she will be saved by childbirth, giving birth to her Saviour. Yes, that is me.

Unto Adam I said, because he had hearkened unto the voice of his wife, and had eaten of the tree, of which I commanded him, saying, “You shall not eat of it”, the ground would be cursed for his sake; he shall eat of it in sorrow all the days of his life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to him; and he shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of his face shall he eat bread, till he returns unto the ground; for out of it was he taken, for dust he is, and unto dust shall he return.

Adam and Eve were deceived by the devil. They thought that they would gain freedom from God’s control but eventually lost their freedom to Satan. They became his puppets. Lust conceived sin, and sin when full-grown, gave birth to death. The spirit of man died to God that very day; flesh took over to dominate his soul and his body that now had blood flowing in it. From that moment, he started to die physically too. Man fell short of the glory of God and death started reigning in him. His soul would endlessly die (remain separated from us eternally) in hell / bottomless pit (and then in the lake of fire) as he continues to live in sin, transgressing Our laws until his last breath on earth. However, neither hell nor the lake of fire was created for mankind; they were for Our enemy and his allies. But, when man turned hostile, he chose this disastrous destiny for himself. He became Satan’s ally and Our enemy.

[After possessing ‘knowledge’ of good and evil, did man sit to reflect on what happened? Introspection? Retrospection? If Satan was such a well-wisher (he is not. ‘Well’ is not in his vocabulary; ‘ill’ and evil are), why did the devil not talk about the tree of the fruit of life first? Is just knowledge about good and evil enough? Is not life essential than mere knowledge about life? Is not ‘living’ necessary instead of ‘knowing how to live’? Is not ‘Ayur’ the need than just ‘Vidhya’. Is not Ayurveda a ‘killer’ combo?]

The life of the flesh is in the blood. We ruled this blood should be shed for the forgiveness of sin. Every individual is responsible for one’s own sins. If each one sheds his blood, he would die physically too. There would be no exception – everyone would die bodily. There would be no possibility of human life on earth. And, the blood shed for remission of sins would not be innocent blood; it would be blood contaminated by sin. Again, no sinful man could die for another – he has to die for himself first! What a wretched condition man has forced himself into!

This is the reason why God the Just One had planned earlier that I, the Lamb of God, the Son of God, would become the sin-bearer of the world. I would shed my sin-free blood in my physical body for the forgiveness of the sins of the entire mankind. This would happen in time already determined by God. However, as this is as per God’s plan, this redemption work was considered complete even before the foundation of the world.