The stage is set by chapter 3 of Genesis for the fall of mankind. Many argue that the Bible is allegorical in nature in many areas, but I believe that with proper examination, and without twisting the text into a pretzel, the entire Bible is wholeheartedly the truth, and it can be read completely literally.
Satan is the father of lies and the author of confusion.
So, it is the first lie told when Satan tells Eve, “Ye shall not surely die.” We think of this in the physical and immediate sense, but there is a spiritual sense to death, and it is that spiritual death that is also meant by death if the forbidden fruit is eaten of. By omission of what is fully meant by “death,” and by alluding to death being an immediate consequence, Satan tells the first lie within creation. Also, if the garden was a spiritually linked place on earth, time would not have as much bearing on a spiritual state as it would in a place firmly anchored in the physical creation where time and space hold sway. Immediacy has no bearing then in the garden.
Because man is born into the physical world spiritually dead after this first sin, it is only by the love of God that the dead portion of us can be reborn by the inhabitation within us of the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit fills that void. This comes by accepting Jesus Christ as our savior. Genesis 3 is a prelude to what comes later in the Bible, but it is important for understanding the fallen nature of mankind and all of creation.
There is a vein of thought that harkens back to the Victorian Era wherein it is thought that all forms of reproductive pursuits of mankind are considered abhorrent and evil. That is not so. God explicitly blesses the union of one man and one woman repeatedly in the Bible as part of the design of His creation. In several places we are instructed to multiply and spread over the face of God’s created Earth. All creatures and plants are also made male and female for reproductive purposes. There is nothing inherently evil with God’s design. Stretching this further, some would say that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is symbolism for sexual activity, which is then sinful in nature. I reject that symbolism. Marriage is sanctified by God. The later church’s relationship with Jesus Christ is also compared to a form of marriage. There can be no evil in God’s design.
Satan’s first lie is supported with the temptation to Eve that eating of the fruit will make her like God and give her wisdom to know the difference between good and evil. If Adam and Eve did not truly know the difference between good and evil prior to this point, they must have been very much like the animals were. They may have not morally known the difference between good and evil, but they did know that disobeying God’s commandment not to eat of the fruit of the tree was wrong. I like to think that my pet dog does not know the difference between good and evil, but he does know that it’s not right to disobey me when trained properly what is right and wrong. Disobeying me is a very different thing for my dog than humans disobeying God, though.
Adam and Eve both sinned, though, and out of shame tried to hide themselves from God by clothing themselves in coverings sewn together from fig leaves. They attempted to hide in the garden from God who is omniscient (all-knowing), omnipotent (all-powerful), and omnipresent (present everywhere at all times). God’s wrath must have been on full display.
By stating that they knew that they were naked, I believe that this was saying that they were now able to be held visible and accountable for their actions. They were laid bare to be judged before God knowing that they did wrong by disobeying their creator. They were afraid of being seen by God and judged for their sinful nature. Adam and Eve were not hiding one from the other, but they were instead attempting to hide from God from their shame at disobeying him (much like I find my dog hiding from me after a good romp through the kitchen trash can…fortunately for my dog, I am not her creator and she has not gained the insights into good versus evil by her misbehavior).
God cursed the serpent, put enmity between man and serpent, cursed the very earth and the vegetation. He cursed woman with the difficulty of conception, and he cursed man to have to work for sustenance all the days of his life. Finally, he cursed mankind and all of creation to physical death. God banished Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden to the earth of which he had created them from, the dust which he had created them from and which they would now be cursed to return to in their physical death.
At the east of the gate of Eden, he placed Cherubims and a flaming sword to guard the way back to the tree of life. Eating of the tree of life was the only way to maintain immortality, and this was forbidden to mankind now. Cherubims are spiritual, angelic beings, and it then makes sense that the spiritually adjacent garden of Eden would be guarded by spiritual beings lending further credence to the theory that the garden is not a physical place that we could ever have access to from the physical world. All efforts to physically place Eden are foolish, since it is not a place that can be located physically any longer since our banishment from that semi-spiritual paradise.
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