Tears flowed down her cheeks as they were herded out of the beautiful Garden that had been their home. Sorrow and regret etched lines across her once flawless face. Questions bombarded her mind. Why had she done that? What had she been thinking? Why was she talking to a serpent in the first place?
It was a beautiful afternoon. Eve was walking in the Garden, admiring the beauty, when he laid his crafty eyes on her. As she bent to smell a flower, he crept closer. As she ran her hand over a shiny piece of ripe fruit hanging on a nearby tree, he sidled up beside her. When he caught her inquisitive gaze resting on the tree in the middle of the Garden, he knew he had her. This was his moment. He didn’t even hesitate. Like the evil, demented, cunning thing he is, the evil one stepped in to wreak havoc.
“That’s a pretty tree, isn’t it? The fruit sure looks good!” the wily serpent hints.
“It is, but we aren’t allowed to eat from it. God said we will die if we do.” Eve replies, never taking her eyes off the tree.
“What?” the serpent explodes, “That can’t be right! God knows this tree will give you wisdom and you will know good and evil. You can’t die from that. Go ahead. Try it. You’ll be fine.”
I wonder how long it took Eve to reach out and pick the fruit? Did she hesitate? Stretch out her hand only to pull it back again in indecision? Did it take more encouragement from the tempter? Did she ponder her decision? Leave and come back again? Did she question if the loving God who walked the Garden in the cool of the day was even capable of disapproval? Did she finally reason her way into eating the fruit simply because her frail human mind couldn’t fathom a love so phenomenal, so potent, so permanent that fleeting approval paled in comparison?
However she made her final decision, Eve picked the fruit and took a bite, wiping delicious juice from her chin. Then she ran to find Adam and give him a bite too. A bite he took with no obvious hesitation. No question about which tree she had harvested. No skeptical glances to determine from where she had come. He simply ate the fruit. And the moment he ate it, he knew what it was, where it came from. He knew things he hadn’t known before. Things he wished he didn’t know now. They were naked. They needed clothes. They needed to hide from God. (Genesis 3)
It was an impossible task, for sure. They tried anyway. Hanging out in the back corner in their newly woven fig leaves. Ducking behind blooms. Running from tree trunk to tree trunk. God didn’t play hide and seek. He called them out. Made them accountable. Not because His love had run out, but because He couldn’t approve of the disobedient choices they had made. As they stood there before Him, garbed in their leafy fashions, answering questions that had no good answers, no excuses, no sound reasoning to back them up, the serpent outright belly-laughed.
He started this whole mess in the first place, with his lies and temptations and twisted ideas about love. He’s still using the same tricks. He’s still saying that God didn’t mean exactly what He said. It’s open to interpretation. Surely the changing times allow for some Biblical alteration. He is still pushing the stale idea that God is love so He surely won’t punish sin. He is still busy convincing you that he only has your happiness in mind and that if God is love, surely He wants you to be happy too.
In centuries, millennia, the tactics of the evil one have not changed one iota. Society has bought into every single one. They’ve tried to convince us to buy into them too. Surely a good and loving God would want the people He loves to be happy. Surely happiness is found in having our own way. So, surely love equals approval. Approval of our desires. Approval of our lifestyles. Approval of our selfishness. Approval of our sin. Blanket approval allowing us to live however we want yet still walk freely into Heaven.
Society’s definition of love is woefully incorrect. Their unrealistic expectations, based on a fictional definition, have caused them to look at God’s love with a jaundiced eye. They have no concept of the deep, lasting love of God that rebukes, corrects, and chastens, all for the good of the one it loves. They have no idea how sacrificial love works. No comprehension of a love that keeps trying, keeps calling, keeps wooing, even when it knows the one they love so completely will only spurn, deny, and reject their love. True love keeps loving. It can do nothing else. It wouldn’t be love if it did.
Still, true love is not what your five-year-old self thought it was. It is likely not what your adult self wants to believe it is, either. It is not patently permissive or inordinately indulgent. True love does not change itself to meet the demands of spoiled brats–no matter how much it loves those same tantrum-throwing minions. It is not swayed by manipulative wails or challenges to prove itself. It does not equal approval or pacifying permission. True love is so much greater than that.
I saw it evidenced as I read the story of Adam and Eve walking dejectedly from the Garden of Eden after their vast rejection of God’s law. I’m tempted to think the punishment unfair. Surely there was another way! But then I realized how compassionate the alleged punishment was. God saved them from themselves. Left in the Garden, their traitorous human hearts would have been unable to refuse the fruit of the tree of life. Once eaten, they would live forever.
From the comfort of your armchair as you eat your takeaway dinner, watch a show on television, and halfheartedly peruse this blog, living forever might not seem so bad. But read that list of oncoming changes again and imagine yourself back in Old Testament times. Ladies, childbirth with no pain killers, no hospitals, no ultrasounds, no sterile linens, hovering doctors, or placating nurses. There’s no one to clean your house, wash your clothes, cook your food, or do your chores. Get busy. That baby will come in its own time. Pregnancy is no cause for taking it easy. Gentlemen, figure out how to grow things out of the intractable ground. Fight weeds and thistles without weed killer from the local home improvement store. Scrape out a living for yourself and your family from what you can coax the earth into yielding. Work. Sweat. Eat. So you can work and sweat some more. Not eight hours a day. It takes much more effort than that. Sunup to sundown. Freezing cold or blazing heat. Work. Toil. Coax. Still interested in signing up to live forever on earth? (Genesis 3:16-24)
See, God’s act of punishment was also an act of love. Love that knew no human could endure thousands of years of hard labor. Love that realized no woman would want to be giving birth–again–at 250 years old. God corrects the people He loves.How often has it happened in your life? Can you look back, after working through a horrific situation brought on by your own wilfulness, only to see the terror you missed would have been worse than the furor you faced? That was love. God’s love. True love. Love that doesn’t fail to correct, chasten, rebuke, but never stops loving. It is consistent, faithful, limitless no matter how much we whine, wheedle and cajole. Love that enforces boundaries, standards, ethics, morals. True love that, knowing right from wrong, never pushes, manipulates, or guilt trips. True love loves even when it disagrees, disapproves, dislikes. True love is always present, always forgiving. It is wholly selfless. (Psalm 103:14; Hebrews 12:6-8; Deuteronomy 8:5; Revelation 3:19; Job 5:17; Ephesians 3:14-21)
It was exhibited for eternity on Calvary. Jesus hangs there. Sinless. Selfless. Taking on the sin and selfishness, guilt and punishment of His generation and every generation to come. His arms are outstretched in an ever-welcoming pose proclaiming that whosoever will may come. Come and wash in the blood that love spilled. Love that put Him on that cross even as it knew some would refuse Him, some would reject Him, some would deny Him. Love that cannot approve of our sin, yet still, it loves. Constant love for fickle humanity. Perfect love. God’s love. (Ephesians 1:7; John 14:6; I Timothy 2:4-6; Romans 5:8; Ephesians 5:2)
Society, the world, the evil one will try to tell you that love is whimsical, permissive, approving. It isn’t. Love does not equal approval, nor does approval equal love. It is so much greater than that. It is the steady, relentless pursuit of your wayward heart by the God whose very nature defines the word “love.” It is Him calling you to holiness over happiness, knowing one is eternal while the other is fleeting. It is the enforcement of rules and boundaries, not for a power trip or the stroking of His ego, but with the express purpose of preparing you for Heaven and protecting you from Hell. It is love that follows you down every darkened corridor, into every dive, watches every poor decision, yet never writes you off. Instead, it aches for you to bring your ravaged, ruined heart back home. It is the olive branch of hope continually extended from the heart of God to the lost souls of humanity. No matter what choices you make. No matter how lost you are. True love cannot be found in approval. Approval is fleeting. The love of God endures forever. The choice is yours. Which will you seek? Fleeting approval or everlasting love. (Leviticus 11:44; I Peter 1:15; I John 4:8-10; Psalm 103:13; I Corinthians 13:4-8; Matthew 11:28-30; John 14:2-3; Romans 5:1-21)
Much needed!