Adam's Sin of Omission

I am sure we are all familiar with the story of creation, and that of the fall.  In Genesis chapter 3 we have the story,

Now the snake was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the LORD God had made. He asked the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You shall not eat from any of the trees in the garden’?” The woman answered the snake: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘You shall not eat it or even touch it, or else you will die.’” But the snake said to the woman: “You certainly will not die! God knows well that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, who know good and evil.” The woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and the tree was desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

There are a couple of things I have learned that I want to point out.  First of all, in the first verse the devil says "You shall not eat...".  I don't know hebrew, but those that do have said that the "you" in this sentence is actually plural in Hebrew.  And so, if it were translated into a Texas accent it would say "Y'all should not eat..."  This is significant in the sense that Adam was present.  In most children's picture books, we see Adam off tilling the garden whilst Eve is conversing with the serpent.  But that isn't the whole truth.  Adam was there.  He was with Eve.  In verse 6 it said "... she took some of its fruit and ate it, and she gave some to her husband, who was with her..."  My bible did not have this part, but I am glad to see that the online version does have it.  The point is that Adam was there, and he didn't say a word.  As Eve was his bride, his silence was the first sin of omission as he did not stand up to protect her.

The next question is, what gives?  Why was Adam silent? I heard Dr. Pitre give a talk on his take on why Adam was silent and it was rather compelling.  What happens EVERY time an angel appears in the bible?  Here are some examples:

• Joshua 5:14: In this passage, an Angel appears to Joshua and he falls on the ground in worship.
• Isaiah 6:5: Two Seraphim spoke and the door shook and the house was filled with smoke and Isaiah said "Woe is me, I am doomed!"
• Daniel 10:2-21: Two things happen here.  An angel appears and only Daniel can see him, then "but great fear seized those who were with me; they fled and hid themselves, although they did not see the vision." The people who didn't even see the angel fled!!  Then when Daniel saw the angel he "fell face forward unconscious.
• Matthew 28:4: When the angel appears to the guards at the tomb, they were shaken for fear of him and "became like dead men," i.e. they fainted.
• Luke 2:9-11: When the angel Gabriel appears to Mary he says, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people."  Get that, the first thing he says is "Do Not Be Afraid."

What is the common theme of these passages: fear.  Whenever an angel appears, the people are afraid.  Now, who exactly is the serpent?   He is the evil one, Satan, the Devil, who was a fallen angel named Lucifer.  Of the 9 choirs, he was most likely from the choir of Cherubim.  The highest choir is Seraphim, and they praise God singing "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God of Hosts." (which we actually just looked at in Isaiah 6).  As Lucifer chose an existence that is eternally separated from God, I can't imagine that he ever said this.  Cherubim, on the other hand, are described as having knowledge of God.  And, as we just saw in Genesis, this is what the serpent knows all about...  Knowledge and pride are linked at the hip.

If we put these two concepts together, "fear of angels" and "the serpent was an angel", it isn't hard to imagine that Adam was scared!  Almost everyone else who saw an angel fainted!  We might ask, why didn't Adam just say out loud, "Hey God, this angel over here is bothering me."?  Have we ever acted contrary to God when we were afraid?  All. The. Time.  In fact, one could argue that all sin is rooted in some kind of fear.  Moreover, you can actually make a very good case that all sin is rooted in the fear of death in particular!  Just read the creation story again.  Remember the quote above "Y'all shall not die."

At the very least, I think we can sympathize with Adam at this point.  After all, we do the same thing day in, and day out.  But, we need to learn from that experience.  We need to remember that whenever we are face-to-face with temptation, we need to lean on the Lord for assistance; for it is written, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." (Philippians 4:13)