Self-Isolation (2)

A good friend of mine enjoys conspiracy theories. He is always suspicious that behind big world events there are hidden organisations pulling the strings. Sometimes he might even be on to something! A conspiracy theorist is never quite sure who to trust...

God made people for relationship. He gave Adam and Eve a huge amount of freedom and just one rule. There was just one way they could isolate themselves from God: eating the fruit He had forbidden them to eat. He didn't want their relationship to break and He told them so:

“You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 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.”

To self-isolate from the God who gave you life can only result in death. It is a commandment but it is something more than a cold legal demand. It is a commandment intended to prevent the tragic events of a broken relationship with God. This seems to come out in the way Eve remembered what God said:

“We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said,

‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden,

neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

"Lest you die" - "in case we die!" That tells us something of the 'tone' in which God spoke His commandment - it was more of an appeal to their hearts than a threat. Clearly God intended people to live not die! He did not want them to self-isolate from Him.

Here's the bit for conspiracy theorists! The Bible talks about an angel called 'Satan' or 'the devil' who was originally good but fell into sin and rebelled against God. He came to Adam and Eve with a sinister suggestion:

“Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

He followed it up with a sinister promise:

“You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your

eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Satan told them that God was not really telling the truth. They could, he suggested, become more god-like if they disobeyed God. Who should they believe?! Who was telling the truth and who was broadcasting fake news?!

Adam and Eve chose to listen to Satan. Alas, he was the scammer and it was all a great con. He had tricked them into doing the worst thing possible. They had managed to self-isolate not just themselves from God along with all their descendants (as we discover in the few chapters of the Bible). One of the most tragic scenes in the whole of the Bible is when God comes looking to enjoy His relationship with the people He made only to discover they have put themselves into a self-imposed quarantine:

"...they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the

cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from

the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid,

because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you

were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

The man said, “The woman whom you  gave to be with me, she gave

me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman,

“What is this that you have done?” The woman said,

“The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

They had never had to hide from anyone before. Now they were afraid to be seen by God or each other. But this is the encouraging thing: when they hid, God went looking for them. He refused to leave them in isolation. He spoke to them. Yes, there would be consequences for their actions (their 'sin') and they would be exiled from God's immediate presence. But He also provided them with clothes to cover and protect them, to sustain their lives even at a distance from God. And He made a promise too: one day a boy would be born who would crush the con-man. He told the devil that:

"I will put enmity between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,    and you shall bruise his heel.”

As human beings we are born into a state of self-imposed isolation from God but God kept His promise and has done everything we need to come out of quarantine and back into a relationship with Him. This is what we will look at in the next few posts on 'self-isolation'.