Cast Out - Moses 4:13-32; Genesis 3:7-24

Adam and Eve have both eaten of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. At this point the scriptures say that they discovered that they were naked, but we know from modern revelation that in fact Lucifer was the one to inform them that they were naked. What’s interesting to me about this whole thing is that they didn’t appear to be embarrassed to be naked in front of each other, but it was God that they didn’t want to be naked in front of. It seems like this speaks more to their knowledge that they had disobeyed and felt guilty rather than having God see their actual bodies. So they “sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.” This begs the question, where did they see aprons to copy? Maybe I’m reading too much into this. They hear God calling them and they “went to hide themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.” We have to remember that God knows what has happened already so why is he calling for them? Why doesn’t he just walk right over to where he knows that they are and scold them? I think part of it has to do with agency, A&E had to choose to interact with God, just like He’s not going to force us into a conversation with him. The other part, I think, has to do with accountability. God already knows what happened, but it’s like he’s saying, “I want to hear you say it.” By allowing them to own their mistakes he lets them begin the repentance process. After God calls asking, “Where goest thou?” or as Genesis puts it “Where art thou?” Adam answers that he hid because he heard God calling and “was afraid, because I was naked.” This is such a child-like answer, it really gives perspective as to just the state of mind that Adam and Eve were in, even after eating the fruit and gaining their knowledge. God asks the next logical question, “Who told thee that thou wast naked?” I have to be honest, this wouldn’t have been my first question, but God continues by asking if he had eaten of the fruit of the forbidden tree. I always felt like Adam kind of throws Eve under the bus here because he says, “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” With how innocent Adam’s “I was afraid because I was naked” is, it’s hard to imagine that he’s trying to get out of trouble by blaming this whole thing on Eve, especially if he purposefully ate the fruit just so that he could stay with her. God asks Eve what happened, and here it does seem like Satan gets the blame, “the serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.” We know through modern revelation that there is a fascinating conversation here between God and Lucifer but it’s not really recorded too much for us here in the scriptures. The “serpent” or Satan is cursed with an interesting punishment because Satan doesn’t have a body, but the punishment is physical, “thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.” I’m not exactly sure what this is supposed to me as far as Satan goes because again, he doesn’t have a body and he isn’t really a snake. Satan is cursed though saying, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and he seed; he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heal.” Again, pretty difficult to understand, but from what I’ve been able to glean, the meaning of this might be that Satan can bruise the Savior’s heal, or the heal of mankind through being awful, but ultimately Christ will crush Satan’s head and he will be destroyed, as far as his kingdom goes. Eve is cursed with “greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception.” Bringing forth children will occur in “sorrow.” The IM suggests that a better term might have been “distress,” because sorrow implies a prolonged, emotional state of sadness, and children are usually not received that way in to the world. But the distress makes sense. God mentions conception as being a “distressing” part of the process, which makes sense because sex can be painful for a lot of women, and then there is rape, and manipulation, and then menstruation which is required for conception, and child birth itself is horrific. Adam is cursed to work the land for their support, “by the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.” Of course A&E probably don’t know what bread is at this point so it’s most likely a plot pace holder. I think an important note here is that all these “curses” and “punishments” aren’t some personal retaliation against A&E because God was mad they disobeyed him. Because they broke the rules, they had to leave Eden and God’s presence and go into the fallen, mortal world. All these curses God’s talking about aren’t something he’s personally making up, he is simply describing the conditions that they can expect when they leave. He doesn’t make up arbitrary rule and/or punishments, he simply enforces the natural laws that govern the universe. The commandments are explanations of the rules to follow for us to be happy and in tune with the universal laws, and the punishments are the natural consequences of our breaking them. Again, we know from modern revelation that it’s at this point that God explains to A&E the plan of salvation, including the coming of a Savior to rescue them from eternal damnation. It’s interesting watching them learn about this for the first time because I’ve always known about it, and because it’s discussed in the beginning, but I forget that A&E don’t remember the pre-mortal world, so I just assume that they knew, but when it’s explained to them again, they are so happy that they get to have another chance, it’s really a beautiful scene and makes me wonder what my reaction was the first time I heard about it. Now it’s time for them to leave the garden and venture into the “lone and dreary world,” in other words, where we live now. Interestingly, even though A&E made their own fig leaf aprons, God knew that wasn’t going to be enough for their new lives and he did “make coats of skins, and clothed them.” I had a friend growing up who had an older brother with a lot of drama with her parents. At one point, they had to drive the brother to downtown LA and kick him out of the car and drive away. They even had to take the coat off of his back because the therapist said that he couldn’t have anything for help, he had to be completely on his own. It’s an interesting concept to think about now, if I would do that to my kids. Anyway, this is what I’m reminded of at this point, God knew that they couldn’t stay, He knew they had to go out into this terrible world alone, but no one said that he couldn’t at least make them some clothes to help them out on their way. It was like the only thing he could do to ease their burden and he did it. A&E are on their way out and God commands “cherubim and a flaming sword” to guard the Tree of Life “lest he put forth his hand and partake also of the tree of life, and eat and live forever.” Was God being mean? Could that have been a solution to A&E’s problems, just eat from the tree of life and be back to normal? No, because they had broken a commandment, they couldn’t go back to the Garden, they couldn’t go back into God’s presence unless they participated in the atonement with Jesus. Eating from that tree and living forever would take away the consequences of their actions and not let them partake of the atonement, so they could never repent or return to God again.