Mediated Truth
If the account in Genesis two is chronological, Adam’s wife had not been created when God forbade the man to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. “[T]he LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 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’” (Ge. 2:17-18). Only then does the text tell us, “And the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him’” (Ge. 2:19). Despite her late arrival, chapter three clearly indicates that the woman knew of the LORD’s command (Ge. 3:2-3). Though it is possible that God repeated His warning about the tree after the creation of the woman, there is no compelling reason to assume that He did so. Very likely, the woman learned of God’s prohibition in the same way that we learn His truth today, through the mediation of a spokesman.
The LORD expected the patriarchs to command their families to keep the divine law. God said of Abraham, “For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice, that the LORD may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him” (Ge. 18:19). The fathers during this period acted as both priest and prophet, leading in spiritual worship and proclaiming the law of the LORD (Ge. 8:20; 22:8; Job 1:5). So it is no surprise that Adam would bear the responsibility for transferring God’s command regarding the forbidden tree to his newly created bride.
The woman may not have heard the command directly from God, but she heard it nevertheless, and God held her responsible for understanding and obeying that injunction. When the LORD confronted her after she violated His command, He said, “What is this you have done?” (Ge. 3:13) The woman did not reply, “You never told me not to eat it.” She rightly understood that the law was the law, whether delivered to her by God or from God by her husband. The fact that God’s command was conveyed through a mediator in no way absolved the woman of responsibility for her crime. Her guilt was just as great as if God had spoken to her Himself.
Like the woman in Genesis three, we receive the law of God through mediation: first from the words of scripture delivered by the Holy Spirit to human authors (2Pe 1:21), and second from the evangelists, pastors, and teachers who have been charged with speaking God’s truth from scripture (Eph. 4:11-12). We do not hear the voice of God directly; we hear its reverberation in the pages and the preaching of scripture. Nevertheless, our responsibility does not diminish for lack of personal interaction with the voice of God; we are accountable to His voice as preserved in the Bible.
How seriously do we take the word of God delivered by preaching, teaching, and the printed page? Do we recognize that our eternal fate hangs in the balance, that those words are an aroma of life or death based upon our response to them? It is an awesome privilege and a solemn responsibility to hear the voice of God as we read our Bibles each day. Let us not treat those words lightly, but realize that they “are spirit and they are life” (Jn. 6:63). “Therefore take heed how you hear,” Jesus said. “For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him” (Lk. 8:18). -JME