“Adonai, God, took the person and put him in the garden of Eden to cultivate and care for it.
Adonai, God, gave the person this order: ‘You may freely eat from every tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You are not to eat from it, because on the day that you eat from it, it will become certain that you will die’.” Genesis 2:15-17. However the humans God had made did not listen to God and decided to do what they wanted and ate it anyway.
“They heard the voice of Adonai, God, walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, so the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Adonai, God, among the trees in the garden. Adonai, God, called to the man, ‘Where are you?’ He answered, ‘I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.’ He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I ordered you not to eat?’ The man replied, ‘The woman you gave to be with me — she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.’ Adonai, God, said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman answered, ‘The serpent tricked me, so I ate.’” Genesis 3:8-13
The man said the reason he ate was because a woman influenced him and the woman said it was the snake who tricked her into it. Some people seem to see the tree in the garden as God’s way of setting humans up to fail, however it is very interesting to note that neither of the humans blamed their sin on the tree’s presence and that says a lot. Because despite their avoidance of responsibility and blaming of each other and even God in a sense by pointing out others whom God had made as being responsible for influencing them to do wrong even in that a corrupt state they could still acknowledge poor thinking as the cause of sin although they didn’t take responsibility for it which is still a bit better than what many do today as some don’t view their own thoughts as a cause for sin at all.
The sin problem is an internal problem not an external problem but we cannot blame others for what we allow in our minds either. God gives us a choice, what we do with it is up to us. If God didn’t allow for the possibility of wrong we wouldn’t truly have freedom of choice without a choice to obey out of free will because there would be no option to do otherwise. God wants us to choose. “But if you refuse to serve the LORD, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the LORD." Joshua 24:15. You have to make up your own mind about who you will obey and take responsibility for the things you think about doing.
Picture originally found here
