by Pottle, Bill
Lucifer wasn't interested in destroying their bodies. He was after their souls.
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CHAPTER ELEVEN:
THE FALL OF MAN
The fruit was so beautiful. Iridescent hues shimmered along its surface. Eve felt a terrible longing to reach out and pluck one. She surveyed the different fruits. Each one seemed so close to the others. It didn't really matter which one she took.
Even as she felt the longing, her conscience was screaming inside of her not to take it, to reconsider or even ask Adam about it. But she knew that it wouldn't stop her. The tree was hypnotic.
Her arm almost had a mind of its own, reaching out and grasping the fruit. She felt an electric thrill when her hand contacted the skin. She caressed it for a moment and then pulled down quickly. The stem gave almost no resistance. It was if it wanted her to eat it.
She raised it slowly to her chin and opened her mouth. She pushed it gingerly against her teeth, depressing the skin of the fruit softly. Her mouth was salivating like never before. Her mind yearned for answers.
She bit down.
Images spun inside Eve's mind. She saw people, thousands upon thousands of them, but looking strange. They had all kinds of colored things hanging on their bodies. She saw large and small balls rotating. She saw the mysteries of the Universe, the inside of cells, the secrets of the atom. She saw the future and the past. She was terrified at the depths of evil, and saw the power of good, of sacrifice. She saw all this and more, but it was far beyond her comprehension.
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She tore herself away from the fruit, biting down hard and almost choking as she swallowed. There had been so much there, but it had all happened so fast. Already, mere seconds later, she had forgotten most of what she had seen.
She looked around her. Somehow the world was different. She saw no sign of the snake. Had he betrayed her? How would she now feel when she looked upon the snake again?
Something else was different. Why had those other people been wearing things like animals wore fur?
Was there something wrong with her skin?
The snake had promised her knowledge, and the fruit had over delivered. So why did she feel like she knew and understood so much less than before? What was this great sadness she felt weighing down on her heart?
It was a feeling like nothing she had felt since the Lord had put a piece of His spirit inside of her. Yet, somehow, she knew what to call it.
What Eve didn't know was that the sadness she felt was the result of tens of thousands of angels weeping, an emotion so powerful and mournful that it crossed the barrier between the worlds.
She brought the fruit to her lips and took another bite to quell the rising panic all the questions were causing inside of her. Her mind was again assaulted with far more images and facts than she could even begin to comprehend. Taking another bite and yet another did not help.
What could she do now? The fruit was half eaten, but the knowledge she could understand was only the tiniest fraction of what there was to know. It was like trying to drink the ocean a wave at a time.
She looked around for the snake again but he was still not there. She tried to call out to him, and then realized that she didn't even know his name. The back of her mind told her to search out God, that He alone could make things right. But, somehow, she felt that even He couldn't fix this.
There was only one thing left to do. She had to go to Adam.
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Adam looked up as Eve arrived. He could immediately tell that something was wrong with her. He didn't know if she was more like an animal or more like something else. Her eyes looked ragged, scared almost, but there was a new depth to them. It confused him greatly.
“Eve, my dear. What has happened to you?”
Eve came up to him and held him tight. “It wasn't what happened, but what I did.”
“You did this?” Adam was surprised. “What could you possibly do that would make you like this?”
“I... I ate a fruit. It came from the Tree of Knowledge.”
“Eve!” Adam was aghast. “He told us never to eat from that tree! What would cause you to do such a thing?”
Where before Eve wasn't sure what to make of what she had done, now Adam's tone made her defensive. “Well, I haven't died. Besides, a snake told me to eat it. He said that the Tree had all knowledge in it, if I just ate the fruit I would see everything and know everything.”
Adam's curiosity was piqued for the first time. “And what did you see?”
“I don't know. I saw many, many things. But they all happened so quickly that I don't remember anything.”
Adam nodded his head. “I understand.” It was clear he didn't. “No, you don't!” Eve was adamant. “You can't understand until
you try it too!”
“You want me to eat it too? But what about what God said?” “He said we would die if we ate it, but I haven't died. I've gotten
knowledge.”
Adam wasn't convinced. “What kind of knowledge do we need? Don't we know all we need to already?”
Eve grabbed Adam around the shoulders and shook him. “No, don't you see? There is so much to learn, so much to know! But you can't see it until you eat the fruit too.”
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Adam thought about it for only a moment, and then agreed. “If it means that much to you, then I'll eat it too.”
Eve took one of the fruits from behind her back and gave it to Adam.
Adam bit down.
Eve watched Adam. This time she saw the effects of the fruit from the outside rather than the inside. She saw him chew and swallow, saw the look that came over his face, and understood that he was seeing something very similar to what she had experienced. His mind was also being overwhelmed with all the knowledge. He probably understood even less than she did.
In that moment, she knew that they had made a terrible mistake. The snake had not lied to them, really. He had said what the fruit was, what it could show them. He just had failed to mention that they would not be able to understand what they saw.
Eve was anxious. When Adam returned to himself, she spoke to him.
“What did you see?”
Adam was almost at a loss for words. “I saw so much... people, places, animals... strange things.... good things, and something else...
this must be Evil.”
“I know what you mean,” Eve answered, looking around to see if any of those things had crept into the garden.
“Is that why they are Evil? Because they were brought by you, Eve?”
Adam's words stung Eve. She hadn't brought those things! She was just as frightened of them as Adam was!
Though his words were unfair, they stuck. While the knowledge gained from the tree was both good and evil, with unprepared minds the two were frightened.
“What should we do about them now?”
“We can't let anyone see us like this.” Adam's response was almost automatic. “And we can't let God know what we have done. We have to hide.”
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Adam's statement left a deep sorrow in Alizel’s heart as he watched from the Portal. At times, he had begun to think of humans as more than they were. What was saddest was not Adam and Eve's shame, but the fact that Adam knew so little about his maker as to think that hiding from Him would do any good whatsoever. If Adam, who had walked and talked with God in the cool shadows of the Garden, knew God so little, how much less would future generations of humanity understand Him?
Alizel could see that Eve had begun to realize just how mistaken she was in thinking that the Tree of Knowledge would teach them how to respond to every situation. After all, it wasn't called the Tree of Wisdom. She had made the all too common mistake of confusing one with the other. In th
is she could not really be faulted. Lucifer, after all, had made the same mistake. He had a supreme amount of knowledge, just not much wisdom to go with it.
He watched as Adam and Eve ran through the underbrush until they came through a place where the trees were thicker around the base. They ripped off branches and tore up grass, trying to make a place where they could conceal themselves. Of course, it would not have taken an experienced tracker to know that something was hiding in the undergrowth, and nothing they could ever do could hide them from God.
Almost as soon as they had hidden, the Portal opened up in front of him and Alizel turned to see the full Cherubim honor guard going through it.
He cringed for Adam and Eve's sake. What would the Father do? They had disobeyed His direct order. There was really no getting around that fact. Would He simply destroy them and start over? Would He give the humans the same fate as He had given Lucifer? Or would He simply abandon them and let natural forces take their course?
He spun around again and watched the confrontation he knew was coming.
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Lucifer was there to meet God's presence as He filled the entire Universe.
“My Lord,” Lucifer stood without bowing. “You know why I am here.”
Speak.
“I have shown You the weakness of the humans. The first two have both turned away from You. You cannot say that they still deserve their special place in Your creation.” Lucifer's words were bold, yet not spiteful. The challenge he put to God was remarkable.
What they have, they have because I choose to give. They have never deserved it.
“Yet they have rejected Your gift. They have chosen themselves over You. They have chosen, as have many of Your created angels, to believe in their own reason and their own light. By right of their disobedience, these humans and their offspring belong to me.”
Alizel’s hands tightened on the railing as he watched. God said nothing, so Lucifer continued.
“The Lord is just and merciful, it is said.” Lucifer was ready with his cornerstone point. “Yet you cannot now be both. By rights of justice, they have eaten the fruit and must die. Just as I paid the penalty for my…sin, so must they. If you show mercy, then you deny justice. If you show justice, you deny mercy. Which will it be?”
As you have said, We are just and merciful. The penalty is not erased. Yet, they shall not be yours.
“How can this be, Lord?” Lucifer was furious. “The debt must be paid!”
The Lord was silent for just a moment.
Because I pay the debt Myself.
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CHAPTER TWELVE:
THE PROMISE
Adam, Adam, where are you?
The Lord was calling out to him. Alizel might have laughed, were it not for the seriousness of the situation. Imagine, God who knew every quark of every atom of the Universe, was asking where Adam was. But he wasn't asking for Himself, to learn the answer. He was asking for Adam, to make him say it.
Whether or not Adam realized this, he was at least smart enough to know that hiding from God was not going to cause God to forget about him.
“I was hiding, Lord.” He came out and bowed his head.
Why were you hiding from Me?
“I'm sorry, Lord... but I was ashamed.” Alizel could tell that Adam was hoping God would guess his indiscretion, or offer healing right away. But Alizel knew that God was going to make him say it.
What were you ashamed of, My child?
“I ate a fruit from the Tree of Knowledge.”
God did not reply for a moment, and in that time Adam spoke again.
“It was the woman who you put here with me,” he said quickly. “She ate it first and then came and told me to eat it as well.”
“I am sorry, Lord,” she said. “It's true. But the serpent tricked me into eating it. He said that we would not die. Will you kill us now?”
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My child, all that I tell you must be. The death that I warned you against is of a different kind. While you were here in this Garden, you could have lived forever. But because of the sin that both of you have committed, you must all now leave this place. Yes, Eve, you will die. Not today, and not for many years, but one day it must come.
“We must leave here? But where will we go?” Eve asked.
Alizel wondered if to the human, it almost seemed like death might be better.
You must go out into the world. Where before, the earth worked for you, now you must work the earth. By the sweat of your brow you will live. I will seal this Garden, and none may enter.
It was Adam who spoke up next. “Lord, will we never know You again? Can we ever make what has happened right?”
Adam, I am yours, and you are Mine, for always. Nothing can ever change this. I will be with you and your descendants whenever you call on Me. I am there in the heat of the day and the cool of the morning, whenever you seek after My ways. Believe me when I tell you that there is nothing you can do to make this right, but today I make a Promise to you. One day I will send Someone who can.
It was the first that Alizel had heard of this. His brows narrowed in confusion. And what was this about God paying the debt Himself? Why wouldn't He just forgive the debt?
Adam looked at Eve, and she looked back at him. They didn't say anything but slowly started to walk toward the border of Eden. They had never thought of leaving Eden before, or even of Eden having a border. How could they walk out into the unknown?
They started walking, mindlessly, still numb over what was happening to them and what they had lost. Soon they came to a large wall, with a hole in it where they could see out into the rest of the world. The land next to Eden was still bountiful, but something just didn't look right about it to Eve.
The other humans in the Garden came up to the gateway with them. Adam and Eve’s minds raced with questions and doubt. Was it
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fair for them all to have to leave? Would any of them have been able to resist the lure of the fruit, or would they all have fallen sooner or later?
Were all humans born fallible, with a propensity towards sin? If so, how could they hope to live their lives spotlessly?
What would happen to their souls when their bodies could no longer sustain them?
As they started moving out of Eden, the land around them changed. The trees grew less lush, the vegetation dried up, and the fruits started to grow more and more sparse. It was evening, and as they had no particular place to go, they started walking West towards the setting sun. It seemed right for them to walk that way. Walking towards the rising sun seemed the right thing to do in a time of new beginnings.
Adam did not know how long they walked. They stumbled numbly along, unable to replay the events of the last few hours. The events would be replayed over and over throughout human history, but for now, he did not want to think about what they had done.
Their little band of humans walked for days and days, not stopping to rest or eat. Adam did not know that the last of Eden's food was nourishing their bodies. They had never felt hunger before in Eden, and soon it was overbearing. They stopped their journey long enough to find some berries and drink from a spring. Having to find food and water was a big change from Eden. Before, whatever they wanted was there for them immediately.
One night along their journey raindrops started to fall from the heavens, soaking their skin and chilling them straight through. Adam searched around him for a place to be dry, and suddenly his eyes came upon a cave hewn into the rock face up ahead. Adam pointed it out to Eve, and they were nearly suffering from hypothermia by the time they made it.
Exhausted, and clinging to each other for warmth, they lay on the cave floor and fell asleep.
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