Genesis 3:6-7 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband… Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked.
Wisdom is not something anyone can steal or purchase. Wisdom is born out of knowledge and experience. Adam and Eve had little of both. Eve misunderstood what could be gained from eating from the banned tree. She did not believe nor trust God’s words to her. She listened to Satan and her own desire for wisdom. In eating the fruit she found the knowledge of good and evil, but it was too late. Sin is disobedience to God. Sin destroys relationships. Their relationship with God died. They too died.
She and Adam recognized their nakedness. The effect of sin is to first point out to them their new condition. They were naked and they did not like it. Covering themselves with fig leaves they hid from God. Sin drives them away because they now had knowledge of evil, of their disobedience and complete knowledge of God’s command. Adam and Eve’s blame shifting in verses 12 & 13 reflect their knowledge of the good that should have occurred. The “good” is God’s command not to eat of the one tree. Their knowledge of good and evil began with the evil of disobedience. They can only understand the good after they have sinned. Their attempt to hide themselves from each other and from God makes clear this new understanding of their condition. In a backwards kind of way they have now found wisdom.
This story ends with their relationship to God forever changed. They no longer live with God but live apart from God. They are now to experience living in isolation from God. They leave the Garden and are given coverings made of skin. God’s holiness requires that they be separated from him because of sin. They leave to suffer the consequences God had pronounced when he told them not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
