EXPOSITION:
How did it happen that such a paradise for Adam and his wife would be turned into a dungeon of confusion? Your guess is as good as mine – Disobedience on the part of our first parents. This week we shall glean some lessons from the fall using Genesis chapters three to five.
The devil began, “Has God said you shall not eat of the tree in the garden? The woman answers the question but unfortunately subtracts a needful comment and adds something that God did add. She says “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden, God has said, “You shall not eat it nor shall you touch it, lest you die” I call this a needless subtraction and a wrongful addition. The woman subtracted “Freely eat” and “You shall surely die” and at the same time added “Nor shall you touch it.”
In relation to the trees they could eat from, God said “You may freely eat,” and concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God said the day you eat of it, “You shall surely die”. That is to say that God made them understand that their dying by disobedience was an actuality – “You shall surely die” – and not a possibility of “lest you die.” The beginning of their woes in the garden was as a result of going beyond the specific instructions from God.
How often has the devil gotten us when we fail to remain in the basic instructions of the word of God! You find men of God telling Christians that though the blood of Jesus has saved them God cannot bless them if they don’t either change their name or break some ancestral curses in their family. It becomes worse on spiritual warfare as some Christians would use salt, incense, Florida water and anointing oils to drive evil spirits or destroy their works. These are wrongful additions. Others teach that you don’t actually need to walk in Holiness because the righteousness of God has been imputed on you. This is needless subtractions.