Adam Listens to His Wife's Voice

Eve soon induced Adam to join her in sin.  How are we to explain his limp acquiescence?  (Genesis 3:6, 17) Adam faced a conflict of loyalties.  (When in Doubt, do what God would want you to do, especially if what your spouse wants you to do may/will get you in trouble) Would he obey his Creator, who had given him everything, including his beloved mate, Eve?  Would Adam seek God's direction on what he has to do now?  Or would the man throw in his lot with his wife?  Adam knew very well that what she hoped to gain by eating the forbidden fruit was illusory. The apostle Paul was inspired to write:  "Adam was not deceived,   but the woman was thoroughly deceived and came to be in transgression."  ( I would say  it was guilt by association, he was deceived by his wife, he should not have listened to her.)   (1 Timothy 2:14) So Adam deliberately chose to defy Jehovah.  His fear of being separated from his wife was evidently greater than his faith in God's ability to remedy the situation. 

Adam's act was suicidal. It also amounted to the murder of the progeny that Jeh0vah mercifully allowed him to father, since all of them were born under sin's condemnation to death.  (Romans 5:12) How great the cost of selfish disobedience!

Next time: The Consequences of Sin

The Watchtower, 2000