Eve, the Naive
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. – Genesis 3:6
We had earlier considered how indiscrete Eve was in her dealing with the serpent who was well known for its craftiness. Today, we will look at how naïve she also was in playing along with the serpent without pausing to challenge its goading.
If anything, Eve was fully aware of God’s charge that the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, should not be eaten by them. The reason God gave this command was to preserve the purity and innocence of humankind so that He could continue to have unfettered fellowship with them, and they would also continue to have unhindered access to Him (Hebrews 12:14).
However, when the serpent came into the picture and started working on Eve firstly by questioning God’s command as to why they were not allowed to eat the fruit of the tree and then refuting that nothing harmful would happen to them if they eat it, a more guarded person would have paused to probe the motive of the serpent for coming to her with a different proposition other than the original instruction they were handed by God.
At least, Eve was not in doubt as to the greatness or benevolence of God compared to the serpent. So, it was not unbelief that made her pander to the antics of the serpent. It was probably not stubbornness either, as she was in a state of innocence at this stage and had no awareness of complex human emotions. It was sheer naivete.
Naivete, defined by Oxford Advanced Dictionary as “natural and unaffected; innocent” was what made Eve so carefree that she did not notice the rebellious undertone in the serpent’s words or check herself to ascertain why she should do its bidding in variance with the command of God.
Moreover, it was naivete that made Eve questioned her own God-inspired established opinion about the tree that a tree which was before then a no-no now started looking “good for food,” “pleasant to the eyes”, and “desirable to make one wise” in her eyes that she now decided to eat it. May God keep us from temptation.
The cunning of the serpent was too much for Eve’s naïve mind that once the granted it audience, which should not have happened in the first place, she had little willpower to resist it.
Selah!
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