In the third chapter we find that God had not idly given instruction to guard the garden. There was an enemy, and the enemy appeared. He sought to introduce into the garden disobedience to God which would result in the loss of the garden. He first approached Eve with a very subtle kind of attack that, first, questioned what God had said and, second, contradicted what God had said. But what we have shown here in a most striking way is the picture of Eve failing in her responsibility to be a helpmeet. She was to help Adam to go on for God and to fill his function in the garden. Instead, she took over and started doing the talking. She sort of set aside Adam’s place of headship and, stepping out of her place, tried to take Satan on by herself. The result was only chaos, and when a sister steps out of her place in the home, all we can have is chaos. She was to be a helpmeet, but instead of filling the role that God intended, she became just the opposite and acted in such a way as to lead Adam away. He took the fruit from her and he ate.
Adam was the one who was told to guard his garden and Adam failed in his responsibility. The Lord God came down and what did He say? “Where art thou?” (vs. 9). Did God not know what had happened? Did the Lord not know that Eve was the one who had first taken of the fruit? Of course He did! But He addressed the responsible head, Adam! Adam blamed his wife and said, “The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat” (vs. 12). As far as Adam was concerned, it was either God’s fault or it was Eve’s fault.
As we read on in verses 13-19, we are introduced to a pattern of sorrow that still applies in the world today. But notice: “And unto Adam He said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.” The Lord God addressed Adam. Eve must bear the consequences of her act, but the responsibility was Adam’s. He was the one to whom the Lord said, “I commanded thee.” It was Adam’s disobedience.
We cannot avoid the responsibility that God puts upon us. Husbands are to guard the home, to insure that nothing is going to come in that will make it lose that character of a garden that God intends it to have. Eve failed in her responsibility as a helpmeet. Adam failed in his responsibility to guard his garden and to act as the head of his home. God said, “Cursed is the ground for thy sake.” In Romans 5 it says, “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin” (vs. 12). If you or I had written it, we would have written, “By one woman sin entered into the world.” But the Spirit of God didn’t write it that way because Adam had the place of headship and was responsible. It tells us, “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression” (vs. 14). Why doesn’t it say Eve’s transgression? Because what is being taught is that Adam had a specific, known commandment. The result was that his home was no longer a garden.