When the first people sinned, they became ashamed and
afraid, as it happens with all people when they act foolishly. They immediately
realized that they were naked. In order to cover their nakedness, they sewed
for themselves clothes from the leaves of the fig tree, in the form of wide
belts. Instead of receiving the perfection, equal to God’s, that they had
wanted, the opposite occurred: their minds were darkened, their consciences
began to torment them, and they lost peace of mind. All this occurred because
they knew good and evil, contrary to the will of God, that is, by sin.
Sin changed men so much that when they heard the
voice of God in Paradise, in fear and shame they hid among the trees, immediately
forgetting that no one can hide from God Who knows everything and is everywhere
present. Thus, every sin separates men from God. God, in His compassion, began
to call them to repentance, that is, for men to realize their sin, admit
it before the Lord, and ask for forgiveness.
The Lord asked, "Adam, where art
thou?"
Adam answered, "I heard Thy voice in the
garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself."
God again asked, "Who told thee that thou
wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou
shouldest not eat?"
Adam said, "The woman that Thou gavest to
be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." So Adam began to
pass the blame onto Eve and even to God Himself, Who gave him the woman.
And the Lord said to Eve, "What is this
that thou hast done?"
Eve in place of repentance answered, "The
serpent beguiled me, and I did eat."
Then the Lord proclaimed the results of the sin
committed by them.
To Eve God said, "I will greatly multiply
thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shall bring forth children; and
thy desire shall be to thy husband" (that is, you must be in obedience
to him).
To Adam He said, [Because thou] "hast
eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee saying, Thou shall not eat of it:
cursed is the ground for thy sake...thorns also and thistles shall it bring
forth to thee...in the sweat of thy face shall thou eat bread" (that
is, you will earn your food by heavy labor), "till thou return unto the
ground" (that is, until you die); "for out of it wast thou
taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return" (Gen.
3:16-19).
To the Devil, who concealed himself in the
serpent, and was most responsible for man’s sin, He said, "Because thou
hast done this, cursed art thou..." and He said that between him and
man there would be a struggle, in which men will be the victors, specifically: "The
seed of the woman shall crush thy head, and thou shalt strike at his heel"
(Cf. Gen 3:15), that is, from woman there will come forth an offspring — the
Saviour of the world, Who will be born of a virgin, will conquer the Devil
and save man, but for this, He Himself must suffer.
This promise of God concerning the coming of the
Saviour was received by men with faith and joy, because it gave them great
consolation. In order that men would not forget this promise of God, God taught
them to offer sacrifices. For this He commanded them to sacrifice a
bull, a lamb or a goat, and to burn them with prayer for the forgiveness of
sins and with faith in the future Saviour. Such a sacrifice was a prefiguration
of the Saviour, Who had to suffer and pour out His blood for our sins, that is,
by His all pure blood to wash our souls from sin and make them clean, holy and
once more worthy of Paradise.
Here, in Paradise, the first offering for sin was
offered; God made Adam and Eve coats of animal skins and clothed them. However,
since people had become sinful, they could no longer live in Paradise, and the
Lord expelled them. The Lord placed at the entrance to Paradise an
angel-cherubim with a fiery sword in order to guard the way to the tree of
life.
The ancestral sin of Adam and Eve, with all its
consequences, was passed on through natural birth to all their offspring, to
all mankind, to all of us. This is why we are born already sinful and are under
all the consequences of sin: sorrow, illness, and death.
Thus, the consequences of the fall into sin turned
out to be enormous and heavy. People were deprived of the blessed life of Paradise. The
world, darkened by sin, was changed. The earth from that time began to produce
a harvest only with much labor; in the fields, instead of good fruits, weeds
began to grow; animals began to fear man, to become wild, and seek prey.
Illness, suffering, and death appeared. Most importantly, people, through their
sinfulness, lost the very close and direct communion with God. He no longer
appeared to them visibly, as in Paradise — man’s prayer became imperfect.
Note: See
Genesis, chap. 3:7-24.
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