5 ‘Benefits of Disobedience’ the Devil Forgot to Tell Eve

The fall of man, as depicted in the Book of Genesis, is one of the most sobering accounts of the Bible. Man, that was created innocent and sinless, had their virtue blasted when they listened to the empirical literature reviews of the Devil, masquerading as a serpent. The serpent, acting his cast, besotted Eve with his splendid qualities, and she trusted him and drew Adam into the entanglements with the same sin. The promise was lofty and attractive:

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. KJV Genesis 3:4-5

So the promise was that disobedience was going to result in life indeed and being like God, knowing good and evil.
This, interpreted aright, suggests that the only peculiar thing about God is the fact that He knows good and evil. This is silencing the testimony of the Bible on all else that God can do.
But did the devil say it all? Was there something else left unsaid? Here are five ‘benefits of disobedience’ that the devil was silent about:

1. That They Would be Naked

Nakedness is not good news. Pristine and innocent nakedness meant nothing to the father and mother of humanity, but fallen and disobedient, it was something they could not withstand. As the serpent promised, their eyes were opened, but they didn’t enjoy what it brought to them. The rendezvous that they had hitherto anticipated, they could not endure, for it meant condemnation that they had never heard before from God. Writing on this account, Ellen White had this to say:

“The Lord did not place in Adam fallen and disobedient, the confidence He placed in Adam loyal and true…. The rewards of heaven are not granted to transgressors….”

– Conflict and Courage p. 20

In current terms, I would liken nakedness to shame and loss of dignity that comes with indulgence in sin, especially when caught. Go ask a clergy who has been caught red-handed in the rendezvous of coquetry and so-called love, and you can understand it all. Or ask a father who has been caught with his children fumbling with x-rated media, and you will understand the degradation and ruin that sin comes with.

2. That they would be chased out of Eden

The garden in the East of Eden was a beautiful home for the first parents of the human family. Here, they would walk with comfort and glory as the custodian of the entire creation. But the devil did not tell them that one of the benefits of disobedience would be being declared persona non grata. They lost the privilege of being in the garden because they could not be trusted by the Tree of Life, for they could prove immortal sinners, and this was what the devil wanted, a thing which God cannot and will not allow.

In this episode, a lesson has been preserved for humanity that will remain relevant for every generation until the coming of the LORD. The lesson is that when we break God’s law, something goes away from us that we cannot do anything to bring back. We can benefit from redemption, yes, but not until the sweet by and by will we have a restitution of all things.

3. That there would be Death and Decay

Some things don’t make sense until we see them. For instance, many of us laugh at the idea that there’s heaven and judgment. The danger is that it may be too late when we realize that it is all true. There was no death, and the idea that sin would bring death could be easily laughed away. But they proved right, and it was too late to revert back. They didn’t die because the merciful God immediately unleashed the plan of redemption, which was ready as a backup plan. How did Adam respond to the first signs of decay?

As Adam witnessed the first signs of decay in the falling leaf and in the drooping flowers, he mourned more deeply than men now mourn over their dead.

– (ibid. P 22)

4. Hostility in the Animal Kingdom.

Have you watched documentaries and seen the way members of the cat family tear up other animals? How about a giant crocodile tearing, suffocating, and stepping on the residues? This may look like entertainment until you lock eyes with a lactating Hippopotamus in the deep ends of the Amazon! Death caused by animals to other animals, and those caused by animals to man is bad news that we tend to assume to be the survival of the fittest. However, God didn’t have this in mind when He created the world. If Lions kill people, we can assume it’s in order to get food, but what about herbivorous buffaloes? They eat grass, but if they catch up with you, you’re finished! The Devil did not say that sin would make the animals unruly and vengeful for no good reason. Sometimes, I try to imagine animals with an IQ like ours; they would have overthrown us and finished us because they have more strength than us. This reminds me of A Warning by Polish poet CZESŁAW MIŁOSZ:

Little animals from cartoons, talking rabbits, doggies, squirrels, as well as ladybugs, bees, and grasshoppers. They have as much in common with real animals as our notions of the world have with the real world. Think of this and tremble.

5. Replicating Consequences of Sin
The consequences of sin are egregiously written in our world today. We hear of fathers defiling their own children. We are not able to show hospitality because we have not forgotten how innocent strangers have turned out into merciless criminals. We cannot leave our doors open and are too careful to stop on deserted highways to help seemingly stranded strangers. We cannot, with a clear conscience, contribute even to welfare projects because we don’t know who is needy and who is an imposter. We must have people with guns in every banking institution, or the tellers will be harassed. We must have security in our private homes; else, men and women will come and show us how much they can do with the bullet.
The serpent was silent on all these and fooled our first parents.

Evidence suggests that there soon will be pain on the earth that no human balm can heal. All these will iterate as long as sin is not exterminated. Eve did not know she was signing up for this.

Now, you have seen a few things that the serpent gave a silent treatment. And this behavior has not changed. Sin is not presented in its true sense. While we jump around in the waves of the sex revolution in an attempt to show it all, where are the statistics of the other sides of the coin in broken families and failed marriages? What about the STDs and genital warts that are marauding the transgressors? While advertising how much amino acids pork has, why can’t the same agencies talk about the obesity problem and cardiac cases?
Sin would not be attractive anymore if it was presented in its true nature.

All nature is confused; for God forbade the earth to carry out the purpose He had originally designed for it. Let there be no peace to the wicked, saith the Lord. The curse of God is upon all creation. Every year it makes itself more decidedly felt…The Lord’s curse is upon the earth, upon man, upon beast, upon the fish in the sea, and as transgression becomes almost universal the curse will be permitted to become as broad and as deep as the transgression

The SDA Bible Commentary Vol 1 p. 1085

Sin fascinates before it assassinates!