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Adam's Failure of Leadership
When God placed Adam within the Garden he was given great blessings. First, man was commanded to work and keep Eden (Genesis 2:15). Often we automatically think of “work” being one of God’s curses, but in the beginning it was not so. Along with work, God blessed Adam with prosperity. He had no worries in Eden. Everything was provided in abundance. Finally, God gave Adam companionship. Recognizing it was “not good that the man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18 ). But with these blessings came responsibility. First was Adam’s commitment to follow God’s command, but he was now no longer alone. Adam had the responsibility to provide spiritual leadership for his helper and companion, Eve.
We all know of how the serpent deceived Eve, and she made the decision to partake of the fruit. However, the situation was also a failure of Adam’s leadership. We read that Eve “gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate” (Genesis 3:6). We usually think of Eve’s encounter with the serpent as being away from Adam, but he was there and did nothing to stop it. He compounded the problem by not saying “no” to her temptation. In offering him the fruit she became a temptation, an agent of Satan.
It is here that learn that Adam lost the greatest blessing of all: his fellowship with God. God came to the Garden to be with His creation, but although they had not yet been cast from Eden, Adam and Eve hide from God. Already the fellowship had been broken.
To compound his mistakes, Adam ends by blaming not only his wife, but God Himself: “The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.’” (Genesis 3:12) And we find the first recorded instance of sin followed by the first recorded instance of passing the buck.
At every point when Adam should have asserted his spiritual leadership he failed to do so. He did not stop Eve. He gave in to the sin himself. And he refused to accept responsibility for what he had done.
And so as the first man failed to live up to God’s expectations, so God sent a new Adam, a Man who would do everything that God desired. It is to Him that men and husbands look as an example for proper sacrificial leadership (Ephesians 5:25). And it is to Him that we can reclaim the ultimate blessing that we lost, fellowship with our Creator: “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:22).
