The Genesis of Addiction

At Hope for Glasgow, we see the Bible as central to understanding the life of addiction. You may well ask: What on earth would an ancient book have to say to the person whose life is caught up in lies, unruly desires, hiding, covering up, blame-shifting, destructive consequences, and misery?

Well, we don’t have to look much further than the first few pages to see that Genesis 3 speaks volumes to such a person. In fact, it reminds us of the addict that is in all of us, whether that be an addiction to a substance or something else. We may not have drink or drugs ruling our lives, but each one of us has become a slave to sinful habits, allowing things other than God to control and have mastery over us. And these verses help retell our story of addiction where we see enticement, bad choices, and their consequences.

The first 2 chapters in Genesis recount how Adam and Eve lived, knowing God’s good presence, provision, and authority in their lives. His blessing on them came with one simple instruction that carried a warning for disobedience, ‘you will certainly die’ (Genesis 2:16). In Genesis 3:1 we see Eve being enticed by a lie as we are introduced to another voice other than God’s: that of a deceitful snake. ‘Did God really say?’ enticed Eve to question what she knew to be true of her Creator. Would disobeying God really result in destruction, or would it in fact offer something that God didn’t want them to have?

We can all be deceived and buy into things that promise one thing but deliver another. The guarantee of pleasure, comfort, escape, courage or even the chance to forget can easily entice us and yet fail to deliver. We all live daily with this temptation to question God’s good provision and authority over our lives. When we fail to listen and remember God’s word to us, we can so easily find ourselves led by the world and the evil one. As Ed Welch puts it,

From a distance, foolishness sounds ridiculous. It makes promises it can’t keep, and it has nothing to give except death anyway. But close up, when it conjures up a mirage that matches our desires, foolishness sounds like life itself.

How many of us read those opening lines of Genesis 3 and scoff at the unwise choice of Eve to eat the forbidden fruit and succumb to the devil and his lies? Yet does not Eve’s demise describe perfectly how we all scrap around life, being enticed by other things rather than listening and obeying our good God?

Of course, Eve was not merely enticed by the snakes lies, she quickly falls for them. In the first instance, she did push back. She did remember what the Lord had said and recounted to the serpent God’s command and the consequences of disobedience (Genesis 3:2-3). Yet, desire for something other than the worship of God and obedience to Him builds, and as Satan tempts her again, Eve sees the food as pleasing to the eye and desirable for something other than worshipping the Lord.

Is this ringing any bells? How often do we find ourselves in Eve’s shoes? An initial enticement can easily lead to the recalling of God’s ways in our minds, yet our hearts are easily craving something other than pleasing the Lord. And so, it goes with all of us as we find ourselves in the thick of temptation, where we may in fact know right from wrong, but we all too easily give up the fight and are deceived.

And the upshot of this one sinful act sees a further unravelling of sinful behaviour as Adam and Eve fail to take responsibility for their actions. A wrong choice leads to shame about what they have done, which leads to hiding from God and further leads to a feeble attempt to cover up their sin. When confronted, we still see a lack of ownership of their wrongdoing and the blame-shifting begins – Eve blames the serpent, Adam blames God for giving him Eve, and then blames Eve for giving him the fruit.

Perfect relationship is shattered – a perfect relationship not only between God and humanity, but also between Adam and Eve. Ugly consequences result in curse, banishment misery and destruction.

Genesis 3 might retell our story, but it is also the beginnings of rewriting our story. There is a way out from a life that has become undone because of sinful choices. We can choose to remain in this destructive pattern of addiction, we can even scurry around trying to cover up our behaviour, or when that fails, we can start blaming others, our upbringing, or our circumstances.

However, there is another way - we can take responsibility, unlike Adam and Eve, and respond to the hope held out in Genesis 3. We do not see a God here who wipes Adam and Eve from the face of the earth, instead we find a God who is compassionate and gracious. The Lord clothes them, he provides a greater clothing for them when their feeble attempts prove inadequate (Genesis 3:21). God did not leave them as they were, instead he graciously intervenes and once again provides for them. This foreshadows what God has done for us in Christ - the Saviour who came to be that ultimate covering for us, dealing with the consequences of our wrong choices and covering up our sinful exposed lives. Hebrews 4:13-16 are some fitting verses to help us here:

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.