THE WORD OF GOD OPENS EYES

"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.  And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.  And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.  And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden" (Gen. 3:4-8).

Before Satan tempted Adam and Eve, they lacked wisdom.  They did not fear the Lord, or if they did, they didn't fear Him enough to obey Him.  Scripture tells us that "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom..." (Ps. 111:10).  Adam and Eve needed to learn that there is a "spiritual pecking-order!"  Wisdom must be taught; the fear of the Lord must be learned!  Psalm 34:11 says, "Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD."

The phrase, "the fear of the Lord," appears in twenty-seven verses in the Bible; twenty-six of them are found in the Old Testament!  The phrase is found only once in the New Testament:  "Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied" (Acts 9:31). 

So, why do you suppose that the phrase appears so often in the Old Testament and only once in the New Testament?  Perhaps it is because the Old Testament serves as a "schoolmaster":

"But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.  But before faith came, we were kept under the Law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.  Wherefore the Law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.  But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.  For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:22-26).

Once we realize we are sinners and that God loved us enough to send Jesus to die to pay for our sin, we love God in return, and desire to live to please Him!  The Word says in 1 John 4:19: 

"We love Him, because He first loved us."