He was with her and he took and ate. What stopped him from saying "No, God really did say we would surely die." What the Lord said to him was, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree..." Adam had a problem, the first voice he ever heard, the voice of his creator, said one thing and Adam listened to the voice of the only "other" that existed, another created being, bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh, how stupid can you be!
I do it all the time, it is called sin. Eve can at least claim some level of deception, she hadn't heard God give the commandment, but Adam has no excuse. Certainly someone like me, raised in church, been to seminary, read the Bible who knows how many times, had the experience of being called by God, should know enough to keep me on the straight and narrow and never make a mistake, but I am like Paul, I desire to do what is right but have not the ability to do it. I need help to even want to do the right, much less to actually do it.
The bigger problem is that I spend way too much time listening to voices that bombard me all day every day and way too little time listening for God's voice. It requires too much of me, it requires me to actively listen and the other voices allow me to be more passive. Inertia is a powerful force in our lives. It takes determination to even hear God, must less obey. The cross is meant to break the hold of inertia over our lives.
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