We pray these words often in the Divine Services of the Church. They are located in places where something quite important is about to happen - in the Divine Liturgy, before the Epistle and Gospel readings; in the Presanctified Liturgy, before the bringing forth of the lighted candle and the proclamation, "The Light of Christ Illumines all!"; in Vespers, at the evening Prokeimenon.
They are words that say to us, in essence, "Wake up!"
These are words that our Lord Himself offers to us throughout Holy Scripture. Jesus says, "Watch, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming." (Mat 25:13) As the Lord is preparing for His saving Passion, He says to the Apostles who indeed are falling asleep, "What? Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation." (Mat 26:40-41) During the Presanctified Liturgy, we pray, "Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth, keep watch over the door of my lips." (Ps 141:3)
We need to be ever-mindful of this need for attentiveness. In today's reading from Genesis, it's clear that neither Adam nor Eve were paying attention. As the serpent comes to entice Eve to partake of the fruit banned by God, he asks her, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?'" Do we see the twisting of the truth that is offered as the original temptation? Do we perceive the cunningness of Satan? Are we attentive? His message is a perversion of what he knows God to have given as the ONE, SINGLE instruction to His creation, mankind, so that they might have life with Him eternally. Satan, being parted from God, cannot bear to see another creature supplant his former position with God, and so does all he can to tear down, to destroy the bond that God intended for humanity from our creation. He knows that God did not forbid every fruit. And yet the posing of the question is intended to plant the seed of thought into the woman, "If all other fruit is acceptable, why not just the one?"
Eve, for her part, was not attentive either. For in her answer to the question, she offers her own modification to the commandment that God had given. She replies, "God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'" (Gen 3:3) God never commanded anything associated with touch, and yet the woman adds this to God's command. Why? Was it simply because she had not "been attentive"? Or was it because in her humanity, she felt the need to add to the commandment to make it "more sure" in her own mind? We'll not know until we can ask her. But for now, it's clear that there was certainly a lack of "attention".
The balance of the account we know. Adam blames Eve. Eve blames the serpent. Are we not all children, seeking to point at others for our own failures?
God's commandment to Adam was, "'Of every tree of the garden, you may freely eat; but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it you shall surely die.'" (Gen 2:16-17) On the day that the two partook of the tree, death entered them. And God pronounces His judgment, expelling them from His presence. Jesus teaches us (if we're 'attentive'), "Of Myself I can do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of the Father Who sent Me." (John 5:30) The expulsion is not a condemnation from God, but a righteous judgment, the predetermined penalty for exercising the free-will that could but did not need to lead to this point.
Are we paying attention to that which is necessary for our salvation? The words we need are before us, in Holy Scripture, in the prayers of the Divine Services, and in the writings of the Holy Fathers and Mothers. It is all there, ready for us to seek, ready for us to understand.
Wisdom - Let us attend!
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