SHOW ME THE WRATH

I keep looking at the story of Adam and Eve's fall into sin in Genesis 3, wondering why the story is not told in such a way as to appeal more to all the "Wrath of God" type preachers. 

To be clear, I know that the wrath of God, God's holiness, and God's hatred of sin are all very real, but why are all of these so very muted in that historic moment when the first humans disobey God and unleash sin into His creation?

Consider the following:

• God discovers the couple's sin when He comes down to walk with them in the garden.
• God curses the serpent and he curses the ground. He never directly curses the woman or the man .
• Before sending them out of the garden, God takes it upon Himself to make clothing for the two.
• The cherubim with flashing swords are posted to prevent further tragedy: Adam and Eve living forever in their sins. 

None of that speaks of fire and brimstone to me.

In fact, God's original command to Adam does not even specifically designate his death would be a punishment for eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, only that death would be the result. 

"You must not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." 

How do we read that command? It makes a difference. Was the commandment similar to "Do not touch that candy - if you do, I am going to spank you hard" or more like "Do not touch the stovetop - if you do, you are going to get burned"? 

The similarity is only in the outcome: either way, there will be pain. 

But they are worlds apart in what they say about the motivation of the One giving the command: 

It is "Don't you dare defy me!" vs. "I don't want you to get hurt!"