Genesis - Chapter 3

In Chapter 3 of Genesis, Adam and Eve are in the Garden of Eden. God commands them not to eat from the tree of knowledge, but the serpent deceives Eve and she eats the fruit. Both Adam and Eve realize they are naked and hide from God. When confronted, Adam blames Eve and Eve blames the serpent. God pronounces consequences for their disobedience, including pain in childbirth and toiling for food. However, God also promises a future Savior who will defeat the serpent. God clothes Adam and Eve, foreshadowing the sacrifice of Jesus to cover their sins. I am Julie Callio, your host, and thanks so much for taking time out of your busy schedules to tune in with me today. If by chance you want to contact me, you can do that at vap.bc.pc at gmail.com. Today we are looking at Chapter 3 of Genesis, which is described as the Fall. Chapter 1 we had the creation of the world in seven days. Chapter 2 is a closer look at the creation of the first man, Adam, who was formed from the dirt, and God breathed life into him, and he became a living soul, verse 7. God then planted a garden in Eden with trees and a river, and God placed the man there to dress it and keep it, verse 15. Then God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat of it, for in that day you shall eat thereof you shall surely die, verses 16 and 17. Then God declared, It is not good that the man should be alone, I will make him a help meat for him, verse 18. God made every beast from the ground, Adam named them, but none of them were like Adam, verse 20. Then God formed the first woman from the rib of Adam, and when God presented her to him he spoke poetry, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man, verse 23. The chapter ends with verse 25, And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. Chapter 3 begins, Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made, and he said unto the woman, Yea, has God said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? One thing to notice is that it does not say Satan like it does in Job, it is not until the very last book of the Bible that it seems clear that it was either Satan in the form of the serpent, or it may have been a possession of Satan of the serpent, but in Revelation chapter 12 verse 9 it reads, And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceives the whole world. He was cast out into the earth, and the angels were cast out with him. Another thing to note is the writer said which the Lord God had made. One of my goals in reading through the Bible this year is I want to gain a greater understanding of what scripture says about Satan and his timeline of when and how he fell from heaven. What we do know is that everything which God created in Genesis 1 and 2 were good. The third thing is that now the subject of the sentence has changed, it is now the serpent, and the fourth thing we should study are the tactics of how the serpent deceived. He twisted ever so slightly the command of the Lord God, first the serpent used the generic word for God instead of the relational name of God, second he asked a question to raise doubt about God, and third he twisted the command so that the woman would answer him. Now in verses 2 and 3 the woman shared that they may eat of the trees of the garden, just not the one in the middle. She then added to the command by saying we cannot eat of it, neither shall we touch it lest we die. Now there are various views as to why she added to the commandment. I do want to remind you of the order in Genesis 2, God gave the man the command, the woman had not yet been created, so the man must have told the woman the command. Did Adam tell her correctly, did she misunderstand or did they add a boundary for themselves to keep from sinning? The truth is no one knows for sure. Again the serpent then threw doubt on God's word. He said you shall not surely die for God knows that in the day you eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as God's knowing good and evil, verse 5. The serpent was saying that God lies when in reality he was lying. Then there were half-truths in what the serpent said, about their eyes being opened and that they would be like God's, plural, knowing good and evil. After they ate, verse 7 says, and the eyes of them both were opened. And at the end of chapter 3 the Lord God said in verse 22a, behold the man has become as one of us to know good and evil. Their eyes were opened, but not in the way they thought. Then to throw in the plural form of God's cast doubt on there only being one God. One question that just came to mind was I wondered if they knew they were created in his image. We know it because Moses recorded God saying it, but did God tell them that? They also only saw the good part of knowing good and evil. They did not calculate the pain of knowing evil. Verse 6 is a pivotal verse for the whole Bible. 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. Jen Wilkin has a great Bible study series on Genesis chapters 1-11, and in her lesson she said Adam paused to see if she keeled over. Well verse 7 reads, and the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. Their eyes were opened only after they both ate, but instead of being like gods they saw they were naked. Now keep in mind that they were one like no other human couple until they decided to disobey God. The apostle Paul said in 1 Timothy chapter 2 verses 13 and 14, for Adam was first formed then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in transgression. This will help us understand the rest of chapter 3. Now in verses 8-11 they read, 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, and the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where are you? And he said, I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself. And he said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree where I commanded you that you should not eat? Here we see that Adam and his wife's attempt to cover their shame was not good enough because they still hid in the trees. Then God spoke to Adam, the one to whom he gave the command. This is the first time Adam heard the voice of the Lord God and he was filled with fear. He responded to the Lord God in verse 12, The woman whom you have given to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. So let me ask you, whom is Adam blaming? It's not just the woman's fault, Adam is blaming God for giving him his wife. Then in verse 13, And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that you have done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. One thing that bothers me is when people say that the woman was throwing blame on the serpent, but what she said was the truth. The serpent did deceive her, which is what Paul said in first Timothy. He also said that Adam was not deceived. He knew what he was doing. He was the one given the command. He was the one who had the original relationship with the Lord God. Why is this so important? In Romans chapter 5 verses 12 through 21, Paul wrote, Wherefore, as by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned. Then Paul continued and said, For if through the offense of one many be dead, much more, much more the grace of God and the gift of grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, has abounded unto many. Verses 14 through 21 talk of the judgments of the fall. The Lord God began with the serpent, who is now cursed, and he must crawl on his belly and eat dirt, which if you remember is what Adam was created from. Then verse 15 is called by some as the Proto-Evangelium. That is the first proto-announcement of the good news or the gospel. And it says, And I will put enmity between you, the serpent, and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. It shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. The Lord God announces that there will come one who is of the woman's seed, who will defeat him one day. Anselm of Canterbury, who was an Italian Benedictine monk, made notice that Adam was the only human which came from God alone, and then God created Eve from Adam, and then all other humans came from Adam and Eve, except for one, Jesus. Jesus came from Mary, the seed of Eve and God. That is why the virgin birth is such an important part of the Christian faith. Jesus was fully human because he was born of Mary, and he was fully God because he was sent by the Lord God, his Father. For the woman, she will have sorrow and pain with childbearing, and her desire will now be for her husband, and he will rule over you. For Adam, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, saying you shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground for your sake. In sorrow you shall eat of it all the days of your life, verse 17, plus there will be thorns and thistles, and he will sweat from the work until he returns to the ground. For out of it you were taken, for dust you are, and unto dust you shall return. In verses 20 and 21 we get a clue of what has happened due to the fall, and Adam called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them. First, Adam's wife did not get her name until after the fall, because now that oneness they once knew had changed, now they were two people joined in marriage. The plus is in her name there is a picture of life and a picture of the One who will come, who will bring eternal life. Then the Lord God made the first sacrifice to cover the sins of his children. The Lord God clothed them. In the New Testament in Paul's letter, 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21 reads, For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Believers in Jesus are clothed in his righteousness. Chapter 3 ends with now that humanity has tasted of good and of evil, the Lord God sent them out of the Garden of Eden. He drove them out and placed cherubim at the eastern entrance with flaming swords to keep the way of the Tree of Life. Adam and Eve's physical death was not sudden, but it happened, and we will find that God's word is true. So ladies, if you have heard the Lord God's voice today, are you choosing to hide in the trees because of disobedience and choosing your own way instead of God's, or are you willing to come before him, covered in Christ's righteousness, and obey him? Until next time, and thank you so very much for listening.