DAY TWO

Genesis 3:1-24

Good morning!  On to chapter three of Genesis. Yesterday we saw Adam and Eve in the beautiful paradise called the Garden of Eden. They were the crowning work in God's creation. They bore His image and lived in perfect harmony with God, each other, and all of nature.  Nothing could possibly go wrong...

Verse one starts out, "Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made." This is no ordinary snake, but rather the first mention of Satan in the Bible. To understand this passage in the first book of the Bible we need to look at the last book, Revelation. There are many points of contact between them, and in Revelation we see all the loose ends that popped up in today's passage all tied up neatly.

Revelation 12:9 says, "And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him." The name Satan comes from the Hebrew word for enemy. The title devil comes from the Greek word diabolos, which means accuser. Satan is an enemy of God and His people. He's out to con us out of the riches of God to chase after the fools' gold he dangles in front of us. We'll have more opportunity to discuss Satan as he appears in other passages.

The serpent asked Eve a question: “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” That's a distortion of what God said: “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (2:16-17) God told Adam that he could eat from any tree, including the tree of life, but not from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Satan's first line of deception is to pervert what God has said to us.  That's what he did when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness (we'll look at this on Day 55, which we'll reach in mid-April).

Eve's response shows us just how important it is to know God's Word accurately.  “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” First, God didn't say anything about not touching the fruit.  And second, which tree in the midst of the garden? The tree of life is there too. This is the first example of someone adding to God's Word. Perhaps Adam added that part about not touching it when he told Eve. The motive might be good (adding another layer to protect God's commandments), but this is how the Pharisees of Jesus' day started out.

Now comes the big lie: “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” God lied to you! Not only will you not die, you'll gain something that God is withholding from you. You'll be just like Him! Don't you want to be a god? This is the root of all the temptations we face, and the source of all of our heartache. Satan repeats this big lie over and over again, and we fall for it. He talks us out of following God by seeming to offer us more than God does. But it never works that way.

We read on, "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate." 1 John 2:15-16 says, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world." We see all three of these things in Eve's response: the desires of the flesh- that fruit would taste good; the desires of the eyes- that fruit was beautiful; and the pride of life- she would become wise and not need God. So Eve bought the serpent's deception. But what about Adam? Did he do anything to stop Eve or talk her out of eating the fruit? No, he joined her! Eve might say that she was fooled, but Adam ate that fruit out of defiance toward God.

Did they become like God? Not quite. "Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths." Instead of wisdom they received shame. They had to cover their nakedness and hide that shame. That beautiful intimacy they had enjoyed was gone.

Worse yet, they lost their intimacy with God. He came looking for them to have His daily time of fellowship and they weren't there. God called out "Where are you?" Of course He knew where they were and what they had done, but He's being coy with them so that they will confess it. Adam said that they hid because they were naked, and God asked how they found that out. "Did you eat that fruit I told you not to eat? It's pass-the-buck time: The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” Adam's response is almost comical. It's your fault, God.  You're the one who gave me this woman! Then Eve blamed the serpent. No one is owning up to what they did.

There are consequences when we disobey God, and they were not long in coming. First, God condemned the serpent to crawl on his belly and eat dust. The serpent would continue to dog the woman, but her offspring would crush his head. In the midst of all this bad stuff God has already tipped His hand on His solution. This is the very first promise of a coming Savior.

Childbirth will be painful for Eve and all her daughters after her. She will yearn for her husband and try to dominate him, but he will resist and dominate her.

Adam's sentence is very severe. God cursed the ground that Adam would cultivate. It won't be beautiful and well-watered like the garden. He'll have to work hard to stay ahead of the weeds, and his best efforts will produce little. And speaking of that dirt, God made man from it, and he will return to it one day. "Dust you are, and to dust you shall return." They didn't die the very day that they ate the fruit. That would have been more merciful. Instead the man and woman are doomed to die by inches over many years.

But God had compassion for his children. He made garments of animal skins for them to cover their nakedness. This is the first example of animal sacrifice. Those animals took the punishment for sin and covered their shame.

Then God expelled them from the garden. The tree of life is still there, and if they were to eat of it they would live forever. Adam and Eve were forced to leave, and God stationed cherubim (a type of angel, but they don't look like pudgy little children!) with flaming swords to keep them from coming back.

It's impossible to overstate the importance of what we read today. This seemingly trivial decision Adam and Eve made has devastating consequences for all human beings. We'll see tomorrow how quickly and how far their children and grandchildren went astray. The Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam,who was a type of the one who was to come." (5:12-14) But God doesn't leave us in this bleak place. Paul goes on: "Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous." The one man who will set things right is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came to die for our sins and rise to restore to us eternal life.

We'll see this pattern all through the rest of our study: people sin, but God has a plan that He will unfold to take care of our sins and restore us to fellowship with Him.

That's a whole lot for today! Let's here from you.