In Genesis 3, we see a disaster befall God’s good creation. God, who has made the cosmos (Genesis 1:1-2:3), also made the beautiful Garden of Eden (2:4-25) in which he placed the man and the woman.
Discuss: What effect does sin have on the world? What are some examples of how you can see the effect of sin on the world?
How is the Serpent's conversation with the woman about the tree in v 1-4 different to God's command in 2.15-16?
What temptations surround you? How can you deal with them? (1 Corinthians 10:12-13)
Why did the woman and Adam eat the fruit? (verse 6)
Why did Adam and the woman respond to being naked by covering themselves and hiding from God? (verse 7-10)
Note: The 'cool of the day' is literally ‘the spirit of the day’. God was not out for an afternoon stroll, but he came to respond to the sin in a spirit of judgment.
Who is held responsible for eating the forbidden fruit? (verses 11-13)
How is the relationship between human beings and Satan described in the curse to the serpent? (verses 14-15)
How does God describe the effect of sin on relationships in verses 15-19?
Is there any promise in the curse on the serpent to undo the fall? (verse 16, 20; compare Galatians 4:4-6; Hebrews 2:14; Rev 12:9; Romans 16:20; Luke 22:3)
How does God's warning in 2.17 that they will die if they eat the fruit come true?
Is God's mercy present in his judgment? If so, how?
Note: God's provision of skins, to replace their pathetic coverings in 3:7, is part of his grace to the sinning pair. The animals killed for the skins may hint at sacrifice necessary for dealing with their sin. By Genesis 3:1, humanity is expelled from the garden. All Adam and Eve’s children are born outside the garden, thus bearing the consequences of the fall. Cain (Genesis 4:1-16) and Lamech (Genesis 4:17-24) show that humanity after Adam’s sin becomes more and more sinful, not less. The only hope is in the seed of the woman.
Read Romans 5:12-21. How does Adam's sin affect you now?
How is what Jesus has done like and unlike what Adam has done?
There are great turning points in the history of humanity. But the greatest was the original sin, the temptation and fall of the first human pair. We see a pattern of temptation, sin, inquisition, and judgment. But also we see God’s grace in the covering over of sin and the promise of the seed of the woman who will bruise the serpent’s head.
Sometimes it is possible to see in the great panorama of history a turning point. Something that has changed the nature of our world forever. It might be a great and good development or invention. In the 20th century, what magnificent inventions we saw. What great progress. 100 years ago, we didn’t conceive of cars, airplanes, space travel, mobile phones and hand held computers. Who would have guessed emails and internet and that we have sent space craft to Mars and Saturn. Medical breakthroughs like general anesthetic, vaccination, improvements in infant mortality.
Yet, we can also see great blunders. Turning points for the worst. So that each of those breakthroughs can be turned against humanity. Car bombs, airplanes into buildings on September 11, mobile phones setting off explosives, and all the evil that clutters the internet, as well as all the good. Or the medical disasters that have come upon us like AIDS hanging over the continent of Africa, or biological weapons. Or two world wars. Or genocide in different places – Rwanda in the 90s, the latest being the killings in Sudan.
How do we explain this mixture of progress and regress. The mingling of the good of humanity with evil. Human development with human disaster?
Over the last two weeks, we have seen that God created all things good. God made our world, our universe, just the way he wanted it. And indeed, the only thing that was not good, the fact that the man did not have a helper, was an opportunity for God to go beyond the good and turn that which was not good to that which is very good. That is what Genesis 1 and 2 are about. A good world created by a good God, who created the universe not to love, but from the abundance of love he had as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as God, Word and Spirit. With humanity bearing the image of God.
But with Genesis 3 we see a turning point. After Genesis 3, things are never the same. We and our world become part glory – reflecting God’s creation, but part ruin – recognising the disasterous choices made by humanity in Genesis 3.
Genesis 3 is viewed in the bible as the turning point. From a world under the blessing of God. To a world which now suffers from God’s curse, and groans under the punishment God has imposed on human sin. Today we see a mixed world, where there is good and evil. Where there is joy and pain, are all the product of the events we read in Genesis 3.
Ecclesiastes 7 describes our current situation this way:
There is not a righteous man on earth who does right and never sins… God made mankind upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes. (Ecclesiastes 7:20, 29 NIV)
In Genesis 3, we read the ‘first conversation about God’[2]. In verse 1, we meet the snake. Notice, he is God’s creature[3]. What we have in the snake is a creature rebelling. And he is more crafty than the other animals[4].
And notice that it is an animal that tempts a human. That is important. Because animals were created subject to humans. God had commanded the humans to ‘rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and the beasts of the field’ (Genesis 1:28)[5]. And thus the humans were not compelled to follow the snakes commands[6]. They cannot say, ‘We were just following orders’. For they rule over the snake, or at least, are supposed to.
No, what we see the snake doing is attempting to take the place of the LORD God. God is the one who has commanded. And now the snake is taking the position of being the rule giver.
And we can see that the snake is pretty clever, because he can talk. For behind the snake is Satan (Rom 16:20; Rev 12:9). The form of a snake is being used by Satan, a created but rebelling power arrayed against it’s creator. And the snake represents a world unseen to humanity rebelling against God (compare Ephesians 2:1-3). In mock surprise[7] the snake asks:
Did God really say ‘you must not eat from any tree in the garden’. (NIV)
Notice that the snake only calls God ‘God’, not the ‘LORD God’. He puts distance between the woman image bearer and her creator by surreptitiously dropping the covenant name, Yahweh, that is used consistently throughout chapters 2-3. And the snake’s craftiness goes further. In his question he misquotes God, suggesting God lacks generosity. “God didn’t really say you can’t eat from any tree in the garden, did he? Doesn’t he even want you to eat!” Subtext, God is stingy. So the serpent puts the seeds of doubt in the woman’s mind.
Of course, the snake is twisting God’s words. In chapter 2 verse 16, God in fact gave them a mandate to eat from every tree of the garden, except one (2:16). The sinful suggestion is the doubt of God’s goodness, generosity and provision.
Friends, it is a warning isn’t it. We must not think that God is stingy, is harsh, restrictive. That was the original path to sin. We must remember that God is generous, and that his commands are only for our good, to save life, not to destroy it.
The woman responds, honestly, but somewhat niavely, and even exaggerates God’s words[8]. We will recall that she wasn’t there to receive the command in chapter 2 verses 16-17. She wasn’t made when the command came. We surmise then that the woman is retelling the snake what her husband has told her. We can eat from all the trees. But there is one tree we cannot eat from. We cannot even touch it. Well, God hadn’t said that! (compare 2:16-17)
Quite possibly she here is following the directive that her husband gave her. Don’t eat from it. Better not even to touch it. Stay right away from it.
We also notice how the serpent has cunningly distanced her from God. She repeats his calling God as only ‘God’, and not ‘the LORD God’, the covenant name YHWH that is used in chapters 2 and 3.
Then comes the Serpent’s head on assault. Verse 4: You will not surely die. A direct contradiction of God’s words. The snake takes the very form of God’s directive, and adds a ‘not’ in front of it. God has been deceiving you. There will be no death[9]. The wages of sin is not death. He knows that death is not the result of you eating this fruit.
So the snake started by doubting God’s words. Now he is denying God’s words. And he will impugn God’s motives. Verse 5:
For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. (NIV)
God’s been holding you back! God knows you are a threat to him. Eat this, and you will be like God. God just doesn’t want any competition.
You see, here is sin. Not just disobedience of God’s command, though it is that. At it’s heart, it is wanting to be like God. It is wanting to be God over our lives instead of God, with all the rights of the creator. Sin is wanting to run my life my way without God.
What follows is the crucial decision to yield to the temptation.
First, the woman. She was deceived. Verse 6:
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. (NIV)
Here is the deception. The lie of the eye. The fruit looked good. It seemed so right[10]. It feels so right. Surely appearances cannot be wrong. It is good to look at. And it is desirable to eat. She was deceived (cf 1 Timothy 2:14).
And then, for the first time, we realise she was not alone. All through this, she hasn’t been alone. There was her silent partner. Verse 6 again:
She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
There is the husband, the man. Adam, the one who was supposed to be the leader. Quietly, silently, acquiescing to his wife’s sinful decision. God had given him the command (2:16)[11].
In fact, there have been indications all along that Adam has been there. The ‘you’ in verses 1, 3, 4, 5 is masculine plural, not feminine singular. For the ‘you’ is plural[12] – ‘youse’ not ‘you’!
Here is the silence of Adam. Happy to go along for the ride, listening to his wife, instead of stepping in to stop this disaster unravelling before his eyes. Happy to leave it up to the snake, and let his wife get deceived before his eyes, and not nip it in the bud. The first sin of man is a sin of omission. As James says, "Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin." (James 4:17)
It was not just what he did, but what he didn’t do! And Adam goes into it with his eyes wide open. Paul indicates that the nature of Adam’s sin was different to Eve’s. 2 Timothy 2:14: "And Adam was not the one deceived, it was the woman who was deceived who became a sinner. "
The woman was deceived. But Adam disobeyed. Paul in Romans 5 characterises Adam’s act as ‘sin by breaking a commandment’ (Rom 5:14), ‘trespass’ (Rom 5:15), and ‘disobedience’ (Romans 5:19). In other words, the woman was fooled, but the man wilfully went into it.
There were, however, some unexpected consequences of the sin. Verses 7 and 8:
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realised that they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day [lit in the Spirit of the day[13]], and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
Of course, the serpent has spoken truth to deceive the woman. That’s why he is cunning. Their eyes were opened. But it is not a good thing but a bad thing. Their knowledge only helps them know they’ve sinned, and this knowledge brings shame. They want to hide. First from each other. The nakedness and openness they once rejoiced in, now they want to cover.
Sin affects their marriage. Adam and Eve distance themselves from one another. And the fig leaves are a pathetic attempt to do that. (And an unbelievably itchy attempt, too, judging from my first hand knowledge of fig tree sap.)
And they also want to hide from God, too. Literally it could be translated ‘the man hid himself and his wife’, rather than ‘they hid themselves’ (compare verse 10). The man, with probably greater consciousness of the sin, is taking the initiative in hiding himself first and then his woman.
And the trees are no longer the way God is providing for his people. The man is trying to use them to hide himself and his wife. But of course, it is a futile attempt.
Our translation says in verse 8 that God walked in the garden ‘in the cool of the day’. But literally, it says God walked in the garden in ‘the spirit of the day’. It might be that God liked to take cool afternoon walks, and in that walk, he stumbled across the naked, hiding couple. But I think that here it probably means that YHWH comes according to the spirit of the time, in judgment and anger. Like when I hear a fight in my house, screaming and hair pulling and hitting, I come into the room in the spirit of the day. It is not a lovely afternoon stroll. It is 'what have you done?' And that is the spirit in which God comes. The spirit of Yahweh’s coming that is appropriate to that time is an inquisition.
At College of Law, we were taught that in cross examination, you never ask a question you don’t know the answer to. And here is God, asking questions in cross-examination. And of course, he knows the answer even before he asks.
But in grace Yahweh God draws the sinners out, to confess their guilt[14]. Verse 9:
But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”
He first addresses the man, not the woman, nor the serpent. For though the sin inverted the creation order, (Because God made the man first, then the woman. And he made both to rule the animals.) So now God addresses them according to the order in which he created them. Adam as the one who must bear prime responsibility for the sin. Then his helper, Eve. Then the animals, subject to both.
And we see that Adam is now afraid of God. For sin makes us afraid of God. Here is the first mention of fear in the bible[15]. Pity, because if Adam was afraid of sinning, he wouldn’t have now been afraid of God. The more we are afraid of sin, the less we would be afraid of God.
Now that Adam has been caught, he must ‘fess up. However, Adam’s answer is the ultimate buck-pass. Verse 12:
The man said, “The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.
It’s like Aaron’s answer to Moses question about the golden calf. ‘I threw in the gold and out came this calf!!!’
Adam is squirming under the weight of responsibility. There must be someone else to blame. It’s the woman’s fault. She gave me the fruit. And it’s your fault God. Because you gave me the woman.
The gift of God turns into man’s excuse. Interesting, isn’t it, how sin turns men against their wives. On his wedding day, Adam sung for joy: ‘This is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh’ Then Adam was happy to own her. Not now. God, why did you give her to me! It’s all your fault, God. Sin moves men from praising God, to blaming God.
The woman, too, is image bearer, and so God addresses her also. The woman is more frank. Verse 13: "The serpent deceived me and I ate."
Her sin springs from deception, a deception the husband should have nipped in the bud. And God gives the serpent no right of reply.
Here we see the judgment on sin. In the form of curses. God curses the serpent, who is beyond redemption. Notice he doesn’t curse the man and the woman, whom he has made in his image, and for whom he will provide redemption. A curse upon humanity does not come until chapter 4, where God curses Cain for his murder.
But within the curses lie not only judgment, but also the hope of humanity. For there will be a curse that will bring a blessing. The curse on the snake is the hope of blessing for humanity[16]. Verse 15:
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.
There will be a final conflict between the offspring, the seed, of the woman, and the serpent. And the seed of the woman will be victorious. They will bruise each other. But the bruise inflicted on the serpent will be to the head. And the bruise inflicted on the seed of the woman will be to his heel.
The word for offspring, seed, is singular. So we will be looking for a man, one born of woman, who will bruise the serpent’s head.
Here is the first gospel, friends. Hope is kindled. The woman will be saved through childbearing (1 Timothy 2:15). The bearing of a child who would bruise the serpents head.
But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights as sons. (Galatians 4:4-5).
Jesus had to be made like us in every way. Jesus had to become human, to be born of woman. As the author to the Hebrews says:
‘Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery to the fear of death.’ (Hebrews 2:14-15 NIV).
It is true that the man and woman are not cursed. There is hope of redemption. But their situations are cursed.
The woman experiences pain in childbirth. We can thank God, can’t we, for caesarians, and epidurals, and the gas. But every child is brought into the world through the pain of the mother. And the screams in the labour ward testify to the judgment of God. But it is not just labour that seems to be referred to. For the word used can refer to conception and pregnancy as well. There is pain across the whole experience from conception to pregnancy to giving birth. This has been introduced as punishment inflicted by God (I will surely multiply) because of her part in the first sin.
And the woman also experiences difficulty in her marriage. She desires her husband. I don’t think this is sexual desire, so much as the desire to dominate. Adam named his wife, which indicated his authority over her, as well as his attachment to her. And she was created to help him and was taken from him. But now she will want to sinfully take over his role. The woman will want to ‘wear the pants’ in the relationship, so to speak, and subjegate her husband.
There are two ways to take, ‘and he will rule over you’.
The first way is that her husband will rule her in a negative way, that is, to dominate. The Holman Christian Standard Bible takes it that way. And because his muscles are bigger, he will sinfully dominate. She speaks with the tongue and the quick words. He responds with the fist and the stronger open hand. Both sinning. Both reaping the results of the first sin. So now there is conflict and dispute in the marriage relationship, each trying to rule the other.
The other way to take it is that the rule of the man is a positive thing. The rule of the man is the remedy of the problem of the desire of the wife. This allows the similar phrase in Genesis 4:7 to assist the understanding. Cain is told to rule over sin. ‘Sin desires to have you, but you must rule over it’. And the phrases and vocabulary are very similar. We might apply this by saying that if a man rules his home well, in the self-sacrificial way that Christ laid down, the wife cannot but submit to him, and will not desire his position of headship.
For the man, now his work becomes a burden, painful toil. Noah was to bring rest and comfort to his parents from the curse of the ground. And after the flood God did not add again to the curses on the ground after the flood (Genesis 8:21)[17]. Yet, we know the drudgery and difficulty that plagues every form of work we do. No longer is the man’s work be rest, as it was in the garden (compare 2:15).
And the last word to the man is death. Verses 19 and 20:
by the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken, for dust you are and to dust you will return. (NIV)
The man and his wife cannot take from the tree of life and eat and live forever (Genesis 3:22). Death is our end. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Here is the explanation of our death. It is God’s just retribution, just judgment on our sin.
So now we have seen the whole working of temptation, sin, and death. We have seen the man and the woman lured and carried away by their own desires (James 1:14). Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death (James 1:15).
And Genesis 3:20 makes sure we understand that we are part of this story. This story is our story and we can find ourselves in it. Genesis chapter 3 verse 20:
And the man [Adam] called the name of his woman Eve [lit, Havah, a name meaning ‘life’, reflected in the Greek translation ‘Zoe’], because she was the mother of all living.
There we are. We are all the living. We all come from Eve. She is the source of our life. And by saying this, we are included in the sin and death of our first parents. When we read this story, we read our family history. Indeed, it is our individual story.
Friends, the consequences of this first, this original sin, is played out every day in our world and in our lives. And the doctrine of original sin is a merciful doctrine. We’re all in this together. We now share the same fallen nature. We now share the same bias towards sin.
Friends, we die because we sin. We are sinners. In that sense, death is not natural.
And the fact that we all die demonstrates that we all sin. We all need to be saved, to be redeemed. We all need to the seed of the woman to bruise the serpents head. We need someone to destroy death. And that is what Jesus came to do. He shared in our humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil, and free us who all our lives are held in slavery to the fear of death (Hebrews 2:14-15).
But God doesn’t expel Adam and his wife naked and in shame. Again we see God’s grace. In verse 7, they made pathetic loin clothes out of fig leaves. Now, in verse 21, Yahweh God makes them clothes. Garments of skin are given them to wear. They are costly. They cost the animal it’s life. Here these animals shed blood so that Adam and Eve might be covered. Just as covering over all sin is costly. Under the Old Covenant, the covering of sin required the blood of bulls and goats. And under the New Covenant, the covering of sin required the death of Jesus Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
And so the clothes are a reminder of God’s grace. But they are also a reminder of human sin, and the need for God to act to cover it.
The man and his wife are evicted from the garden. The man is sent out from working and watching the garden to working the cursed soil. He and his wife were sent east. And cherubim were stationed there, with drawn sword of flame. There is no way back to the garden for Adam, Eve, and their children. There is no way back to the tree of life and live forever.
But there is a way forward. The path to the tree of life is still available, though it is not back there. There is a way to myriads of angels in joyful assembly, though it is not to be found in a garden. For going to the end of the bible, to the Book of Revelation, we find there waiting for us everything we need from the garden, and some things we don’t need.
For Revelation chapters 21 and 22 tells us of a city to house trillions of trillions, and still room. There is no tree of the knowledge of good and evil, no cunning serpent. Nothing impure will ever enter there but only those written in the lamb’s book of life (Revelation 21:27).
Yet, there is the stream of the water of life and the tree of life, on both sides of the river. It’s leaves aren’t for covering up, but for healing. And there in the city is the Lord God Almighty, and the Lamb who was slain, and the Spirit. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are there. And there the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them and wipe every tear from their eye.
That is our solution to the loss of the garden. To seek for the city God has promised.
The way to the garden is barred. But the way to the city is open. The Spirit and the Bride say come. And throughout the book of Genesis we will eagerly be seeking the seed of the woman who will bruise the serpent’s head. At the end of the book we will see rule will rest at the Lion of Judah’s feet. And in the New Testament we will read of the Son of God, who appeared to destroy the devil’s work (1 John 3:8). Our hope is in him who would bruise the serpent’s head, Jesus Christ.
Let’s pray.
[1] ‘Judaism denies the existence of original sin… True, the idea that the sin of Adam had brought death on all mankind is not unknown in Jewish teaching, but the reference is invariably to physical death, and is not to be confused with the spiritual death from which in Christian doctrine none can be saved except through faith in the risen Saviour. Man can therefore achieve his own redemption by penitence’: Isidore Epstein, Judaism (Pelican, 1959), 142, cited in Kidner, 67.
[2] Bonhoffer, quoted in Hamilton, 189 fn 10
[3] ‘the chapter speaks not of evil invading… but of creatures rebelling’: Kidner, 67.
[4] Note the snake is created, excluding a dualistic universe.
[5] Note the word for rule in 1:28 is ודרו and is not משל as in 3:16.
[6] Kidner, 67.
[7] Hebrew aph ki introducing the question seems to be ‘feigned surprise’: Hamilton 186
[8] God didn’t forbid them from touching the tree, just eating from it.
[9] ‘The first doctrine to be denied is judgment’: Kidner, 68.
[10] James describes fall into sin this way: When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone, but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death (James 1:13-15).
[11] Was Eve created after Adam received the command?
[12] See Hamilton, 188
[13] leruach hayom
[14] Waltke, 92
[15] Kidner, 70
[16] The curse to go on your belly and eat dirt does not necessarily mean the serpent had legs before the curse. It requires no change in the body of the snake. It simply might redefine the snakes method of motion to indicate a subservience and groveling.
[17] A translation of the Hebrew might read, ‘I will not add/multiply/increase/repeat to curse again the ground in the produce of the man’.
1And the serpent was shrewd, more than all the living things of the field which YHWH God made. And he said unto the woman, “Indeed, did God say, ‘You (mp) shall not eat from every tree of the garden?’”
2And the woman said unto the serpent, “From the fruit of the tree of the garden we shall eat. 3And from the fruit of the tree which [is] in the midst of the garden God said, ‘You (mp) shall not eat from it and you (mp) shall not touch [in] it, lest you (mp) shall die.’”
4And the serpent said unto the woman, “you (mp) shall surely not die. 5For God [is] knowing that on the day you (mp) eat from it also your (mp) eyes will be opened and you will become like God, knowing of good and evil.”
6And the woman saw that good [was] the tree for food, and that a desire it [was] to the eyes, and desirable [was] the tree to look at/be prudent, and she took from it’s fruit, and she ate, and she also gave to her man with her, and he ate.
7And the eyes of the two of them were opened, and they knew that they [were] naked, and they sewed together leafage of a fig tree and they made for themselves loin cloths.
8And they heard the voice of YHWH God walking to and fro in the garden to the breath/wind of the day, and the adam hid himself and his woman from the face YHWH God in the midst of the tree[s] of the garden.
9And YHWH God called unto the Adam, and he said to him, “where are you ?(ms)”
10And he said, “Your voice I heard in the garden, and I feared because I [was] naked and I hid myself”.
11And he said, “Who told to you that you (ms) are naked? From the tree which I commanded you (ms) to not eat from it, did you (ms) eat?”
12And the Adam said, “the woman which you gave/put with me, she gave to me from the tree and I ate’.
13And YHWH God said unto the woman, ‘What [is] this you have done?’ And the woman said, ‘the serpent deceived me and I ate’.
14And YHWH God said unto the serpent, ‘Because you did this, cursed [are] you (ms) from all the beasts and from all the living things of the field, upon your (ms) belly you (ms) will go and dirt/dust you (ms) will eat all the days of your life.
15And enmity I will set between you (ms) and between the woman and between your (ms) seed (ms) and between her seed (ms). He (indep pron ms) will bruise you (ms) [ie] head and you (indep pron ms) will bruise him [ie] heel.
16Unto the woman he said, “I will surely multiply [infin abs + impf] pain and your conception/pregnancy in hurt you will bear sons/descendants, and unto your man you [mp] you will long and he will have dominion in/among you.