Genesis 3

Genesis 3

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The Temptation and Fall of Man

3 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”

2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”

4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

8 And they heard the sound 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 among the trees of the garden.

9 Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”

10 So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”

12 Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”

13 And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

14 So the Lord God said to the serpent:

“Because you have done this,

You are cursed more than all cattle,

And more than every beast of the field;

On your belly you shall go,

And you shall eat dust

All the days of your life.

15 And I will put enmity

Between you and the woman,

And between your seed and her Seed;

He shall bruise your head,

And you shall bruise His heel.”

16 To the woman He said:

“I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception;

In pain you shall bring forth children;

Your desire shall be for your husband,

And he shall rule over you.”

17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’:

“Cursed is the ground for your sake;

In toil you shall eat of it

All the days of your life.

18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,

And you shall eat the herb of the field.

19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread

Till you return to the ground,

For out of it you were taken;

For dust you are,

And to dust you shall return.”

20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.

21 Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.

22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Ge 3:1–24.

• Transcript

  Hey good morning friends. Good morning. Good morning. I'm gonna jump on the computer here and make sure everybody is able to join us live. Give me one second I'm gonna send out the text message and make sure we are recording everywhere. Make sure we're going live almost there. Well, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and devotions is for every day you and I we get together. We have a little bit of coffee, we get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year 2023 Lord willing, we'll make it from Genesis to Leviticus. Today we're at a pivotal chapter in the entire Bible. We have some coffee, we'll pray and we'll look at both a sobering as well as a grace filled chapter. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for your Holy Spirit. We thank You for Your Word. We thank you for the work you have done in history. True things oh to pray that you would please help us to understand. It, pray that you would teach us enlighten her eyes. Let us know who you are and walk in your ways in Jesus's name, Amen. So we're at Genesis chapter three, Genesis chapter three, and we're going to read through the whole chapter together. Like I said, one of the most sobering also, Grace filled chapters in the entire Bible. Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman Has God indeed said to you, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden. And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, But the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat nor shall you touch it, lest you die. Then the serpent said that the woman shall not Should You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And they heard the sound 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 among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called the Adam and said, where are you? So he's hurt said, I heard your voice in the garden. And I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself. He said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat? Then the man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I ate. And the Lord God said to the woman, what is this you have done? The woman so the serpent deceived me and I eat. So Lord, God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all the cattle and more than every beasts of the field. On your belly, you shall go and you shall eat dust all the days. Of Your Life, and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed, and he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his yield. To a woman, he said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your consumption and pain you shall bring forth children, your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you. Then, to Adam, he said, Because you have heeded the voice of your wife and if eaten from the tree, which I commanded you saying, You shall not eat of it. First is the ground for your sake, in your toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life, both thorns and thistles that shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat to the herb of the field, in the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground. For out of it you were taken, For dust you are and to dust you shall return. And Adam called his wife, Eve because she was the mother of all living. Also for Adam and his wife, the Lord God made tunics of skin and clothe them. Then the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like us to know good and evil. And now lest he put out his hand and take also the tree of life, and eat and live forever, therefore, the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken, and he drove out the man and place cherub Emma, the east of the garden of the Garden of Eden and a flaming sword, which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. Well, we need to ask ourselves a few questions. First a, what is this about? B, what's the best first to summarize this and see what are we called to do in response to these words? So what is this about? This is the fall of mankind? What is this about? This is the end of the garden of Eden. This is the entering in of sin. Now, I want to point something out here that's interesting. If you read through this 10 times you would never find the word sin in this passage, and yet every single one of us knows what Adam and Eve did was transgress God's command. They sinned. See, because every sin is, is a one unto or actual transgression of God's law, not doing what he has told us to do, they would have said if they decided, You know what, God instead of tilling the garden, I think we're just gonna go take a siesta, you know, I think we're just gonna go, we know some of this fruit we could turn into wine and we could just go and we can drink some wine and, and just ignore the garden. That would have been a transgression as well, where there was a covenant between them God had graciously made them here, made Adam and brought a comparable helper for him. He had told them to eat of any of the trees of the garden, just not of the one of the knowledge of the tree and evil less, they surely die. And they were to take dominion and multiply. And so they had the capacity. As St. Augustine said, in the three hundreds, they had the capacity, not to sin and the capacity to sin. They were able to not sin and they were able to Sydney they could do either. And so the question here is, where are they going to actually keep this covenant of works? Are they going to have access to the tree of life were they going to live forever in fellowship with God? And we see here, it starts off really, really dark. Now the Lord Now the serpent was more cunning than any of the beasts of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Has God indeed said to you, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? No, the answer to that answer is no. God told them that they can eat any of the tree and she answers correctly back. And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat of it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. Now we do notice that she adds something to God's command or not even touch it. It seems pious at first but then the serpent questions God himself. It if we just move quickly past verses four and five, we'll see that what Satan is doing is calling God manipulative, selfish, and a liar. Then the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die. He's calling God a liar. God has said if you eat a dying you shall die. And here he says, you'll you'll not die. He's who she going to trust. Who she going to believe her maker or this one who has somehow come into their midst. For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be open to see he's saying God is selfish. He doesn't want you to have opened eyes. He wants you have closed eyes. He he doesn't want you to have this wisdom. So she's, he's pitting her against God, he's testing to see what you love God, will you trust God? Will you follow God? Or will you realize that he doesn't want what's good for you? And you will be like God, knowing good and evil. See, in every instance here, Satan is attacking both the words, the integrity, and the love of God. Satan wants people to question Can I really trust God's word? Does he really love me? Does he really want what's best for me? So the woman saw, and here here we actually get a, we get a window into Eve's heart. We get just a snapshot. into her soul. And we see what was going on in her mind as her affections change away from God, and toward what it was forbidden. So the woman saw that the tree was good for fruit. How was it good for food? By utilitarian standards maybe look like just fruit from any other tree? Maybe. But the reality is, it wasn't good for food because God had said it wasn't good for food. He told them not to touch it. See, see her morals are changing her. Her thoughts are changing. her affections are changing that it was pleasant to the eyes. Who said it was pleasant to the eyes? It this is one of the difficulties that we're to love what God loves and hate what God hates. He's, he's the one who told them don't eat from that tree. And now she's looking at it and she's saying that the tree is pleasant to the eyes. It looks good. She's letting her own desires start to chase away from her we see the the heart of a human being here being turned away from God Himself and the tree and the tree desirable to make one wise, notice again now she's desiring the wisdom that God has said. Don't eat of it, you'll die. She took of its fruit and she ate. So she also gave it to her husband and he ate. This is so often, especially in families. When one member of the household sins and they fall in love and they desire a sin that often it begins to spread throughout a family group. She gives it to Adam and it was at this point, Adam as her husband should have said, Eve What have you done? No. We need to go and we need to find the Lord and we need to tell him what has happened. But here we notice that even Adams heart follows his wife. Adam loves her more than God Adam listens to her and he takes that fruit and he as a leader of his home there's only two there he eats of it. This is betrayal against God. This is treason against the one who breathed life into his lungs. He's trusted us a serpent rather than the one who brought him all the different animals in the eyes of both of them were open and they knew Oh, this is so great, isn't it? Knowledge of the tree and evil what did it bring? They knew that they were naked. This innocent intimacy between the two of them was shattered. Immediately one of the most core relationships to all human functioning. Marriage is tainted by sin. I knew they were naked. And they sewed fig leeks together to make themselves coverings and so this story continues on that it's the Lord God who's walking through the garden the cool the day and and he asked us almost like a father calling to his children, right? I know when my children are in the room playing but sometimes I'll call it to them because I want them to hear my voice and I want them to respond. Right? It's this communication part of a relationship. And so he's Adam, where are you? It's almost like a son. A bot Where are you going to get an opportunity for him to respond but it's instead of God walking in the cool of the garden of the day and and no more running to him and being so happy to spend time with the Lord. Now they're fearful. They know that they've transgressed the covenant. They know that they have broken God's word they know that they have eaten to the knowledge of the tree or the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the consequences for that were dying, you will die. And so now the God whom they once loved and enjoyed, now they are fearful of him. I call him Adam, where are you? So I said I heard your voice in the garden who was afraid because notice I was afraid not because of your word not because of what you had said not because of what we have done but because we were naked. So I hidden myself and God says to him, hold on that knowledge didn't come from me. Who told you you were naked? Who told you this? Have you eaten from the tree which I commanded you that you should not eat? The man said in here the blame shifting begins whether this intimate communion that they had with God has been broken. And now we see that instead of Adam fessing up taking ownership. He blamed his wife, the woman you've given me? She gave me the fruit to eat. He blames her right away than the man's. And the Lord said to the woman, what is this you have done? And then she blamed shifts right instead of owning it. She says the serpent he deceived me and I ate. This is so often I can't tell you how often with sin when I speak to people about what biblical apologies and what biblical repentance looks like. One of the key things is owning your own sin. Don't make yourself a victim to the circumstances around you or what someone else has done. But I I broke your law God. I transgressed I hurt. I sinned and owning that reality. But neither of them do this year. They both want to blame shift they both want to push off they both want to point to someone else. So the Lord. The Lord said to the serpent, right, he is mad at the serpent. serpent is the one who deceived the certain is serpent as the adversary the serpent is a liar and a murderer from the beginning. And here God curses him. What are the courtesies he has for him? He's going to have to go on his belly. So apparently the serpent was some some creature that was able to walk at that time. He's going to put in in verse 15. This main verse is on your belly, you're going to go but verse 15 is what theologians call the proto Evangelista on the first gospel. This is the first instance of grace. The first mention of Jesus Christ to come and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed known as singular seed to Galatians picks it up and he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise His heel see a child would come, a descendant would come from Eve. And there would always be this immunity between between man and Satan. And Satan would be a constant temperature, a constant draw of people away. He now has this kingdom on the earth, and he's going to try to do everything he can to get people to go against him, but people are going to have a reality. That they know who God is, declares himself into creation. And there are going to be people who trust in God but the Satan is always going to be trying to go against them. But someday the woman would have a child. One of her descendants would come and he would crushed the head of the serpent. But the serpent would serpent would bruise his heel. That seed who would come as Jesus Christ, and he would be our Victor. He would be the one who would crush the head. of Satan. But it wouldn't be without cost. Indeed, as we know, as the New Testament teaches us, the bruising of the heel, indeed, was the death on the cross. But it wasn't a final death. It's not that he would kill him, but he was bruised. But then he turns to the woman and there are consequences for violating the covenant of works. He says to them, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception in pain you shall bring forth children and your desire shall be for your husband. And he shall rule over you. There's two different curses there. The first is this curse that it's going to hurt. When you have children is kind of hurt. There's going to be pain and childbearing and I think this pain is not just the physical pain, though it is. Without a doubt, speaking of that, but also the pain of rearing children of discipling the children of of bringing that they're not going to listen, they're going to do whatever they want. They're going to be children of disobedience just like you and there's going to be emotional pain, as well as physical suffering, because of this transgression, but number two, the household is going to be affected by this. Right the household is going to be affected by this and your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you. This idea that, that there would constantly be this power struggle in the family who would be the head who would do this and she would desire her husband, she would want the place that he has the honor that he has a role that he has the things that he has and that he would be a tyrant over her. And I says a curse that I constantly preach and counsel and fight against in our own congregation, and in different relationships that I see in the community. When people come into my office and I have to tell husbands you cannot be so harsh with your wife. You must be kind to her. You must be gentle with her. Right your prayers will be hindered. You must love her as Christ loves the church. Peter specifically talks about not being harsh toward your wife. You got to be gentle with her man. And this this, this twisting and breaking up of the family now is a direct result because of the form. But it's not just that. Then to add him he said because you have heeded the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it. What is the curse of the Lord? Places on Adam? He says curses the ground for your sake, and toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you and you shall eat the herb of the field and the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground for out of it you were taken dust you are into dust you shall return he says to man, yo buddy, your work is going to be hard. You've been able to attend the garden and it's been easy. Thorns and thistles when you pulled up weeds they didn't show back up there. What you planted what you cultivated what you what you made of your work stood not anymore. You're gonna have to work hard. It's going to be difficult for you. It's going to be trying for you it's going to be miserable for you. And here again, we see baked in though, this reality that this is going to mess up the family it's going to it's going to make things hard. And yet there's a hint here of grace. He doesn't slay them right away. He doesn't kill them right away. Right, dying you shall die. It seems as if surely you shall die the day you eat of it, you will surely die. It seems like the Lord would just bring down the hammer and just wipe them out. But instead the Lord is gracious. He allows them to live they will taste death. He's going to be gracious and he's going to allow them to continue to live for time. But notice he says don't presume upon that grace. Till you return to the ground for out of it you are taken for dust you are in the dust you shall return says someday you are going to die. Someday your body is going to go into the earth and you're going to decay and you're going to be gone. Instead now death has entered into the world. Verse 20, and Adam now he had called her ie Shah before woman. He was each man. Now he's named her II Shah but now he's going to change her name. I give her another name. Adam called his wife Eve hover because she was the mother of all living. And so Adam begins to refer to her as what in the Greek is a we in the in the Hebrew? Light? Yeah, Eve we would love things that are living. Why? Because she's the mother of all living. She's going to God has just told her about childbirth. And then we notice again God is still gracious, even in the midst of sin. Also for Adam and his wife, the Lord God made tunics and clothed them. The Lord is the one who covers them. himself with far better than fig leaves. But even though they are transgressors, even though they've broken His law, turn their faces turn their hearts away from him distrusted him. He's still caring for them. He close them. He listened to him. I really think that one of the things that's happening in verse 20 is Adams confession of faith in renaming his wife Eve I think what he's doing is he is trusting the Lord that they are still going to live that the Lord isn't going to kill them and that they're going to have children and that life is going to go on but it's going to be changed forever. And the Lord graciously is the first one who sheds animals blood it seems like and he's the one who covers them. With tunics. He's the one who still shows them care, even though they transgressed the covenant of works. Then the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like us like one of us. And so he cast them out of the garden so they might not eat of the tree of life. He sends them away. He guards Eden. He takes them away. What's the best verse to summarize this section? Well, in my Bible, I would probably underline verse four, and five, the devil speech. And then I would also not just underline but I would star and double, underline and everything else verse 15. Because this is the beginning of the covenant of grace, that God is going to from Genesis 315 to the end of Revelation show how he is redeeming a people for Himself through the seat of the woman. was the last see calling. What are we called to do? Who do you trust? Do you love the Lord? Do you follow the Lord? Do you listen to the Lord, you cling to the Lord? Do you trust the Lord? Do you believe that what he says is good is good and what he says is evil is evil. Or do you distrust him? We all make these decisions every day. In the type of relationships we engage in how we engage with different relationships, how we engage with food, how we engage with the media and the culture around us. The words that come out of our mouths, the things that we think the things we desire in our hearts. How how you handle your life shows. Whether or not you're trusting the Lord, or whether or not you're going after your own heart. Go to Jesus Christ. Remember God's word. I pray that the Holy Spirit might be working in your heart in such a way that you would cling to the seed of the woman and that what he has said is good and right and holy and just and pure and lovely and have good rapport. You would love those things, and that you would be so united to Jesus Christ for loving Jesus Christ, that you would remember his commandments and keep them and that you would abide in Jesus Christ and you would bear much good fruit. But we also have to be honest with the reality of sin. Transcribed by https://otter.ai