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Studies in Genesis, The First Sin, Lesson VII, Genesis 3:1-7
We move into chapter 3 of Genesis where we will be witness to the first sin, that of disobedience to God’s word.
Now we say we are people of the book and therefore we know we are children of Adam, that same Adam who disobeyed the command of his creator.
His DNA flows in our blood and we are born with his nature.
Adam had no human father nor human mother only knowing the One who took the dust of the ground and fashioned him, breathing into him the breath of life.
And Adam was given only one barrier in life and that was God’s denial to him of the eating of the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Did Adam know what consequences would befall him and those who came after him?
Did he have any idea of the severity that would follow by simply eating of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil?
To him it may have seemed to be such a trifling matter and why would anyone think this would bring about such a severe response from God.
But God most early in His creation is teaching the matter of faith, the matter of believing God’s word and living by God’s word regardless of what you think about it.
In the modern vernacular it is: Ours is not to reason why but ours is but to do or die.
I remember our early training in this church where we were told to not always follow commands to your children with an explanation of why the command was given.
For the response to the why, why why, was to be simply because I told you so.
It was to be an elevation of your word, a revelation that your word was sufficient.
It was to be a lesson when authority speaks obedience responds.
This teaching is a teaching instituted by faith, for you as a parent are to be thought of as looking out for the welfare of your children and this is simply a manifestation of your connection to the image of God for this is how God operates.
The just shall live by faith which means living an obedient life to the word of God regardless of what you or I think about it.
We do not analyze the word of God to see if it is reasonable we are to simply obey the word of God.
God spoke to Adam but Adam instead listened to his wife who listened to the reasoning of the serpent.
Adam did not live by faith for the serpent questioned God’s word and planted that seed in the first couple.
So we read about this in Genesis 3:1-7, Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, (so here we are told the tree of knowledge of good and evil was also in the midst of the garden) God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 6 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. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
This is our first introduction to the serpent for he appears suddenly in the garden and he has the ability to speak the language that God has given to Adam and Eve.
We are told he is a subtle creature and we are also told that he is a creation of God.
The word subtle from the Hebrew means shrewd, crafty, sly but it also means sensible, prudent.
We are therefore introduced to a creature that is not only shrewd and sly but speaks reasonably, sensibly, and prudently.
For the serpent speaks words that are meant to cause Eve to think and reason as to the validity of God’s word, which is a departure of what God expects, for God simply expects obedience to his word.
The world today is the serpent as it too asks:
Yea hath God said, Ye are made only male and female?
Hath God said, Ye are to be faithful to one in marriage between only male and female.
Yea hath God said, Intimate union is reserved for this relationship only?
Yea hath God said, For there is no other name given among men whereby ye must be saved?
Certainly you don’t believe these old fashioned ideas in this new world of science and technology do you?
For this subtle serpent has never changed his ways.
So in subtlety the serpent appears to Eve to deceive, to cause doubts, to get her to question and to use the mind which God gave her to reason and think things out.
So he gives her opportunity to correct him for he declares to her that it is his understanding that God has restricted Eve from eating from any tree of the garden.
So Eve now has opportunity to say no to the serpent; that is not correct for the Lord God gives us permission to eat of all the trees except one.
God had said you may eat freely from any tree of the garden but Eve said we may simply eat and in that neglect not emphasizing the generosity of God for He said freely eat.
And then referring to the forbidden tree she said: we are not allowed to eat of it nor to even touch it.
She has added to the word of God for there was no restriction given as to touching the tree.
So both the serpent and Eve are now in error concerning the word of God.
Now Eve had no Bible, she had no book of James wherein it says, Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
That means don’t talk to him for he is subtle and smarter than you.
But Eve had been given the word of God, at the time a very short word of God, to freely eat of all the trees with one restriction, and her duty was not to begin a conversation like this where it was very plain and clear that her creator was being disrespected.
So Eve was not a true witness of God’s word in her conversation with the serpent.
She brought in exaggeration with regard to the touching of the tree which is a distortion of God’s word.
She downplayed the judgement of God by omitting the word surely in the edict of God who said: ye shall surely die.
Proverbs 30:5, says: Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
God had so given Adam and Eve a shield but they had not used that shield and downfall came upon them as God had said.
The serpent, the created form inhabited by Satan had come to Eve with the question of an inquirer.
He clothed himself in the religious garb of deceit in an effort to create doubts about the goodness of God and to fix Eve’s attention on what was forbidden as opposed to all that was freely given.
How natural this is for the natural man is covered with this garb as his conflict is always with God’s “Thou shalt nots” to the exclusion of all that God gives in His “Thou shalts.”
God is the father and as the father all his Thou shalts nots and all his Thou shalts are wrapped in His Love and His desire that we enjoy all the riches of eternity living and serving with him.
How prone we are to concentrate on the negative when there are so many positives.
So the Psalmist in Psalm 68:19 reminds us when he writes:
Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation.
Eve, listen up, God has loaded the garden with a multitude of fruit trees of which you may freely eat.
Whatever your taste is that minute, that hour, that day there is a fruit which will bring you joy and happiness as your God given taste buds do their work.
Should you really concentrate on this forbidden tree?
But Eve engages in conversation with Satan and she is no match, for his deception, and doubt turns to denial followed by the slander of God’s character.
God had said, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die and Satan, another created being, boldly denies this truth saying, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Now by the eating of the tree they would indeed know good and evil but Satan here impugns the veracity of God by introducing motives of God not declared to Adam and Eve.
Satan suggests that God’s words of warning of certain punishment were just threats to protect his deity and to share it with no other.
These were motives which denied God’s love for His creation and specifically His love for Adam and Eve.
So Satan’s strong denial of God’s word convinced Eve of those motives and she played into his crafty, sly and deceitful ways for perhaps she and her husband could indeed be as gods. For Satan convinces her of her incompleteness saying your eyes will be opened knowing good and evil.
Eve does not know good nor evil for Eve is innocent and lives in innocence.
We as Christians also preach to receive the Lord Jesus Christ which will bring your eyes to be opened for Jesus makes the blind to see but this is not the message of Satan for the message of Satan is to disobey the word of God, reject the word of God and your eyes will be open.
But Satan infers to know good and evil is to know everything as the gods know everything.
Your nasty God is just trying to keep you from full enjoyment and completeness so just take a little bite, certainly a little bite of this wonderful fruit will not hurt you.
God gives us his word as seed to plant.
And so Satan also has his seed to plant and this conversation with Eve has planted the seed deeply.
For verses 6 and 7 could indicate a time of contemplation on Eve’s part, a time wherein the words of the serpent take root.
A time where Eve begins to think the words of our Lord God are too restrictive but the words of the serpent are so enlightening and free.
For it is written in Genesis 3:7,8, 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. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
This tree was different from all the others she reasoned for it was good for food, or so the serpent told her for she had not yet tasted its fruit.
But it was also pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise.
This tree still fills the world and all of these things appealing to the flesh call to the natural man whose eyes were opened by the decision of Adam and Eve in the garden.
The seeds are sprouting in Eve as her dialogue with Satan is repeated in her mind and she is beginning to fall to his wiles.
She is turning his way and is turning away from God.
Because of this turning, all the world to come turns Satan’s way but God, then and now, calls us to turn back in repentance through His Son and in the power of his Spirit.
Eve forgot the tree of life, that tree that was also good for food and pleasant to the eyes for she was enticed by Satan’s words that this forbidden tree would also make one wise.
But wise only in a worldly fashion, wise to the ways of the world but never wise to the ways of God.
So contemplation was complete and decision time was here.
Choices had been given her to make.
God told her to eat freely of all the trees but one, but this was not enough for Eve.
So she quickly snatched the fruit and ate of it.
and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened.
It is quite amazing how little is given about Adam’s thoughts and contemplation but perhaps he had none.
The words “and gave also unto her husband with her” may be the clue.
Are we to picture both Adam and Eve together during this conversation with the serpent?
Is it possible that Adam was there in silence listening to his enticing words while the serpent engaged Eve in conversation?
She took of the fruit and did eat and gave also unto her husband.
It will not be until verse 16 of this chapter, that Adam is to rule over his wife because of her sin.
In their innocence as they ate the fruit there seemed to be no hierarchy established and both could do as they pleased.
And they pleased to leave their innocence and to come to know good and evil.
The garden living was soon over as God banished them into the world where they were to be immersed in the knowledge of good and evil.
The choice was made!
By this one choice they had sacrificed the permanent on the altar of the immediate, they had sacrificed the idyllic life for a life full of troubles and death.
Romans 5:12, Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: |