Genesis 3: The Fall

The Gospel Thread

The Serpent's deception of Eve is discussed. Does the Bible place the blame on Adam or on Eve for the fall of man? God's judgments on the serpent, the man, and the woman are broken down in detail.

Transcription:

Welcome to the Beyond the Basics Bible Study Podcast. My name is Dan Snyder and I am your host. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode on Genesis 3.

As many of you know, Genesis 3 is about the fall of man, the introduction of evil into the world, and the curse that is brought onto the planet because of Adam's sin. So we'll go through an overview here of the chapter. First of all, we see the serpent introduced. The serpent deceives Eve by convincing her to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Then Eve gives the fruit to Adam, and Adam eats of the fruit. And they both notice they're naked. So they sew fig leaves together to cover themselves, and then they hide from God as they hear him walking through the garden. At this point, God finds Adam and Eve. He interrogates them. He finds out what happened, as if God didn't know already. He then curses the serpent. He curses the woman. He curses the man. And then God removes them from the garden and places an angel with a flaming sword to guard the entrance.

So getting into the chapter.

First, some observations about this chapter. I don't know about you, but I seem to notice that there seems to be less separation between the physical and the spiritual world at this time. That is, in the Garden of Eden pre-fall of man. Of course we have a talking serpent, we have God walking through the garden as if God is a man, God personally makes clothes for Adam and Eve, and then we see a cherubim with a flaming sword guarding that entrance to the garden. That Sherebim is clearly seen by people.

And I think what we notice is, and what we're gonna see as we go through the rest of the Bible, is this is a picture of the New Jerusalem. This is a picture of one day when God is going to dwell with humans once again. There's gonna be no separation between the physical and the spiritual realm. Right now we see a very distinct separation between the physical and the spiritual realm, or at least it appears that way to our Western mindset.

Now, you ask somebody in the Eastern hemisphere, if that's the case, and they may not quite agree with that. But here, here in the Western world, where we have been influenced by Greek thought over the last several thousand years, there is a separation between the physical world and the spiritual world, but it was not always that way and will not always be that way. One day there will be a merging of the physical and spiritual world just like there was in Eden.

So who is the serpent? That is the question. The serpent, as we know throughout the rest of the scripture, reveals to us that the serpent is Satan. If this is your first time reading through the Bible, that's not so clear. 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.

So the question is, how did the serpent talk? And the answer is, I have no idea. Nobody knows. We do know that later on in the book of Numbers there is a donkey that talks. And off the top of my head, that's about the only two examples that I can think of of animals talking in the Bible. So clearly this isn't just any animal. We know that Jesus at one point cast demons into a herd of pigs. And so we know that demons can inhabit animal bodies. So this serpent could have been inhabited by Satan himself, which animated the serpent and gave it a voice. But we have no idea.

So let's move on to the deception of the serpent. First of all, he twists God's words. He said, "Did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?"

Now, Eve did not know God's word. Eve says to the serpent, "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.'"

The tree that is in the midst of the garden actually describes the tree of life. If you go back to chapter 2 verse 9 it says the tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So it was the tree of life that was in the midst of the garden. So Eve didn't know God's word. Then she says, "Neither shall you touch it."

There's another problem here, God didn't actually say this. God didn't say you shall not touch the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So the problem here is that Adam was the one who heard God's word. God spoke this to Adam. It was Adam's responsibility to explain this to Eve, because God told this to Adam before Eve was created. So Adam had to explain this and pass God's word on to Eve, and he didn't do it properly. Adam did not properly relay God's word to Eve. So as a result, Eve does not know God's word.

Then the serpent plants doubt in her mind. He says, "You will surely not die."

So he makes God sound like a liar. He makes her feel like she's missing out. He says, "You will be like God."

In other words, or in a more literal translation, this word translated God is actually Elohim, which again is plural. So the serpent could be saying, "You will be like gods, you will be like gods, you will be like us, you will be like spiritual beings."

This could refer to the divine council that we talked about in a previous episode. The serpent could be tempting her with the idea that she could be like the gods. She could be on the divine council. She could be a ruler, a spiritual ruler. This would be very tempting for a person, and especially because now it sounds like God is holding out on her. God is withholding something from her. God has more authority that he could give her, and he's holding back.

Here's the problem. This is the first time that humans are tempted to be like gods, or like God. And this is a theme that we're gonna see play out over and over and over and over and over throughout the Bible where man attempts to elevate himself to God status, but God himself came in the form of the man, Jesus, to be a servant. That is God's nature.

God lowered himself to be a servant. Matthew 20:28 says, "...Even as the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."

And in Philippians 2:5-7 it says: Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

This is what is important to God, lowering himself to man status and becoming a servant. And so if anyone thinks that God is holding out, we should see God's actions.

So in verse six, it says that Eve saw three things. First, she sees that the tree was good for food, which refers to her physical appetite. She sees that it was a delight to her eyes, which is her sensual appetite. And then she sees that it was to be desired to make one wise, which fills her prideful appetite.

Again, we see this theme present throughout the Bible. We'll identify it as we go through. We'll see all through the Bible, how these three things, the physical appetite, the sensual appetite, and the prideful appetite, lead to man's downfall over and over again.

So then Eve gives the fruit to her husband, to Adam.

Now why did Adam eat? One reason is because one partner going astray can bring the entire partnership down. It's very common among Christians that we see one Christian dating or marrying a non-Christian thinking that, "I can change that person, I can bring the gospel to that person, I can change that person's mind."

But the reality is that far more often than not, one person going astray is actually gonna bring the other person astray. It's gonna destroy the entire relationship.

The other issue is that Adam was not actually deceived. Now, Eve was deceived, but Adam was not deceived. Adam knew the word of God. This was open rebellion on Adam's part. 1 Timothy 2:14 says: Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

This is why Adam is responsible for the fall and not Eve. The Bible places responsibility for the fall on Adam and not Eve. It's because Adam was rebellious. Eve was deceived. There's a difference. And there seems to be, clearly because of the stance the Bible takes, there seems to be a difference in God's eyes between how serious deception is and how serious rebellion is.

Now that's not to say that deception isn't serious. Deception is very serious. But it's a different kind of serious.

Moving on to verse 7, it says they were naked. Naked refers to and has the connotation of their shamefulness being exposed. This is something that, especially when we get to the books of the law, it's going to refer to the nakedness of a person. It refers to their shame. We're even going to see that in the story of Noah, the story of Lot.

Now it's possible that Adam and Eve were clothed in light before the fall. It's a possibility. That's why they didn't notice their nakedness until they ate the fruit. We'll never know. We have no idea. The Bible isn't clear about that. But it's possible.

So they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths. Now fig leaves are prickly and itchy. Probably not very comfortable as loincloths. And it's funny because the serpent had just told them that this fruit would make them wise. The very first thing they did was really foolish. They sewed together prickly leaves and used them as loincloths. Really dumb thing to do. This fruit was supposed to make them wise.

So after they sewed fig leaves together, they heard God walking through the garden, and so they hid. This right here is the worst consequence of sin. Sin fills us with shame and causes us to separate ourselves from God. It causes us to hide from God. That is the true cost of sin.

So God comes to Adam, asks Adam, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?"

Now Adam blames everyone else but himself for his sin. He blames Eve for giving him the fruit. He blames God for giving him Eve. How many of us have done this? Many, many times we've blamed everybody else for our own sin, for our own problems. We've blamed God for giving us the people that drive us crazy and cause us to get angry. So Adam blames everybody else.

So then God starts pronouncing a curse and he starts with the serpent. So he judges the serpent, he curses the serpent and says, "On your belly you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your life."

So the question is, why is the serpent being punished for being used by Satan? That's not the serpent's fault. The issue here is now we have a symbol of sin. We have a symbol of the fall. And so that symbol needs a symbolic punishment to show us the defeat of sin. The idea of eating dust refers to humble defeat. We even use that phrase today, eat dust or bite the dust. It's a humiliating defeat. That's what that phrase is referring to.

And so the serpent now having to bite the dust refers to the humiliating defeat that Satan is going to suffer at the cross. It's both prophetic, it's for us to look forward to, it was for ancient Israel to look forward to the prophetic defeat of Satan one day. It was also to recognize that even though Satan was victorious that day, God still had all authority over Satan and over sin.

The next judgment on the serpent was that there would be hatred between the serpent and the woman, but there was a redemptive promise, and that was that the woman's seed will crush the head of the serpent.

And then God's judgment on the woman, that there would be toil in childbearing. In fact, it says, "I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing."

I find that phrase interesting because to multiply something you have to start with something. You can't start with zero and multiply zero by fifty and get something. You still have zero, right? You have to have at least something there in order to multiply it. And we think of pre-fall or Garden of Eden conditions as being without pain. And this phrase right here implies that there may have been pain, just not very much. But now it's being multiplied.

And then the next judgment on the woman is that there will be tension and conflict between men and women. Now that's not always easy to see depending on what translation you are reading. If you're reading the ESV it says: "Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you."

I think that's a much more accurate translation than some others that imply that the woman would be seeking after the affections of her husband in some sense. The phrase here more accurately describes the tension between husband and wife.

Then comes God's judgment on the man. We see that the ground is now cursed, that there will be toil in work. Again, there was still work before the fall, but it was enjoyable work. It was fulfilling work. There was struggle in work, but it was fruitful. Now there will be toil.

Remember Adam is a gardener, and now instead of growing plants, trees, and fruit, and vegetables, now he's growing thorns and thistles, and he's going to have to contend with thorns and thistles.

And then of course, there's physical death. "For you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

In verse 21, God made skins, garments of skins, and clothed Adam and Eve. This is the first animal sacrifice, and it covers their shame. This is something we wanna keep in mind as we read about sacrifice throughout the rest of the Bible. The blood of animals covers shame. And this is of course contrasted with Adam and Eve's lame attempt with the fig leaves.

In verse 23 we see that the God sends Adam out from the Garden of Eden. Now this sounds like a punishment but it's actually a great mercy because the tree of life, keep in mind, the tree of life was still in the garden, and if Adam had eaten of the tree of life, he would live forever. Imagine if we had to endure all this hardship, pain, suffering for eternity. Think about the struggle that you go through in life. Think about the things that you have struggled with, the pain, the loss, the hardship. Imagine if you had to go through that for all eternity. Imagine if you could never die. And you had to deal with that pain forever. It would drive you insane. So this isn't a punishment, this is mercy. This is God's mercy.

In verse 24, it tells us that God sent the man east of the Garden of Eden. Now, east is something that should cause our ears or our eyes to perk up. East signifies exile. The reason East signifies exile is, as we will get to much later in the Bible, the Israelites after the siege of Babylon are exiled east to Babylon. And because much, in fact most, if not all, of the Old Testament was either written or compiled during the Second Temple Period, after the exile to Babylon, the word East is used to show a concept, to show us a concept, to show us an idea that that man was now exiled from God, that we now live in exile. That's the point here.

So all of this makes us ask the question, was it God's plan for Adam to fall? Did God set up Adam to fail? I think it's very hard to conceive of God setting somebody up to fail or wanting somebody to fail. However, God's desire is for us to know Him. And if Adam had never eaten the fruit, if man had never fallen, and humanity had stayed innocent, God would have never been able to show His mercy. He never would have been able to show His mercy through the ages, and He never would have been able to show His compassion, and His love, and His mercy on the cross.

Whereas through redeemed humans, there's so much more that we can know about God. So many aspects of God that we can understand, that we can experience, that we never would be able to experience if we had never fallen in the first place. God's glory is revealed in our fallen state. If we had never fallen, we would not experience God's glory in this way. We'd be like the angels. The angels experience God's glory and his character in a few ways. But we get to experience that character in a very personal way. In a way that the angels don't get to experience.

So was it God's plan for Adam to fall? I think it was. I don't think it was in a twisted way. I think God created the earth, presented to Adam with a choice, knowing that man was weak enough because nobody could be perfectly weak forever unless he was God. There's only one man who did that. Nobody else was strong enough to resist sin forever.

So how does all this point to Jesus?

First, we see that we know that Jesus is the seed of the woman who will crush the head of the serpent. Obviously, we know that Satan would bruise his heel on the cross, but Romans 16:20 says: The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

Jesus crushed Satan under his feet at the cross and he will crush Satan once and for all when he returns. Jesus broke the curse that is laid out in Genesis 3. Jesus broke it. Jesus took that curse on himself and destroyed the power of it over us. We can now live free of that curse.

It also points to the virgin birth in the detail that Jesus is the seed of the woman, not the seed of the man. It is the woman, Mary, who gave birth to Jesus, not Joseph.

So now I have some questions for reflection for you. Go over these questions on your own. If you want to go over these and have them written down for you, answer them at a later date so you can have some time to think about them. You can purchase the study guide on my website www.beyondthebasics.blog and there will be, of course, additional questions for further study that I will not go over on the podcast. You can purchase each individual study guide or you can subscribe per month and receive every study guide that I release as the podcast is published. Go ahead to the website, subscribe.

Also for this week and this week only, I'm making my study guides available for the first three chapters of Genesis for free on my website. You can go to the free download section of the website and get those study guides for free. So that would be from Monday, April 17th through Sunday, April 23rd. Those study guides will be free. If you're listening to this podcast after the 23rd, I apologize. You're just going to have to go and subscribe on the website.

So here's some questions for reflection. First, what causes you to be tempted to doubt or question God and his word?

Next, how can we maintain a humble spirit to prevent our pride from causing us to stumble? Take a look at Proverbs 16:18 while you're answering that question.

Next, why do you think the serpent tried to deceive Eve first instead of Adam?

Then are there any areas in your life in which you know the command of God, yet you intentionally disobey? And what has been the result of this rebellion in your life?

What are the consequences of misquoting or misunderstanding God's commands? Take a look at Proverbs chapter 30 verses 5 through 6 and Matthew chapter 15 verse 9 as you're answering that question.

Why do you think Adam went along with and participated in Eve's sin?

And then what is the difference between deception and rebellion? Why is each one dangerous?

What was the purpose in God questioning Adam and Eve? Why did God need to ask Adam and Eve what they did? If He's God, didn't God already know?

What does God's approach to dealing with Adam and Eve's sin reveal about God's character in regards to our own sin? What can we learn about God here?

And then finally, how can we still give glory to God in our sin? Check out Joshua chapter 7 verses 19 through 20 when you ask that question.

Well thank you so much for listening. Again, check out my website www.beyondthebasics.blog. You can get the study guides there. You can read my blog posts there. You can stream the podcast directly from the website. Check it out. Leave me a comment. Let me know what you think. I would love to hear from you. Thanks for listening.

Sources:

Guzik, David. “Study Guide For Genesis 3.” Blue Letter Bible, 2018, https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/guzik_david/study-guide/genesis/genesis-3.cfm.