Genesis 3 (Bible Study)
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Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
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. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8 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, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then 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,
“Cursed are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring[a] and hers;
he will crush[b] your head,
and you will strike his heel.”“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 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.”20 Adam[c] named his wife Eve,[d] because she would become the mother of all the living.
21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side[e] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Introduction
Most people recognise that there is something very wrong with humanity and human life. Why do we have death, disease, pain, suffering and evil? The “fall” in Genesis 3 addresses this.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. (Genesis 3:1)
1. Read Genesis 3:1-5 The devil's strategy of temptation: Neither the Snake nor the woman quotes God’s word properly. What does this teach us about the Snake’s two strategies?
In his first strategic approach, the Snake creates mistrust in the authority of God’s Word.
The Snake does not contradict at first, but “tweaks” the Word God has spoken, exaggerating the original command and then asks, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’” (v. 1). He implies that God’s command is burdensome and unreasonable. He is saying, “So God said you can’t eat the fruit of your own garden? If God really is as generous as we have been led to believe, surely he would not have forbidden such a natural thing!” This insinuation puts the command of God subject to human evaluation. We learn here that sin does not begin when we decide to disobey. It begins when we assume we have the right and wisdom to decide if we should obey. “Should I obey or not?” means you have already disobeyed! You are assuming God’s place, already committed standing in judgment over God’s wisdom. So the first step in temptation begins with putting yourself in a position to judge God’s word.
The Snake’s first stratagem (3:1) begins to work. Eve’s response exaggerates God’s command as well. She says God told them not to eat of the tree, “neither shall you touch it, lest you die” (3:3 ESV). Why does she exaggerate? Has she begun to feel self-pity and has picked up the vibe of the first strategy? She is putting herself in the position of judge. Alec Motyer writes: There is nothing truer to the portrayal of Satan than a determination to undermine the word of God, to get people to live on any other basis than revelation. 7
The Snake’s 2nd strategy is an assault on the goodness of God. He does so in just a few words.
First, he assaults God’s truthfulness. “You will not surely die.” Adam and Eve did not physically die when they ate the fruit, they died spiritually, falling under the curse of God’s condemnation. Physical death comes later. The Snake is denying the doctrine of judgment and condemnation. Plenty of people deny this reality today for the same reasons. They wish to live as they wish.
Second, he assaults God’s love and goodwill. “God knows that…your eyes will be opened.” This insinuates God does not have our best interests at heart, like saying, “If you obey God, you won’t be happy!” This Lie is at the heart of every sin. The root of it is we don’t believe “God is for us.”
Third, he assaults God’s sufficiency and character, saying, “You will be like God.” The Snake is saying: First, God wants to keep us down! God does not want us to grow into our potential. Second, it is possible for us to become God’s rivals. We don’t really need God to live our lives.
Along with the assault on God comes the promise that self-sufficiency will bring rewards. As we saw above, the promise “your eyes will be open” is ironic, since the new kind of “knowledge” they receive is shame and misery (3:7). And the promise “you will be like God” is a similar paradox. Sin does put you in the place of God, but you are not qualified for the job. It is like putting yourself in the place of a cornerstone, you can try, but it will crush you.
2. Read Genesis 3:6. Notice how (a) the emotions, (b) the mind, (c) the will play a role in committing sin? The visible action of sin flows from these invisible choices.
The emotions (“pleasing to the eye”).
“The woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye”[Gen 3:6].
Gen 2:9 said the trees of the garden were “pleasing to the eye and good for food” so this feeling can’t be wrong in itself. Food and beauty are good things to desire. When the desire grows greater than the desire to please God, we are ready to sin. Sin is not so much a desire to do bad things; it is an excessive desire for good things. Satan enticed Eve to get her own happiness, power and enlightenment through eating from the tree.
Just as it happened in the garden, our good emotions can be enticed by our enemy: “What could be so wrong about wanting to eat fruit? What is so wrong about wanting to be in love? What could be wrong about wanting to be successful in business?” Nothing is wrong with the desires in themselves. But our good desires are tainted by our desire to sit in the place of God.
The mind (“desirable for gaining wisdom”)
Secondly, we see that Eve’s reasoning is now affected by the sin: “and desirable for gaining wisdom.” She knows that God already has this knowledge of good and evil. Knowing the name of the tree; surely to eat of the tree would get the knowledge and a new level of wisdom. This is flawed logic. There were two ways for the tree to lead to knowledge: one through obedience and one through disobedience. [Illustration: there are 2 ways to know about the bubonic plague. One to study it and learn how to treat it, the other is to catch it and die!]
Eve should have relied on the command of God. Even the most brilliant person will not be wise enough to live in this world if that person thinks he is wise enough to live without God’s revelation. Human reason that rejects God’s revelation and assumes self-sufficiency is the 2nd result of sin.
The will: “She took some and ate it. She also gave . . . to her husband . . . and he ate it.”
Third, is the will. The will does what the mind and heart want most. Note the simplicity of the statement that Eve gave the fruit to her husband and he ate. Gen 3:6 is a reversal of God’s creation order. First, man and woman had dominion over plants and animals (1:26) yet here the Snake is leading Eve. Second, Eve was made to be a help to Adam (2:18) but here she is a hindrance. Third, Adam must stand against temptation; instead he falls with her without a protest.
3. Read Genesis 3:7-8. How is verse 7 unexpected after the threat of 2:17? What three effects of sin do we notice?
In 2:17 we expect Adam and Eve will drop dead. Instead, 3:7 says, “[Their] eyes were opened, and they realised.” Eyes opening was not what they expected, neither was the death.
First, the “opening of the eyes” was a new form of knowledge, but it led to bondage rather than freedom. As we saw there are two ways to know about the bubonic plague. One; understand it and treat it; the other is to catch it and die.
Second, the death of 2:17 is more comprehensive than we assumed. Sin leads to death and break -down in every area of life: spiritual, physical, social, cultural, psychological, and eternal. The world is “fallen,” subject to death in every respect. They now “knew” sin by being infected by it.
Three Effects
First, our relationship with ourselves: “They realised they were naked” (v7). Shame is implied. In Gen 2:25, they were “naked and unashamed.” Note a distinction between shame and guilt. Guilt is feeling bad about what you’ve done, and shame is feeling bad about what you are.
Second, our relationship with one another is affected: “They sewed fig leaves together and made coverings” (v7). Adam and Eve are inhibited with each other and control what the other sees.
Third, our relationship with God is affected by sin: “they hid from the LORD” (v8). Because their relationship with God was blurred, their relationships with themselves and others are disrupted. The spiritual problem is what led to the psychological and social problems.
4. Read Genesis 3:7-19. List the results and consequences of sin you can find.
First, there is internal shame and guilt. “They realised they were naked” (v. 7).
Second, there is mistrust and fear of others. The need for clothing (v7 “they made coverings”) is more than a new prudishness. Adam and Eve don’t trust each other now. They erect defences.
Third, an inability now to see their own sin. When God comes to the garden, Adam and Eve hide (v8) because of a general fear that God is looking on them as they are (“because I was naked,” v10). They know they are now unfit for God’s presence but dont understanding of the reason.
Fourth, there is blaming others in self-justification.
Fifth, there is a blaming and turning on God in self-justification. Adam says, “The woman you put here with me, gave me, and I ate” Our relationship with God is more than mistrust, it’s hostile.
Sixth, marital breakdown.
Seventh, there is economic-cultural breakdown. Previously we saw that work was a good thing, giving human dignity. In (v17) work is “painful toil.” Work is not a curse, but work has been cursed. Child-bearing will be in pain (3:16). Art, science, business, agriculture, education; all will be difficult.
Eighth, there is death. The final thing we see in this passage is “by the sweat of your brow you will eat.. until you will return to the ground.” (v19). Disease, old age, and death are the results of sin.
It is important to see how far-reaching the results of sin are. We all recognise murder, adultery, theft as sinful results of the fall. But poverty, mental illness, bad government, and poor race relations are also part of the “creation groaning” under sin? If we think of sin as individual unethical actions or heretical teachings, our concerns will lead to evangelism, but not also to counselling, social justice, and so on.
Conclusion: Adam and Eve were alienated from God (“they hid from the LORD,” v. 8), which led to alienation from one another (vv. 7, 12-13, 16), from themselves (vv. 7, 10), and from nature (vv. 17-19). Spiritual alienation leads to psychological, social, cultural, and even physical alienation.
5. Read Genesis 3:14-15 again. Genesis 1-3 tells us of creation and the fall. What do we learn in Genesis about our redemption?
First, God in verse 14 declares personal war on sin and evil when he makes his declaration. Kidner says, “These words do not imply that…the story is…a ‘Just So’ story on how the Snake lost its legs. The crawling is henceforth symbolic (cf Isa 65:25) as a new significance, not a new existence, will be decreed for the rainbow.” 10
Second, God shows us that he will carry out this warfare not simply by saving individual souls, but by creating two “races” within humanity. He speaks of “the seed of the woman” and “the seed of the Snake.” (see Revelation 12:9, 20:2) two groups of people. The “seed of the Snake” is that part of humanity that follows the lies of the Snake: that God is an enemy, that we have the right to judge his Word, that we can find our own salvation and happiness without him. The “seed of the woman,” is not made up of naturally good people. He is saying, “I will raise up a people who see your lives for what they are.” This is a promise that God will intervene in the lives and hearts of these people. By God’s grace, thro new birth we have come to see the truth about sin and God.
Third, the ultimate triumph over sin and the Snake will be carried out by a single individual. The word ‘seed’ is single. We not only learn here that this individual will defeat the Snake (to “crush a Snake’s head” is to kill it), but that in the process he himself will suffer (“you will strike his heel”).
NB Gen. 3 account tells us about the entry of evil into the world but it does not tell us much about its origin, which has been discussed throughout the ages. Two things we do know: first, God does not tempt the couple himself, so he is not the author of evil. Second, Adam and Eve do not disobey out of their own impulse and energy, so they were not created sinful. There was no “inner voice” of temptation within the human heart; the tempting voice comes from outside.
Who is the Snake, in Gen 3:15? There is an implication that the Snake is the tool of the Devil (see Rom.16:20; Rev.12:9). Nonetheless, this does not answer some philosophical questions: How did Satan become evil? Why did God let this happen (why did God create us as we are), if he obviously knew it would happen?
C. S. Lewis gives the classic “free-will” answer for these questions: If a thing is free to be good, it’s also free to be bad. And free will has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. 2
Genesis 3 would explain it if the origin of evil is to be known.
We do not know for certain why an all-powerful God would allow evil. “Freedom of choice” makes some sense, but it certainly can’t account for it all. What we do need to understand is (a) what sin is, (b) how it works in us, and (c) what to do about it. Genesis 3 has addresses these matters.
1 Derek Kidner, Genesis (Downers Grove, InterVarsity Press, 1967), p. 69. 6 Derek Kidner, p. 70. 7 Derek Kidner, p. 71.
2 Augustine, City of God XIII, xii, quoted by Derek Kidner, p. 69.
3 Albert M. Wolters, Creation Regained (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1985), pp. 44, 46.
4 Alec Motyer, Look to the Rock InterVarsity Press, 1996), p118. 5 Alec Motyer, p118-119. 8 p120.
9 Albert M. Wolters, p 47-51.
Study notes adapted from www.redeemer.com Copyright © Timothy Keller, and Redeemer Presbyterian Church 2009
