Genesis Chapter 3– John Karmelich

1. Chapter 2 was the good news, the story of Adam & Eve falling in love.

a) Chapter 3 is the bad news. The story of the first sin and the “fruit incident”.

b) The interesting thing is that Chapter 3 also has good news.

c) For those who don’t know, the word “Gospel” means good news.

d) The first hints of the Gospel story and the promise of a redeemer are written in Chapter 3.

e) So Chapter 3 can be called “The Bad News and The Good News”.

i) The bad news is sin. The good news is there is an escape clause. J

f) With that surprisingly brief intro, I’m going to jump right into Chapter 3 as we have a lot of ground to cover, and I want to hit the ground running.

2. Chapter 3 Verse 1: 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'?"

a) Before we get into the “whys” of this verse, let’s talk a little about the serpent.

i) There are lots of names for Satan/devil in the bible. We tend to use these two as they are the most common in our culture. We are speaking of this “entity” here.

ii) There is a strange story in Numbers 22 where we read of this non-Jewish prophet named Balaam. In it, God spoke, audibly through a donkey to Balaam. For one moment, God gave the special ability of speech to a donkey.

iii) The question is then, did Satan have the same power to use this serpent or did Satan literally become this serpent?

iv) The next question is, are all snakes cursed because of Satan? I argue yes as God designed it that way as a visual reminder to us of the curse and fall of Satan.

v) The next debatable issue is whether or not Satan “entered” this animal or actually “was” this animal.

vi) We don’t know is what the serpent was like prior to the curse.

vii) He may have been a beautiful animal prior to this event.

viii) Satan is described prior to his fall as the “anointed cherub” (Ezekiel 28:14).

a) This means he was the highest ranked of all the angels (more on this later).

ix) This story takes place sometime after the 7-day creation story. It could have days or been a hundred years later. We don’t know. I believe it was around this time frame that Satan saw how God cherished man, got jealous and lead this rebellion.

b) Let’s move on to the more important issue: Why did Satan say these exact words to Eve?

i) Satan’s strategies to lead you into temptation have not changed through the millenniums. The first thing he does is have you question God’s word.

ii) In this simple statement, Satan “questioned” whether or not God really said something. It is that reminder to us to stick close to God’s word and make it part of our lives. Those who don’t get “questioned” as to whether or not it is real.

iii) Let me give a modern paraphrase and expansion of what Satan said: ”Hey Eve, you don’t really believe God word do you? After all, it’s so old and has been translated so many times, who knows what it really said and if it is true. After all, its just a bunch of fictional stories made up to teach us things…You don’t really believe this is true do you?”

a) That’s how the first temptation comes. Satan loves when people think of him as some sort of mythological creature with horns and a pitchfork. What Satan doesn’t want is to think any of this stuff is “real”.

3. Verse 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.' "

a) Eve’s big mistake in these verses is that she added to what God commanded.

i) God said that you may not eat of the fruit. (Genesis 2:17).

ii) God never said you must not touch it.

b) I wrote on the previous page on the danger of questioning if God’s word is real.

i) There is an equal danger of adding to what God said.

ii) This is the beginning of “legalism”. It is to take your interpretation of the bible, and making it equal with Scripture itself.

iii) God wants you take seriously what He commands us to do, but he does not want us to add to those commands.

iv) This is why Jesus condemned the Pharisees so much. It wasn’t that they were zealous toward God, it was that they added rules and regulations based on their interpretation of the bible and made those rules equal in validation with the Scripture, and they didn’t practice what they preached.

v) There is an interesting curse near the end of the book of Revelation that says in effect “cursed is anyone who takes away or adds to anything in this book” (paraphrase of Revelation 22:18-19). The point is you don’t mess with God’s word, by either adding or subtracting.

4. Verse 4: "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman.

a) The second thing Satan does is actually deny God’s word.

i) The first thing he did was question whether or not God’s word is real.

ii) Now he goes to the second level and actually deny it is God’s word.

iii) Jesus said about Satan “he is a liar and the father of lies”. (John 8:44b)

5. 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."

a) Now comes Satan’s third attack on Eve.

i) He doesn’t say, “Eat this because God’s word is not true.”

ii) He doesn’t say, “Eat this because it is good for you”.

iii) He says in effect, “Eat this and you will be more like God.” In a sense he is saying “Hey Eve, if you really want to be spiritual, if you really want to grow in your personal relationship with God, if you want to be a mature believer, then you should eat of that tree.”

iv) The point is Satan approached Eve on the desire to grow more spiritually.

b) Most of the “new age” movements use a similar type of appeal. The idea is to follow their methods and you will be “more like God”. There is nothing “new” about “New Age”.

c) Without getting too sexist here, why do you think Satan approached Eve and not Adam?

i) I believe the answer is that God put into women, more than men the desire to seek God on a spiritual relationship.

a) Statistically, more women go to church than women. Women, as a general rule, desire relationships more than men. Men are “conqueror’s” while women desire to “connect” with people.

b) Satan went after Eve because in the next sentence the temptation has to do with “being more like God”. Satan approached here in the spiritual sense.

d) What did Satan mean by “knowing good and evil?”

i) In a sense, he was correct. The story line in Chapters 2 and 3 do indicate that once we ate of that tree we as humans are aware of “good and evil”.

ii) I believe this means that we become conscious of sin. We have the willful desire to not do what God wants us to do and at the same time, feel guilty about it.

iii) We now have knowledge of “good” in that we can know God’s will for our Lives.

iv) Prior to the sin in the garden, Adam and Eve may not have been aware of what “sin” was. They just knew the one rule of not eating of that tree. Even with that one simple rule, they choose to disobey.

6. 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. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

a) On the “surface” it does not sound like what Eve did was wrong.

i) She saw the fruit was good for food. There is nothing wrong with that.

ii) She saw the fruit was pleasing to the eye. There is nothing wrong with that.

iii) She saw the fruit would make her wise. There is nothing wrong with that.

iv) The only problem is that God said no.

v) Never, never underestimate the human ability to “logically explain” disobedience.

vi) It is amazing what the human mind can ration away when we are disobedient.

vii) The point is we don’t always fully understand why God says we can do and cannot do something. Sometimes one has to take by faith that what God instructs for us in his Word is because God knows what is best for our lives.

b) Next, notice that Eve game some of the fruit to Adam, who was with her.

i) There is a classical debate in both Judaism and Christianity over whether or not Adam was present when during the dialogue between Satan and Eve. Most say “no”, but it is not provable by the Scripture. From this verse, it seems to be that Adam was “there” when she ate the fruit, but was Adam there during the whole time of the dialog?

a) If Adam was there, why didn’t he say anything to tell Satan to “buzz off”?

b) He may have been in the background just observing the conversation and not getting involved and seeing what Eve would do.

c) Let’s talk a little about this from Adam’s perspective.

i) Adam knew it was wrong to eat of that tree.

ii) He saw Eve take of the fruit and then willfully choose to disobey God.

iii) I personally believe that Adam loved Eve so much, he choose to be “in sin” with her than to stay in good relations with God. In a romantic sense, it is beautiful, but it does not negate the fact that Adam was willfully disobedient to God.

iv) There is a Proverb that is appropriate here:

a) “Do not give your strength to women,
Nor your ways to that which destroys kings.” (Proverb 31:3 NKJV).

b) The point of the Proverb is that God called men to be the leaders of the family. This is not about ignoring your wife nor about the equality issue. It is about leadership. The only priority over husbands’ relationship with their wives is their relationship with God. You don’t listen to your spouse at the point of ignoring God’s word.

d) By the way, have you noticed there is no mention of the word “apple” in this text?

i) The classical artwork is always of Adam and Eve biting an apple.

ii) There is no mention that the fruit was ever an apple.

iii) Personally, I think it was a fig, as “fig leaves” are mentioned in a few verses, but who knows and what does it really matter anyway? J

7. Verse 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.

a) I’ve always wondered where Adam and Eve got the sewing thread and needles, but that’s another story. J

b) The idea of “eyes being opened” is that they were now consciously aware they had sin.

c) They were remorseful and needed to “do something to relive the guilt”. Thus, fig leaves.

d) The “fig leaves” represents the first attempt by man to please God on their own efforts.

e) They tried to “cover” their sins. The word “nakedness” is a word-picture for sin as it represents shame.

f) We’ll read in a few verses how God made animal skins for them instead of the fig leaves. The point here is that fig leaf covering is not acceptable as a “covering” of one’s sins.

8. Verse 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.

a) First, let’s talk about the presence of God.

i) If God is perfect, then he knows all things. Therefore he is everywhere at once.

ii) There are times and places in the bible where God “manifest’s” himself at a certain location as to draw someone to (or from) that location.

iii) For example, when the Israelites were in the desert, there was a “pillar of fire” that rose above the tabernacle to remind the Israelites of God’s presence. (Ref. Exodus 13:21, et.al.) (This illustration was taken from the book: “When Critics Ask: A Popular Handbook on Bible Difficulties” by Norman L. Geisler.)

iv) Getting back to Verse 8, somehow God “manifested” himself in the Garden so that Adam and Eve became aware of God’s presence.

b) The idea of “God being around” either drives people to God or away from God, depending upon their state of being at any given moment.

i) When we do something we know is wrong, it drives us away. When we are aware that Jesus paid the price for all of our sins, past, present and future, it drives us to God the Father in gratitude of what Jesus did for us.

ii) This reminds me of one of my favorite proverbs about the bible itself. “Sin will keep you from this book and this book will keep you from sin”.

a) When you are seeking God’s will for your life you are running toward God. When you are willfully disobeying God you are running away whether you realize it or not at that moment.

9. Verse 9: But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"

a) The good news of this story is that God is always calling you back just as God is reaching out to Adam and Eve.

b) You shouldn’t read this story as God being angry with them for sinning. You need to read this question of “Where are you” as a loving father, in sorrow, wanting his children to realize the errors of their ways.

c) Throughout the bible you read of God constantly trying to get people to repent and turn to him. Especially among the writings of the prophets, you see God pleading with people to turn from their wicked ways in order to avoid some punishment to come.

d) Notice that God called to the man. This is about the responsibility of leadership.

10. Verse 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?"

a) In Verse 8, Adam “ran” from the presence of God, as if it were possible. J

i) “Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence? (Psalm 139:7, NIV)

b) Notice how God is working on making Adam aware of what he did.

i) God was well aware Adam ate of this tree. He was working on getting Adam to realize what he did was wrong.

ii) God does the same for us, through the Holy Spirit and through his Word.

c) Man will always be accountable to God.

i) That goes for believers as well as unbelievers.

ii) For believers, it should be when we become aware of our faults that we confess them to God.

iii) Revelation Chapter 20 speaks of two separate judgments, a 1,000 years apart. One is for believers and one is for unbelievers. For believers, God will hold us accountable for whatever information we had about Jesus and what we did with that information.

a) For non-believers, God judges people fairly based on what information they did have about Jesus.

11. Verse 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."

a) Here we have the first recorded incident of “passing the buck”. Nobody was ready to take the blame themselves, but pass it on to others.

i) Our egos don’t want to apologize, so we make excuses and blame others.

b) In the next verse, God starts dishing out the punishments. What one has to notice is that God does not even comment on the excuses being given here. They are ignored as they have no meaning. When we confess our sins, God is not interested in excuses.

i) “The blood of Christ does not cover one excuse to God.” Corrie Ten Boom

c) You have to find it comical what Adam says about Eve here.

i) Back in Chapter 2 Adam was “singing praises to God” about this wonderful woman that God had made for Adam.

ii) Here Adam said, “The woman you put here with me-she gave me some fruit…”.

iii) Now that they sinned, it is more like, “Hey God, its partially your fault. You’re the one who gave me this woman in the first place, remember?” J

d) Before we get into the next set of verses, which is the dishing out of the punishments, let’s talk a little about sin and the devil’s influence.

i) The devil cannot grab your arm and literally force you to commit some sin.

ii) I do believe that in the same way we have the free will to choose to obey or disobey God we have the same free will to choose to obey or disobey Satan. Satan can tempt us, but cannot force you to commit some sort of sin. Therefore, Satan gets punished in the next set of verses, but so do Adam and Eve. Satan is punished for causing temptation while Adam and Eve are punished for disobedience. My point is you cannot blame Satan as an excuse before God.

12. Verse 14: So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.

a) There is an old Peanuts^® cartoon where Charlie Brown was reading the story of the “Prodigal Son” to Linus and Snoopy. Charlie Brown got the line where it says that the Father killed the fatted calf to celebrate the son’s return home. (Luke 15:23). Snoopy then thinks to himself, “What did the fatted calf do to deserve that?” J

i) My point of that illustration is that not only is the serpent cursed, but all animals. Notice Verse 14 says, “Cursed are you above all the livestock and wild animals”.

ii) The idea is that all of creation is affected by the curse on Satan.

iii) When Adam and Eve sinned, it changed everything. Not only were they affected and Satan affected, but also all of creation had to suffer the consequences of sin.

iv) God gave Adam dominion over all the animals of the earth. (Genesis 1:26, 1:28).

v) Therefore, since we now have this sin nature, we not only have the “power” to hurt God by sin, but also others and animals as well.

a) Paul said, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” (Romans 8:22, NIV)

b) In this Verse, we get the curse upon Satan. Somehow, he has to “crawl in the dust all the days of his life”. What that exactly means we are not sure.

i) We know in the book of Job, Satan still has access to the throne of heaven.
(Job 1:16-12). Despite this curse, somehow, he can get from place to place, spiritually. Despite God’s curse, he still has tremendous power.

ii) Satan, even after the curse, is a far more powerful entity than you or I can withstand on our own. This is why God tells us to rebuke Satan “in Jesus name” (See Jude 1:9) as opposed to trying to do it on our own strength. God designed it this way to keep us dependant upon Him in fighting the forces of evil.

iii) It makes you wonder about all snakes. I don’t believe Satan is visibly presence in all snakes. I believe God made them that way as word-pictures to remind us of the curse upon Satan.

13. Verse 15, 1^st Sentence: And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers;

a) OK, here is the important stuff. Time to really pay attention. J

b) In Verse 15, God “declares war” with Satan.

i) The English word “enmity” is the same root word from which comes “enemy”.

ii) Webster’s^® On-Line Dictionary describes “enmity” as “positive hatred which may be open or concealed”.

iii) God is saying in effect, “I’m declaring war between Satan and Eve and between Satan’s offspring and Eve’s offspring.”

c) Here, God has a “problem”.

i) He loves Adam and Eve and wants to spend eternity in a right relationship with them. At the same time, God cannot tolerate sin of any type. If God is perfect, he must be perfect in justice as well as perfect in forgiveness.

ii) Therefore some sort of solution is needed as to how to have both perfect forgiveness and perfect justice at the same time.

iii) The solution to this dilemma, of course, is to have a perfect God pay the price for that sin. This shows perfect love as only a perfect substitute can be used for sin. It shows perfect justice, as God does not forgive any sin without justice being done.

d) In this sentence, is the first hint of the Gospel message. There is a promise being made by God here. God is saying he will do this.

i) By “God saying, “I’m declaring war between the offspring of Eve and the offspring of Satan” is a prediction of a bible-long war between the forces of God and the created forces of evil. Despite every effort by Satan to stop God’s redemptive plan for mankind, despite every effort by Satan even to slow down God’s redemptive plan for has failed, is failing and will fail miserably.

ii) In a sense, that is why the bible is “so long”. That is why Jesus didn’t die on the cross right after Adam and Eve sinned. God wanted to show that despite Satan’s best efforts to stop’s God’s redemptive plan, despite man’s free will choice to reject God’s free offer to us, that God’s plans do go through.

iii) If you are still confused, let me get into a few more specifics and that may help.

e) When God is talking about the “offspring of the woman”, he is not talking about all children born to Eve collectively. God is talking about a specific person that will come from Eve that will be the Savior for all of mankind.

i) That is why this sentence has the first “hint” of the Messiah.

ii) When God is talking about the “offspring of the devil”, He is talking about the AntiChrist. This is a man who will one day walk on the earth. It is not Satan himself. There are lots of names and titles for this guy. The “AntiChrist” is not even the most common, it is just the one most recognized. I am positive that is what God is describing here and I’ll discuss it more in the second half of Verse 15.

f) The next thing that is important is to understand the concept of “seed”.

i) Here is a case where the NIV Bible translation of over-paraphrased this sentence.

ii) The NIV Version translates this sentence: