Genesis 3

The Fall

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?"

2 And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,

3 but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'"

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

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."

Notice the tactics Satan used in beguiling Eve. He started with an innocent enough sounding question, "Did God actually say...?". Eve's answer showed that she didn't know God's command correctly. God had not, in fact, banned the touching of the fruit - only the eating of it. Once Satan discovered her weakness, that she didn't know God's word, he merely inserted the word "not" into God's warning, "You will not surely die." One simple "not" was enough to do the trick. Then he added something orginal of his own to deceive Eve further. He told her that eating the fruit would enable Eve to "know" good and evil, and make her like God. In this, Satan told a partial truth. Eve would "know" good and evil, but probably not in the way she had expected. She wouldn't have expected the corrupting power of evil over her, her husband - and the entire human race. Satan's actual lie was that she would be like God if she got to "know" evil. This is a blatant lie. Although God knows about evil, God doesn't experience evil in the way we can and he can't be corrupted by evil. It's impossible for God not to be good. Furthermore, we really can't be omniscient "like God" no matter how much knowledge we acquire.

Before we become too smug in thinking how foolish Eve was, and believe we can't be fooled like she was, let's examine Satan's tactics in the world today. He doesn't appear as a snake to us, no. But his tactics in the spheres of education and entertainment aren't that different from the biblical account here. He still poses the question, "Did God actually say...?" against God's word, for us that's the Bible. For instance, Satan, through his human agents asks, "Did God actually say we mustn't practice homosexuality?" and "Did God actually say that homosexual acts are abominations to him?" Yes, God did (Leviticus 18:22 & Leviticus 20:13). Once we start to doubt God's word, Satan further adds, "You will not surely be punished for your sin." and "God surely did not create a place called Hell." But God did (Matthew 25:41).

And Satan doesn't just lie to you about essential doctrines like sin. He can undermine your belief in other doctrines that don't seem so important - at least not initially. They may seem secondary, but once he gets you to doubt God's words on secondary doctrines, he will beguile you on the essential doctrines too - until your faith is in tatters. Be warned! Until God throws him into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10), Satan won't stop in his attempts to destroy our faith.

For instance, Satan can get you to disbelieve Gods's account of our origins and other biblical history. Then should you disbelieve those, he will undermine God's teaching on sin and morality. How firm is your faith? Is it built on the rock of God's word or on the sands of contemporary culture? Do you believe in the unseen things God states so plainly in Scripture, or do you believe the lies that Satan presents to you in multimedia and on the Internet? And to paraphrase the Book of Jude - I would love to talk to you about our common salvation and God's love towards us, but I feel it's more important to warn you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3). And God delivered the faith to us - in Scripture - in the Bible - which is the very word of God. Amen.

6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

This is what the apostle John refers to as "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" (1John 2:16)

It is all too easy to blame only Eve for being deceived, but notice that Adam was with her. Not only did he not prevent his wife from being deceived but he, himself, did not refuse the fruit either. God gave the command to Adam even before he had created Eve Genesis 2:17. So, Adam should've known God's command better than she, and he was responsible for teaching it to her. As the first federal head of the human race, Adam is ultimately responsible for The Fall.

7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

8 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

9 But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?"

10 And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself."

11 He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?"

12 The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate."

13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

14 The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.

15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel."

The Hebrew word for "seed" is translated as "offspring" in some versions, which isn't wrong, because that's what it means. In the phrase "Your seed [H2233 zar-‘ă-ḵā] ... her seed [H2233 zar-‘āh;]", the word "seed" is singular. Both the choice of this word and the fact that in both cases it is singular are no accidents.

In both Hebrew and English the word "seed" is usually reserved for the man. We talk about the man's seed not the woman's. Yet here, God deliberately used the word seed when talking about the woman. God chose his words deliberately. This is in fact the first prophecy of the Bible and God himself gave it. The "seed of the woman" is a direct reference to the virgin birth of Jesus. God had planned our redemption from the beginning - Praise the Lord!

16 To the woman he said, "I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you."

17 And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

God pronounced a curse on the ground i.e. on our planet. This curse will be in place until God lifts it, and the Bible tells us that one day He will in Revelation 22:3.

18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.

19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

20 The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.

21 And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

God made garments to cover them using animal skins, which means this is the first recorded death in the history of the world, and God Himself was responsible for it. God is indicating that Man's own feeble method of using fig leaves to cover his own sin, is inadequate. Hebrews 9:22 tells us that forgiveness of sin involves blood, pointing to the ultimate shedding of Christ's blood upon the cross.

22 Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever-"

23 therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.

24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.