Genesis 3
v.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’?”
Satan brought his temptation against the woman because he perceived she was more vulnerable to attack. This is because she did not receive the command to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil directly from God but through Adam (Genesis 2:15-17).
i. Perhaps Satan knew by observation Adam didn’t do an effective job of communicating to Eve what the LORD told him. This failure on Adam’s part made Eve more vulnerable to temptation.
ii. Satan will often attack a chain at its weakest link, so he gets at Adam by tempting Eve. The stronger ones in a “chain” must expect an attack against weaker links and support them against those attacks.
From the beginning, Satan has tried to undermine God’s people by undermining God’s Word. He can undermine just as effectively by getting us to neglect God’s Word as by getting us to doubt it.
Talks with Katlyn: When we approach God with our minds before hearts, the knowledge we obtain puffs our view of seeing him purely from the heart. Similarly, it considers the crafty logic of Satan first before trusting in God’s character in the commands He gives His people.
v.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.”
Ironically, that which the snake promised did, in fact, come about: the man and the woman became “like God” as soon as they ate of the fruit. The irony, however, lies in the fact that they were already “like God” because they had been created in his image (1:26).
v.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.
Sin is always pleasing to the eye, yet leading to death, and also desirable, yet also short in fulfilling our ultimate desires.
Eve surrendered to this temptation in exactly the way John describes in 1 John 2:16. First, she gave in to the lust of the flesh (saw that it was good for food), then she gave in to the lust of the eyes (pleasant to the eyes), then she gave in to the pride of life (desirable to make one wise).
Eternal life also eludes *Gilgamesh. In the famous epic about him, the death of his friend Enkidu leads him in a search for immortality, which he discovers is unattainable. In both of these accounts, being like the gods is viewed in terms of achieving immortality, whereas in the biblical account it is understood in terms of wisdom.
The woman’s thoughts in the last moments before the Fall were that she “saw that the …tree was good.” Up until now the expression has only been used of God. Thus the temptation is not presented as a general rebellion from God’s authority but rather a quest for wisdom and “the good” (GK 3202) apart from God’s provision.
v.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.
Both Psalm 104:2 and Matthew 17:2 suggest that light can be a garment for the righteous. It may be that Adam and Eve were previously clothed in God’s glorious light, and the immediate loss of this covering of light left them feeling exposed and naked.
It is more than probable that they were clothed in light before the fall, and when they sinned the light went out.
v.9
But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
How fitting is the question to the character of God. He convicts us of the guilt of our hidden sin. Yet, He beckons us as a loving Father to confess it unto Him and go to Him out of our hiding. “You aren’t where you belong” captures the tone and affection of God.
v.12
The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
The man’s words are an ironic reminder of God’s original intention in 2:18. As a measure of the extent of man’s fall, he now sees God’s good gift as the source of his trouble.
v.15
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
This is the first gospel sermon that was ever delivered upon the surface of this earth. It was a memorable discourse indeed, with Jehovah himself for the preacher, and the whole human race and the prince of darkness for the audience.
For God to see the defeat of Satan at Satan’s first flush of victory shows God knew what He was doing all along. God’s plan wasn’t defeated when Adam and Eve sinned because God’s plan was to bring forth something greater than man in the innocence of Eden. God wanted more than innocent man; His plan is to bring forth redeemed man.
v.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.
v.18
It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
This curse of the earth was on his head, and wounded him full sore. Was he crowned with thorns, and do you wonder that they grow up around your feet? Rather bless him that ever he should have consecrated the thorns by wearing them for his diadem
v.21
The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
Some creature had to die in order to provide them with garments, and you know who it is that died in order that we might be robed in his spotless righteousness. The Lamb of God has made for us a garment which covers our nakedness so that we are not afraid to stand even before the bar of God.
v.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.”
Unlike us, predators have no comprehension of their fundamental weakness, their fundamental vulnerability, their own subjugation to pain and death. But we know exactly how and where we can be hurt, and why. That is as good a definition as any of self-consciousness. We are aware of our own defencelessness, finitude and mortality. We can feel pain, and self-disgust, and shame, and horror, and we know it. We know what makes us suffer. We know how dread and pain can be inflicted on us—and that means we know exactly how to inflict it on others. We know how we are naked, and how that nakedness can be exploited—and that means we know how others are naked, and how they can be exploited. We can terrify other people, consciously. We can hurt and humiliate them for faults we understand only too well. We can torture them—literally—slowly, artfully and terribly. That’s far more than predation. That’s a qualitative shift in understanding. That’s a cataclysm as large as the development of self-consciousness itself. That’s the entry of the knowledge of Good and Evil into the world. That’s a second as-yet-unhealed fracture in the structure of Existence. That’s the transformation of Being itself into a moral endeavor—all attendant on the development of sophisticated self-consciousness.
v.24
After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.