What is your instant reaction when you read Genesis 3?
- Do you feel anger at the Ancient Serpent, Adam, and Eve?
- Does despair creep in seeing how the enemy overtook the earth and the depravity of man affected all living creatures?
- Have you become numb to the story so you glaze over the text?
- Or, do you see hope sprinkled throughout the passage?
What aspect of God stands out to you most in this chapter? Ex. Creator, All-Sovereign, wrathful, Judge? Is it possible to experience yet another perspective in this well-known Bible story; one of God’s love?
“Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, “You can’t eat from any tree in the garden”?’
The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, “You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die”.’
‘No! You will certainly not die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” Genesis 3:1-5
This is Satan’s first recorded interaction with woman/mankind. The truth was, Eve knew what was good. She already held a position of royalty as she was crafted from man who was made in the image of God. So, the only thing she hadn’t been made aware of was evil, from what we understand from the Bible. Had she asked God what to do or detached from the question for a moment and thought deeper about what God had said to them, she would have resisted temptation.
“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” Genesis 3:8
Can you imagine the grief the Lord must have felt when this beautiful relationship with creation was severed? Yet, His response is so patient and gracious! He gave Adam and Eve a chance to repent of their sinful actions before giving the consequences. He continued to communicate with them instead of cutting them off completely. He asked man and woman what they had done, and instead of owning their parts, they decided to cast the blame to others. But the Lord only showed grace to them, not the serpent. The Devil had lost his chance to defend himself; he had already been thrown from heaven because sin consumed him. Because of the evil Satan did against God face-to-face in heaven, he could not have the opportunity for pardon, nor should he.
From God comes blessings (Genesis 1:26) and consequences of sin (Genesis 3:14-19). He is the Just and Righteous Judge and therefore has the right to give both.
“And he said to the man, ‘Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, “Do not eat from it”:
The ground is cursed because of you.
You will eat from it by means of painful labor
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow
until you return to the ground,
since you were taken from it.
For you are dust,
and you will return to dust.” Genesis 3:17-19
Our sinful actions somehow effect land (“The ground is cursed because of you.” Vs 17). This makes me think of 2 Chronicles 7:14 (ESV):
“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
A repentant heart who prays and seeks God’s face will have your sins forgiven and your land healed. Though God has cursed the ground, He also has the right to bless it! He is in the resurrection business!
Oh, what love the Lord has for us! After giving consequences for sin, He continued to pursue Adam and Eve in His gracious love by covering them in clothes of skin. “The Lord God made clothing from skins for the man and his wife, and he clothed them.” (Genesis 3:21) Did the Lord cry in grief when making the clothing of skins to cover them? If it was animal skins, the pain of the first death having to sacrifice one living piece of His creation to cover another? I wonder if it was a lamb’s skin.
“The Lord God said, “Since the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove the man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.” Genesis 3:22-24
Though the next move to take Adam and Eve out of the garden of Eden seemed like the worst consequence, it was actually a move of protection in a way, so that people would not continue to eat from the Tree of Life and live forever in sin. God established a breaking point by death to free us from the eternal curse of sin. He brought man back into the wilderness from where Adam was originally created in order to start again. Isn’t that what God does for us – Taking us back to the cross when we repent of our sins, and helps restore us again?
Do you still feel the weight of sin from your past? Have you chosen to give your life to Jesus? If not, please write us and we’d be thrilled to explain how to do so – in**@ho******************.org . If you are a follower of Jesus, then most likely shame has distorted the reality that you have truly been set free! If you’ve repented of that sin, it’s time to live in the freedom Jesus’ sacrifice has given you. Stop listening to the voice of the enemy and start embracing the loving, gracious voice of your Savior! God’s word says you are holy and blameless in His sight because of what Jesus did for you. Don’t diminish His gift. Jesus crushed the head of the Serpent. The Devil no longer has authority over you.
Dear Jesus,
Thank You for continuously pursuing us with Your gracious love and truth. You’ve never given up on us and You never will! Thank You for crushing the head of the Ancient Serpent and giving us a way to break the curse of sin, shame, and death. Thank You for clothing us in your holiness. We don’t deserve it and yet You’ve given it because it’s just who You are. All praise to You! If there are people who don’t know You, please reveal Your saving truth to them. I pray for those who have sinned and not repented yet. Please convict their hearts so they can embrace the freedom You’ve given them. I also pray for those who have repented and are still weighed down by shame. Shut the mouth of shame and drive it away! Help them to listen to Your voice of Truth; Your Word that says they are holy and blameless.
Thank You for Paul’s writing in Colossians 1:21-23 that says, “Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds as expressed in your evil actions. But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him— if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a servant of it.”
In Jesus’ saving Name,
Amen
