This week we are going to look at what is commonly referred to as the Fall. That was when sin entered into the world via the actions of Adam and Eve. Throughout the history of God’s people, both in Jewish history and in Church history women have been blamed, but in the Bible, especially in the writings of Paul, the weight of the blame is placed squarely on Adam. It is clear in this text (as well as in 1 Tim 2.14) that Eve was deceived, and that Adam’s participation is willful, silent, and compliant. He does not defend his wife in her darkest hour, and even joins in the deception, making this man’s darkest hour, and creating a pattern by which men continually fail God. The good news throughout the story is that God, the giver of grace and mercy, of great compassion, and forgiveness came to them, and that even in God’s pronouncement of judgment that God provided hope, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and a plan to redeem everything that the humans lost. It is really a story of redemption and hows us the very character and nature of God, that from the beginning, as it is now, God has always been interested in us, loved us, and desired us. God has never been cruel, disaffected, or malevolent. Read Genesis 3 below:
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’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 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.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 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. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
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. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 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.”
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.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
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.”
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;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
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.”
The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
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—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 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.
Generally, the first question in everyone’s mind after reading this account is, who is the serpent? Is that Satan, is that the devil? Is that why the snake can talk? The answer is that the serpent is an adversary of God and man. One of the most misunderstood concepts in the Bible is Satan, or the devil, followed closely by the the anti-Christ, and the man of lawlessness. Most of these terms are not in reference to a single creature but a description of any creature who works against God to undue his works, or to oppose him. There are specific references to the Devil and his Angels in Revelation but here in this text the word satan never appears, but serpent is listed in Revelation 12.9 as one of the many names of the Dragon who is cast into hell, along with the names of ancient serpent. Satan and the devil. So to answer is that the serpent was just a serpent, but he did the bidding of the devil. Throughout the Bible, and the history of God’s people, the serpent has been assumed to be the personification of the devil. As far as the serpent talking, the Bible pictures both the Garden of Eden and heaven, as places where mankind and animals communicate. That the animals under the rule and reign of God, with man as the ruler of earth, that they give account to man, and are held accountable by man. It is only under the dark veil of sin that the relationship between man and the animals becomes adversarial, beginning with the curse upon the serpent, and God making Adam and Eve clothes out of animal hide, which also foreshadowed the temple ritual of animals dying for the sins of man, and God providing for the forgiveness of man and covering man’s shame. If you think about this passage it is loaded with foreshadowing, and layers of imagery for the mind to feast on. We don’t want to focus on that too much and distort the text, but it is pregnant with meaning.
Nonetheless, the serpent speaks to Eve, but it does not say why the serpent picks on her.
Why does the serpent choose Eve to pick-on? Is it because he wants to put division between woman and man? Is it because she did not learn about the prohibition from God but rather from the man, and she is a little fuzzy on the topic. I doubt that because she articulates the teaching well before she gives in to sin. Or is it because she more than Adam represents humanity, because she was made by man, she is supposed to be protected by the man, he is supposed to care for her like God loves his people (Jews or the church). And in deceiving her rather than Adam it sets up a false but powerful parallel that plays to our deepest fears, that God lets bad stuff happen, that he sits silent, that God does not defend us, that God does not care about us, and that when its done, he unjustly blames us.
What’s the first thing Adam does when he is confronted by God, he blames her, he blames God. That woman that you gave me. It is your fault God, you set me up to fail. You put the tree here, you gave me the woman, this is all your fault, and her fault. Let me tell you, WE are never more like Satan and less like God then when we blame others, unless it is when we keep silent and do nothing to defend those who are being destroyed by others. That is why the serpent picks on her, and secondly it is because the serpent wants to disrupt the relationship between man and woman. As God is explaining the consequences of the fall God tells the woman, that her husband will rule over her. Before that moment she was his perfect mate and she completed him, they were a team, each with his/her own role, and joyful in their relationship, but now the consequence of sin is that their relationship is jacked-up. Not that God is punishing them by jacking-up the relationship, but God is explaining the fall out of their fall.
Remember also, that in this text, not everything God says is judgment. He already told them that the judgment would be death. The judgment on sin is death, but the fall out of sin in the world is: disease, wars, deformity, tidal waves, earthquakes, floods, etc. When man let sin into the world, then sin let death into the world, and death employed destruction who turns loose a rampage and suffering of every sort. So, when someone tells you that there sin only hurts themselves, don’t you believe it. Their sin and ours, stirs the pot of death and destruction, and the wake, the fall-out, the repercussions of it all makes people suffer and doubt God, while daring to stand in judgment of God, and question his morality for “letting this happen.” Again with the blaming?
Remember too that the man is present when the woman eats. The man does not stop the woman from sinning, and then he joins her in the sin, but knowingly and willfully. Then their eyes are opened, and they realize they are naked. Guys, did you know that every problem in your sex life began with a man being silent, being passive, and letting sin destroy their relationship? Guys are notorious for this sin. Men, you cannot be silent and passive in your home. That one is for free guys.
The point is that sin has entered the picture, and it brings spiritual death, it brings death to the animals to make leather, it brings death because access to the tree of life is cut off, making us mortal. Spiritual death enters, because now our relationship with God is impure on our part, full of doubts, distrust, and unbelief.
Then, GOD COMES TO THE RESCUE.
This is not saying that God does not pass judgment; God is just, and all God’s ways are true, but it is important to see God’s role clearly here in this text. God not only comes as judge, but God comes in to rescue. Remember in the beginning God said, in the day that you eat of it you will surely die, but notice that after God gets the facts, God begins judgment with the serpent:
*You did this
*You are cursed
*Your fate is worse than any other animal
*On your belly you will be, eating dust.
*There will be distrust, strife, war between mankind and snakes. Man will not trust you.
**And a day is coming when a male seed of woman, will crush you, even though you strike him first, he will crush you. Here in lies our first hint of the gospel. The promise that humanity will be restored, and that our enemy will be destroyed. Note also that no where else in all of the Bible is seed, as reference to descendants, ever appear in female form. It is always male seed line, never female. But here it is the seed of woman. Then remember that Jesus was the seed of woman and God, not that of Joseph . . . Also be mindful that even the Apostle Paul made the connection when he said in Romans 16.20 that, “And the God of peace will soon crush Satan underneath our feet.”
Second, God turns to the woman. Note that God does not curse her. Instead God tells her how sin will disrupt her roles in life. First, God tells her that she will experience pain in childbirth, and bring forth children in pain, specifically the idea is more than just physical pain that childbirth brings. Although it never spells out what other kind of pain, it seems safe to fill in that blank with the any other pain associated with children and life (e.g. psychological, emotional, spiritual). Then God adds, “your desire will be for your husband.” The word her for desire is the same word used to describe how sin wanted to master, or subdue Cain (Genesis 4.7). It means that the result of sin is that now you will want to rule or subdue your husband and he will dominate, you. The point is that this is the beginning of the war between the sexes. Not as punishment but as fall out. It is never called a curse, she is just told that the result of this act has put this into their relationship. Before you wanted to be your husbands helpmate, you were happy to labor with him, but now you will want to dominate him, yet he will dominate you instead. That is the result of sin! This is important because in the restoration of all things, in the end, there is no marriage, we will be like the angles, neither male nor female, not given in marriage. There will be no more striving between the sexes when God is king.
Then God turns to the man. Again God does not curse the man, God curses the ground. It is fitting as a response to Adam eating the fruit, because both Adam and the tree come forth from the earth. Adam, the Hebrew word for man (a’dam), literally means, of the earth., while a’damah is the earth. So the ground, from which you came is cursed, and to earth one day you will return, meaning of course, you will die, just as God said you would when God first gave the prohibition, but God does not curse the man. He only spells out the consequences.
Then on the heels of the pronouncement sin's effect begins. The domination of the woman by the man is insinuated because Adam gives her a name, just like he did the animals. God clothes the man and woman with skin, both to rescue them and to cover them, but animals die because of their sin. God also rescues them by cutting them off from the tree of life, so that they would not remain in their sin forever.
Then the reader is left to wonder when God will rescue humanity as he said, with the seed of woman? When will that be completed? When will the “seed of woman” crush the head of the serpent, when will the serpent strike the heel of this seed?
From the vantage point of history the Bible tells us that the seed of woman is Jesus. Satan struck Jesus, he wounded Jesus on the cross, but Jesus rose again and he is returning to crush Satan and all of his works underneath our feet. Romans 5 tells us that the fall came through one man, Adam, and that it brought sin and death to bear on us all. Likewise we will be reconciled by the one man, Christ, the God-Man, and that through him we will not only be reconciled but we will also be given eternal life, and made to reign with him.
Second, it is clear that when people respect the differences between men and women as equal in the heart and mind of God, and value the opposite sex, then they are most like God. When people refuse to dominate, and belittle. When they stop blaming, and accept responsibility for their own actions. When they refuse to remain silent, and stand up for the oppressed. When they hate their own sin, rather than make trite excuses for it, then they are becoming most like God, and that is the point of this whole endeavor; for us all to be more like God. But pointing fingers at women, pointing fingers at the men, this will not solve anything. In fact, it will perpetuate fallen behavior, and make us more like the devil and less like God. It will cause us to doubt God more, and trust God less. Is that really what any of us really wants?
Third, we need to restore the good name of God on the earth. Don’t let those lies be perpetuated. Don’t let people accuse God of evil. Don’t accuse God of cursing you or punishing you every time life gets hard. Own your own stuff! Stupid is as stupid does. Life is not like a box of chocolates, its like a jar of jalapeños. What you do today may burn your butt tomorrow. Right?
The fall is much more than an explanation of our condition, because unlike sin, Genesis 3 points us toward God, toward the message of redemption, and toward the hope in the seed of woman, Jesus. Be of great joy, help has arrived . . .
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