Genesis 3: 1-24
Theme: Sin
SONS OF ADAM, DAUGHTERS OF EVE
One day someone asked Caryle Marney, "Where is the Garden of Eden?" He answered, "two-fifteen Elm Street, Knoxville, Tennessee."
"You're lying," the person said. "It's supposed to be someplace in Asia."
"Well, you couldn't prove it by me," Marney said, "For there, on Elm Street, when I was but a boy, I stole a quarter out of my Mama's purse and went down to the store and brought me some candy and I ate it and then I was so ashamed that I came back and hid in the closet. It was there that she found me and asked, "Where are you? Why are you hiding? What have you done? (W. Willimon, Sighing for Eden, 24)
Ever since that first Eden, man has not been the same. We all know the story. Imagine if you will, the most beautiful place on earth. It is full of plants, beautiful plants and animals roaming all around. It was created to be a living room for our Father Adam and our Mother Eve. It was the perfect environment, no need for air conditioning or heating. No need for anything. And you will notice the two most beautiful humans you have ever seen. She is the most perfect woman, he the most perfect man. I suspect that they were beauty beyond compare, a kind of beauty, that if we saw them today, it would hurt our eyes.
Eve was tempted by that smooth talking snake and she began to doubt God. The serpent is not identified as Satan in Genesis. That comes later in the Bible. He is the sneakiest, the most crafty creature in the garden. Here, we observe the anatomy of temptation.
He begins his temptation in a subtle way. "Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?’" He starts with a false premise. Of course it was not true, God did not forbid eating of any of the trees, just one tree. What he does is create doubt in the woman’s mind.
Eve gave a defense. God has told us to eat anything but this one tree. And if we eat it, or even touch it, we will die. The serpent, said, "you surely will not die!" Let’s stop here for a minute and ask the question, why did God put such a tree in the garden and make such a strong warning about it? I think that God placed the tree there because man was created in freedom and freedom means that we have choices. In a perfect garden, there was a tree and Mankind had to make a moral decision about that tree. Some have tried to say that the temptation was sex. But the Bible knows none of that. Sex was good and they were commanded to multiply and fill the earth, why would anyone think that the tree represented sex? The tree was a kind of Law, you may do all of this but this one thing you may not do. The Law was made manifest with a tree and its fruit as it object.
The serpent says you will not die with an incredulous voice. What does it mean to die? You won’t die. The fact is, God does not want you to eat of the tree because in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God. There’s the temptation. To be like God, to be His equal, to be autonomous, to be on our own. The irony is that she was already like God! She was made in His image, she was in relationship to Him. What she did not know was evil. She was made very good. Why should she want to know evil?
The woman walked to that part of the garden where the forbidden tree was and she looked at it and wondered. She studied it and soon discovered that it was a delight to the eyes. It was a beautiful and tempting food. Notice the progress. It was good, the Hebrew tob pleasant, agreeable, it is the same word that God used in creation when He saw it and said that it is good, it is very good. Now, the woman is making judgements that should be left to God alone. It was a delight to the eye, the Hebrew taavah desire, can even mean greedy. And was desirable to make one wise, the Hebrew chamad, take pleasure in, attractive, to covet.
She judged it to be good, she desired it greedily, she coveted what was not hers. Have you ever been here, have you ever experienced temptation like this? She reached out and took the fruit and ate it and it was every bit as good as it looked. So, she took it to her husband and he ate, no questions asked, no objections, not correction to his wife, no protest. He just ate.
What happened in the Garden? Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they rebelled. That is the heart of all sin. But the great tragedy was that when sin entered into the lives of humanity, the whole universe was affected. Adam and Eve represented the race and all fell in them, humanity fell. But, it was not just man, the whole world fell even as man fell. The world became the arena of rebellion. It was uprooted from its purpose, to be a place where God and man communed and fellowshiped.
God came to them in cool of the day. But the Hebrew literally says, in the wind of the day. God came in the wind, he spoke to them as He did to Job from the whirlwind. Perhaps what had once been a pleasant breeze was now an angry storm. When they heard God coming, they hid themselves because they were naked. They were fallen, nakedness was no longer the innocent state of existence. They were aware they were no longer holy, they were afraid to be in the presence of a Holy God. They felt guilty, they were guilty.
Why did you hide, who told you you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to? They were hiding in their closet in shame. It was the blame game. It was the snake’s fault. No, it is the Woman’s fault. Well, God it is your fault, you gave me that woman.
Spiritual death came that day. God brought judgment to them. The serpent would eat dust the rest of his days, a sign of utter defeat. There is enmity between the natural world and man but also between Satan and mankind. Ultimately the offspring of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, the first reference to God’s intended plan of salvation. It was the first of God’s holy promises to Man.
The woman would experience toil, pain and suffering in the birth of children. And the age-old battle between the sexes was part of the curse. Your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you. In the Hebrew, it is literally, "Your desire shall be against your husband, but he shall rule of over you." There is enmity between man and woman. The gender wars, imperfect relationships, strained marriages have their origin in the first sin.
Finally, to the man, the blame for the Fall is laid on his shoulders. The woman is not blamed, but Adam is blamed for listening to her. In other words, Adam could have stopped it. The curse is that his life will be an experience of toil and pain and suffering. It is the identical word used of Eve in childbirth. They will both toil and suffer. That enmity that exists between nature and man will yield suffering. I think this means more than just thorns and thistles. I think that it means natural disasters, hurricanes and storms. I think it means disease and death and evil deeds. I think it means a divided mind and mental illness. These things are in the world because of the Fall. So many today preach that if you have enough faith you can end your suffering, you can overcome depression or cancer or stroke or heart disease. And that simply is not true. Sometimes it pleases God to work a miracle in our lives. And surely it pleases God as He leads us in discovery that heals our sickness and overcomes our divided minds. But our suffering is part of the curse and the curse will not be removed in this lifetime. Don’t be fooled by the health and wealth quack preachers you hear on TV.
Wow, it’s depressing isn’t it! Is there anything that can be done? Can we start all over again? There is nothing that we can do, we are helpless in this matter . . . but it is God who offers us hope. The first glimmer of it comes in verse 14, her seed shall crush the serpent’s head. As we work our way through the Old Testament, we discover hints and hopes about what God has in mind. And when we turn to the New Testament, we find God become flesh. Paul said that Jesus was the second Adam, a new beginning for humanity. And just as the first Adam brought death and sin and the curse into the world, Jesus the second Adam brings us salvation and hope and promise. Jesus overcomes death. He breaks the power of sin over us. And He slays the old curse. In Christ we have redemption but we also have a restored relationship with God and with each other. Finally, because of Jesus, men and women can have a healing relationship. Because of Jesus, we will one day have the Garden restored and all will be as it once was.
Son of Adam, Daughter of Eve, do you belong to the first Adam or the second? Are you under the curse or have you been set free? Jesus is our Hope and Promise fulfilled. It is those who are in Christ who will, one day, have all of the curse removed and we will live in His presence and will walk with Him in the cool of the day. And neither we nor God will remember our sins no anymore.