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About Jesus Steve Sweetman Chapter 3 The
Fall Of Man (ch. 3:1 - 24) Genesis
chapter 3 is one very important chapter in the Bible. It relates the
fall of mankind that begins
the conflict between man and his God. It also foretells
God's solution to the fall of man. Some
liberal theologians suggest chapter 3 is actually an allegory.
I view this to be a real historical event. Chapter
3 presupposes that there was a rebellion against God prior to this time.
Disobedience to God did not begin in the garden of Eden with Adam
and Eve. This is
alluded to in Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 in how it relates to satan.
Evil and sin existed in satan prior to Adam and Eve.
Just when sin entered satan is debatable. The
third word in chapter 3 is "serpent."
The Hebrew word translated as "serpent" means
"hissing, whispering." One
thing we should note here that this serpent wasn't a snake. We will see
later that he became a snake like creature.
We
need to note here that from a reading of Ezekiel 28 that satan was
highly intelligent, beautiful, important, close to God, among other
things. In Ezekiel 38:12 we
learn that satan was in the Garden of Eden.
God seemed to have placed him there.
So when we see satan in the form of the serpent here in this
chapter coming to speak to Eve, we must think of him as being very
attractive and charismatic. The
serpent wasn't just any old animal.
He might well have been very human like. We
seem from Ezekiel 28 that satan was created. There
isn't any passage of Scripture that I know of that tells us when he was
created, or when evil was found in his heart.
We simply know that God did create him and at some point evil was
found in his heart.
This
serpent was "craftier than any of the wild animal."
There's a couple of ways at looking at this.
Some believe that the serpent was a wild animal.
Others suggest that satan was craftier than the wild animals, but
not one himself. Whatever
the case, I believe that satan became incarnate into this serpent, much
like he entered Judas. The
Hebrew word "craftier" means wiser. This serpent was wise.
This serpent might well have been the closes thing to man in the animal
world. We
see in verse 1 that this serpent spoke to Eve.
Now animals today don't speak to humans, but that might not have
been the case back then. We
know that Adam was given authority over the animals and they appeared to
obey him, as it is seen when Noah had them enter the ark. If
animals didn't speak back then, it is at least clear that satan spoke
through the serpent to Eve. The
question might be asked, "why did the serpent speak to Eve and not
to Adam, or not to both at once?"
We don't know the answer to this.
We can only guess, and my guess is that Eve did not hear the
command of God directly. God
commanded Adam not to eat of the tree.
Adam would have then told Eve not to eat of the tree.
The second hand nature of the command to Eve might have suggested
to the serpent that she was an easier target to seduce.
The
serpent began his conversation with Eve by saying, "did God really
say…" This is a
question that was to produce doubt in the mind of Eve.
It would get her thinking that maybe God didn't really say that.
Or, maybe I misunderstood His command. Or, maybe I misunderstood
Adam when he told me the command. Often
time doubt is the seed to sin, and it was this seed of doubt that satan
was planting in the mind of Eve. Notice
how the serpent interprets what God said.
The serpent said God said, "you must not eat from any tree
of the garden." The way
the serpent puts God's command is quite negative.
He says that God would not allow Adam and Eve just to eat of any
old tree in the garden, but that's not really what God said.
The serpent twisted God's words to mean something completely
different than what He intended them to mean.
That is what satan always does.
He twists the truth just slightly to get you believing a lie.
When satan suggests that God would not let Adam and Eve eat from just
any tree, he's suggesting that there might well be other trees they
can't eat from. That's the
lie. So
what did God really say. In
chapter 2:13 God said, "you are free to eat from any tree in the
garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil." This is quite a
different statement from which satan is putting in the mind of Eve.
God did not say, "you must not eat from any tree."
He said, "you are free to eat from any tree," except
for one. There was
just one tree they could not eat from. Any
other tree was fine for them to eat from So
after the doubt was placed in the mind of Eve, then satan presents her
with a false understanding of the truth to what God said.
This too is often the way satan works.
After we begin to doubt God's Word, he then presents us with a
false understanding of God's Word. This
is what is happening in so many areas of the church these days, or so I
think. We've devalued the Bible, doubting if it is really God's inspired
Words, and then once we've accepted this, we understand the Bible in
whatever way we decide. Verse
2 says, "the woman said to the serpent…"
That might well have been her first mistake, that is, responding
to the serpent. It would
have been better for her to have ignored him and just walked away, but
she didn't do that. She
entered into a conversation with the serpent, and it appears to me that
his wisdom and craftiness
was no match for Eve. We
often enter into a conversation with sin so to speak.
We hang around where sin is and sooner or later
it gets to us. So the
hanging around process could be called the conversation with sin.
The
first thing that Eve said to the serpent was that "we may eat from
the trees of the garden..."
Eve doesn't put the word "any" in her statement, as in
," we may eat from any tree…," but that is what she is
implying. So Eve is right in
what she said. Verse
3 states what else Eve told satan. She
said, "God did say…"
By saying "God did say" she is emphasizing what God did
really say and it wasn't what the serpent is presently telling her.
She
goes on to say that God said "not to eat from the tree in the
middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die."
We actually learn something here. We have no record
of God saying that the forbidden tree was in the middle of the
garden, and we have no record of God saying not to even touch the tree.
So either Eve has it wrong and has added to what God said, or
else we don't have all of what God told Adam recorded.
I believe that we don't have all of what was said to Adam in our
record. Yet on the other
hand, some do believe that Eve added to what God said.
Maybe this addition came about from something Adam might have
told her. We
do learn that this tree was in the middle of the garden.
That may be significant, but I'm not sure what the significance
is. We also learn that Adam
and Eve weren't even to touch the tree.
Touching is getting too close for comfort.
It's too close to withstand the temptation.
That's why Paul says, "touch not the unclean thing (2
Corinthians 6:17), and stay away from the very appearance of evil (1
Thessalonians 5:22). Even
if Adam and Eve would have touched the tree of knowledge of good and
evil, they would die. And as
we noted earlier, the death spoken of here is more than physical death.
Adam and Eve did not die immediately.
They did eventually die, but not right away.
What death did come right away was spiritual death, their
relationship with God. They
also died socially. Their
relationship with each other suffered greatly.
They no longer had the luxury to enjoy each other's nakedness.
They suffered shame instead.
They also became accusative to one another as seen later in this
chapter. We
should also note that all creation died at this point.
This can be seen in God cursing the ground.
It can also be seen in God killing an animal to cover Adam and
Eve's nakedness. As I've
said before, all creation is eagerly waiting the day when it will be
liberated from the decay man put it under (Romans 8:17 to 22). The
question is often asked, "was there something about this tree that
was magical?" "Was
there some kind of magical chemical in the tree that would proved the
knowledge of good and evil when digested?"
That's another question we don't know the answer to.
All that we know is that when the tree was touched, or when the
fruit of the tree was eaten, mankind would die. On the other hand, if
the tree of life caused man to live forever, then the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil had some kind of properties in it that caused
man to know the difference between good and evil. The
serpent responds to Eve in verse 4, and I see his response as being very
quick and very forceful. He
said, "you will not surely die."
This is a very blunt, straight to the point and very defiant
answer. The serpent seems to
be infuriated with the suggestion that God told Eve she'd die if she
simply touched the tree. The
serpent said that both Eve and God has it wrong.
He only has it right. His
answer is meant to intimidate Eve and make her feel bad.
The
serpent first tries to put doubt in Eve's mind, and then presents a
false truth, and now, intimidation.
He's trying to ware her down to the point she'll give into him. Verse
5 is yet another false truth, yet with some element of truth in it made
by the serpent. He
said, "God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be
opened…" This is
true. God wanted to protect
Adam and Eve from knowing about good and evil, and if they ate from this
tree, yes, their eyes would be open, and they would know good from evil
and all the sadness that goes along with it.
So the serpent is right on this count, but he is using what is
right for his own sinful purpose, as he always does.
He
then continued by saying, "and you will be like God, knowing good
from evil." The
serpent speaks another truth here. Eve
would be like God, knowing good from evil, but I think the idea of
becoming like God is what stood out in Eve's mind.
The serpent wanted Eve to think this.
The idea of knowing good from evil is somewhat secondary to
becoming like God. The
serpent is suggesting to Eve that she can be like God, and that she
should want to be like God. Why would anyone not want to be like God.
This is how the serpent is attempting to deceive Eve.
He knows that she only will be like God in one respect, and
that's knowing the difference between good and evil, but he doesn’t
make that point clear to her.
If
you read Isaiah 14:13 through 15 you will note what theologians have
called the "five I will's of satan."
The ultimate "I will" found in the heart of satan is
that he wanted to be as God. He
said, "I will be as God."
The same desire and sin that was in satan's heart, he was trying
to put in Eve's heart here in Genesis 3.
In
verse 6 we see that "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 touched the tree, and she ate from the fruit, something she
knew better to do. She had
just been deceived. The
text says that "when" Eve saw the tree.
It makes you wonder if this was the first time she actually saw
the tree. Had she seen the
tree before, and if so, why wasn't she tempted to eat it them? We
don't know the answer to either of these questions.
It might well have been the first time she saw the tree.
If it wasn't the first time, then she probably was not tempted to
eat, we can't be certain of that either.
The
text also says that Eve saw the fruit of the tree would bring wisdom.
I'm not sure if it means anything, but I don't think the fruit
would being wisdom, just knowledge.
Maybe the serpent got her thinking twisted and she was mistaking
knowledge for wisdom. They're
not the same. One can have
knowledge and have no wisdom. We
also note in this verse that Eve turned to Adam and gave him some fruit
to eat as well. He took the
fruit and ate it, knowing it was wrong.
The
first thing that dawned on Adam and Eve after eating from the tree of
the knowledge o good and evil was that they were naked.
They were now embarrassed to be in each other's presence with
wearing clothes. Death had
entered their relationship. The
beauty of each others nakedness and turn into shame and sadness.
Their first reaction was to make some kind of covering to cover
themselves. This covering we
learn later was from leaves. I'm
not sure how much of their body was actually covered by leaves, but at
least some of their body was covered. Concerning
the clothes that Adam and Eve made themselves, the KJV calls them
aprons. The NIV just calls
them coverings. The KJV
calls them aprons due to the fact that the Hebrew word suggests an
apron. This would suggest to
us just what part of the body these aprons covered.
Some translations use the term "loin clothes."
It might well be that these clothes only covered the hip and
waste area of Adam and Eve. They
might have felt that was sufficient.
Many
preachers have preached a salvation message with the use of this verse,
saying that this was man's first humanistic attempt to cover their sin
and fined salvation in their own strength.
There might well be some truth to this.
In
verse 8 we see the result of Adam and Eve's disobedience.
We see the first time they met their God after they ate from the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
It was "in the cool of the evening."
This obviously tells us that there was not a constant temperature
in the garden, or on the earth. It
was clearly cooler in the evening and is a result of the sun.
They
heard God walking in the garden. We
don't know what that sounded like. The
text doesn't say. This might
well be anthropomorphic language. Maybe
this was simply God's presence hovering over them as seen in chapter 1
verse 2. Or, maybe God who
is spirit became a physical being in order to talk with Adam and Eve.
This would be anthropomorphic We
learn that Adam and Eve hid themselves from God.
This shows one way in which they had just died.
We saw that the relationship between Adam and Eve had just
experienced death by the fact that they knew they were naked.
Their relationship clearly went through a change that was not for
the best. Here we see how
their relationship to God had taken a turn for the worse as well.
To me, this was spiritual death.
They hid from God, something that is impossible to do.
You might wonder if their sound thought processes might have
taken a turn for the worse as well due to the fall.
Whatever the case, they tried to hide themselves behind some
trees. We
see the term "Lord God" in this verse, as we've seen since
chapter 2. Just to refresh
your memory, Yahweh means
"I ma," and Elohim means the "all powerful One." Verse
9 says that "The Lord God called to the man, 'where are you.'"
I'm sure that God knew where Adam was.
But as is often the case, God makes us state certain facts about
ourselves. This can be seen
in the repentance and faith process.
God wants us to verbally confess our sins and also verbally
confess our faith. Adam had
to speak forth the fact that he was hiding from God because of the sin
that had entered into his life. Note
that God asked Adam where he was. He
did not ask Eve where she was, and He did not ask Adam and Eve where
they were. He just asked
Adam where he was because he was the responsible one.
He was in charge. Eve
was his helper. She was not
the responsible one. God
gave Adam, not Eve the command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, therefore Adam was the one who was to give account of
the situation. In
verse 10 Adam answers God by saying, "I heard you in the garden,
and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid."
Adam gave more of an answer than the question asked of him.
He was simply asked, "where are you Adam?"
Adam only said he had hid himself. He didn't say where he hid,
but he did answer why he was hiding from God, and that was because he
was naked. Adam
was ashamed of his nakedness, even after he tried to clothes himself.
He now instinctively knew that his nakedness was not acceptable
to God. Prior to eating of
the tree, the nakedness of Adam and Eve seemed to be acceptable, since
they didn't know what was right or what was wrong.
Everything was right for them, including being naked.
There nakedness seemed to be a blessing for them.
What a state of blessedness that would have been, but now that
was lost forever, and I don't think will return, even on the New Earth
that is found at the end of the book of Revelation.
It appears that on the new earth we will be clothed in righteous
robes. In
verse 11 God answers Adam by asking two more questions.
The first is, "who told you that you were naked?"
How did Adam know anything about nakedness?
That was just a state of being prior to this.
That's just the way things were.
God then asks the important question.
"Did you eat from the tree I commanded you not to eat
from?" God knew
why Adam understood nakedness. There
was only one way that Adam could understand being naked and that was
because he had eaten from the tree that gave him the knowledge of what
was good and what was evil. Once
again some might ask, "was the fruit on the tree magical?"
"Was there something in the fruit that would produce a
certain knowledge with Adam, or was it just the disobedience that
produced this knowledge?" I'm
not really sure. It would
not surprise me if the mere fact of Adam and Eve disobeying God produced
this new knowledge and this death. Yet
on the other hand it seems that there was something special about that
tree that produced the knowledge of good and evil, and that's probably
what we should understand. In
verse 12 we see the first finger pointing, the first time a person did
not take responsibility for his own action.
Adam blamed Eve. And
even beyond blaming Eve, Adam was blaming God Himself.
Adam told God that "the woman you put here with me, she gave
me some fruit and I ate it." The
proper answer that Adam should have given God should have been, "I
ate the fruit you told me not to eat.
I am in the wrong," but Adam did not admit to that.
He did not express sorrow for his disobedience.
He did not express any sense of responsibility, even though he
was the responsible one. He just pointed the finger to Eve and in the
end, told God that He was the source of the problem.
And in one sense of the word Adam was right.
God put the tree in the garden in the first place.
If he had not have placed that tree there, Adam would not have
eaten from it. We can't say
for certainty just why God put the tree in the garden and told Adam not
to eat from it. The most
common reason people give for this is because God wanted us to have
freedom of choice, and this might well be the case. Yet
beyond God putting the tree in the garden, a more basic question is why
did God allow satan through the serpent to have access to Eve in the
garden? Why did God even
allow satan to enter the material universe?
In short, I believe this was all part of God's plan prior to
Genesis 1:1. I think the
creation of the material universe has more to do with the conflict
between God and satan than what we might think. As
God suggested to satan to tempt Job, He might well have suggested to
satan to tempt Eve. This
temptation and the subsequent fall of man, and then man's redemption,
and then satan's final defeat in the Another
thing to note here is that sin entered Adam.
Not only was he naked. He
is now not being honest. Blaming
Eve and not taking personal responsibility for his sin is sin in itself.
In
verse 13 we see that God turns to talk with Eve.
Once hearing that Eve took the fruit and gave some to Adam, God
asks Eve, "what is this you have done?"
The question is ask of Eve so she, like Adam can make her
confession. We should note
that Adam's confession of sin was not from a heart of repentance.
He simply passed the responsibility over to Eve when in reality,
it was his responsibility. Eve
answered by saying, "the serpent deceived me, and I ate."
So this is Eve's confession.
Like Adam, she passed the buck.
She blamed the serpent. The
one thing she did admit to was "being deceived."
Yet, being deceived is not exactly confessing your sin.
It's only saying that you were tricked into the sin, and if you
had not have been tricked, you would not have sinned.
This is not a true repentant confession of sin.
We've
already talked about Paul saying that it was Eve who was deceived, not
Adam (1 Timothy 2:14). One
reason why Paul said this is that Eve confessed to the fact that she was
deceived. Another
thing to note that both Adam and Eve were responsible for their own
individual sin. Even though
God gave the command to Adam and held Adam responsible, both had to give
account for their actions before God.
This is a Biblical truth. We
may be subject to others, but if we as the subjected ones participate in
the sin of the one we are subject to, we will be held accountable just
as Eve was. In
verse 14 we note that because Eve directed the attention towards the
serpent, God turns to him and speaks to him.
He does not ask the serpent why he deceived Eve.
I'm sure God knew the answer.
It is clear to all that satan had possessed this serpent, and God
was well aware of satan and what he was up to.
Satan might well have been a tool in the eternal plan of God, as
he often is. By this I mean that what satan does is often God's will.
He allows satan to do certain things for His own reasons and
purposes. For example, God allowed a wicked nation in Because
the serpent deceived Eve, God cursed him "above all the livestock
and wild animals." The
word "above" is important because we will see later that god
cursed all the animals. As a
matter of fact, he cursed all of creation, but the word
"above" here means that the serpent was cursed more than the
other animals. Apparently the serpent had legs. God cut off his legs and
made him exist as one that crawled on the ground, eating the dust along
the way. There is no mention
of the other animals being so cursed. Many
people believe that the serpent was most intelligent of all the animals
that God had made. That might be why he was able to speak to Eve.
If this is so, God's curse suggests that the highest of all
animals became one of the lowest of all animals. Further
judgment was placed on the serpent in verse 15.
God said that He "would put enmity between the serpent and
the woman." Many people
believe that this means that women are afraid of snakes, but I don't
believe that is what is meant here.
Not all women are afraid of snakes.
I think there is more to it than that and the next two phrases
say why. The
Hebrew word translated as "enmity" means hostility.
It doesn't really mean fear.
With this in mind we see that God goes on to say that the enmity
is more than just between Eve and the serpent.
This hostility will carry on down the line, from Eve's offspring
and to the serpent's offspring. God
goes on to say that "he will crush your head, and you will bruise
his heel." This
is the key phrase in understanding the enmity between the woman and the
serpent that carries down the line through history.
The serpent being forced to crawl on the ground comes into play here. That's why the serpent will have his head crushed. Someone, who is described as "he' in this verse will crush the serpents head. Yet in the process of the serpent's head being crushed, the serpent will "bruise the heel" of the one who is crushing his head. The question is, "who crushed the serpent's head?"
The word "he" refers back to the word
"offspring" in the prior phrase.
The KJV uses the word "seed".
We will see the word "seed"
used again in the Abrahamic Covenant where will understand the
"seed", singular, not plural is really Jesus.
There's no real debate among conservative scholars here.
The "he" spoken of here is Jesus.
This is the first elusion to the cross of Christ and the
salvation that was needed because of Adam and Eve's sin. This
is the first reference about the Messiah that would come to undue what
Adam and Eve did in this chapter. Another
point to consider is that Paul makes a big deal about this singular word
"seed" in Galatians 3 that confirms the "seed" is
Jesus. So
this curse implies hostility between the serpent and Eve, and between
all of her offspring, right down to Jesus Himself, which would include
Jesus' spiritual offspring, which are believers in Jesus.
This is the beginning of the great human conflict, a conflict
that had began prior to creation. Prior to creation satan and God were
in conflict, but now mankind is also brought into the conflict, and as
we wills see, all of creation suffers because of this conflict. Just
a note here, not everyone believes that angels existed before creation.
Some people feel that angels, including satan were part of the
six days of creation. Then
those who hold to the gap theory might suggest that satan was part of a
prior creation on earth. In
verse 16 God turns back to speak to Eve again and tells her how she will
be cursed for her participation in the disobedient act. The
first thing that God said was that giving birth to children would be
very painful. It is clear
then that labour pains were not part of God's creation.
Giving birth was probably a very pleasant thing, but this was
something that we assume Eve never experienced, although we can't be one
hundred percent sure of that. We
assume that Adam and Eve had no children to this point. The
next thing God tells Eve is that her "desire will be to her husband
and he will rule over her."
The Hebrew word for "desire" suggests a strong longing
for, a stretching out after, a running towards, thus "to
desire." This
strong longing for would be directed towards her husband Adam.
The question is obviously raised then, "did she not have
this strong desire or longing prior to this?"
It might be hard to say for sure, but to me it suggests that this
desire was not present prior to this.
The fact that Eve was created from the side of Adam, that
signifies that she was meant to work along with him to be his helper as
the text says, tells me that at creation they were more co-existent.
They were more equal than they were after the fall.
The
last part of this phrase might well suggest this as well.
Eve's husband would now rule over her, as if he was not created
to rule over her in the first place.
This clearly sets the way husband and wife relationships would
work after the fall, but being in the fallen nature as we are, even the
fallen standard for relationships often don't work out.
We really can't redefine the word "rule" here either.
It means to rule or to have dominion over.
It's as simple as that. In
verse 17 God now turns back to Adam where he began.
God begins by saying, "because you listened to your
wife…" I don't
believe that this is a put down of wives and women here.
God is just making a simple statement.
Adam listened to his wife instead of listening to God.
Obeying another person instead of God, and in this case that was
Eve, was Adam's sin. God is
not pointing the finger at
Eve. He's actually pointing
His finger at Adam's refusal to obey Him. The
next phrase confirms what I've just said.
Adam listened to his wife and "ate from the tree about which
God commanded him, 'you must not eat of from.'"
Adam with all understanding willfully disobeyed the command of
God that was spoken to him By God. No
one deceived him. Eve was
tricked or deceived by the serpent.
Adam wasn't. Eve did
not try to deceive Adam. She
simply handed him some fruit and asked him if he'd like some.
There's no hint from the text that she tricked him into eating
the fruit. The
first curse that God placed on Adam wasn't really on him, although it
effected him greatly. God
cursed the ground. He cursed
the earth. The earth did not
sin but because of Adam's rebellion, the earth was brought down with
mankind. This is why Paul in
Roman's 8: 17 to 22 speaks of all creation groaning, waiting for the day
when all of creation will be redeemed.
There will come a day when all creation, not just mankind will
experience redemption and restoration. All creation will be restored. The
way in which the cursed ground would effect Adam is that he would now
experience hard work. Prior
to this his work was much like God's work.
God worked at creating all there is, but he simply spoke things
into existence. That wasn't
hard work. That would have
been how Adam would have worked. He
would have ruled over, and looked after, the earth without any real
effort, but those days were now over.
The NIV states that through pain and toil Adam would now eat from
the earth. As Eve
experienced pain in childbirth, so Adam would experience pain in his
work. Verse
18 states that there would be "thorns and thistles" growing
from the earth, something that wasn't there before.
Adam's disobedience thus produced such undesirable plants such as
thorns and thistles. It
is clear that such plants did not exist prior to the fall of man.
Also,
in verse 18 it says that Adam "would eat the plants of the
field." Prior to this
we should note that Adam ate see bearing fruit (Genesis 1:29).
Now he will eat plants of the field.
I'm not sure of the significance here but I believe there is
something to this. Verse
19 says that "from the sweat of your brow you will eat your food
until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust
you are, and dust you will return."
Note that God says that Adam was dust, that's just dust.
Adam was formed from the dust of the earth, and from the dust, he
would return in physical death some day.
In
verse 20 we see that Adam named his wife, as he named the animals.
His rational for naming her Eve was because she would be the
mother of all living human beings. That
is what Eve means. Eve means "life giving."
In
verse 21 we note that God made clothes for Adam and Eve.
The clothes they made from fig leaves was not sufficient.
The clothes that God made for then were skins.
This is significant. This
shows the result of Adam and Eve's sin.
God said that in the day they eat from the forbidden tree, they
would die, but they weren't the only thing that experienced death.
We've seen that all creation was cursed.
Man brought all creation down under the judgment of God.
Part of this death that entered our world is seen in this verse.
The clothes that God made for Adam and Eve were made from skins.
That meant, some animal must have been killed in order for these
clothes to be made. An
innocent animal provided the covering of Adam and Eve's nakedness.
This is the first hint of the gospel message in the Bible.
Jesus was the Lam of God, and innocent Lamb.
He died to not only cover all of mankind's sin but to wipe them
out from God's record book. The
death of man and the death of an animal here in Genesis 3 begins the
story of what death plays in the plan of God, and why Jesus' death was
the only means of our salvation. We
often may wonder why Jesus had to die.
This is a hard question, but here we begin to see an answer. Prior
to Adam and Eve's disobedience there was no such thing as death, but
disobedience produces death. It's
just a fact of life. You
might say that death is just
a natural consequence of sin. If
two people are perfectly joined in an harmonious relationship, and if
one of these people do something that harms or hurts the relationship,
death occurs. That means the
relationship suffers. Man's
relationship was seriously injured when Adam and Eve disobeyed God.
Death entered that relationship, as well as all sorts of other
relationships man was involved in. In God's mind, man's attempt at covering what was now sin for them wasn't good enough. Someone else had to die to provide the proper covering, and that someone, at this time in history was an innocent animal. You might well wonder what Adam and Eve thought about when they were provided with these clothes of skin that came from an animal that would have been their friend before the fall.
Concerning God covering Adam and Eve's naked bodies. You might wonder why nakedness was bad now when it wasn't before the fall. I have an idea, whether it is right or wrong, you can judge. God might well have looked at Adam and Eve, saw their naked bodies, that is, saw them as they were in their totality, and was disgusted, because of what they had done. So God might have covered them so to hide the thing that disgusted him. Of course, God can see out nakedness anyway. The idea might have been to cover as much of man as possible, because mankind was now sinful In
verse 22 God said that "man had now become like Him, knowing good
from evil." Evil was in
existence before man's disobedience.
We know that. Satan had already sinned.
God made man in such a way that he did not understand or know the
difference between good and evil. All
things were good and right for man.
There was just one thing that was wrong, and that was to eat from
one certain tree. Other than
that, all was good, even being naked. Nakedness was completely good for
Adam and Eve. That all
changed, and satan through the serpent was partly right when he told Eve
that she would be like God. Eve
figured that she'd be like God in all sorts of ways, but there was only
one way that she and Adam became like God, and that was knowing good
from evil, something God wanted to spare man from.
Verse
22 says that "the man has now become like one of us…"
Note the word "us:. That's
the plural nature of God. Note
also the word "man". I'm
not sure if this is the generic man, as in, men and women, or the
singular man as in Adam. It
could mean that Adam has now become like God in this one respect.
I tend to take this generically, meaning, "mankind",
all men and women, have
become like us. Also
in verse 22 we see that God did not want man, that is the generic man as
in Adam and Eve to eat from another tree, and that was the tree
of life. Apparently when the
fruit from this tree was eaten, it caused man to live continuously,
without experiencing death. God
did not want man to live forever with the knowledge of good and evil.
So in this since, death became a post fall blessing.
Man would escape knowing of good and evil through his death.
He'd also escape this new dilemma by death in another way, that
would eventually be the death of Jesus, man's Saviour. In
verse 23 we note that God banished man from the garden.
Again, some may view the word "man' generically here.
God banished both Adam and Eve from the garden.
Others may see that God banished Adam from the garden and since
Eve was now subject to Adam, she had to follow her husband out of the
garden. Man
was banished to the fields to hard labour, where he encountered thorns
and thistles, and my guess is other things as well, like hornets, snakes
and pest of all kinds. Chapter
3 ends with God placing cherubim at the east side of the garden with a
flaming sword to guard the tree of life.
Cherubim are very high powered angels of which satan is one.
This would surely keep Adam and Eve and any of their children
away from this tree. Yet
even more than that, it would keep satan away from the tree of life, and
I think that is significant. God
didn't just want man from having access to this tree.
He didn't want satan or any other angels to have access to this
tree. This tree would be
reserved for a future age which we see at the close of the book of
Revelation. Cherubim
in the Bible are always around the throne of God.
Many scholars believe that these cherubim were at the east side
of the garden, alone with the presence of God. God Himself lived at the
gate of the garden, or at least you could say, His presence
dwelt there. We
need to note the word "cherubim" here.
This word is plural for "cherub."
There was more than one of these heavenly creatures here.
Jewish tradition viewed these angelic persons as encompassing the
attributes of man, ox, lion, and eagle.
Cherubim are seen in a few other places in the Bible.
This is where they are first seen. The
obvious question raised here is, "where did the Garden of Eden
go?" It's clear that it
did not last. The most
common answer is that it was destroyed in the flood in Noah's day. If
this is so, and if it wasn't destroyed earlier, then God's garden was
destroyed when mankind was judged. The
judgment of man did not only destroy man, animals and plants, it
destroyed the Garden of Eden, the paradise of God.
But this paradise will return to earth when there is a new earth,
and a new heaven, as seen at the clothes of the book of Revelation. If
you read the last two chapters of Revelation you will note the New
Jerusalem that comes down from heaven. It appears to be the dwelling
place of God on the new earth. There
are many similarities between the Garden of Eden
and the New Jerusalem. You
might go as far to say that the New Jerusalem is the Garden of Eden
restored.
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