In Genesis 2, we saw that the first marriage has taken place and God has given specific instructions to Adam regarding eating the fruit of tree of Knowledge of good & evil. As we turned to chapter 3, serpent is having a conversation with the woman ( not yet named Eve) and although he knew what was said, he raises the question, did God really say DO NOT EAT EVERY FRUIT? Even today, Satan uses the same technique to tempt us and to create doubt in our mind. whenever you hear someone raise a question about Bible or the word of God pay attention right a way. If you are not careful you might fall into dialogue with Satan and that is always path to destruction. All we can do is give non believers gospel certain questions are answered by faith. This is exact the reason why Paul tells timothy to stay away from useless arguments regarding genealogy etc.1 timothy 1: 4. At the same time, when questions are raised we must have biblical based sound answers. Woman fails in that manner as she has a dialogue with Satan ( 1st mistake). She does not have complete knowledge and answers incorrectly ( 2nd mistake). she adds to God’s command ( 3rd mistake).
She says in verse 3: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
Now if you go back to chapter 2, God never tells Adam not to touch the fruit. simple commandment is not to eat the fruit. It is imperative that we do not add to the word of God. This is one of the problems we have with Church. It creates such criteria by adding to the word of God that it becomes very binding. The word RELIGION which literally means TO BIND FAST. One thing I see clearly in first chapter is God wants a relationship with Adam. Even today, his desire is the same. He wants us to have a relationship with him; not religion.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die
Was Satan lying when he said this? YES & NO. Obviously, As we continue to read, woman did eat the fruit & Adam and her did not die.God told Adam that if you eat the fruit you will surely die. We know God does not lie. so what happened here?
Here we see the trick of Satan that he still uses today to get us to doubt the word of God and to get us to disobey the word of God.
I am certain God was talking about spiritual death meanwhile satan is talking about physical death. He is master at telling the half truth. All he does even today is create doubt in our minds. Such questions as How can God create the world in 6 days? How can man come from dirt? How can you believe this fairy tale from middle ages? Was bible really written by God? man wrote it not God. If you find your self questioning your faith or word of God, run and get on your knees. Be certain, Satan is about to ask you to eat the forbidden fruit and like Adam & woman you will surely die.
You may ask me why do I feel that God was talking about spiritual death?
If God was talking about physical death, why would he put the tree of life? Remeber, fruit of tree of life was not forbidden until sin entered and once it did God made a point of protecting it.
Next 2 verses are some of the most important verses of bible. Here sin comes into the world and we lose connection with God.
we see 3 aspect of sin. 1) Lust of the eyes : she saw it was pleasant to look at . 2 ) Lust of the flesh: It was good to eat. 3 ) Lust of Ego : make me wise & like God. Every sin consist of one of these 3 things if not all 3. Satan used same 3 aspect to tempt Jesus in wilderness.
Now once they ate the fruit, their eyes were opened and they covered themselves with Fig tree. What a lesson we can learn from here. when sin enters our life suddenly we have need for covering and hiding from God.
God called out to them, do you think God did not know where they were? He knew. God today asks many of us where are you my son?my daughter? he is not asking which church you belong to or which doctrine you believe in or how much tithe you are giving? what charity you support but as he asked Adam, he is asking you & me same question, where are we in relationship with him. Adam who up to now had fellowship with God and probably eagerly waited for God to come was hiding from him. Adam who probably did not do any thing without God made cloths out of fig tree leaves. He tried to solve problem on his own. How many times do we do the same? How many time we see church of today act in same manner? We try to fix our problems with fig leaves and all that does is leave us with rash and itch. How often do we try to take care of problem own our own and only pray to give blessing to our ideas instead of praying first and asking God for solution? We ask to bless us as we start a new business but do we ask if i should I start that business? we take the new job but do we ask if we should take the job? Here I am moving ahead but remember example of Lot he picked the land which was lush and pleasant to the eyes but what he did not know that in few years it will be destroyed. Let’s seek God’s guidance when making decisions. He will not stir you wrong.
Another thing that comes with sin is fear. when Adam ate the fruit and sinned his fist emotion after that is of fear. He tells God I heard your voice and I was afraid (verse 9-10).
Next verse we see the age-old blame game starts. when God asks Adam how do you know you are naked? Did you eat the fruit? His first instinct is to blame the woman and in turn God. How often we do the same? when woman was asked she blamed the serpent.
I strongly believe at this point if Adam & woman had repented they would have been forgiven but instead they chose to play the blame game and lost fellowship with God. What follows is what many say is curse but I believe it was simply the consequence of their actions. God can not excuse sin and thus in Verse 15 we have first mention of Gospel .
15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Here we have first mention of virgin birth. Women do not have SEED. In terms of bible seed is carried my man ( sperm). This verse is talking about supernatural birth. Now Jesus bruised and defeated satan on the cross and Satan bruised his heel ( Jesus suffered mightily for our sins but he gave us victory over satan). This first mention of how salvation is to come and victory over sin.
Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
Now child-birth which was probably going to be painless experience is going to one full of pain and still she will desire it. Her wanting to be with her husband will result in painful experience of child-birth but she will not be able to stop. Here we also see that in chapter 2 where the relationship between man & woman was of cleaving the walking side by side is changed to man ruling over her. Just to clarify this does not mean that men literally rule over the woman but of course many men used it to mistreat women
17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return
Adam now had to earn his living. he was to work for food where before he tended to garden now he has to toil to grow. Here we see the role of man & woman played out even today. The number one complain of woman of her husband is ” he does not spend enough time with me” and why not ” because he is always working”
As verse 16 says she will always desire him and verse 17 say you will work. Since that day in garden of Eden man has to figure out how to put food on the plate for family and woman always longing for her husband not to work so much and spend time with her. She wants to sit and talk and he wants to get going to earn living. Does this sound like problem many marriages face today?
Here we see Adam’s sin was bigger than woman’s. She was deceived by serpent but Adam disobeyed the word of God. Instead of eating the fruit, he could have just called for God and ask for his help.
Many feel this was curse put on Adam but is it really? imagine Adam a sinful man living same life as before? He had to stay busy. what happens to us if we had nothing to do? we would get into lot of things we should not do. In a way, God was saving Adam from himself.
20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. Here for first time we see woman called EVE. In chapter 2, they were simply man ( ish) and woman ( Isha) but now they are Adam & Eve, giver of life. She is mother of all living things. Our savior is going to come from her.
21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
Here we see that blood needs to be shed for covering of sin. God probably had to kill animals to make cloths for them. Of course we will see in detail shedding of blood in chapter 4. Sin can not be covered with our efforts ( fig leaves) such us good work or karma Etc. Sin can only be cleansed by blood ( skin clothing). Covering of sin is only by Blood.
Verse 22- 24: This portion of scripture talks about driving Adam & Eve out of garden of Eden, a perfect place God had created for them. God also put cherubim & flaming sword to protect the tree of life. We will see same protection is found guarding the Ark of covenant and later the tomb of Jesus.
Again this seems like a punishment for Adam but imagine Adam eating the tree of life? to live in sin and decaying body forever? How awful that would be. God was just protecting Adam and in turn all of us. Imagine living with knee pain, back pain and thousands other ailments we have. God is always looking out for us.
Things to learn from Chapter 3
- Do not have dialogue with Satan.
- know your scripture so you can fend of Satan with word of God.
- Be aware of 3 aspect of sins. Be careful of Lust of Eyes, Lust of Flesh & Lust of power
- Do not try to solve problem on your own ( fig Leaves) God will give you better solution ( skin clothing) . Sin can only be covered by God.
- Sin kills your relationship with God but in Jesus we have way to reestablish that fellowship.
I hope this teaching is blessing to all of you. If there is contradiction in my writing or if I have misinterpreted the word please bring it to my attention. Let the name of Jesus be Glorified.
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only savior jesus 