Genesis 3


1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' ”4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”


6 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 also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.  7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.


8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” 10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” 11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”


12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” 13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”


14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” 16 To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”  17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat from it,' “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.  19 By 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 to dust you will return.”


20Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.


21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.


Genesis :  Pink Cadillac


So, we have barely met Adam and Eve when the next chapter is called “The Fall.”  Note that we have no idea how many years pass between chapters 2 and 3.  It could be a day, it could be a hundred years.  


But on that day, the serpent speaks.  Eve is so startled at hearing an animal talk that she runs as fast as she can to Adam and asks him to call God for help.  Nope, the talking snake is not at all creepy to her.  Were some of the Eden animals able to communicate with people?   I know my cats make opinions clear, but their arguments are pretty direct.  Hey, you with the thumbs, why aren't you feeding me?  Were the animals in Eden even better with words?    


My cats approach me for food because they know I am most likely to do their bidding.  Now, likewise, who does Satan go after first?  Eve.  Yep, ladies, we need to be on our guard against this sort of temptation (not that Adam would have done any better).  Satan was smart because he did not tell Eve what to do.  She would have put her hand on her hip and thrown an apple at the snake if he had tried that.  Instead, he asks a leading question and lets her reach logical conclusions. To paraphrase:


Snake:  Let's review the rule.  God does not want you to eat from any tree in this garden. Right?


Eve:  No, we can eat from any tree but that one in the middle of the garden.  If we touch that one, we will die.


Snake:  Die?  (eye roll)  God knows that, if you eat from it, you will be like Him and know good from evil.  

Eve considers this and then eats the fruit because she wants to be smart and good.  She gives it to Adam and he eats it too, we are not told why.  Probably because Eve was naked and his brain was off.  Just saying.  


So, man was told to take care of the garden.  He was allowed to eat from any tree except for the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  Why?  What is the sin?  Is it gluttony?  Song coming on: God tempted Adam with an apple, but I ain't going for that…  Ok, Lady, that is not a church song even though it has Adam in it.  


Satan is using Eve's desire to be like God against her.  You want to be like God, don't you?  This fruit will help.  Want to be wise?  This will smarten you right up.  


The tree gives us the option of disobedience.  But the sin here, I believe, is humanism.  The world was set up so that God decided the difference between good and evil.  So far, we have only heard God call things good.  But God rules that eating from one tree is evil.  By consuming the fruit, men are taking the reins and trying to decide good and evil for themselves.  We want to be our own gods.  Spoiler, we are really bad at that job and should have stuck with naming things.  Side note, we still like to name things every time we find something new.  Think of stars or cell parts or even viruses.  God was right, we are namers.  


Eve wanted to be smart. Knowledge is not evil.  But leaning on your own understanding to determine what is right is evil.  The problem for us is that we want what we want.  Our ruler of right and wrong is relative and, eventually, collapses under the weight of its own illogicality.  We are left with a thirst to use knowledge to replace God with a scarecrow in our own image.   It all started with the fruit.  Eve also wanted to be like God – but not in a holy way where she modeled her life in His image.  She wanted to be a god who leads rather than follows.  Not sure what Adam wanted, but maybe he was impressed by what Eve had learned.  Or he may have just been more focused on pleasing Eve than on pleasing God.  


The knowledge of good and evil caused them to feel two things: guilt and shame.  They realized they were nude and were ashamed.  Then when God came looking, the couple hid.  Sin separates us from God.  It makes us feel shame.  It makes us feel stupid.  That is the opposite of the promise of being wise and like God.  


God already knew what had happened, but He wanted them to confess.  He asks them if they ate from the tree.  I wonder what would have happened if they had confessed and repented.  Maybe God would have given them another chance.  Maybe not.   But when God asks them about the sin, they shift the blame.  Adam shifts it in a really sneaky way.  The woman (it is Eve's fault) that YOU (some of this is on you God) put here fed me the fruit.  Ever blame God for your sin?  Did He not provide what you needed?  Did He forget to give you something you wanted?  Did He say no?  Did He make you this way?  Is the rule unfair?


I battle with my weight and I know God gets a good share of the blame anytime we talk about it.  God, you made my metabolism bad and invented sugar.   I just ate what you provided when this body was hungry.  Adam is doing the same thing here.  None of this is his fault.  Eve is more direct: the devil made me do it.  


God listens and then deals with the snake first since he was the last one standing and apparently is out of words to blame someone else.   Interesting that the only one who does not try to shift blame was Satan.  Maybe he was proud of what he had done.


Punishments:

-Snakes do not get legs.  This implies they had legs or could have scored a set at some point.   They are also a cursed animal.  


-Satan and snakes seem to share this next bit:    the children of Eve will have an aversion to you and will crush your head when you bite their feet.  I say this is both because snakes literally bite people and get killed.  Satan would metaphorically attack the feet of Eve's children and her heirs would eventually destroy him through Christ.  This really sets the stage for the whole rest of the book.  


-Eve gets really bad labor pains (thanks Eve).  But that seems to imply that she had other children more easily prior to this time.  Eve is also placed under the authority of her husband.  Ever wonder about the structure of the family and men being the spiritual head?  This is why.  We were meant to be equals.  Remember the knowledge and power you wanted Eve.  Your punishment is the opposite.  


-Adam's punishment is food-related.  Since you ate what was forbidden, food from here on out will be hard to grow.     Adam got demoted from namer to day laborer.  But look at this:


19 By 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 to dust you will return.”


I think the other punishment here is death.  The consequence of sin is death.  We were made eternal and chose death.  I always think I would have chosen differently, but we all choose sin at one point or another.   We all think we can out god God.  


Next, in V20, Adam gave Eve her name.  That is sort of sweet.  And he did not name her “Eve-il” or “Dumb Apple Giver” or “She-jerk” or any of the other names I could compose.  


Also of interest, God makes the first leather wear.  Adam and Eve made what must have been hilarious plant clothing (see photo provided).  God gives them an upgrade.  But the cost is death.  This is the first time we see an animal being killed.  It may have happened before.  We are not told what sort of animals were used.  If I were God, it would have been 100% snakeskin.  


The idea of a covering at the cost of blood was in place.


God speaks to himself again here at the end.  Notice when God speaks to Himself, he uses the plural.  


God kicked people out of the garden and posted guards to keep them from returning.  No more tree of life for us.  God is not going to allow false little god wannabes to run around His planet.  We still try to reach for the tree of life and ignore Him. Such a sad story.


At this point, Satan has to be gloating.  Satan is all about self-worship.  Man was made in God's image.  When Eve ate the apple, she hoped to be more like God.  Instead, she ended up just like Satan.     


But God does not end it there.    He has a plan.  





Chat:


TJ:  So, I was thinking about the Adam's Apple today.  The idea is that the apple got stuck in Adam's throat.  It is cool how Biblical things are part of common vocab.