INTRODUCTION:
Genesis
1 – 11 remind us of one of the Core Realities/Principles/DNA that govern the
world in which we find ourselves, foundational building blocks of the Bible.
The
Fall: our human rebellion against our Creator God impacts absolutely everything
about our world –the struggle with good & evil, the relationships: marriage
& other relationships, work, gender, our ultimate & eternal destiny.
Pivotal
truths in our minds and our spirits so that we can make sense of ourselves, our
world & the rest of the Bible - we
live in a world that is fundamentally broken and that we can’t fix
it.
The Devil's Snare – 3
Great Lies (3:1-5)
Lie about God’s Good Government
Show
it isn’t clear (3:1)
We live in a broken world because Adam & Eve, and
every man & woman who has ever lived has bought the oldest lie in
the book: that to break free from God’s good government will give us
liberty.
The tree of the knowledge of good & evil
symbolizes God’s position as authoritative ruler – it’s symbolic of his perfect
government. Only God can decide what is good & what is bad. So the tree of
knowledge of good & evil is God’s right to govern & to rule, and there
has to be order & government in order for there to be freedom.
Lie about God's Judgment
Show
it’s unenforceable (3:4)
Doubt
God will punish disobedience. Although the Bible says that God is loving &
patient, the Bible is also unmistakably clear that God is holy & just, that
God cares about what happens in his world, about right & wrong. God will
judge us. He will hold us to account.
Lie that you don’t need God, you can be God
Show
it isn’t fair (3:5)
This
law isn’t fair. “It doesn’t make sense for you to obey this law, Eve. How come
God can have it and not you?”
The climax of the 3 lies: the tree of the knowledge of
good & evil represents the divine right of God to govern. This is a
temptation to seize hold of the throne of God himself & for me to decide
how I’m going to live in his world with no reference to him. I’ll make the
decision, not God.
They became law breakers because they
wanted to be law makers.
It is Satan & his temptations
that promise much, and deliver little. We are to resist the devil, firm in your
faith. We are to turn a deaf ear to his lies & instead listen to the words
of Jesus.
THE FALL
(3:7-24)
Conflict (3:7-13)
·
Humanity & God (3:7)
Eyes opened but all they could see
their nakedness. In trying to hide
their shame, they only manage to draw attention to it. Their guilt makes them afraid to meet God.
The trees that have been pleasant to sight & good for food are now used as
cover for Adam & Eve.
The once perfect, open, intimate
relationship between God & humanity is now gone.
God does not begin with a shout of
judgment but an invitation for Adam to face up, to recognize the mess he’s made
of their relationship, to recognize what’s been lost.
·
Man & Woman (3:7, 11-12)
Blame Game begins with Adam &
Eve as they cover up from one
another with their fig leaves, shift responsibility, pass the buck and accusing
God as well.
·
Humanity & Creation (3:13)
Rather than ruling creation, Eve was
ruled by it. The created order is distorted – a complete reversal and inversion
of Genesis 1 & 2.
Curses (3:14-19)
·
The Serpent (3:14,15):
The serpent is cursed & punished
for deceiving Eve – he will face a life of humiliation.
The woman should never have listened
to a creature rather than her Creator: relationship turned into enmity.
God’s sovereignty is re-asserted. His
order is restored.
·
Eve (3:16) :
God created humanity to be fruitful
& multiply & fill the earth but marred by this punishment of pain &
danger in childbirth.
Marriage also affected with the
beginnings of marital strife, as to love & to cherish becomes to desire
& to dominate. The temptation has been for wives to usurp their husband’s
authority ever since Eve. Christian wives not immune since we now live after the Fall.
A similar danger is the temptation
for husbands to rule over wives in an overbearing, dictatorial way, to ride
rough-shot over what they want & what’s best for them.
Marriage is part of God’s good
creation but it’s now marred by the Fall.
·
Adam (3:17-19)
Adam’s lot is tough toil, then
definite death.
Like marriage, work was part of God’s
good creation but now it has been tainted & spoiled. Work now is fallen.
It is foolishness to look for
ultimate satisfaction & fulfillment in work when the ultimate end is Death.
In yet another reversal, Adam who is
made out of the dust is now destined to return to it.
Cast Out & Cut Off (3:20-24)
·
Adam’s death was a change of place – from within the garden
to cast out, and a change of
relationship from fellowship to cut off
from God.
Adam & Eve died when God cast
them out from the garden and placed cherubim with a flaming sword between them
& the tree of life - cut off from the source of life and the tree of life.
In yet another reversal, Adam &
Eve were to guard Eden & now they are guarded from it.
What they experienced outside Eden is
not life as God intended but spiritual death with their physical death
inevitably following.
These verses make it crystal clear
that Adam & Eve & all their descendants are cast out of the garden
& cut off from God. Ever since Adam & Eve, we are all cast out &
cut off.
Cure (3:15, 20-24)
·
In judgment, Adam & Eve were cut off from the tree of
life but it also stops them from being stuck forever in an inescapable life of
sin.
God, in his mercy & grace, provides
a covering for their shame at the cost of an animal’s life. It reminds Adam
& Eve of their sin but also it’s part of God’s mercy.
In Martin Luther’s commentary, Adam names
Eve as mother of all living (in Hebrew – the name Eve and “to live” sounds
similar); he saw through to life when everything around him was being subjected
to death.
Luther calls Genesis 3:15 the first
comfort – this source of all mercy & fountainhead of all promises – the promise of the serpent-crusher.
There will come one from Eve who
crushes the head of the serpent. That word “head” sums up all that a person is
– Satan will be totally & utterly smashed – but at a cost to this
serpent-crusher.
We begin to see the first hint of
what God will do at the Cross. There isn’t a way back to innocence but there is
a way on to the Cross. The amazing wonder of the Cross is that Jesus doesn’t
just defeat Satan, he also shares this victory with his people and opens up a
new & better garden paradise for his people.
The curtain in the Temple was
embroidered with cherubim that barred the way to God’s presence. When Jesus
died on the Cross, the curtain was torn from top to bottom. God himself
reopened the way into his presence - the way back to the tree of life through
the cherubim, to a new & better Eden.
At the end of Revelation, we see all
who have put their trust in Jesus’ death will have access to the tree of life,
when the dwelling place of God will be with man.
No more conflict, no more curse, no
longer cast out nor cut off, but we’ve got it perfectly & forever.
Only if we understand that we are
utterly lost sinners, living in a world
fundamentally broken which we can’t fix – with no hope in ourselves, unable
regain paradise in our own strength, in need of an undeserved Saviour, will we
make sense of ourselves, our world & God’s Word.
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