Carey's Bible Study Notes
home |
new testament |
life of christ |
the conflict begins
life of christ: Genesis 3:1-24
the conflict begins
introduction
Our SS curriculum very wisely begins its study on the life and ministry of Jesus with a look at Genesis. The only problem with the curriculum is that it starts at Genesis 3, whereas it should start with Gen. 1. According to the apostle John, the ministry of Jesus and His relationship with mankind begin at least with Gen. 1:1 which relates the story of the creation. According to John, whereas the Father conceived the idea of creation and planned its design, the Son is the One the Father used to do the actual work of creation (John 1:1-3).
What a creation Jesus made. Although we do not have enough time to probe into detail the different aspects of this glorious creation, we can take one look at the Garden of Eden to get a glimpse of how wonderful the results of this first creation must have been. We see mankind whom Jesus created in His own image (Col. 1:15). When I watch the Sydney Olympics and see such athletes as Ian Thorpe or Lenny Kayzelburg, I feel like I am getting an idea of what man must first have been like when God created him. He was nothing like the stooped-over, hunched-back semi-apes scientists would have us to believe existed but was rather mankind in his prime. What a glorious environment God placed this man and woman in. It�s not simply earth but a garden, a paradise. In the middle of the garden stand the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Running through the middle of the garden is a river which emerges from the convergence of 4 other rivers, 2 of which we ourselves know: the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers.
Harmony and freedom exist in this paradise. All the different animals live in perfect peace and harmony in this new creation. In this garden, there is nothing of the violence which today characterizes nature. Moreover, God allows mankind to enjoy this garden fully. He places only one restriction upon mankind. Neither the man Adam nor his wife Eve is to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Why this restriction? Before we consider this question, remember that this is the only restriction God places upon the man and woman. There are not a lot of different rules and regulations to which they are enslaved. Rather, God just gives them this one restriction. Now that is not a tough life. Why though does God give them this one restriction? So that He and they can have a genuine relationship if they are going to have a relationship at all. Choice is essential to relationship. Since God is our Creator and we are His creatures, choice in the form of obedience or disobedience is vital. If we cannot choose to reject God, then we cannot choose to accept Him. Although the existence of choice in this garden will prove disastrous in the short-run, the truth is that it will prove glorious in the long-run as person after person will choose Christ even when every conceivable circumstance in his/her life will argue against it.
the serpent tempts eve (3:1-7)
Moses first introduces the serpent in the story of the Fall. According to Moses, the serpent which lived in the Garden of Eden was more cunning than any other beast in the garden. By cunning, Moses means that the serpent was shrewd. He does not claim that the serpent was evil but only that he was shrewd. People can be shrewd and yet not be evil; for example, there are a lot of shrewd successful businessmen who made their money both legally and ethically because they were shrewd. Something though has possessed this serpent which uses the serpent�s cunning for ulterior motives.
The serpent addresses Eve and asks her if God has really commanded that she and Adam not eat fruit from any of the trees in the garden. The serpent states this like he can�t believe that God has commanded them not to eat fruit from any of the trees in the garden. Two things here: (1) he is actually knowingly twisting what God has said and (2) he is inviting the woman to pass judgment upon God�s Word. To a degree, there is a time in which you and I must pass judgment (that is, make a decision) about the Bible. We have to address the issue whether or not we believe it is God�s Word. That, in a sense, is passing judgment upon it. Once that judgment is made though, we are no longer to pass judgment upon it. The only thing passing judgment upon anyone is the Word passing judgment upon us. Some "Christians" flagrantly engage in this by claiming that some parts of the Bible are true, whereas others are not. Some conservative Christians most subtly engage in this by choosing to obey some parts of what Christ has said and conveniently refusing to obey other parts. Our response should be rapid and permanent obedience to ALL Christ command us. Also notice that the serpent is basically accusing God of trying to starve His people: "You can�t eat from any of the trees?"
At this point, the woman should have fled. Evil cannot be argued with; instead, it must be shunned (1 Thess. 5:22; 2 Tim. 2:22). Eve makes the disastrous mistake of conversing with evil. Whereas the serpent brought doubt upon God�s Word, the woman goes one step better by out-right perverting that Word: "We can eat from any tree except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; however, we can�t even touch the fruit of that tree." That�s a flat-out lie. God had never told Adam and Eve they could not touch the fruit from this tree�although that seemed to be a wise thing not to do; He had only commanded that they not eat it. Notice the regression of thought in this passage: (1) God wants to starve you; (2) God is mean and won�t let us even touch certain fruit; and (3) Satan will make God even worse in just a moment! Eve explains that God has commanded them not to eat this fruit because on the day they eat it, they will die.
To this the serpent responds that God has lied to them. According to the serpent, He has lied to them because He is worried that once they eat from this tree, they will be like gods knowing good and evil. The serpent is implying that God is petty and is worried about having any rivals. Eve is probably horrified at how terrible God is treating her and Adam. Apparently in her eyes, God is trying to keep them from becoming all that they could and should be. The woman is convinced and eats the fruit. She then finds the man and entices him to eat the fruit, which he does so apparently rather willingly.
The immediate result of this sin is that they now know that they are naked. Before they ate the fruit, they had no clothes on; now though they are naked. What they do then is to sew together some fig trees so that they can hide their nakedness. All of this may seem strange at first but makes absolute logical sense. Before Adam and Eve sinned, they were not only physically naked but also spiritually naked. They were good and pure with nothing to hide from each other or from God. Once they sinned against God, they experienced the natural and inevitable result of sin�shame. Once we sin, our conscience inside us informs us that something is wrong with us. We are bad and need to hide. We see this frequently when we see gangsters and criminals always wearing sunshades. They do so not because the light is more hurtful to their eyes than to others but because they are trying to hide something. Putting on the fig leaves was a physical attempt to hide the spiritual condition of shame. Although Adam and Eve were good before they ate the fruit, they now knew what goodness really was because they have experienced its exact opposite�evil. Instead of becoming like gods as the serpent promised though, they have become less than man, hiding in shame and fear.
god reaches out ot adam and eve
During the cool of the evening, God enters the garden to converse with Adam and Eve (it appears that this was a daily event). When He does not find them, He calls out to Adam, asking him where he is. (Now God has known all along what has happened. He�s being gracious though to Adam by giving him a chance to ask for forgiveness and repent. Who knows what would have happened if Adam had taken this course instead of the one he eventually pursued?) Adam responds that he and Eve are hiding because they have discovered that they are naked.
God rhetorically asks who informed them that they were naked. Note that God addresses Adam first even though He knows that Eve is the guiltier of the 2. The reason God addresses Adam first is that He honors Adam�s position as the spiritual head of his family. Although he could not have kept Eve from yielding to the serpent�s deceptions, he nevertheless could have responded differently once she approached him At that time he could have taken measures to rectify the situation. Instead, he only made matters worse.
God is going to ask both of them, "What have you done?" This is not the question of anger but the question of great pain. God knows what they have done and what the consequences are going to be. It�s like the mom who has heard silence from the child�s room for the past hour thinking everything is OK. When she peaks in and sees the toys scattered all over the floor and the magic marker writing on the wall, she hollers, "What have you done?" She�s not wanting information. She is horrified at what the child has done. The same is operating here. Adam instead of confessing and repenting sets a precedent for responding to getting caught which most people have followed ever since�he shifts the blame for his action to Eve. He goes even further though. Not only was it Eve who induced him to sin, it was God who gave Eve to him in the first place. Ultimately God is to blame for this situation. When God addresses Eve, she shifts the blame to the serpent. Notice that God does not address the serpent. The only appropriate response to evil is destruction.
consequences for the sin - the curse (3:14-24)
At this point God dispenses the consequences for their sin. Addressing the guiltiest first, second next and third last, God curses the serpent. Up until this time the serpent must have walked on all fours like the rest of the animals in the garden; however, now God is going to subject him to abject humiliation. He will crawl on his belly on the ground; he shall constantly have his face in the dust. Moreover, because the serpent had done this thing, God is going to place permanent hostility between himself and the seed of the woman. A day will come when the serpent will bite and bruise the heel of one of her sons; however, that son will crush the serpent�s head completely (3:15).
Turning next to the woman and the man, God informs Eve that the curse will touch her in her 2 most important relationships�first in her relationship to her husband and second to her children. No longer will she have the natural inclination to want to be a support to her husband as God created her to be; instead, one of the following will be true: (1) she will try to usurp her husband�s authority or (2) she will want him to dominate her. With regards to her children, she will give birth to them in much pain. With regards to Adam and the curse, from now on he will have to toil by the sweat of his brow.
Although all of this may seem harsh, we see a real note of tenderness in God�s dealings with Adam and Eve. When He sees that they have pathetically covered themselves with fig leaves, he provides them with animal skins for clothing to preserve their dignity. An angel then drives them from the garden and remains standing at its entrance to prevent people from returning to the garden. Again, whereas this may seem harsh, the truth is that this is a merciful act. If Adam and Eve were allowed to continue in the garden, they would have had access to the tree of life; by eating the tree of life, they would have forever lived in a state of sin. Now that would have been real hell.
Note that God does not destroy the garden; neither does He take a key and lock the entrance to it. By leaving the garden intact, God is implying that although at the present mankind has been excluded from the garden because of what one man did, a day may just come when another man�s actions may result in our being able to reenter the garden.
relationship of the story to christ
Probably the 2 most important parallels of this story with the life and ministry of Christ revolve around the 2 concepts of (1) the curse and (2) the conflict between the serpent and the seed of Eve. Moses picks up both of these concepts as he writes the rest of Genesis. First, when Eve gives birth to her first-born, she names him "Cain," which means "the man." Apparently Eve was hoping that Cain would fulfill the promise of being the son who would destroy the serpent (Gen. 3:15). Instead of fulfilling the promise, Cain actually unwittingly becomes a pawn in Satan�s hand by destroying Abel who was right with God. After Cain, the situation steadily regresses until finally God destroys all living things except Noah and the rest living on the ark.
With the coming of Abraham though, we see the beginning of the fulfillment of Gen. 3:15 and also the lifting of the curse. Note the emphasis on the word "bless" in God�s call to Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3). (The word "bless" is so important because it is the exact opposite of the word "curse." By extending the blessing to Abraham, God is beginning to lift the curse.) God promises Abraham that if he leaves his home in Ur/Haran, then God would bless him and not only him but also all his children. In fact, God would bless the world through Abraham if only he follow God. This promise finds limited fulfillment first with the birth of Isaac, then with the coming of Jacob and the 12 patriarchs, and in the OT ultimately with the rise of the Jewish people. Yet the nation of Israel only partially fulfills this promise. Although at times, Israel realized what it meant to be a blessing, for most of her history she failed miserably and became a reproach more than a blessing.
The blessing though kicks into high gear with the coming of Christ. It is by no accident that Jesus begins His great Sermon on the Mount with the word "Blessed . . . " By using the word "Blessed" 8 times in the introduction to the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is declaring that the promise to Eve and to Abraham are coming to pass; the promise is coming to fulfillment in the person and ministry of Jesus. When He came, He came to take on Satan and destroy his works so that He might give us the blessing promised so long ago (1 John 3:8; Rev. 12:1-9). On the cross, Satan may bite and bruise His heel; however, on that same cross, Jesus deals Satan a crushing defeat (Col. 2:15). It is like D-Day or the Battle of the Bulge in WW2. These battles did not end the war with Germany; however, after they ended, Germany was as good as defeated. The end is not over for Satan; however, it�s as good as over. It�s just a matter of time now before Christ finishes him off.
As a result of this conflict with Satan, Christ now re-opens the garden for His people. Yes, angels still stand at the entrance to this garden to prevent those who reject Jesus from entering it; however, those who confess Jesus may enter this garden. Again, in this garden, there is the river of life which flows from the throne of God and the Lamb. The tree of life stands in an arbor which borders both sides of the river. Finally, the curse has been completely lifted. On that day, we shall see the Father face to face Rev. 21:12, 27; 22:1-4).
How do we enjoy this blessing now? According to Paul, when Christ died and rose from the dead, He gave the blessing of Abraham to His followers: "in order that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith" (Gal. 3:14). In other words, Paul is saying that the Spirit living in us is the way that we will experience the blessing God promises and also will experience the removing of the curse. As I listen intently to what Jesus is saying to me and as I obey Him, the Holy Spirit kicks in so that I can right here and now enjoy to a real degree the life God Himself lives and which He sent Jesus to die to give to me. That is a life of blessing and no curse.