The Problem and The Promise
Genesis 3 1. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which Jehovah God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of any tree of the garden?
The serpent was sly – crafty – beguiling. He was tricky. You cannot trust anything the devil tries to sell you. Even if it looks good, it is not.
He’ll sneak around and put questions in your mind. He set Eve up for a fall. He took God’s Word and made an extreme of it in order to confuse Eve.
Later, in the gospels, we see him trying to fool Jesus. He quoted and misquoted the Word trying to twist things in Jesus’ mind. He couldn’t trick Jesus because Jesus knew what he was up to and gave him no place.
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat:
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.
Eve entered into the argument with him. Never debate with the devil. Just stand on God’s Word. It says what it says. Don’t allow anyone to twist it or to get you questioning it. Just obey it and ignore the devil’s subtleties.
Eve told him the truth. God said not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Do not lose your innocence. Stay pure. There are things you don’t need to know through experience.
Eve even went so far as to say, "Do not even touch it." That’s good advice. Stay as far away from sin as you can.
Sin always takes you farther than you meant to go, keeps you longer than you wanted to stay, and costs you more than you want to pay.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil.
Ah! Here is where human reason gets man into trouble. Satan said, "No. You won’t really die. God lied to you. He’s trying to keep something from you. He’s trying to keep you down. Go ahead. Try it and you’ll see."
Satan makes people think that there is something they are missing that they shouldn’t miss. He entices with things we naturally desire – selfish things. He entices with pleasures because the flesh craves pleasure.
Satan appealed to Eve’s ego. He played on the fact that everyone wants to feel important. He suggested that she could be more if she would take things into her own hands. "Be your own boss. Take control."
6. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.
My mother used to say, "Curiosity killed the cat." Well, it certainly killed Eve. She got to looking and considering what Satan had said.
Sin always looks good. Satan comes as an angel of light. He’ll always appeal to something you are naturally drawn to. He dresses sin up to look good and hides its evil result until it is too late.
Eve bought it. She liked what she saw because Satan made it appear good and desirable. She partook of it and gave to
Adam also. Now Eve was deceived. Adam just followed the crowd. This is another trick of Satan. He’ll make you feel left out if you don’t go along.
7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
Here we see the result of sin. They didn’t drop dead in the sense we think of death. They continued to live, but shame became their state of mind. Instead of the peace accompanied with pure fellowship with God, they now felt shame. They realized they had blown it and were embarrassed about it. They immediately tried to cover up their sin.
This is the worst thing we can do, but it is usually the first. And to top it all off, they tried to hide their nakedness with fig leaves. The epitome of human effort. A weak effort to say the least. Did they think God would not notice their covers.
8 And they heard the voice of Jehovah God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah God amongst the trees of the garden.
Here is another feeble effort. They heard God coming and tried to hide. You cannot hide from God. But they didn’t want God to see what they had done.
What are we thinking when we do things and think God won’t find out?
9. And Jehovah God called unto the man, and said unto him, Where art thou?
Now, God knew where they were and what they had done, but he wanted to hear it from Adam. God wanted confession. It is necessary that man see and understand his sin. Otherwise, he will continue to make the same mistake.
10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
See what sin has done? Once Adam’s relationship with God was all pleasure. Now there is fear. The relationship has been spoiled. There is something blocking Adam’s enjoyment of God.
Isaiah 59
2 but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, so that he will not hear.
11. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
Time to come clean Adam. Time to fess up. What have you done? It does little good to be vague about our sin. We have to know what we have done wrong. It’s the only way we will learn anything from the experience.
God knew there was only one thing that could have brought this curse into Adam’s life – sin (disobedience).
And what did Adam do? He shifted the blame.
12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
It’s not only Eve’s fault for giving him the fruit, but God’s fault because the woman was his idea. Adam forgot that he had the power to decide for himself. You can never put the blame on someone else. At the judgment you will be the only one on trial. Nobody else will take the heat for you.
Of course, Eve was a quick learner. She shifted the blame to the serpent. Now wouldn’t it have been much better if God had just made Adam and no woman and no serpent?
Boy, it’s a good thing God didn’t ask our advice when he was creating.
14. And Jehovah God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
15 and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Now, here is where the plan begins to come together. Here is where we begin to see what God is up to. The curse on the serpent, the devil, is this. There will someday be a child born – one from out of Eve – out of the woman – and he will challenge and defeat Satan. He will be a product of God working with and through mankind. He will be a combination of God and man – God in flesh, or a God-man.
He will crush the devil’s head. It will be Satan’s demise, his final destruction. And do see how clever God’s plan is? God will use man to defeat Satan, and He allowed Satan to set his own trap. Satan’s destruction of man will eventually become his own destruction.
Satan has unwittingly caused his own downfall. He crossed the line and it will bring him down.
Now this is what Christmas is all about. Gen 3.15 is the first promise of a savior for mankind. Jesus is, of course, the fulfillment of this curse upon Satan and this blessing to man.