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Genesis 3:1-24
The First Sin: How Can We Deal with Temptation?

How many sermons have been preached from Genesis 3? How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? It’s a key passage of the bible – so much so that it’s impossible to understand the rest of the Bible without understanding Genesis 3. It has everything: temptation, sin, punishment, redemption. We could spend all month exploring different aspects of the story – but we’ll just do a brief overview.

It’s popular to say the story never really happened – that Genesis 3 is a fable. Where else do we find talking animals but in fables. However, it’s impossible to explain God's intricate plan of redemption – fulfilled through Jesus the Christ – unless Genesis 3 is real. And on the “flip side,” unless at least the basic facts of Genesis 3 are historical, man was always sinful – and there can be no redemption.

Yet although Genesis 3 is historical, we must be careful trying to analyze the sequence of events by parsing English translations. I’m certainly not a Hebrew scholar – but I have friends who are – and I’m told the tense construction in Biblical Hebrew makes it extremely difficult to determining an exact sequence of events. This is consistent with the Eastern mindset discussed last week: ancient Hebrews didn’t concentrate on keeping the sequence of events straight when they told stories; they focused on the events themselves, and might jump around timewise. This caution applies to questions such as: “Was Eve with Adam when God warned about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?” (Gen 2:16-17), and “Was Adam with Eve when Satan tempted her?” (Gen 3:6).

The story opens in paradise; God has provided for every human need and circumstance. Adam and Eve are naked, but "not ashamed" (2:25). Everything God created is good, and man enjoys a close, intimate relationship with Him. Jewish tradition claims this went on for 7 years.

But man’s perfect environment is disrupted by the tempter. We’ll never know what “the serpent” actually looked like or how he could talk. We assume he was good looking . . . how could a yucky snake capture Eve’s attention like this? The bible says “the serpent” is “crafty” (3:1); the Hebrew also means cunning or clever. The bible describes real serpents this way, but we believe “the serpent” which tempted Eve was more than a snake; it was Satan himself, father of deception and lies. Satan can appear as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14): attractive, reasonable, and enticing. We may not know exact details about “the serpent” or how he appeared, but it seems clear Satan used the serpent’s natural craftiness to tempt the woman into moral evil.

The tempter waits until Eve is alone – not necessarily because she’s weaker than Adam, but because he doesn’t want the two of them reinforcing one another; he wants to “divide and conquer.” The New Testament tells us Eve was deceived, but she was not naive. She knows about God’s care; His beautiful creation surrounds her. She and Adam commune with God and know the glory of His presence. So Satan approaches her cleverly and subtly – craftily – with an apparently innocent inquiry: “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’” (3:1). The implication in the Hebrew is to suggest God is not being fair with Adam and Eve, despite their access to all the other trees. The question is designed to elicit a response . . . and although Eve’s answer seems accurate, her response reveals Satan's question has aroused doubts about God's goodness toward her and Adam. She seems to covet the forbidden fruit; and in the Hebrew, she distorts God’s warning of certain death into possible death.

Once the serpent secures a response indicating Eve may be receptive, he openly criticizes God. He doesn’t question God's right to restrict man from the fruit, but he denies God's promise of punishment: “You will not surely die,” he says (Gen 3:4). The Hebrew is extremely emphatic, just as emphatic as in God's promise to punish disobedience. Then Satan questions God’s motives: “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:5). Satan implies God is jealous of His unique place in the universe, knowing good and evil, and furthermore this knowledge is what makes God, God . . . so if Adam and Eve know good and evil, they will be like God. She doesn’t realize that man must sin to know evil; only God can know evil without experiencing it. But thus tempted, “she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband” (Gen 3:6 NIV).

Two parenthetical comments. The English text says “her husband with her” (Gen 3:6 NAS), but in the Hebrew, this does not imply he was with her during the temptation. Second, the suggestion by some scholars that "eating forbidden fruit" means having sex is ludicrous; God told the first husband and wife to “be fruitful and multiply” (1:28).

One commentator has said the temptation of Eve is based three fundamental sins which have plagued mankind ever since: greed, pride, and unbelief. That makes a lot of sense: greed to have the forbidden fruit, pride to be like God, and unbelief about God’s promised punishment. Another commentator says three words in 3:6 describe how man progresses into sin, and that that Eve follows this pattern; Eve saw the fruit . . . that it was pleasant . . . then she took it. The bible records the same pattern with King David, when he took another man’s wife: he saw her . . . that she was beautiful . . . and he had her brought to him (cf 2 Samuel 11:2-4). Lust precedes sin; if we eliminate lust, and we eliminate sin. A third commentator observes that Eve listened to Satan (3:1), responded to him (3:2), and finally yielded to sin (3:6). That’s why James advises: “Resist the devil, and he will flee” (Jas 4:7). If she had resisted, Satan would have fled. If she had only sought counsel from Adam, the two together would surely have resisted – which may be one reason Jesus sends out missionaries in pairs (cf Mk 6:7, Lu 10:1).

When Eve did not die immediately, she involved Adam in her sin (3:6). She may have felt Satan was right, and was elated with her keen judgment and discovery. According to 1 Tim 2:14, Adam was not deceived; this implies he chose permanent separation from God rather that from Eve – which is really sweet.

Satan promised eating the fruit will open Adam's and Eve's eyes, but he does not say what they will see. They see themselves as sinners, devoid of their original beauty. Their knowledge of good and evil is from the standpoint of sinners. They see their nakedness differently, and experience shame. In a pitiful attempt to replace garments of innocence, they sew fig leaves together – just as man ever since has made pitiful attempts to cover his guilt and assuage his conscience. Man has gained moral autonomy and is “liberated” from moral dependence on God – but now he’s in bondage to sin.

No doubt God in the form of a theophany has visited with Adam and Eve in the garden many times before . . . but this time the sound of God walking in the garden arouses fear rather than joy. As is typical of sinners, Adam and Eve run from God and hide. But God pursues them. God knows Adam and Eve have sinned, but demonstrating His concern for the lost human race, He still makes the approach.

God’s love is evident from the dialog; His questions reflect tenderness, not toughness or challenge: “Where are you?” He asks. God knows very well where Adam and Eve are; He wants a response. When Adam responds, “I was naked; so I hid” (Gen 3:10), God asks, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree?” (Gen 3:9-11). God is asking “Why are you guilty and ashamed?” God’s question is not condemnation, but a request for confession.

But Adam and Eve become devious and defensive, rather than contrite. They refuse to accept responsibility for their sin: Adam blames Eve . . . Eve blames the serpent . . . God makes no comment. Failure to accept responsibility may be the single greatest problem with our society today. Adam and Eve show that’s a basic human failing – but I wonder if today’s society exacerbates the problem by affirming this attitude.

God decrees punishments which involve both life functions and relationships. The bible says the animal kingdom and all creation suffer because of the fall in Eden. But “the serpent” – the tempter – is cursed “above all the livestock and all the wild animals!” (Gen 3:14): doomed to crawl on his belly and eat dust. In the ancient Middle East, eating dust is a figure of speech which represents being cursed, and that’s probably the intent here. It’s pointless to speculate what the serpent looked like originally – whether it had legs and was unusually attractive, or whether it always lacked legs, and the curse simply gives symbolic significance to its movements and characteristics.

But in His ultimate judgment on Satan, God promises deep-seated hatred between the offspring – “seed” – of the woman and of Satan: “He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (Gen 3:15 NIV). Both verbs are the same in Hebrew, and other versions translate it “bruise” (AV, NAS) – though the implication is much stronger. This is a promise from God to man, called the protevangelium: the first Gospel. It recognizes the essential conflict between Satan and God and indicates this conflict will also involve the people of God and the followers of Satan. The seed of the woman is a clear reference to the Messiah; in studies of Messianic Prophesy, this is usually first on the list. It’s a remarkable demonstration of God’s love for mankind that – when God is justly about to punish Adam and Eve and drive them from the Garden of Eden – He gives His first promise of the Messiah. The protevangelium prophesies that the Christ will deliver a death blow to Satan, but in so doing will suffer death Himself.

God next turns to mankind, to show that sin has consequences. For the woman, God will “greatly increase (the) pains” in childbirth (Gen 3:16). The bible does not say there are children at this point – but if Adam and Eve have been in the garden 7 years, we would think there must be. But now the pain of childbirth is increased; the Hebrew word is often translated “labor,” which is the English term we use today.

The woman will “desire” her “husband” (Gen 3:16) – perhaps so the pain of childbirth will not be a deterrent to God’s command to “be fruitful and multiply” (Gen 1:28). Lastly, the husband “will rule over” the woman” (Gen 3:16). In a sinful society, it’s essential to have a clear chain of command to maintain order; otherwise, chaos will reign.

And as for Adam . . . God’s judgment is not directly on him but upon his environment because of him. Farming the land will henceforth require hard labor – cursed by “thorns and thistles” (Gen 3:18). Gone is the easy life in the garden; producing food will now require “the sweat of (his) brow,” until he “return(s) to the ground” from which he was taken (Gen 3:19). Man’s disobedience has gained nothing, and has lost everything.

Now Adam names his wife “Eve, . . . the mother of all the living” (Gen 3:20). His dominion over her confers the right to give her a name . . . and this choice confirms Biblical tradition that the entire human race is descended from this first man and first woman – as is now being confirmed by science.

God next kills some animals to make “garments of skin” to replace the inadequate fig leaves. Some commentators say this initiates worship by animal sacrifice – which may or may not be correct. But it nevertheless makes clear to Adam and Eve the high cost of their sin: innocent animals must die to cover their guilt and shame.

Finally, God expels Adam and Eve from the garden (3:23). Just as grace precedes judgment, clothing precedes expulsion. There’s no reason to expect the Garden of Eden escapes God’s curse on the land, but the garden still contains the tree of life, and God proclaims that man “must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live for ever.” So God sets up “cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life” (Gen 3:22, 24)

We still don’t know Adam’s and Eve’s relationship to the tree of life before the fall . . . but whatever this may have been, God is determined that man will no longer have access to the tree. This leads one commentator to suggest death is a respite from man’s toil, as in the myth of Sisyphus: condemned by the gods to ceaselessly roll a rock to the top of a mountain, whence it rolls back to the bottom. We might imagine Sisyphus would welcome death as an end to his futile and hopeless labor . . . and that’s the case for all of us, until we are reconciled to God through belief in Jesus the Messiah.

In closing, recall from chapter 2 that God’s penalty for eating from “the tree of knowledge of good and evil" is death (2:17). Satan and Eve debated what (if anything) the punishment really was; so now with 20/20 hindsight, we ask: “what did God really mean.” We know one thing He didn’t mean: immediate physical death. Commentators propose two other interpretations: ultimate physical death, or the immediate spiritual death of separation from God. I was taught this latter interpretation when I first studied Genesis – but the protevangelium, shows separation from God at the fall is not spiritual death because man is able to return to God through the Messiah. Hence the only option is ultimate physical death – which I understand is what the Hebrew really says. This makes the question of the “tree of life” especially important. But we can’t answer that tonight.

The bottom line is that the penalty for Adam’s sin is immediate expulsion – not immediate death. The same penalty of expulsion will be the punishment for the sin of Adam’s son Cain, as we will discuss next week.