“The Fall”
Genesis 3:1-7
We have started reading the narrative of how God created the universe and all that is in it. Like any good narrative, there are characters in the story. Up to this point we have met a triune God, made up of a Father, a Son and a Holy Spirit. They were busy creating a universe and alongside the flora and fauna, they chose to create humans in their image. The man came first and God offered the man a position of partnership in tending a garden. He provided everything the man needed, however, in verses 16 & 17, we read,
“And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
The narrative continues and God realizes the man, alone, was not really in their image. So they create a woman. At this point we would say the story had a happy ever after ending because God proclaimed that all was very good in the Garden of Eden.
Until, like every good novel, there needs to be an antagonist. Which came first?
The story of creation or the fundamentals of a novel? Today’s Scripture introduces us to a new character in our narrative, the serpent. The text doesn’t make it clear that the serpent was Satan, but there are other verses in the Bible that enlighten us on this fact.
Ezekiel 28:13-19 tells us that Satan was in Eden.
It also tells us that before the fall, Satan had been an angel of the highest rank, something of a leader of worship in heaven, until wickedness entered him and his heart became proud on account of his beauty.
Isaiah 14 tells us Satan’s fall had to do with his desire to be equal to or greater than God.
In Revelation 12:9-10 we read about the great dragon, or ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan.
Well, this narrative has started to take on some interesting twists. Having a man and a woman living in a garden and enjoying their evening walks with God is a bit out there.
But in today’s Scripture we have a talking serpent.
Whatever a “serpent” looked like in Eden, it couldn’t have been scary or frightening because Eve maintains a conversation with it. Scholars have speculated that the creature either had wings or was able to move without creeping upon the earth as it now does.
Let’s be clear. Satan was and continues to be an immaterial spirit and one way for him to be visible is to embody himself in some way or other. Satan and his demons have the ability to indwell human and animal bodies. The New Testament is full of stories where Jesus and the disciples remove demons from people and pigs.
Paul informs us in Ephesians 6 exactly what our battles consist of,
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
I don’t think Eve had a clue. In fact, as we continue to read the story we discover she didn’t.
Although we may not totally understand everything involved in the way Satan used the body of a serpent, that doesn’t mean it’s not true. Moses has heard this narrative straight from God and given it to us. This is not a fable or an allegory as many in our world today say it is. It may sound far-fetched, but there was a real serpent, as there was a real paradise; along with Adam and Eve, who began the human race, sinned and because of this our race has really fallen. It’s a story we are meant to believe.
We are told the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals. While being a wild animal it may not have been a regular inhabitant of the Eden, but it was intriguing enough for Eve to continue a conversation with. This craftiness allows Satan to be successful in deceiving Eve.
Notice the craftiness begins with the serpent starting a conversation with the person who didn’t personally receive the command to not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the first place. In her defense, Eve had been given the details from Adam. This made Eve more vulnerable. Whenever we take the word of other humans as what God said, and not go to the Word to check for ourselves, we, like Eve, leave ourselves vulnerable to Satan’s craftiness.
Satan’s first attack was leveled against the Word of God. If he could make Eve confused or doubt what God had said, he had partially won. Satan begins by asking a question,
“Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
Satan was pretty crafty. He took God’s positive command to Adam, Genesis 2:16 & 17,
“And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
and rephrased it in a purely negative way, “God won’t let you eat of every tree.” Satan loves to make God look like the bad guy. Satan tries to convince us that he is the one who is having all the fun.
Satan sends out the message that being a Christian is boring, no fun and that God doesn’t want you to have a good time. We’ve all heard Satan’s lies.
Eve’s reply reveals a lot. We realize that she only has partial knowledge of what she should not do. First off, she doesn’t even know the name of the tree. She called it “the tree in the midst of the garden.” There were two trees in the midst of the garden, the tree of life, which they were free to eat from and the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which they were not to eat from.
Eve also misquoted God’s command to Adam. Her “you shall not eat it” and “lest you die,” were close enough, but where did she come up with “nor shall you touch it?”
Not that the idea of completely avoiding the temptation of eating something you shouldn’t by not touching it isn’t a bad idea, but putting words into God’s mouth is a bad idea.
This brings us to Adam. Clearly he hadn’t explained the whole concept of what God had said to Eve. At least not in a way that she correctly understood.
It may seem an insignificant detail and a small thing to hinge the destiny of the human race and all creation upon, but the tree was meant as a restraint on Adam and Eve. It was a reminder that they were NOT God. That all they had and all they were, meant they were responsible to Him. Satan had a field day exploiting that relationship.
Satan had Eve thinking, wondering, questioning. His next statement to the woman was a downright contradiction of what God said.
Satan said, “You will not certainly die,”
The oldest trick in the book. Satan wanted Eve to question what God said about the consequences. When we remember the consequences of sin, we are more likely to give up the passing pleasures of sin. Satan was trying to get Eve to doubt the goodness of God.
Think about it, if Satan can get Eve to question whether God would lie to her, then how can God be good?
Satan was also trying to get Eve to doubt the badness of the sin he wanted her to commit. If the fruit is supposed to bring about something that is good, why doesn’t God want her to have it?
You have all heard this…. Satan wants us to see sin as something good. God must be bad if He doesn’t want us to have something good. Satan’s biggest lie,
“Sin is not so bad, and God is not so good.”
Satan then adds the final punch. He adds truth to his lies, verse 5,
“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened,”
You bet, we find out in verse 7 their eyes were instantly opened…. to their sin and rebellion.
Satan then adds more lies and truth,
“and you will be like God, lie, they do not become gods, knowing good and evil.” true, but to what end?
That’s where Satan hooked Eve. She surrendered to Satan’s temptation. John describes it like this in 1 John 2:16,
“For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.”
First, she gave into the lust of the flesh, verse 6,
“the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food”
Then she gave into the lust of the eyes,
“and pleasing to the eye”
Then, she succumbed to her being in charge,
“also desirable for gaining wisdom.”
She tried to become a god by rebelling against God.
Instead, she became like Satan.
Satan tried the same routine on Jesus, in the desert. Satan appealed to the physical appetite, he appealed to covetous and emotional desires and he appealed to pride. Each time Jesus combated those temptations with God’s Word.
What if Eve had chosen to do that?
What if we did that?
Ultimately, Eve wanted to be in control, have wisdom and knowledge, which meant to have power.
Jesus said if we want to be first, we need to become a servant, not wise, Matthew 20:26,
“whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,”
Rather than turning to Adam and seeking support, or waiting to check things out with God when He showed up later in the day, Eve went with her perceptions, which were partially true and partially false.
The tree was NOT really good for food, though Eve wasn’t really eating it for physical nourishment. The fruit was probably pleasant to the eyes, though so was probably a lot of the other fruit around. Satan had convinced Eve, and in her mind, the tree was desirable to make one wise.
Paul had it correct in 1 Timothy 2:14,
“And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.”
In Eve’s mind she thought she was doing something good for herself, and then she offered it to Adam for him to do something good along with her.
Satan was good at tempting Eve, but she didn’t have to buy into it. Taking and eating was all her doing. Eve was responsible and couldn’t rightly say, even though she will try, “The devil made me do it.” As with every temptation, God had made for Eve a way to escape, 1 Corinthians 10:13,
“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”
Instead of escaping, Eve takes Adam down with her.
What about Adam? Was he sitting around watching the whole thing? Whether he watched the conversation or not, Adam was not deceived, he sinned with his eyes wide open, his taking and eating of the fruit was downright rebellion.
The story takes a deep dive. Adam and Eve bear the responsibility for the fall of the human race and for the introduction of death into the created order. Before we think to harshly against them Paul reminds us in Romans 5:12, that we are not different,
“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—”
Spoiler alert, we happen to be living after the climax of this narrative, waiting for the final chapter. Paul writes to the Corinthians and reminds us, 1 Corinthians 15:22,
“For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”
Because of what Christ has done for us, we have hope. The words, “take and eat” have now become verbs of salvation.
Adam swallows and as foretold, their eyes were opened.
Immediately, the way they saw each other changed. We are told they realized they were naked. Psalm 104:2 suggests that before eating of the forbidden fruit, light had been their garment,
“The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment;”
Also in Matthew 17:2, Jesus was clothed in light,
“There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.”
At this point in the story, the light was gone. They not only saw themselves changed but their entire world looked different. They felt terrible. Although it may not have felt good, feeling terribe was good. It is good to feel guilty when you have done something wrong. Having no sense of guilt or shame would have been worse.
They make an attempt to cover themselves by sewing fig leaves together. Ingenious at best, uncomfortable at worst, for fig leaves have something of a prickly quality. Their first attempt had to have been pretty itchy.
Whenever we attempt to cover our own nakedness before God it is useless. We are to put on Jesus Himself as our covering, Galatians 3:26 & 27,
“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”
God has a covering for His people, Isaiah 61:10,
“I delight greatly in the Lord;
my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”
There they sat, itching and waiting. It would not be until the “cool of the day” when God normally came to see them. They had to have been in a bit of agony, anxious and perplexed. They hadn’t died, but what would God do to them as a punishment for the great sin they had committed?
Cliff Hanger!
Stay tuned.
Let’s pray.
