August 5, 2002
LifeWay Family Bible Series for Aug. 18
Sin boils down to an issue of trust in God's love
___Genesis 3:1-24
___By Barbara Kent
___University Baptist Church, Fort Worth
___Is there a Dr. Doolittle quality to Genesis 3? We read this story and never stop to consider that except for Balaam's donkey (Numbers 21:26-30), animals do not talk. Yet here in the garden a serpent created by God was talking to the people God created.
___Was this a literary device the writer of Genesis used to tell a story for which he had no other explanation? Or did God grant special permission to the serpent to speak? Or can we simply admit we do not understand this and look at the mess the creatures God created made for themselves and for all who came after them?
___To examine these matters does not doubt the truth of the Scripture but reminds us to approach it with holy awe.
___It began like this ...
___The serpent was a shrewd, crafty, cunning creature, more so than any other of the animals God had made (v. 1). We are not told why the serpent behaved as he did. Perhaps God had given him, and all his creation, moral freedom. I do not think he approached the woman in order to gain information or clarification about what God had commanded. His question to her was, "Did God really say, 'You may not eat from any tree in the garden?'" (v. 2). And with so seemingly an innocent question began the greatest tragedy ever known to mankind.
___The woman had understood God's command, for she responded to the serpent, "We may eat from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die'" (vv. 2-3).
___Actually, there is no record that God said they must not touch it, but the woman had not misunderstood the seriousness of the prohibition about the tree and its fruit. If the woman was not created until after God gave the command to Adam (2:16-22), perhaps Adam had added the part about not touching the tree to emphasize the seriousness of the restriction.
___God's trustworthiness
___In effect, the serpent responded to the woman by saying, "That's not true." He implied God had not told the truth and could not be trusted. He said, "You will not surely die ... for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (v. 4). Have you ever wondered on what basis the woman decided to believe the serpent? What ever causes any of us to doubt the trustworthiness of God?
___A foolish decision
______The woman looked at the forbidden tree. God never had said the fruit was not good to eat, not pleasing to the eye. He had simply forbidden them to eat of it. She decided to determine if eating it would make her wise. She ate, and she gave some to Adam, who was apparently right there beside her.
___He must have heard the serpent's words, for neither of them hesitated to eat the fruit God had forbidden them to eat. Though you cannot tell it in English, the serpent apparently spoke to both Adam and Eve, for the Hebrew verbs are plural and the pronouns are second-person plural.
___They did not foresee the consequences. Their eyes were opened, and they saw themselves in a different way. They saw themselves as naked. Do you wonder if they thought covering themselves with fig leaves would cover up the fact they had eaten from the tree?
___Meeting God in the garden
___Afterward, they heard God walking in the garden and could not face him, so they hid. God called, "Where are you?" (v. 9). The man blurted out what they had done and what they learned--they were naked (v. 10).
___Can you hear the sorrow in God's next questions: "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten that which I commanded you not to eat?" (v. 11). Can you see a parent who asks the questions of the disobedient child not for information but to bring the child to awareness of its actions?
___Thus ensued a sad but foolish bit of finger pointing. The man said: "She gave it to me. It's her fault." The woman said, "The serpent deceived me; it's his fault." And the serpent met God, whose trustworthiness he had called into question. The consequences for all three would change their lives forever. Read 2:14-19 to see how tragic and far-reaching were the results of their foolish actions.
___Rebellion separates
___As a result of their disobedience, God put the man and woman out of the garden. Their foolish act of rebellion caused the separation. Have we learned from them? Do we understand that going against what God has commanded us to do disrupts the relationship between him and us? If we have not learned this from reading about Adam and Eve, we will be doomed to repeat it with the same sad consequences.
___There was grace even in the punishment: God did not condemn them to immediate death and made provision for their needs. His grace extended even to his disobedient children. The good news for us today is that God provides for the restoration of our relationship to him as we surrender our wills to him and trust in Jesus.
___Question for discussion
___
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