Bible Study - Genesis 3
The Fall of Man
1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
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.
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 gods, knowing good and evil.
Here we see Satan, the enemy of God and hater of mankind, entering the scene for the very first time, in the form of a snake. An interesting thing is that he immediately started questioning the Word of God. And how did he do it? By twisting it and turning it to something which was slightly true and slightly untrue. Where the KJV (v1) has "every tree", another completely possible translation is "any tree". This wasn't true, God had not commanded Adam and Eve that they could not eat from "any tree" at all!
In essence, Satan was asking mankind: is God trying to hold something back from you? "Does God really care for you, after all? Is he really good...?" Do you hear the subtle whispering in his voice, the subtility of this deception?
Rest assured of this: Satan hasn't changed that much since the Fall. He's pretty much the same as back then, and his approach to lure us into temptation is also strikingly similar: make us question God's Word, make us question God's goodness, trying to get us into the trap of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).
A tragic observation is that Adam seems to be absent when this happened. It could very well be that Satan took the chance when he saw that Eve was alone for a while, since he knew that his chance of success was greatest when Adam was not present there with his wife, for Adam was called to be the head of his family.
6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
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.
Eve trusted her senses here (or as we could call it, sense knowledge) to the point of making it more important than what God had said. The fruit seemed really good, it looked so pleasant. It probably smelled delicious as well.
As mentioned in the comments for chapter 2, I believe Adam and Eve were covered by the Glory of God before the Fall. When they willingly chose to disobey the direct commandment of God, the glory departed. They were suddenly made aware of their nakedness, and tried to cover it as best as they could.
This is a perfect illustration of something called self-righteousness, a Biblical concept which describes a person who tries to in their own strength and ability to be a good and moral person. The problem is that after the fall of Man, we no longer have any innate goodness of our own, so all such attempts are futile and will in fact only lead us further away from actually being good and moral. This is described at great length in Paul's letter to the Romans. (Rom 7:7 and onwards)
8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
Here we see another terrible consequence of the Fall. I was afraid. Do you see how tragic it is? Here we have, mankind being created to rule and reign, having dominion over all of creation, being terrified. How pitiful this scene is.
Fear is one of the most obvious consequences of sin. Where there is sin and rebellion against God and everything that is holy, there will always be fear. Luckily for us, the opposite is also true: where people come into a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ, fear always has to leave. (1 John 4:18)
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?
12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
Why would God, being omniscient, have to ask mankind what had happened? Didn't he know it already? Of course he did. I believe he wanted to give Adam the chance to take responsibility and stand up for what he did.
Unfortunately, Adam didn't take this chance. Instead, he was trying to pass the blame on. Remember (from Gen 2:16) that it wasn't even Eve who received the command to not eat of the fruit. It was Adam in the first place!
Eve just followed in the pattern that Adam had laid out, trying to shift the blame onto the Devil. Mankind had started on the path of "finding the scapegoat", which we still see in our world today. If we can just find someone to blame, our own feeling of guilt and shame might decrease. Or will it...?
The consequences of the Fall
14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed 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; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Here we see something important. This is something called the protoevangelium. It is a prophetic message from God about how the seed of the woman (Jesus, the Messiah) would ultimately crush the power of Satan. Normally, a woman doesn't have any seed, and offspring, children are typically being referred to as "the seed" of their father ("the seed of Abraham" and so forth). The seed of the woman is a prophetic reference to the Virgin Birth, thousands of years before it happened!
16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
This curse has been fullfiled quite clearly. Instead of man and woman living together in marriage in harmony, we often see human relationships affected by strife and hatred. The word "desire" here can be interpreted as the wife's desire to control her husband. The husband "ruling" over her wife here can also be understood as men's reckless treatment of women all throughout history. Only when we listen to the Word of God and let His Spirit form our hearts and make us live in true humility, the original for the family as God had planned it can be fully restored. (see Eph 5:25-33)
17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Man was also cursed as a consequence of the fall. It wasn't work in itself that was the curse; that was a part of God's original plan (Gen 2:15). But the "thorns and thistles" were not.
20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
The "coats of skins" being referred to here implies that one or more animals had been killed. This can be considered the first blood sacrifice, leading forward to the other sacrifices in the Old Testament and eventually to the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary - the ultimate and final sacrifice which brought reconciliation between God and mankind.
Previous (chapter 2) | Back to Genesis | Next (chapter 4)