Genesis 3:1-24

Genesis 3 (English Standard Version)

The Fall

¹Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.

He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" ²And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, ³but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" ⁴But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. ⁵For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." ⁶So 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 its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. ⁷ Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

⁸And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. ⁹But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?" ¹⁰And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself." ¹¹He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" ¹²The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate." ¹³Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

¹⁴The LORD God said to the serpent,

"Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
¹⁵I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel."

¹⁶To the woman he said,

"I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be for your husband,
and he shall rule over you."

¹⁷And to Adam he said,

"Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
'You shall not eat of it,'
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
¹⁸thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
¹⁹By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return."

²⁰The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. ²¹And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

²²Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—" ²³therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. ²⁴He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

Pastor's Commentary:

Satan comes to the woman with the opposite of God’s Word. “You will not surely die.” That’s a lie. The woman and her husband both end up believing Satan’s lies. This kind of pattern has continued even to this day. To win, Satan doesn’t have to get you to believe that he exists, but he’s just got to get you to believe that God doesn’t, or that God doesn’t care about your sin. This is exactly why the fall into sin was recorded for us.

God came calling for the man and the woman in the garden. If you think about it, this is very good news in and of itself: God does not destroy the man and the woman outright, but calls out to them, just as He calls out to us in His Word. God finds them, and gets them to confess what they have done. Even though they blame each other and blame Satan, God allows them to speak.

Then God boomed a promise to the Serpent. Actually, it was a curse for Satan but a promise for the man and the woman. God binds Satan up in a curse because of this great evil Satan perpetrated on our first parents. Then God promises that He would take away agreement from Satan and the woman, and from Satan’s offspring and hers. This disagreement is actually faith! For when we believe, we no longer agree with the Serpent, but we agree with God. God is the one who gives us faith through the work of the Holy Spirit.

But then comes the piece de resistance! God says, “he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." The one Offspring of the woman would wound the serpent’s head, even though He would get hurt in the heel. The head wound is the mortal wound. Here we have the first Gospel. God promises that one born of woman would come and set things right. One would come and destroy the power of Satan forever. This One is, of course, Jesus Christ our Savior.

Things may be bad in this sin-tainted world. There is enough pain in childbearing, there are enough thorns and thistles and sweat of the brow to go around for all of us. We are but dust, and we will return to dust unless Christ returns first. But the fact of what Christ accomplished for us still stands! He has crushed the power of Sin, Death, and the Devil. Where Adam and Eve failed, Jesus succeeded. Where Satan slithered, Jesus crushed his power over us. Where death had us in its grasp, Jesus triumphed over death. Now death is but a paper tiger. We can laugh sin, death, and Satan to scorn.

Adam believed the promise. He named his wife “Eve” because she would be the mother of all the living. Eve means alive. You are alive in Jesus Christ, if you believe in Him. God has covered over your sins just as He covered over Adam and Eve with the skins of the sacrificial animal. Jesus’ blood covers you. You are redeemed of the Lord. You’ve been bought back from sin, death, and Satan. Jesus says, “Nothing can snatch them out of my hand.” That’s good news.