This week we continue our study in Genesis by covering 3:6-13.
Gen. 3:6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.
- Satan singled Eve out. He continues to use this tactic on us everyday. We must avoid his tactics.
- Proverbs 4:15 Don’t even think about it; don’t go that way. Turn away and keep moving.
- Satan tempted Eve so that he might tempt Adam; just like he tempted Job by using his wife as a discourager and tempted Christ through Peter. It is his policy to send temptations through those we would least suspect and through those who have the most interest in us and influence on us.
- Eve’s curiosity and perhaps her surprise to hear the serpent speak led her to keep talking to him.
- Proverbs 14: 7 Stay away from fools for you won’t find knowledge on their lips.
- Proverbs 19:27 If you stop listening to instruction, my child, you will turn your back on knowledge.
- She should’ve focused on what God had given them instead of what they couldn’t have.
- Saying they could not touch the fruit may have been Eve’s way of saying the command was to strict. Wavering faith gives great advantage to Satan. He attacked Eve where he saw weakness. Satan concealed his own misery over his own fall from grace to deceive Eve into believing God was wrong. Gen. 3:5 God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil. Satan taunts “You will know everything to be known.”
- The name of the tree was a warning not to eat from it. (The tree of the knowledge of good and evil) He caused her to desire to be like god. Satan had ruined himself by desiring to be like God.
- Isaiah 14:14-15 I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High. Instead, you will be brought down to the place of the dead.
- Satan makes it sound as if God is depriving them knowledge because he didn’t want them to be as smart as him. Our first parents, who knew so much, did not know this- they knew enough. Christ is the tree to be desired to make us wise.
- Colossians 2:3 In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
- 1 Corinthians 1:30 God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself.
- A great deal of sin comes in at the eyes. Satan may tempt but he cannot force. We make that choice. Eve taking the fruit was stealing, like Achan’s taking the accursed thing, taking what she had no right to. Surely her hand was shaking/ trembling?? We should suppress the first desires to sin.
Genesis 3:7 At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.
- They saw they were naked, stripped and deprived of all the honors and joys of their paradise, and exposed to all the miseries that they might expect from an angry God. After sinning, they felt guilt and embarrassment over their nakedness. Their guilt made them hid from God. A guilty conscience is a warning signal God has placed inside of us that goes off when we’ve done wrong.
- The worst thing we can do is to stifle or eliminate those guilty feelings. That is like using a painkiller but not treating the disease that is causing the pain. We should be thankful those guilty feelings are there. They make us aware of our sin so that we can ask God’s forgiveness. Sin feeds the irrational belief that we can somehow control God’s perception of us, and His love and acceptance.
Genesis 3:8-9 When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
- The picture painted here is like a friend walking through the woods calling your name. The effect of their sin was that sweet fellowship with God was broken, but not irreparable. The consequences would require great sacrifice.
- Think about their appearance, fig leaves sown together for clothing. Did they really think God wouldn’t notice their new outfits?? This proves we cannot hide from God and we are kidding ourselves if we think we are. Sin keeps us from having a right relationship with God, but God offers his forgiveness to us all we must do is confess and except. If God hadn’t called Adam to reclaim him, his condition would have been as desperate as the fallen angels. The lost sheep would’ve wandered endlessly, if the good Shepherd had not sought after him, to bring him back. God wanted to remind him where he was, where he shouldn’t be and that he would not be happy where he was. Sinners should consider where they are and stop at nothing to pursue God.
Genesis 3:10-11 He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.” “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”
- Adam didn’t admit his guilt but confessed it by admitting his shame and fear. Because of his nakedness, Adam was afraid to appear before God. God knew what Adam and Eve had done, but he questioned them to get a confession. Sin can’t be forgiven until it is confessed.
Genesis 3:12-13 The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.” Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”
- We are each responsible for our own actions. Using others as our excuse for sinning will not hold up when we face God on judgment day. When we sin, we have no one to blame but ourselves. When we entice others to sin we are doing the devil’s work and we become an accessory to their ruin.
Adam blames Eve – She gave me the fruit and pressed me to eat it – a silly excuse. Adam should’ve been the leader teaching her (Eve) what she should and shouldn’t do. Should Adam be ruled by God or Eve/his wife? Adam not only blames Eve but implies God is to blame for creating her. Eve lays the blame on the serpent. Satan’s temptations are all attractive, his arguments are lies, and he cheats us from the life God intends.
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