LESSON 5 – ORIGINAL SIN (PART 2) – IT WAS ABOUT OBEDIENCE
Genesis 3:8 through 3:24
Preparing for Lesson 5
Our previous lesson made me realize that human beings really haven’t changed all that much in the past several thousand years. Or perhaps I should say, we haven’t changed for the better. Did you notice how easily Adam shifted the blame to Eve? Rather than standing up and taking responsibility for his actions, he tried to minimize his own involvement by throwing Eve under the bus. And Eve did a little finger pointing of her own, blaming the serpent because he set up a temptation he wanted her to fall for.
If Satan said anything in response to the judgments handed down to him his words are not recorded in Scripture. No remorse, no sorrow, no blame shifting. He set up the ruse perfectly and the heretofore sinless couple ultimately fell, and he was proud of it.
In fact, his pride was his real problem. Isaiah 14:13-14 gives us a glimpse of Satan’s true nature as he declares:
I will ascend to heaven
I will raise my throne above the stars of God
I will sit on the mount of assembly
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds
I will make myself like the Most High
So what was Satan’s motive? His pride led him to believe that he could usurp God’s authority and he wanted to destroy the relationship God had with man. He does not possess the power of creation so he chose instead to perfect the power of destruction. For those of us who belong to Jesus Christ, we much prefer to remember the words of the apostle Paul:
“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.” (Philippians 4:8).
Many months ago here in the community where I live, a group of citizens shared a common goal: to create a safe, fun playground for the neighborhood children. The local news media helped spread the word about the plans for the playground, publicized events for fund raising and encouraged community members to join the effort. The funds were eventually raised, the playground equipment was purchased and over one weekend, everyone gathered at the park to complete the work. There was a party and a ribbon cutting ceremony that was also covered by the news.
Very shortly after its completion, the playground was once again featured in the news. This time, it was to show the vandalism and complete destruction of the park. Much of the equipment had been broken beyond repair, other pieces had been pulled out of the ground and overturned, and trash littered the entire area.
Why? What motives could the vandals have had to destroy something so lovely? There is no way to explain it; it was evil mischief perpetrated by a group of people who were, for lack of a better word, jerks.
That word can also be used to describe Satan. He’s a jerk. He delights in causing mischief and destruction wherever he goes, just for the sake of destroying. This describes not only Satan, but all those who are in his kingdom. As we shall see in this week’s lesson, people are either members of God’s kingdom or they are members of Satan’s.
We do not need to fear Satan, because he is under God’s control. But we do need to be aware of the devious ways in which he tries to lure us away from our Savior.
And now, please read Genesis 3:8 through 3:24 in preparation for today’s lesson.
Lesson 5 – Original Sin (Part 2) – It Was About Obedience
A Sunday School teacher asked her first grade class, “Why did Satan try to tempt Eve in the first place?” A six year old jokester quickly answered, “Because he knew she would fall for it!”
This is a clever play on words, but since Satan is not omniscient, he did not know for certain that Eve would fall his ploy, but fall for it she did. In fact, she and Adam both fell for it, and their decision would affect all of humanity for all time. But along with the judgments, God also put a rescue plan in place. In today’s lesson, we will discuss the judgments He handed down in Eden, as well as His plan for our redemption.
The moment they ate the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve’s eyes were opened and they realized they were naked. Some have suggested this means their consciences were made alive. Our conscience is like an accuser living inside of us, and they were surely feeling shame and guilt. In a clumsy cover-up attempt, they clothed themselves with fig leaves.
Think About This: Concerning the tree in the middle of the garden, we do not know what type of tree it was, but at least one commentator has speculated it was a fig tree. In Genesis 3:7, we see Adam and Eve making clothing out of fig leaves, and the only tree Jesus ever cursed was a fig tree (Matthew 21:18-22; Mark 11:12-14). The fig tree in Scripture is often used to symbolically represent Israel.
When they heard God walking in the garden they hid, not because of their poor wardrobe choices but because they were no longer innocent. They sensed a change in their relationship with God, so rather than seek Him,
they hid. But in Genesis 3:9, God sought Adam, and called out to him, “Where are you?”
“I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” (Genesis 3:10)
God asked Adam how he knew he was naked, and also asked if he had eaten from the forbidden tree. This was a chance for Adam to step up and take responsibility. But instead, he passed the buck, blaming Eve and indirectly blaming God for having created the woman in the first place.
“The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:12)
Those were the words of a spiritually dead man.
God then turned to Eve and asked what she had done. In essence, Eve said, “The devil made me do it!”
What a tragic moment. The open and honest relationship Adam and Eve had with God was at an end. We can tell by their responses and blame-shifting that they were already spiritually dead.
R. Kent Hughes quoted Kenneth Matthews when he said, “The woman listens to the serpent, the man listens to the woman, and no one listens to God.”
In his book What on Earth is God Doing, Renald Showers attempts to give a broad view of the conflict between God and Satan. Shown below is a synopsis of what the author views as the beginnings of the conflict:
Before creation, nothing else existed but God.
God determined to have a kingdom over which He would rule as sovereign King, and since one cannot have a kingdom without subjects, God created two major kinds: angelic beings and human beings.
One of the highest angels, the being we know as Satan, became so proud of his intellect and power that he too desired to have a kingdom over which he could rule. But even though Satan was powerful, he did not possess the power to create his own subjects, so he had to steal them away from God’s kingdom.
Satan persuaded a great number of angels to join his rebellion and transfer their allegiance to him from the kingdom of God, and from that time on, they came to be known as demons. We do not know the exact number but about one third of all angels rebelled against God and followed Satan.
But in order to rival God’s kingdom, Satan had to persuade humans to join him as well, and being the father of lies, he would use any means necessary to make that happen. Being the crafty devil that he was (and is), he entered man’s perfect environment and in a very subtle way, tempted man to disobey God. Man fell to the temptation.
God had made man the governor of the earth; that is, He had given man authority over the earth and all that was on it. When man willingly disobeyed God, his membership in God’s kingdom ended and it shifted to Satan’s kingdom, along with his headship and authority over the earth.
Finally, although Adam was created in God’s image, his offspring were created in his image (that is, in Adam’s image), thus every human is born spiritually dead and a member of Satan’s kingdom. Although man still retains the image of God, it has been seriously marred.
Judgment and Grace
Showers’ book provides a good explanation for Satan’s motivation in tempting the first couple to sin. Did he not know there would be consequences for his actions, or did he simply not care? Perhaps he thought judgment would fall only on the humans, but he soon learned there were consequences for him as well.
Sin must always be punished, and God pronounced the judgment.
The curse on the serpent was two-fold. First, God cursed the reptile itself:
“Because you have done this, cursed are you more than all cattle and more than every beast of the field. On your belly shall you go and dust shall you eat all the days of your life.” (Genesis 3:14)
Think About This: Does this mean the serpent previously got around in some other way besides crawling on its belly? At least one scholar says this probably isn’t the case. The curse was indicative not of a new existence but of a new significance, that the crawling is henceforth symbolic.
And then God cursed Satan. Take note that this is the first prophecy in Scripture:
“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.” (Genesis 3:15)
When God refers to Satan’s “seed”, He is talking about the spiritual descendants of Satan; “and her seed”, refers to those who are in the family of God. One of Eve’s descendants would deal a death blow to Satan’s head, while Satan would bruise his heel, that is, cause him to suffer. This portion of the prophecy refers to Jesus Christ and it was fulfilled at the crucifixion.
To Eve, God said:
“I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, in pain you shall bring forth children; (Genesis 3:16-a)
Because of Eve’s disobedience, all women were condemned to suffer in childbearing. But here, the word pain means “painful toil”, indicating ongoing pain in both a physical and emotional sense.
There is some debate concerning the remaining portion of God’s judgment on Eve:
“…yet your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you.” (Genesis 3-16-b)
One interpretation of this verse is that in spite of the pain associated with childbearing, a wife will have a deep attraction to her husband. Others believe the meaning may be that her desire would be to rule her husband, as the same word is subsequently used in that sense in Genesis 4:7.
To Adam, God said:
“Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field; by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:17-19)
The ground that had been a source of great joy for Adam was now the source of great and ongoing pain. The curse struck at the heart of man’s very existence: to provide for himself and his family.
In verse 3:20, Adam names his wife Eve because the name means “life” or “life giver”. He had listened carefully to God’s words to his wife about her offspring and understood that a people would follow, and that one of her offspring would crush the snake’s head. By faith, he believed God’s words and knew that the human race would survive.
God made garments of skins to clothe Adam and Eve. R. Kent Hughes says that “it is clear that this is a sovereign work of God, conceived and executed by God alone. It is a work that Adam and Eve would never have conceived of because it involved the unprecedented taking of life…God’s provision here of robes of animal skin both recognized their sin and was an act of grace.”
Expulsion from the garden was both a punishment and an act of mercy. Had they not been banished from the garden, they would have had access to the tree of life and could have lived forever in a state of spiritual death and alienation from God.
Adam and Eve had sought autonomy from God, and as Satan promised, they did discover the meaning of good and evil. But their likeness to God was not glorious as they had supposed. Instead it was full of disgrace, shame and guilt.
What would life be like for them outside the garden? That is the subject of Lesson 6: In the Image of Man.
Think About It, Talk About It
This lesson mentioned that one of Satan’s motives was to destroy the relationship God had created with man. What other motives might Satan have had for his actions?
What might Adam and Eve, as well as Satan, have learned from God’s judgment on Eve?
How did God show mercy to Adam and Eve, even as He pronounced judgment on them? How was expulsion from the Garden also a sign of God’s mercy to them?
Sources
Hughes, R. Kent, Preaching the Word – Genesis
McGee, J. Vernon, Through the Bible – Genesis through Deuteronomy
Showers, Renald, What on Earth is God Doing?