God's Story: The Fall
Notes
Transcript
Handout
The Question
The Question
1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat 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 has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”
Satan is crafty, appears as an angel of light, and that he is the ruler of this world.
The Challenge
The Challenge
4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Yet he is limited, due to the limited tactics that he employs. The author revealed that the book of James contains Satan’s three tactics.
14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.
First, he aroused desire by asking Eve a loaded question. Then he planted a “seed of doubt”, causing her to question God’s goodness. Then he denied the truth that God had declared and lastly, he distorted the truth. Satan told Eve that her eyes would become open and she would be like God, but he did not tell her that only God in His complete holiness is able to relate all things to Himself.
15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
Secondly, the mind brings logic to the situation. She rationalizes the facts. Look at verse 6.
The Contemplation
The Contemplation
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
Yet evil desire tainted the facts, which led to the mind and the emotions come together to move the will, and it brought forth sin. Because of the insinuation from Satan that God was holding Adam and Eve back, brought forth the beginnings of Adam’s downfall.
15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
The Crime
The Crime
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
The Corruption
The Corruption
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
Lastly, the author explains that the third step according to James. Sin brings forth death. The death that came to the first family was more than the ending of life. It brought a vivid feeling of awareness. This awareness brought forth shame, guilt, fear, blame shifting, defensiveness, and loss of freedom.
Constant Corruption
Constant Corruption
6 So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?
7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”
8 Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.
Transgression is when one person or nation sins against the other by breaking an either unspoken or spoken trust between the two parties.
23 Then Lamech said to his wives: “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; Wives of Lamech, listen to my speech! For I have killed a man for wounding me, Even a young man for hurting me.
24 If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.”
Iniquity is the crooked and perverse ways of people over and against God’s holy ways.
5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?
3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.
4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: that one thing happens to all. Truly the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
Sin is a failure to complete a command or missing a standard created by God.
9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.
10 As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one;
11 There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God.
12 They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.”
13 “Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit”; “The poison of asps is under their lips”;
14 “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 Destruction and misery are in their ways;
17 And the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
20 And He said, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man.
21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
22 thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.
23 All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”
The Confrontation
The Confrontation
8 And they heard the sound 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 among the trees of the garden.
9 Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”
12 Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”
13 And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
God went looking for man, asking him to appear. All others religions have man looking for God, but only the Bible have God looking for man.
The Consequences
The Consequences
The Serpent
The Serpent
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”
As an Advocate, God addresses Satan with judgment. Stedman stated that this judgment to the Devil was continual humiliation and complete failure. The enmity between Eve and the Devil and between her seed and the Devil’s seed, which points to the virgin birth of Christ, redeemer of humankind shows how the judgment was to be completed.
The Woman
The Woman
16 To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.”
The Man
The Man
17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.
18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field.
19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”
The Consequences for the Man and the Woman
The Consequences for the Man and the Woman
23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.
24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
God’s Compassion
God’s Compassion
21 Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.
22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—
God clothed Adam and Eve, a mark of acceptance. Men must allow God to clothe them with the righteousness of Christ. The clothing is for others that God’s acceptance of them would be evident to all.
The writer states that verse 22 acknowledges their self-centeredness. The author replied that we have no right to measure good and evil to ourselves. By banishing them from the garden, God sought that man would not live forever in his sin. The grace of God drove man from the garden, to guard the way to the tree of life, which is not a physical way. They cherubim cut off any other way to come to God but by a spiritual way.