The Serpent
Notes
Transcript
Handout
God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden to KEEP (his) ORDER. Gen 1:28, 2:15-23
The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.” Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper corresponding to him.” The Lord God formed out of the ground every wild animal and every bird of the sky, and brought each to the man to see what he would call it. And whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the sky, and to every wild animal; but for the man no helper was found corresponding to him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to come over the man, and he slept. God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh at that place. Then the Lord God made the rib he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man. And the man said:
This one, at last, is bone of my bone
and flesh of my flesh;
this one will be called “woman,”
for she was taken from man.
The serpent was a clever ANIMAL—a chaos monster under Adam and Eve’s AUTHORITY. Gen. 3:1-5; Is. 27:1
On that day the Lord with his relentless, large, strong sword will bring judgment on Leviathan, the fleeing serpent—Leviathan, the twisting serpent. He will slay the monster that is in the sea.
Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’ ”
“No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
God: “On the day you eat of it you will surely be doomed to die.”
Eve: “You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.”
The Serpent: “You won’t be doomed to die.”
Instead of RULING OVER the serpent (and themselves), Adam and Eve GAVE INTO chaos. Genesis 3:6
The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
Immediately Adam and Eve began to behave like CHAOS MONSTERS. Gen. 3:7-8
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
The water saw you, God.
The water saw you; it trembled.
Even the depths shook.
The clouds poured down water.
The storm clouds thundered;
your arrows flashed back and forth.
The sound of your thunder was in the whirlwind;
lightning lit up the world.
The earth shook and quaked.
At your rebuke the water fled;
at the sound of your thunder they hurried away—
So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
And he said, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”
Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
The man replied, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.”
So the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”
And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
God CONTAINED human chaos by EXILING them from the garden and eternal life. Gen. 3:22-24
The Lord God said, “Since the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove the man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.
Outside the garden, Adam and Eve will have to FIGHT chaos instead of REIGNING over it. Gen. 3:14-19
So the Lord God said to the serpent:
Because you have done this,
you are cursed more than any livestock
and more than any wild animal.
You will move on your belly
and eat dust all the days of your life.
I will put hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.
He said to the woman:
I will intensify your labor pains;
you will bear children with painful effort.
Your desire will be for your husband,
yet he will rule over you.
And he said to the man, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’:
The ground is cursed because of you.
You will eat from it by means of painful labor
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow
until you return to the ground,
since you were taken from it.
For you are dust,
and you will return to dust.”
So the Lord God said to the serpent:
Because you have done this,
you have lost my favor
more than any other animal.
You will constantly be on the run,
slithering and hiding in the dirt.
I will make sure the woman and you are mortal enemies.
Her children will be enemies to your children.
You will be locked in a battle to the death with them.
He said to the woman,
What I am doing will make you anguish about getting pregnant.
Giving birth with be hard, anguishing work.
Your instinct will be to depend on your husband,
so he will be able to rule over you.
And he said to the man, “Because you went along with this and ate from the tree against my command,
The ground has lost my favor because of you.
You will get food from it through anguish for your entire life.
It will grow weeds,
and you will be forced to forage.
You will have to work hard for your bread
until you die and return to the ground.
After all, you were made from dust,
And you will return to it.
Living with Dragons
Living with Dragons
As much as we hate chaos, human beings will EMBRACE it when it serves our DESIRES.
Without God, the best we can do is FIGHT chaos to a STANDSTILL.
Through Jesus Christ, God will CRUSH the serpent FOR us—and IN us.
Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who create divisions and obstacles contrary to the teaching that you learned. Avoid them, because such people do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites. They deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting with smooth talk and flattering words.
The report of your obedience has reached everyone. Therefore I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise about what is good, and yet innocent about what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
