Genesis 3:8-15 Grief to Relief

Genesis 3:8-15 (Evangelical Heritage Version)

8They heard the voice of the LORD God, who was walking around in the garden during the cooler part of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

9The LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

10The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.”

11God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?”

12The man said, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

13The LORD God said to the woman, “What have you done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

14The LORD God said to the serpent:

Because you have done this,

you are cursed more than all the livestock,

and more than every wild animal.

You shall crawl on your belly,

and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.

15I will put hostility between you and the woman,

and between your seed and her seed.

He will crush your head,

and you will crush his heel.

Grief to Relief

I.

The knew him. Better than anyone else in all of human history—other than Jesus, of course—they knew him. They had been created as intelligent beings—fully formed, and fully functioning.

As for their knowledge of God, they knew everything about him. They were well aware that he had created the entire universe. What awe must have filled their perfect knowledge of God when they looked around and saw all the beauties of his creation.

They were well aware of God’s characteristics, too. He was wise and powerful—he had to be to create everything. He was omniscient—he knew absolutely everything. This, too, they understood.

This knowledge they had about God hadn’t come from some book. They had experience to draw on. They met with God; they talked with God; they walked around with God in the Garden of Eden that was their home. Don’t you think that before the events of today’s text they would have looked forward to such walks and talks with their Creator? Those things must have been the highpoint in a series of otherwise perfect days.

God gave only one command, not ten. “The LORD God gave a command to the man. He said, ‘You may freely eat from every tree in the garden, 17but you shall not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for on the day that you eat from it, you will certainly die’” (Genesis 2:16-17, EHV). The command was given to Adam before God made Eve. But Adam, being the perfect man and husband, surely communicated this command to his wife. Even if he had been less than articulate, Adam was standing right there when Eve was tempted by Satan; he had every opportunity to keep what happened from happening.

He didn’t. He looked at the fruit with the same covetous eye Eve did. As her hand reached out longingly, he didn’t grab her arm to stop her. As the fruit moved from tree to mouth, he still did nothing; he said nothing. When she offered him a bite, he eagerly participated in her crime against God.

Even before the first taste, the devil had manage to awake a covetous heart in both of them. With the first nibble of fruit they already began to realize that everything had changed.

Even before our reading began, “The eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for their waists” (Genesis 3:7, EHV). That taste of fruit, violating God’s command, brought with it the first negative emotion. For the first time in history, human beings felt shame. Sin had entered God’s perfect creation.

God came for his regular walk and talk with Adam and Eve. It was their first chance for repentance, without God forcing them to confront the truth. They should have run toward him to fall on their knees and plead for his mercy. What was their reaction? “The man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden” (Genesis 3:8, EHV).

Adam and Eve knew God intimately—he is omniscient and knows all things; he is omnipotent and can do anything. Hiding would do no good, and deep down, they knew it. But they hid anyway.

“The LORD God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’” (Genesis 3:9, EHV). Another opportunity to repent. Adam’s answer? “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself” (Genesis 3:10, EHV). Fear. Another negative emotion. Still, Adam didn’t take the opportunity to repent; he didn’t admit to the reason for his fear of God.

“God said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?’” (Genesis 3:11, EHV). Yet another opportunity for full repentance.

But what is Adam’s response? “The man said, ‘The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it’” (Genesis 3:12, EHV). Rationalization. Blame shifting. “Eating the fruit isn’t really my fault, God, it’s that woman’s fault. And, oh, by the way, you gave me the woman, so really it’s your fault that I sinned.”

Eve was listening to all this. She uses rationalization and the blame game just as professionally as Adam: “The serpent deceived me, and I ate” (Genesis 3:13, EHV). Eve tries to pass on the blame for her sin, too. “It’s the snake’s fault, God. And oh, by the way, you made the snake, so it’s really your fault that I sinned.”

II.

God evicted Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden because there was another tree there—the Tree of Life. If they ate from that tree in their altered condition of sin, they would live forever in a world of sin.

There’s no more Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil to stay away from. Instead of one command, there are Ten. But the Ten Commandments are really a broad overview of God’s law. You can summarize the whole batch of Commandments with one word: love. In reality, God still only has one command: love. Perfectly. Display that love in various ways, but love perfectly.

We don’t. We fail. We don’t obey our parents and others in authority. We hurt or harm the bodies of others in our words and actions. The chastity God commands for use only in the marriage of one man and one woman isn’t purely followed. We steal. We trample on the reputation of others, especially if we think that gossip about them might elevate others’ opinion of us. We covet endlessly—more stuff, a different spouse, a different house, the lifestyles of the rich and famous—our covetousness is endless.

As for the commands about our love for God, violation of any of those other commands against our neighbor already means that we have elevated someone or something—usually our own selves—above God. We don’t love God above all things, as he commanded Adam and Eve, and every other human being to do.

When you are confronted with your failures, what do you do? Do you drop to your knees in confession to God? More likely, you run and hide. You rationalize. You shift the blame.

Every time you shift the blame, you are really pointing the finger of blame at God. You made me, God. My flaws and faults are built in. Ultimately, it’s your fault that I can’t control my sinful human nature.

After the words of our text, God announced the consequences of sin. I don’t imagine it took too long for Adam and Eve to realize the negative impact. Each of them lived for hundreds of years. They continued to sin, but no doubt they often looked back at that one stupid moment that changed everything.

It must have been depressing.

III.

But they also looked back on some of the words contained in God’s curse to the serpent. “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel” (Genesis 3:15, EHV).

This passage is called the first gospel promise. It might sound obscure to us, but Adam and Eve instantly recognized it for what it was.

The seed of the serpent refers to unbelievers. The seed of the woman refers to believers.

But then God said “He [the seed] will crush your head.” At the birth of her first son, Eve thought God was already sending the seed that would crush Satan. It would be many centuries before the special seed would arrive. His name is Jesus.

The Champion God promised came. In order to be the Champion who would crush Satan’s head, Jesus had to live a perfect life of love. Every action he took toward people was filled with love, even when he had to rebuke and correct.

Every one of his actions displayed his perfect love for the Heavenly Father. This meant that he could serve as the perfect sacrifice for sin. When Jesus died a painful death on the cross, Satan crushed Jesus’ heel.

Death was only a small thing to Jesus, our Champion. The real punishment for sin was being abandoned by God as he hung there. He endured all, both being abandoned by God and dying on the cross, so he could serve as our substitute.

Jesus did what Adam and Eve could not do—he remained perfect in every thought, word, and action. Jesus did what you and I could not do, even from before we were born—he remained perfect in every thought, word, and action.

IV.

What relief washed over Adam and Eve when God simultaneously cursed Satan and promised the Savior. Many, many years would follow. They did not forget God’s promise. Even when they saw the heartache that accompanied all the sin of themselves and their children and grandchildren and great-great grandchildren, they remembered these words of promise. God would send the ultimate seed who would deal with sin once and for all.

What relief washes over us when we reflect on the account of the first sin, and God’s first promise of the Savior. The heartache brought by sin continues. We see sin’s affect on life up close and personal every day. But we have the completed history of God’s saving activity. God’s promised Savior came. Jesus fulfilled God’s plan of salvation perfectly. We will not live in a sin-darkened world forever. Jesus has promised that he will come again to take us to our heavenly home.

God always keeps his promises. He kept his first promise and sent the Savior. He will keep the promise to take us to heaven, too.

Don’t run and hide. Freely confess your sins to the Lord. You know that Jesus has already paid for those sins and has won your forgiveness. Live in the light of God’s promises. Confess your sins to the Lord, for he grants relief for your grief. Amen.