The Fall

It wasn’t my fault!

It wasn’t my fault!

You stand in the living room. It had been clean and tidy a few hours ago. It is now anything but.

Three children stand there… guilty looks on their faces. It wasn’t my fault.

Each in turn explain how they were drawn into the action that had recently taken place. It was the other person who had started it. Things were already messy when they got there.

Does it really matter?

To the one who likes the house ordered and tidy it does. It’s going to take a lot of effort to get things back right.

But what if you don’t mind a bit of mess. Can you stand in the living room, looking at the mess, and say - well, I hope you had fun. At least no one got hurt.

So is the wrong doing just subjective? If so, who gets to decide if it’s wrong or not?

Well, we could probably agree that in the case of the messy house, it’s probably up to the home owner, in this case, the mum or the dad, to decide whether the mess was playful fun, or naughty behaviour.

Now, perhaps you can see where I’m going with this.

Because you can probably see the parallel between the rules we make in our own home, and the rules God makes in his world. It’s the whole concept of sin. God gets to set the rules because he made the place.

Now, this logic might sound all pretty good. But the logic kind of makes it sound like all of God’s rules are just based on his preferences. Almost a bit arbitrary based on how God was feeling at the time.

Now, perhaps, if we argue that it’s God’s creation and he can do what he wants, then perhaps it doesn’t matter if it’s arbitrary or not, but the reality is, our protestation that it’s not really our fault, quickly becomes, well, does it really matter.

You see, this morning, we’re coming to the third chapter of Genesis.

It’s a well known story.

Adam and Eve are in the Garden of Eden. God tells them not to eat from a specific tree.

A snake tempts Eve. She eats the fruit, then gives some to her husband. And God chucks them out of the garden, and hence we now have sin in the world and everything goes bad.

Now, here’s the thing. What’s the big deal about a bit of fruit?

Sure, we can argue that God can choose whatever rule he wants, and if he chooses to make a piece of fruit forbidden, then he’s got the right to do so.

But on the flip side - was God setting humanity up to fail? By placing an enticing bit of fruit then calling it forbidden, was this a stitch up? Was it even fair?

Now you might notice what I’m doing here… I’m doing what humans are very good at… adding spin to a story so we reduce our guilt. But let’s run with it, because in one regard, it does seem odd that a single bit of fruit can make such a massive difference.

Okay, but how do we look at this. On one hand, we can perhaps recognise that God is God, and so he can do what he wants. But on the other hand, it seems a little unfair he puts what seems so arbitrary in the way.

So let’s dig a little into the story and see if we can make some sense of it. Because I’m going to suggest that as we do, we’re actually going to gain a much better appreciation for what sin is and how it works, which will help us identify it in our own lives.

The fall

So let’s dive in.

By the end of the second chapter, everything feels ideal.

The last verse of chapter 2 even has a feeling of innocence about it - a kind of child like innocence.

Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

You see, Adam and Eve are in the Garden of Eden, and all is well. Everything they need is provided for them. They have an abundance of food - albeit, it appears to be a holey vegetarian diet, but it’s still all there.

It would appear they have all the protection they need, and they don’t need to worry about the elements around them.

Now, in chapter 2, we were told about two specific trees. Firstly, the Tree of Life, and secondly, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

The second of these two trees came with a command - they are not to eat of it. If they do, they will surely die.

Good and Evil

So what is this tree all about?

Good and Evil. Two opposites. In Hebrew it is the words Tob and Ra. Words that do mean good and evil, but have a range of meaning much bigger than than just right or wrong.

It’s the tree of the knowledge of pleasure and pain. It’s the tree of the knowledge of beautiful and ugly.

This tree represents the knowledge of a split in humanity. A split of competing ideas.

What is this tree even doing in the Garden?

Tob and Ra. Good and Evil. Pleasure and Pain. Beauty and Ugliness.

These things existed. Yet without a particular knowledge of Tob and Ra, the lives of these innocent humans would not be controlled by them.

It was how God created them.

To gain this knowledge would change them entirely. It would put their existence on a different level.

If they eat from it, they will die.

The Snake

Enter, the snake.

He comes from nowhere.

He’s described as craft, or in some translations, shrewd.

Who is this snake? In the narrative itself, he’s not identified, although it is clear he is an anti-God figure. Based on some New Testament references, we usually identify this snake as the devil.

His craftiness is shown in some very cleverly worded questions.

What he says, technically wouldn’t count as a lie, but is certainly misleading.

He directs his question to the woman. Throughout the whole conversation with the snake, Adam is silent.

We’re actually not told where he is. We’re not told if he’s absent, or whether he is by the woman’s side and just choosing to be quiet. He’ll turn up, however, when the fruit is being eaten.

Well, the snakes first question starts the woman to thinking about what God actually said.

Did God really say...

Did the woman even hear what God said? If you follow chapter 2 chronologically, God gave the command about the tree before she was even created.

But yet, based on her response to the snake, she certainly was quite familiar with what God had said.

You see, in the snakes question, he did misrepresent what God said. There wasn’t a prohibition against eating from any tree, only the one specific one.

Now, have you ever thought that the woman first mistake is engaging in this conversation at all.

There was no need to. God didn’t need defending. By engaging in this conversation, she’s about to go down a path she is not ready for.

Now, it’s also interesting that when she repeats God’s command, she also adds to it. God had only said not to eat the fruit, but the woman adds that they are not to touch it as well.

Will they die?

Well, the snake about to make a statement which on the surface looks like it will directly contradict God.

“You will not certainly die” he says.

Now, is this a lie?

Well, if we jump ahead in the story, we all know they do actually eat the fruit, and guess what? Well, in Genesis 5 we’re told that Adam lives to the age of 930. He does eventually die, but God had said, when you eat it you will die. In the Hebrew, it can be more directly translated ‘on the day you eat the fruit you will die’.

So the fact that they eat it, and don’t die straight away, might indicate that perhaps the snake got it right, and God didn’t.

Now if that was the conclusion, that would be very problematic. So you’ll be pleased that I’m going to offer a better way of understanding this.

You see, when we hear the word “die” or “death”, we naturally think of a natural death.

But yet, I want to suggest that life and death can include a lot more than just the natural.

From a spiritual perspective, life is being with God and death is being separated from God.

In this sense, when they ate from the fruit, they did die on that day, not a physical death, but a separation from God.

So, the craftiness of the snake was in making the woman think only in terms of the natural, and not in the broader, and in the end, more important spiritual aspect.

But then, this crafty snake takes things further - and if you’re following along in your bible, I’m up to verse 5. He tells them that this fruit will open their eyes, and that they will know good and evil - Tob and Ra.

Like God

Now, if you were following along looking at verse 5, I skipped a very important little phrase that the snake used, a phrase that is actually going to be key for us.

The snake says: “You will be like God”.

Now, let’s think about that. We already know that these humans are made in the image of God. Something we looked at a few weeks back. Something that was very special and helped us understand the special place we have in God’s creation.

But the snake is suggesting they can go beyond that. They don’t just have to be image bearers, they can be like God.

One of the analogies I used when I spoke about the image of God, was an image bearer is like a representative of someone in charge, say like how the Prime Minister might send delegates who represent him at different places.

The temptation is like saying to these representatives… you don’t need to just represent the Prime Minister, you can have the power of the Prime Minister. You can do what you want. Take the reigns yourself.

You see, knowing Tob and Ra, pleasure and pain, is to take the drivers seat. To take control.

The woman looked at the fruit, and it was pleasing to the eye.

We’ve seen this phrase before. When God was making the trees back in Chapter 2 verse 9, the trees were pleasing to the eye.

This beauty can be more than just seen. It can be known. But in knowing the beauty, you get to know the counterpart as well. That’s what comes with this knowledge.

Eating the fruit

So, she takes it and eats. (v6)

It’s at this point that the husband finally comes into view. She gives to her husband and he eats too.

At that point, their eyes are opened. There was something special about that moment.

But this knowledge is Tob and Ra, not just Tob. With beauty is ugliness. With pleasure is pain. With goodness is evil.

Only a moment ago they were naked and felt no shame. Now, they see their nakedness. It has a new implication.

The consequence

They quickly sew some fig leaves to hide their nudity.

I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about it, but fig leaves don’t make good clothes.

Fig leaves are rough and they’re not very durable.

These people who have just had their eyes opened, are seeing both the beauty and ugliness together. They understand the good, but also the bad.

These people in their pathetic clothes, hear God. With the knowledge of Tob and Ra, they hide.

They now have their moment of truth with God. They wanted to be like God, but they were never going to be God.

Despite God’s questioning, he knows what has happened. Yet he asks if they’ve eaten the fruit.

It wasn’t my fault.

They love to pass the blame.

Adam shifts the blame to his wife. The wife to the snake.

The reality is, Adam and Eve are both equally guilty. We can play games and quibble over semantics. But both knew what God had said, and both disobeyed. It doesn’t matter how you spin it.

Curse

But the snake is still the first to get cursed.

He’s to crawl on his belly.

Verse 15 describes the enmity between the snake and the woman. There’s this interesting little prophetic piece. The woman’s offspring will crush the snakes head, but the snake will strike the heel.

God then addresses the woman in verse 16. She is to have pain in childbearing. The husband is to rule over the wife. An interesting question to ponder is whether the dominance of the husband over the wife is the way things are meant to be, or a result of the fall.

To Adam, God says how the ground will be cursed and that the working of this land will now be painful.

There were real and powerful consequences for what Adam and Eve did. Consequences that we still feel the effect of today.

While those consequences might sound bad, I want to suggest the bigger consequence comes in the last three verses. They get banished from the Garden. Cherubim are placed with flaming swords, preventing them from coming back. The tree of life is not to be seen again. We won’t see it again until we get to Revelation 22, the last chapter of the bible.

But in the midst of all of this bad news, we find a moment of compassion from God in verse 21.

Remember the pathetic clothes of fig that they made for themselves. It would seem God took pity on them. He made them garments of skin to clothe them. Something that would be comfortable and durable.

Application

So what do we make of all of this?

Well, firstly, we need to recognise that the command to not eat from this particular tree was not some random arbitrary command. It was rather God saying, I’ve made you my image bearer, but I don’t want you to go above and beyond. To take more than you were designed for.

Unfortunately, this same desire for Adam and Eve is a desire we share. We want more than what we have been given.

We do good things, but make them bad.

We help the poor, but then think we’re above the poor. We’re better than them.

We teach others about Jesus, but then think we’re smarter and superior to them.

We look at the criminals… the drug addicts… the prostitutes… Thank God I’m not like any of them!

We have this knowledge and we think it makes us little gods. But we are in the image of God, we are not little gods. The difference is huge. In one we reflect something far bigger than ourselves. In the other, we think we are that far bigger being.

We can get so caught up in the finer details of what we can and can’t do, that we actually fail to see something far bigger… the thing that we should actually be learning from Genesis 3.

That is, that the real sin is thinking that we can be like God.

The amazing thing for us is that we live in a time after Jesus, when God came to earth as a man.

He showed us how we can avoid this. Jesus emptied himself, becoming servant, submitting himself to death.

When I spoke about image of God, I encouraged you not to make yourself smaller than human sized, but sometimes we make ourselves bigger. We need to humble ourselves like Jesus demonstrated for us.

Conclusion

We are still eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. I’m not saying the pursuit of knowledge is bad, because using our God given ability to reason and think and learn is an admirable task. But we’re eating from this tree when we think this knowledge put us somewhere near God.

Always put yourself in submission to God.

This passage today shows us how sin entered this world, but it is a temptation that we constantly need to counter.

My prayer is that you will humbly seek God, and see the beautiful way that God has created you.

Let me pray…x`