Did God Really Say?
Genesis: From Eden to Eternity • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ” 4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
I want to begin by addressing a couple of matters that some people have asked me about.
[talk about concern of Author about Function and Purpose, not about Structure or How]
Did Adam and Eve exist? Was there an actual Garden?
[Image: Did Adam and Eve Really Exist: Who They Were and Why You Should Care]
[Image: Possible Location of Garden]
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24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. 25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
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where “one flesh”..... naked.....children.....vulnerability.....innocence...... In the same way that parents assume that their children will trust them....we’re given that picture in Gen. 1 and 2 with the creation of Adam and Eve.....God invites them to live in relationship with Him and to trust him.
“naked”.....no separation.....no shame, no guile, no mistrust, no suspicion, nothing between them that could cause conflict....they are “one flesh”.....
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
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The author focuses on this beautiful nakedness, this beautiful shamelessness, this beautiful oneness and trust..... but introduce the serpent who is “crafty”.....
“nude” vs. “shrewd”
Enter the serpent..... to destroy the beauiful oneness.
We’re not only thinking about that because of the Hebrew word translated “crafty” or “shrewd”....we thinking about that because well, it’s a SNAKE after all, and in our next verse one who talks!
Genesis The Serpent (3:1a)
Throughout the ancient world, [the serpent] was endowed with divine or semidivine qualities; it was venerated as an emblem of health, fertility, immortality, occult wisdom, and chaotic evil; and it was often worshipped. The serpent played a significant role in the mythology, the religious symbolism, and the cults of the ancient Near East.1
In Egypt, where Israel had spent several centuries, the serpent was considered a wise and magical creature. Wadjet, the patron goddess of lower Egypt, is represented as a snake (uraeus) on the pharaoh’s crown. This came to symbolize the power of the pharaoh.
Recall that we noted in an earlier sermon Israel was likely in the wilderness when they first received these stories, at least in the form that we have them now..... and many would still find that the memory of being in Egypt was fresh in their minds.... And surely all of them would have seen pictures on the side of temples or walls of the Pharoah....what was on his headress??
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But in the Biblical account.....serpent is simply one of God’s creatures....one of the wild animals that the Lord God had made.
As the serpent appears in the story we are on alert that an intruder is present in God’s good creation and this intruder has the potential to bring chaos and doubt into God’s good world.
Genesis 3 says nothing about the origin of Satan, it only uses the image of a serpent, which represents the forces of chaos,
Origin of Satan (Isaiah 14:12-15, Ezek. 28)
“crafty” “shrewd” “subtle”
Serpent is presenting an alternative way of living in the Garden, or of thinking about the Garden and about God himself.
We all know this to be true.....life is full of snakes..... possibilities of danger, tripping up, lying, etc.
Did God really say?
In a very real sense this question gets at the very heart of the human condition? At the very heart of the sinful human condition is innate tendency to distrust God.
What did God actually say?
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
But what does the serpent say?
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
Genesis 3:2–4 (NIV)
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit [DROPPED “freely”] from the trees in the garden, 3 but God [DROPPED “LORD”] did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it [ADDED by Eve], or you will [DROPPED “certainly”] die.’ ” 4 “You will not [ADDED “not”] certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” [ADDED Serpent claims to know the mind and intent of God]
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…but the end of the exchange the serpent has explicitly contradicted God....
What’s happened in this dialogue? Well, here’s one way to think about it....
In Gen. 2 God is a generous GIVER and we are called to graciously receive his blessing and goodness..... but the serpent presents God who withholds from us....who prohibits us.....who takes away our freedom, so we much TAKE from him.
So often when I hear people who are critical of Christianity I hear them characterize God as a prohibitive God....he prohibits me from doing the things I enjoy and want to do.... sexual freedom, other freedoms....
Serpent invites us to become our OWN gods!!....explain how this gets played out..... in ANE the “knowledge of good and evil”
Our passage ends with another reference to the nakedness of Adam and Eve..... but now the nakedness becomes cause for separation.....they’ve hidden parts of themselves from one another....shame, recognized their vulnerability....... AND they also HIDE THEMSELVES FROM GOD....
....that beautiful oneness that we encountered at the end of chapter 2 has not been, as it were, torn apart....
What part of our lives to we hide from others? From God?
Question I often am asked: Where did evil come from? Why did God create a world in which the possibility of disobedience or doing evil exists?
We are created with the capacity to love....to will the good of another....self less love, commitment, trust, care, commitment to another, willing their good, wanting and doing what’s best for them....
That ability can only exist if we can choose not to will another’s good. We are created with free will, we are not programmed robots.
So we have been created with the possibility to NOT will a trust in God, an obedience towards good.....
1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
Temptation: The Two Adams Contrasted
1 John 2:1 Genesis 3:6 Luke 4:1–13
First Adam Second Adam—Christ
“the lust of the flesh” “the tree was good for food” “command this stone to become bread”
“the lust of the eyes” “it was pleasant to the eyes” “the devil showed Him all the kingdoms”
“the pride of life” “a tree desirable to make one wise” “throw Yourself down from here”
“man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God”
“worship the Lord your God and serve Him alone”
“do not put the Lord your God to the test”
End with explaining how Christ bore the curse…use the imagery in the curse oracle from Gen. 3.
In general, the themes of the curse oracles are important in the NT teaching that Jesus became the cursed one hanging on the tree. In his suffering and death, all the motifs are drawn together: the tree, the sweat, the thorns, and the dust of death (see Ps 22:15). Jesus experienced it all, to have victory over it through the resurrection.POWERFUL STUFF!!!!
