Week 4 Genesis LG
Genesis LG • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 4 viewsNotes
Transcript
Genesis 3
Genesis 3
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’?”
Now the Serpent: A little unforeseen in the narrative…In one sense we talked about how God made the leviathan and this beast of the ocean Anticipates the serpent of the field. But everything up till this point has been amazing. God has been good and has created everything Good, he made a woman for the man placed man and woman in a special garden
And literally everything is great up till this point.
Last week I made the point that there is a word play happening with the serpent, they were both (Arum) or Naked and they felt no shame. The word crafty is the same word
The idea is that the text anticipates that there will be shame in Nakedness due to the craftiness of the serpent..>Which will happen at the end..>they will be naked and have shame
The serpent is an animal that God has made.
There is no attempt here to explain the origins of evil
The narrative only explains mans sin and guilt thereafter
The substance of what the animal says is more important than who or what the animal is. Later in the Bible there will be an explanation as to who the serpent is
But wait first…A talking snake? We do not get the sense that any of the other animals talked
Martin Luther had thoughts
Genesis 1–11:26 (1) The Serpent and the Woman (3:1–5)
Luther explained: “The devil was permitted to enter beasts, as he here entered the serpent. For there is no doubt that it was a real serpent in which Satan was and in which he conversed with Eve”
I actually like Luther’s explanation why?…If it’s true that the enemy in the garden was a supernatural being, then he wasn’t a snake.
What happens in Ezekiel 28 is that Ezekiel talks about the arrogance of the prince of Tyre and his downfall…
We know that the prince of Tyre was not in Eden so what ezekiel does is talk about another downfall that happens due to arrogance and compares the prince of tyre to Satan in the garden
There have been some who has said the garden chereb in the passage that we are about to read is Adam, but the reality is that it doesnt make sense. Adam wasn’t filled with violence…
This is recounting a divine rebel
Ezekiel explains who the serpent was
The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, take up a lament concerning the king of Tyre and say to him: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“ ‘You were the seal of perfection,
full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
You were in Eden,
the garden of God;
every precious stone adorned you:
carnelian, chrysolite and emerald,
topaz, onyx and jasper,
lapis lazuli, turquoise and beryl.
Your settings and mountings were made of gold;
on the day you were created they were prepared.
You were anointed as a guardian cherub,
for so I ordained you.
You were on the holy mount of God;
you walked among the fiery stones.
You were blameless in your ways
from the day you were created
till wickedness was found in you.
Through your widespread trade
you were filled with violence,
and you sinned.
So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God,
and I expelled you, guardian cherub,
from among the fiery stones.
Your heart became proud
on account of your beauty,
and you corrupted your wisdom
because of your splendor.
So I threw you to the earth;
I made a spectacle of you before kings.
By your many sins and dishonest trade
you have desecrated your sanctuaries.
So I made a fire come out from you,
and it consumed you,
and I reduced you to ashes on the ground
in the sight of all who were watching.
All the nations who knew you
are appalled at you;
you have come to a horrible end
and will be no more.’ ”
Often times Isaiah 14 is talked about in conjunction with all of this
How you have fallen from heaven,
morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
you who once laid low the nations!
You said in your heart,
“I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.
Genesis 3
Nachash (NA-HASH) Serpent
The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible The Nachash of Genesis 3
The most straightforward meaning is the one virtually all translators and interpreters opt for: serpent. When the Hebrew root letters n-ch-sh are a noun, that’s the meaning.
But n-ch-sh are also the consonants of a verb. If we changed the vowels to a verbal form (recall that Hebrew originally had no vowels), we would have nochesh, which means “the diviner.” Divination refers to communication with the supernatural world. A diviner in the ancient world was one who foretold omens or gave out divine information (oracles). We can see that element in the story. Eve is getting information from this being.
SO basically if you were to read the word serpent in its ancient Hebrew word…It would be the diviner..>A dead giveaway that you are dealing with a supernatural being rather than a regular garden snake
There is still more to this word
Bronze NeHO-SHet which is the same as the root NaHash is the word for bronze…We will com back to this in a little bit….But hold onto that!
Now to the question: Did God really say?
Now to the question: Did God really say?
Obviously this question is to undermine god’s command and his word
Notice how the serpent says, Did God…Not did the Lord…He doesn’t use the covenant name of Yahweh
This could be a slight toward God just to remove that high name
let me use a commentary here
Genesis 1–11:26 (1) The Serpent and the Woman (3:1–5)
The tactic used by the serpent was to cause doubt in the mind of the woman through interrogation and misrepresentation.
-First, the opponent does not controvert outright the saying of the Lord (2:16); rather, he questions God’s motivation with the subtle addition “really say.”
-Second, the serpent uses the name “God” rather than the covenant name “LORD” that has characterized the narrative of 2:4–25, where “LORD God” appears.
-Third, the serpent reworks the wording of God’s command slightly by (1) adding the negative “not” at the head of the clause, which with “any” expresses an absolute prohibition; (2) omitting the emphatic “freely”; (3) using the plural “you” (hence bypassing the man) rather than the singular as in 2:16; and (4) placing the clause “from any tree” at the end of the sentence rather than at the head as in 2:16, thereby robbing God’s command of its nuance of liberality.
-All of this is to say that the divine injunction in the mouth of the serpent was refashioned for its own interests.
This is what the serpent does. It takes the divine command mixes it up into word soup and replies with a “really?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 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.’ ”
Ok so there is a couple of points here
1. Eve’s first mistake is even replying to the serpent
2. is an obvious point to Eve’s reply to the Serpent
Adam and Eve must have played the game of telephone
If you remember back to chapter 2, God had not yet made Eve when he gave Adam the rules of the garden
We do not have an account of God telling eve not to eat from the tree. Because of the order of creation the assumption that we have is that Eve learned about the prohibition to eat of this tree from Adam.
So the very first instance of God’s law in the bible is his command not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
The Big question will be whose voice do you listen to?
Now let’s compare what God said with Eve’s reply of what God said
New International Version (2011) Chapter 2
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.”
The woman omits the word free, and then she doesn't specify about the trees…She just says you must not eat of the tree in the middle of the garden or you will die
when God specifucally says don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil..So she identifies the tree by its location and not its significance
She added the phrase…Do not touch it or you will die
lastly she doesn't say the word “certainly” almost as if she lacks the finality of death
I mean to Eve’s credit she gets really close to the command but it almost shows human nature to remember your own way…
Not as if she was trying to disregard God’s command but she is simply remembering in her own way rather than what God actually said
But this is all satan needs to trap eve
Eve is lured into a dialogue on Satan’s terms
Let’s look at Satan’s reply
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Satan directly contradicts Eve
So Satan’s reply is to tell the humans no look God is actually preventing you from becoming like the Elohim.
He is holding back on you there is so much more to life…God is actually deceptive!
God is the one that doesn’t want you to have what he has
and the irony is that they couldnt be any more like God, they were already made in his image
Hence the serpent made three counterclaims:
First, they will not die.
Second, “your eyes will be opened,” a metaphor for knowledge, suggesting a newfound awareness not previously possessed. In the Old Testament this awareness sometimes is said to be obtained through divine assistance (e.g., Gen 21:19; 2 Kgs 6:17, 20).
And finally, they will gain what belongs to God, “knowing good and evil.” Essentially he is contending that God is holding her back—a claim that is sometimes echoed today.
In true Satan fashion his words are both true and false
Man and woman did not immediately die but they eventually did and were cast out of the garden, a punishment as good as death
Their eyes were opened: They saw their own nakedness…In otherwords they became shameful
They did get knowledge that only belonged to God
However, the serpent’s half-truths concealed falsehood and led the woman to expect a different result altogether.
The serpent spoke only about what she would gain and avoided mentioning what she would lose in the process
They did become more like God in a certain way in that they gain more knowledge but the price was death
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. 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.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
when eve had determined that the food was Good food and pleasing to the eye: She stepped into shoes she wasn’t ready to fill
God is the one who determines what is good
Eve ussurps God’s role of determining what is good
So the woman sees a 3 things
1) its substance as food,
(2) its appearance, and
(3) its potential for making the woman “wise.” “Desirable” (ḥāmad) is the same word used in the prohibition against covetousness in the 10 commandments…What we have to remember is that Genesis and Exodus are all written around the same time. So the author is thinking about this kind of stuff
Why did Adam eat?
2nd temple Book fo 4 Ezra
The first Adam, burdened with this inclination, disobeyed you and was overcome, but so were all those descended from him.
Adam, what have you done?! If you sinned, the downfall wasn’t yours alone but also ours who are descended from you.
In one sense there is no indication that Adam is deceived by the serpent, he blindly followed eve without hesitation
Adam was “with her” so was he with her in the sense that he heard the entire conversation, did he just show up?
Obviously he didn’t stop her and say eve! what are you doing? Why are you even considering this?
So they realized their own nakedness
Some irony: What was pleasing to the eye caused them to realize they were both naked and their eyes were displeased
So they attempt to make their own covering out of fig leaves to hide their nakedness
Then they heard the sound of the lord
The word sound is also the voice of the Lord
So they heard the Lord coming and they hid among the trees from God
Genesis 1–11:26 (2) The Man and Woman Sin (3:6–8)
The anthropomorphic description of God “walking” (mithallēk) in the garden suggests the enjoyment of fellowship between him and our first parents. The adverbial phrase “in the cool of the day” (NIV, NASB, NJB) or “the breezy time of the day” (NJPS, NAB) translates the Hebrew phrase “wind [rûaḥ] of the day.” The NRSV’s rendering makes the time more explicit, “at the time of the evening breeze” (also REB). “Walked with God” is a favorite expression in Genesis, depicting the righteous conduct of Israel’s heroes, including Enoch, Noah, and Abraham. Yet now the man and the woman are hiding from God in fear. God’s presence is also noted by his “walking” in the camp and sanctuary of Israel. Later Israel recognized that God demanded holiness and obedience if he were to continue to “walk” among his people.192 It was part of the sad deception that the man and woman who wanted so much to be “like God,” rather than obtaining the stature of deity, are afraid even to commune with him. The language of the verse, “the man and his wife,” imitates the description of the couple when in their innocence they had lived without shame (2:25). Now they have lost their innocence, their childlike trust in the goodness of God. “Among [i.e., in the midst of] the trees of the garden” echoes v. 3, which describes the forbidden tree “in the midst of the garden.” Their disobedience at the “tree” of knowledge leads to this hiding among the “trees.” They are pictured in the narrative like children hiding in fearful shame from their father.
But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
God is depicted here as a gentle father who his seeking out his own kids
God addressed the man. The man is held responsible by the Lord even though this inverts the order of the sin.
The question of God to the Man “where are you?” seems to be rhetorical and the purpose was to prompt adam for his wrong doing
Adam’s response should be later compared to Cain’s response in the killing of his brother able
Adam in a way confesses at least that he hid because he was afraid
Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Cain says he doesn’t know where his brother is when he in fact does know where his brother is
and then asks God the snarky question, am I my brother’s keeper?
So adam’s fear is probably related to his nakedness…Not wanting to appear before God in the naked state
Before human disobedience there was no shame This is one of the consequences of sin, guilt and shame
And then we see as a result of the sin the relationships begin to invert
Adam points the finger at eve…Its that woman you put here with me
Then God says, what have you done and eve points to creation…It was the serpant
Adams punishment will later be related to the fact that he listened to the voice of his wife rather than to the voice of God
To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
The Curses:
So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,
“Cursed are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
Look at what God says to the serpent “You have done this”
So before God curses he assigns blame and guilt to the serpent
The penalty of the serpent is humiliation
He has to crawl on his belly
The point is that the being that wanted to be the most high is now the most low in the created order
You will eat dust…Dust has no nutrition
Dust will also serve as a perpetual reminder of satan’s crime….Adam was made with dust and to dust he will return…So satan will have to eat of the dust constantly
More curses
More curses
Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity
And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
Enmity or hostility between the serpent and the woman
Between your offspring and hers
WAIT???? Satan’s offspring?
But the judgment on Eve also tells us that the nachash would have offspring as well. The rest of the biblical story doesn’t consist of humans battling snake people. That’s no surprise, since the enemy of humanity wasn’t a mere snake. The Bible does, however, describe an ongoing conflict between followers of Yahweh and human and divine beings who follow the spiritual path of the nachash. All who oppose God’s kingdom plan are the seed of the nachash.
Many readers who still feel the urge to see only a snake in Eden would no doubt contend that the curse pronounced on the nachash requires that. I disagree. Literal readings are inadequate to convey the full theological messaging and the entirety of the worldview context.
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Spiritual seed that manafests in our hearts
The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.
For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.
The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible Chapter 12: Divine Transgression
This passage describes people whose lives are characterized by wickedness as “children of the devil,” a contrast to the spiritual “children of God.” This is a spiritual lineage, since the children of God have “God’s seed” abiding in them, a reference to the Holy Spirit. Peter echoes the same thought in
The rest of scripture will be looking for a human one who can defeat the serpent…We obvilusly know this to be Jesus but here is another quick example
Goliath was there not only as the champion of the philistines but as another important character. One of the things you may hear me say from time to time is that the serpent in the garden is in nearly every story in the Bible and yet, does not appear as a serpent.
There is a famous prophesy/text that applies to Jesus out of Genesis 3:15
This verse reminds the reader that one day there will be a human one (a son of man) who will overcome the serpent of temptation but will be bruised by that serpent as well. Jesus on the cross is the fulfillment of this. Our sin is the serpent and Jesus defeats it. However he is bruised in the process.
Well there is an interesting connection to David and Goliath. David is seen as a messaniac figure in the Bible. He is someone who is willing to sacrifice himself on behalf of Israel. In the description of Goliath, there are many mentions to the bronze he wore. The Hebrew term for bronze (nhoset) uses the same root words and letters as serpent (nhset). When reading in Hebrew this is supposed to connect your mind to the serpent in the garden. Goliath is described as wearing armor that has scales on it, kind of like a snake!...and in addition to all of that, David takes the head off of Goliath..
I write all of this to show you that in one sense, Goliath is inconsequential to what is happening between David and Saul. He is just the instigator to ask the question, who does God really see?
But in another sense. David is just one guy in a long line of men in the Bible that are there to make you ask the question. Is this the one? Is this the guy who is going to crush the head of the serpent of sin once and for all? The answer is no, David is not the true messiah, but he sets up the family that will have someone David might be able to crush the head of goliath, but he wasn't able to conquer the serpent of lust and the coveting that was happening in his heart...There would have to be another son of man who would be worthy to conquer the serpent of sin...
To the woman he said,
“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”
Unlike the penalties announced against the serpent and the man (i.e., “the ground,” v. 17), there is no occurrence of “curse” related to the woman’s suffering.
Moreover, there is no cause specified for her suffering, whereas the serpent is charged with deception (v. 14) and the man with eating disobediently (v. 17). This is due to the woman’s culpability through deception, in contrast with the willful rebellion of the serpent and man; also the oracle has a gentler word for the woman since her punishment entails the salvation of the human couple (v. 15).
Whereas the man’s action condemned the human family, Eve will play the critical role in liberating them from sin’s consequences
Desire for the husband and the husband ruling over…
IS there always a power strugle
We have to remember that this is a description of a curse and not a prescription for marriage
All of this is redeemed by the christian gospel
instead of exercising power over one another we seek to serve one another especially in marriage
SO as we move on I want to point out two distinct points between women and men here
These are simply pastoral observations….Not in each case…But in many cases.,…
Women have the most difficult time Emotionally and spiritually when they can not concieve
Men have the hardest time emotionally and spirituallty when they can not provide an income…Or when work is hard…
These two curses tap deeply into the Psyche of men and women
To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
Because you listened to your wife….Who was adam suppose to be listening to? The Lord!
So in Eden, they are with the Lord and experiencing effortless work
It is the man that bears the greater blame and the banishment back to death
The garden that was mans source of delight (Eden) now becomes man’s wearisome existance
Later Lamech will name his son Noah in hopes of one day having relief from toilsome work
Paul expresses hope of a reversed curse through Jesus:
For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Adam named eve
God made clothes for adam and eve…Garments of skin…An atonement or a covering of their sin…First subsitutionary attonment. God would have had to kill an animal to cover adam and eve
Imagine seeing that for the first time
God banished
There are Cherubim with fmaming swords guarding the way to the tree of life
This will bring up the theme of Exile in the Bible..,..This won’t be the first time that God’s people are exiled from the land that God had provided for them
Genesis 1–11:26 (5) The Man and Woman Expelled (3:22–24)
Life is a divine gift, but it is tied to the stipulation of obedience
Genesis 1–11:26 (5) The Man and Woman Expelled (3:22–24)
Adam and Eve’s exile is decisive and definitive. “Banished” (ṣālaḥ) is the same language used of Abraham’s action that “sends away” Ishmael and other possible rivals to Isaac (21:14; 25:6). It is descriptive of the scapegoat that is expelled from the camp of Israel (
