Did God really say?
Notes
Transcript
So this season as we are going through the book of Genesis last week you should have covered the creation on man. This week we are in Genesis 3.
Well Genesis 3 is one of the most important passages in all of the the Bible.
In it we see the answer for why there is sin, suffering, and death in the world. In fact, I would argue that the bible is the only religious text that gives us a reason for why these things exist in the world today. It tells us how the world went from perfection to what it is today.
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.”
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.
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.
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.”
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.”
The man named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living.
The Lord God made clothing from skins for the man and his wife, and he clothed them.
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.
Now the first thing that I want you to know is that the hebrew word translated as “serpent” is not exactly what it appears at face value. If you went to church at all. Or even just saw some religious art you picture some snake sitting in an apple tree talking to Eve.
I would suggest to you that isn’t what is happening here. The word for serpent also means “ shining one” associated with the Seraphim a type of angel with serpent like features. In other passages of Scripture Satan is described this same way.
I think its important information to know. To give you a better understanding of what is happening here. Satan or lucifer is the first rebel.
So Satan approaches Eve with intention and asks her a question.
Found in Genesis 3 now I am going to read this question with two different inflections. Read Genesis 3:1
....“Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”
The first inflection questions what God said. The second questions God’s goodness in the request.
I believe the context show us the second is the real intent.
You see from the beginning until now if the enemy can get you to question the goodness of God in his commands, he can tempt you to disobey them.
If he can get you to doubt the goodness of God than he can get you to believe that God is withholding good things from you. That there is a better life out there for you. If you believe that then to give your life to him in faith and repentance would be a foolish decision.
Why would anyone give thier lives to a God that withholds what is good?
So even though God in his goodness had given Adam and Eve everything in the garden, the very best of creation...because of one rule the enemy caused them to doubt God’s goodness.
So then what was the point of the only rule God gave Adam and eve?
It was just for them to recognize that he was God and they were not. That was all God asked for was for them to recognize his authority in the midst of paradise.
Now we know the rest of the story. Adam and Eve took the bait. Ate the fruit and then everything changed.
The perfect world was no longer perfect.
Like a rock thrown into a perfectly still pond. The effects of sin began to ripple out. corruption now had a place to grow.
God as he promised to do ahead of time, must punish sin.
Why? If God makes the claim that he is perfect, yet he allows imperfection than he has an imperfect standard and is not perfect himself.
God is holy so sin had to be paid for.....
But God in his goodness even in his punishment offers a promise.
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.
There would one day come one from the offspring of the woman that would crush the enemy once and for all. That offspring was Jesus
You see sin was mans problem so by a man it had to be paid for. So God became man, the God-man, Jesus Christ and took the punishment for all mankind to satisfy the requirements for perfect justice.
So Scripture tells us that all those who will come in faith and repentance (,repentance is not saying your sorry or earning your way but just like in the beginning its recognizing God as the Lord of your life and believing that Jesus through his death and resurrection took your place.
So then, as through one trespass there is condemnation for everyone, so also through one righteous act there is justification leading to life for everyone.
For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
The law came along to multiply the trespass. But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more
so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
