Good & Ruined
In the Beginning: A Study in Genesis • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 33:41
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Genesis 2 is a continuation of and expansion on the creation account. We had a kind of a panoramic view of creation in Genesis 1. Now, we zoom in and focus on a more intimate description of creation that centers around the first human couple.
4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
The emphasis shifts from the transcendence of God in chapter 1 to His immanence in chapter 2. We read here of the Lord God’s very personal relationship with Adam and Eve. The theme of creation being very good continues here and we find ourselves in a beautiful garden.
In Genesis 1, we have “God” as the designation of the Creator. Elohim’s His name; creation’s His game. Elohim is the word for the Almighty King of the Universe—pheee-nominal cosmic power.
In Genesis 2-3, the language shifts and Elohim is replaced with Yahweh Elohim: “the Lord God”, the personal God. This is significant. No longer transcendent; now immanent.
Elohim speaks and it is.
Yahweh Elohim is depicted more personally: as a potter who stoops down to fashion man (Genesis 2:7); a gardener who plants some shrubs and trees (Genesis 2:8); a sculptor who fashions a woman from a rib of the man (Genesis 2:21-22); as a person who walks in the garden amongst His creation (Genesis 3:8); and a judge who conducts a hearing and renders a verdict (Genesis 3:9-19).
Yahweh Elohim gives us a different picture of God. He’s still awesome and majestic, but He also condescends to be with His creation.
We know something of this condescension. God did not stay distant, silent; He didn’t stay at arms length, hospital mask and hand-sanitizer at the ready.
He came down and waded through the mess of human existence to become one of us, to rescue us, to save us from our sins and ourselves. We sang this beautiful, theological truth just this morning:
“In our longing, in our darkness,
Now the light of life has come:
Look to Christ, who condescended,
Took on flesh to ransom us.”
There’s a shift in focus here in Genesis 2-3 which goes right along with the different chronology, a different order of events.
In Genesis 1, plants were created, then animals, then human beings.
In Genesis 2, Adam was formed, then trees and plants, animals, and then woman.
Genesis 2 is a topical chronology of events. It’s literary art. These are among the finest chapters ever penned. It’s a beautiful snapshot of this moment in creation.
The Lord God (Yahweh Elohim) is the chief actor. It’s the Lord God who forms man, plants the garden, grows the plants, places the man in the garden, gives the man a command, makes the animals/birds, makes the woman, walks in the garden, made garments for man to wear, expels them from the garden.
The Lord God—Yahweh Elohim—does it all.
We study Genesis 1 and it’s made abundantly clear that God’s creation is good— “And God saw that it was good” repeated over and over again.
By the end of Genesis 2, everything is good. The last verse of Genesis 2 tells us that
25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
That is, they were innocent and happy in God. They found their safety, security, and satisfaction in God and in what God had blessed them with. Life in the garden was good, good, only good.
As we read through Genesis 2, it all sounds so good. Life in the garden of God. It’s perfection. It’s paradise.
Come the end of Genesis 2, we are left wondering: “So, what in the world happened to God’s good creation?”
We know, even if we’re unfamiliar with the story of the Bible, that life isn’t as it’s described in Genesis 2.
In Genesis 2, life is good. Post-Genesis 3, life is broken.
There’s so much brokenness, so much sin and darkness. The world is full of hatred and violence, cancer and sickness. We gossip and backbite. We harbor resentment. We tend toward division and not unity.
Life was good. And now, life is broken. How’d it happen? I’m glad you asked:
The action begins in verse 7 of Genesis 2:
7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
The man, ha adam, is made from ha adama, the ground. The earthling is made from earth. Humans are mere earthlings, frail, made from the dust of the ground.
Even so, humankind is special. Men and women are special creatures, created in the image of God,
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
It’s the breath of God that gives man life. It’s the breath of God that sustains our life—“for in Him we live and move and have our being.”
Man, the special creature, gets to live in the garden of the Lord (Genesis 13:10; Isaiah 51:3), the garden of God (Ezekiel 28:13; Ezekiel 31:9). Just like the tabernacle and the temple to come later, this garden is the special dwelling place of God on earth.
The garden has a physical location, positioned for us in great detail in verses 10-14.
It is Paradise on Earth.
In this paradise, man is afforded the opportunity to commune with God. Man gets to enjoy God’s good gifts. Man is positioned to do meaningful work.
In this paradise, everything he needs the Lord’s hand hath provided. Food, shelter, protection, and most importantly God Himself.
The Lord God (Yahweh Elohim), the great and mighty King of the Universe, has given to man all these good things—life, food, work, woman—and gave him only one command:
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.”
“Eat from every other tree. Knock yourself out. Have all the fruit and pecans you want. Make some pie. Coat those pecans in orange juice and sugar. Enjoy! Salt those cashews. Sliver those almonds. Eat all the peaches you can. Don’t eat too many plums, though!”
Eat from every other tree, just not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
This is the moment of conflict. This is the tension introduced into the story.
If we weren’t familiar with the rest of the story, if we didn’t know how things went for Adam and Eve in the garden, we’d still read this masterfully written account and think, “Uh oh. That’s going to be something.”
It’s like the part in the horror movie where every screams, “Don’t go in there!!!!” We say to ourselves, “Stay away from that dadgum tree!”
Conflict. Tension. What’s going to happen?
Will man continue to commune with God, by trusting and obeying Him?
OR, will man break communion with God by disobeying His command?
Disobedience = death.
God has already said: “for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
It’s clear. Conflict. Tension. What’s going to happen? Continued life in paradise or certain death/
There’s some suspense here. We’re left hanging around with the tension unresolved; it’s so thick you could cut it with a knife.
And the story moves on:
18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
At this point, the only thing “not good” in paradise is Adam’s being alone. The Lord God parades all the animals by Adam; every one of them—livestock, birds, wild animals. Adam names them (pretty cool, gig!), but, alas: [among all the animals] no suitable helper was found [for Adam].
We know something really good is going to come to replace the lone “not good” in the garden.
21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
Adam sees her and says, “Whoa, man!” Adam had found his mate, his companion, his true complement. The Lord has found a helper suitable to Adam, fashioned just for Adam. The man and the woman correspond to one another. They complement one another. It’s good.
There they are, completely nekkid. And they feel no shame.
And so ends Genesis 2. All is well. But there’s that tension—what’s going to happen with that tree?
Enter stage left, a new character:
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’?”
The serpent is referred to as crafty. AND the serpent speaks. Some other being has taken possession of the snake and is speaking through it. This is no common snake.
We aren’t told from Genesis 3 who or what the snake is, who or what took control/possession of the snake, later on in the Bible other biblical writers reveal that this serpent is an incarnation of Satan, the enemy.
9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
The serpent has two tricks up his sleeve:
He questions God— “Did God really say?”
He calls God a liar, contradicting God and saying, “You will not certainly die.”
That’s enough to set the putsch in motion. Just a smidgen of doubt.
The woman is a little mistaken when it comes to what the Lord God said. She wasn’t there when the Lord God gave Adam the command. So maybe Adam relayed the information incorrectly (typical husband!) or maybe she heard/understood incorrectly. Either way, she’s misinformed.
The Lord God never said they couldn’t touch that tree in the middle of the garden. But that’s what she relays to this talking snake. Maybe the woman believes God to be unreasonable: “Really?! We can’t even touch that tree?”
What Satan suggests is that God hasn’t been generous with them. What a clever, crafty ploy. It’s a good move. Forget the fact that every other single tree in the perfect, beautiful, God-gifted garden is yours—but that tree? Can’t even touch it...
And then the serpent gives the woman the real reason for God’s prohibition. “It’s because God is jealous; when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you’ll be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Satan tempts the woman. And then he leaves. Mission accomplished. Sow a little doubt as to God’s goodness and generosity, twist His words a little, and then get out of there.
What will Adam and Eve do?
This is the climax of the story.
If this was a movie, Genesis 3:6 would be in slow-motion with some ominous, important music playing.
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.
As I was reading this account again at the start of the year, all I could think was “Ah, man! Come on!”
She takes and eats.
She gives and he eats.
Adam is the head of the household. He is the leader of the family. He should have corrected her misunderstanding of what God said about the tree. He should have stopped Eve from entertaining the Devil’s lies.
Men, we like to point the finger. We like to say, “She made Adam do it!” When really, it’s a failure of leadership on Adam’s part. He’s meant to lead her and love her and protect her, not to let her be tempted, not to stand idly by as she is; she should never have found herself in that situation.
What’s worse, when she decides to take and eat, Adam’s right there with her; apparently silent. A spectator. It’s shameful.
Instead of leading, Adam passively follows. He lets the woman serve him piece of forbidden fruit.
"What we’re seeing here (when Eve takes the fruit of the tree) is the initial venture in mistrusting God. To have our actions more influenced by the lies of the spineless serpent than by the words of our loving Creator—this is the cosmic significance of the listening, the considering, the taking, the sharing, the eating, the disregarding, the rebellion, the betrayal, the renunciation that took place at this tree. It is not merely “someone at an apple.” This is “creature divorced the Creator.”
-Mark Dever
They take and eat. Immediately, something happens:
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.
Immediately, paradise is lost.
They’ve lost their innocence; they feel guilt.
They feel shame; contrary to Genesis 2:25 they are now aware of their nakedness and ashamed.
And they fear God and hide from Him.
Guilt, shame, fear. The man and woman are spiritually dead. The story of man has just begun and already: sin, death, separation.
But God doesn’t give up on His distrusting, disobedient creatures.
He seeks the lost.
9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
Adam responds to the God who seeks, admitting his fear and his nakedness.
11 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 All-Knowing, Almighty God certainly knows, but wants to hear it from His creation.
The man blameshifts, throwing his wife under the bus. Adam also sort of blames God:
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
The woman, too, shifts the blame to another. We all learned this, inherited this from our first parents, Adam and Eve. Eve follows Adam’s lead and doesn’t take responsibility for her actions either.
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
The eternal Judge knows who is to blame. And so He passes judgment, first the serpent, then the woman, and finally the man.
The Lord curses the serpent. This is the first time in the Bible we read about God’s curse; everything up until this point was good, perfect, paradise. That has all been ruined.
God’s curse is the opposite of God’s blessing.
God curses the serpent, but not the woman. God punishes her in her role and mother and wife.
Eve would have been fulfilled as a mother; instead she will experience great pain in becoming a mother. Eve would have been fulfilled in a partnership with her husband; now she will desire to rule over him, but he will rule over her.
Woman’s lot is pain, struggle, anguish in the roles of mother and wife.
God turns to Adam and punishes him in his role as provider and head of the human race.
Instead of living in a blessed paradise with plenty of food, people will live on an earth that has been cursed. Thorns and thistles. Work becomes toil. Worse yet is the inevitable return to the ground every person makes. Dust to dust. The ultimate punishment for sin is death.
Judgment was delivered. Because of their sin, their disobedience, they were punished and then, henceforth banished from the garden:
23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 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.
Banished from the garden. Banished from paradise. Banished from the presence of God.
And there’s no way back into Paradise.
We’re left hanging. How’s this all going to shake out?
The Resolution is a long way off.
But, even here in Genesis 3, there’s Good News—a hint of the gospel:
15 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.”
The offspring of the woman will fatally crush the serpent’s head.
We can trace the offspring of the woman from Seth to Noah to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah; from David to Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the Seed of the woman. He is another Adam. The second Adam. The true and Better Adam.
Just like Adam, Jesus was tempted by Satan. Unlike Adam in Paradise, Jesus in the wilderness resisted temptation, not once, not twice, but three times.
And Jesus would resist any and all temptations thrown at Him. But Satan still had that poisonous bite that could strike the heel of the seed of the woman. At Satan’s leading, the people killed Jesus. It looked like defeat. The seed of the woman died. Dead. Really, really dead. Buried in a tomb dead.
But an amazing thing happened when Jesus breathed His last, at that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
The curtain that previously barred people from the presence of God, the curtain that was embroidered with cherubim (just like the cherubim that guarded the garden) as a reminder that sinful people cannot come into the presence of a holy God.
When Jesus died, that curtain was torn in two and the cherubim no longer blocked the way into God’s presence.
And on the third day, Jesus rose from he dead and ascended to the right hand of God the Father, dealing the final blow to Satan; Jesus’ death and resurrection crushing Satan’s head with finality. Satan now only thrashes about as one quickly dying.
When Jesus returns to set the world at rights, to bring us back to the Garden where God and Jesus are seated on the throne, that crafty serpent, Satan, will be throne into the lake of fire.
1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.
14 “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.
The tale of the first Adam points us to the second Adam, the True and Better Adam.
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—
17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!
>The conflict and tension of the story—the temptation of the forbidden tree—was handled by Jesus, and perfectly. He lived, for us, a sinful life though tempted in every way just as we are. Jesus lived a life of complete sinlessness, a life of perfect righteousness.
The climax of the story where Adam and Eve disobeyed, where they listened to Satan instead of God’s Word—their action was undone by Jesus. Their sin brought all of us death. Jesus’ death brought life and forgiveness for all who would be called, those who would believe.
Jesus is the resolution to the story. For generations, people ruined by the fall looked for, longed for, worked for anything that would make them right, anything that could bring them back to God, anything that would grant them entrance into the Garden of Paradise.
People searched in vain. People still do. Nothing, NO ONE can reconcile ruined sinner to Righteous God. Only Jesus. Only Jesus.
Jesus is all we have. Jesus is all we need.
“See the True and Better Adam;
Come to save the hell-bound man!
Christ, the great and sure fulfillment
Of the law; in Him we stand.”
What we have ruined, He has made good again. We who are ruined, sinners all—those who fell in the Garden with the first Adam—are made good by the second Adam and will, through Him, be forever with Him in a garden even better than Eden.