The Devil Made Me Do It!

Genesis 3:8–19 NKJV

8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” 11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” 12 Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” 13 And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” 14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” 16 To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.” 17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. 18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. 19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”

Introduction

When I was a kid, I remember playing in the yard below my grandparents’ house with my cousins. We played everything from hide and seek to full on tackle football, so I learned fairly early that there’s really some truth in the phrase survival of the fittest because I was the youngest out of all of the grandkids. I remember one time we decided we were going to have ourselves a game of baseball, despite the fact that my cousin’s dad had parked his brand-new car in the field where we were playing. Things went really good for a while, but you guessed it, somebody just had to slice a pitch and that baseball decided it wanted to eat up the hood on that nice new black sports car. (Pause) When it happened, we all got really quiet, and I think we were all hoping that no one had heard that huge thud! Well, no one came outside so we just kept on playing until we finished the game, but as we were getting ready to walk off, my cousin’s dad came out and walked down to the car. We all watched him, and then he turned around and looked at and said, “Alright guys, who did it?” Without even thinking about it we all started looking at each other and the finger pointing began. “It was him; he pitched the ball!” “No, it was him, the catcher, he was too close to the batter!” “No, no, no, it was her; she’s the one who hit the ball!” Finally, the person who had hit the ball stepped forward and answered, “It was me, I hit the ball.” The next word out of here dad’s mouth was, “Why?”. Her answer was one that I’m sure many of you have heard before, “The Devil made me do it!” (Pause) Those six little words have more than what you might think packed into them because they tell us a lot about who we are and why we do what we do. In the text before us today, Moses tells us the story of what happened in the garden and the movements in this short passage echo down through history because in the sequence of events you and I can look in the mirror and see ourselves quite clearly. First, in verses 8 to 11 Adam and Eve get caught red handed. Second, in verses 12 and 13 there’s some blame shifting that takes place. Then, in verses 14 to 19 there’s the punishment, which in this case had some serious effects that both you and I are still feeling to this day. When it boils right down to it, we shift blame caught in our disobedience to God, when we should recognize the hope found in Christ.

Caught Red Handed

Genesis 3:8–11 NKJV

8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” 11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”

Has anybody ever heard the phrase, “So and so got caught with his or her hand in the cookie jar”? Sometimes we say it about our children in a half joking manner when we catch them doing something they shouldn’t be doing. When their little most of us laugh and think it’s cute, but when they get a little older getting caught with your hand in the cookie jar can have some serious repercussions. I mean like spending time in jail, or even in a worse case scenario, even death! Sometimes it’s a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but at others, simply put, we’ve done something that we really shouldn’t have, and we get caught red handed. Take a look at verses 8-11. In these verses what you’ve got is the classic case of someone getting caught. What these verses tell us is that this isn’t a matter of bad luck or happen stance. No, this is a matter of sheer disobedience and we know it because of the question God asks in verse 11, “… ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” Now, let’s be honest here, one of God’s attributed is that he’s omniscient (That’s just a fancy word meaning God knows everything that’s either going to, or could possibly happen). So, it’s not like God was wondering I around in the dark. Oh, he knew exactly what had happened and there’s more here in the text than meets the eye. There are two basic views on what going on here in the text when God comes looking for Adam and Eve. One is the view that God is depicted as a gentle father seeking out his own. Those who take this view point out that God uncovers their deed through interrogation instead charge and denunciation (Kenneth Mathews takes this position). On the other hand, some have argued that the wording in the Hebrew text here can be taken to mean that God was moving in the wind of a storm. If that’s correct, then this presents God as coming to find Adam and Eve in order to confront them in their rebellion in order to render judgment. To be candid, there’s probably some truth in both of these two views because God does render a strong judgement, particularly on the serpent, while at the same time showing mercy to Adam and Eve in judgement. This seems, at least to me, to be what’s happening in the text because of how verse 10 presents Adam’s demeanor. Take a look at how Adam answers God, “I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid …” Have you ever noticed how kids act when they get caught doing something they know they shouldn’t? They don’t stand there and wait like some innocent little lamb. Nope, they hit the high road because they know somebody’s coming with the rod of correction! But, do you know what they also bring? They also bring love because correction without love is simply that correction. There’s an old saying that goes like this, “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.” If you’re here today and you’re a child of God, think about the way your heavenly Father corrects you. Yes, sometimes it can seem harsh, but in the end, it molds and shapes you more into the image of your Savior. (The fact that Adam didn’t want God to see him in his “nakedness” points to shame. Nakedness, in the ancient near east was a disgrace. *There is nothing in the way of sexual connotation in this text.)

Blame Shifting

Genesis 3:12–13 NKJV

12 Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” 13 And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

I want you to think back to a time when you were very young, as far back as you can remember. Most of us can likely recall a time, probably more than once, when we were playing with our friends and something happened that we knew would get us in trouble. You know, kind of like the story I told about my cousin hitting her dad’s car with a baseball. Now, when something bad like that happened and we were all by ourselves there really wasn’t much we could say, but if there happened to be several people there with us and they were involved too, what did we, more often than not, do? We started playing the blame game; we started shifting blame away from ourselves towards others. Why? Because we knew there was a price to pay, there were consequences. In verses 12 and 13 Moses actually gives us a quick description of the very first time this happened. Verse 12 says, speaking from the perspective of Adam, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” When you read this, at first glance it might seem as though Adam is shifting the blame to Eve, but there’s more going on in this verse than most of you realize. Now, bear with me for just a minute because we’re going to get a little technical and dig a little deep, but trust me, it’ll be worth it when you see what’s going on. Do you see those words at the beginning of Adam’s answer in verse 12, “The woman”? Those words stand alone and they’re what’s known as an independent nominative absolute. That’s a noun that stands by itself in a sentence. In other words, that phrase “The woman” is just “hanging out there by itself”. Now, look at what follows the first couple words, it says, “whom you gave me”, then when it picks back up, Adam refers to Eve saying, “she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” So, when Adam answers God, his answer is structured like this, he refers first to Eve, then to God, then back to Eve. What are we to make of this, and why is this important to what’s going on in this verse? The point is that because of the way the sentence is constructed Adam isn’t shifting the blame to Eve, no, he’s shifting the blame to God and point his finger at God because it was God who gave him the woman! In essence Adam is saying this, “That woman (point to the woman), you (point to God) you gave her to me, and she gave me that fruit. If you hadn’t have done that none of this would ever have happened. This is not my fault it’s your (point to God) fault!” (Pause) Next, in verse 13, God turns his attention to Eve, and she doesn’t fare any better than Adam because she shifts the blame squarely on to the head of the serpent.

(Appeal) How many times do we shift the blame to other people when the real fault lies with us. More often than not playing the blame game gets you into more trouble than it’s worth. We have no one to blame but ourselves for the sin that characterizes our lives, but God offers hope through the shed blood of Jesus.

The Curse

Genesis 3:14–19 NKJV

14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” 16 To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.” 17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. 18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. 19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”

Verse 14 through 19 give us the basic details of the curse that’s befallen our world, and a lot could be said about the material contained within these verses. In fact, we could spend several months just focusing on this one section of Genesis. That said, I would like to take just a few minutes and look at the big picture of what these verses tell us. In verse 14 God places a curse on the head of the serpent. I think it’s important for us to note that whereas God asked questions of both Adam and Eve, he never once questioned the serpent (We’ll come back to that in just a minute.). God told the serpent that he was cursed above all other things that were created and that he would eat dust for the rest of his life. In verse 16 God turns his attention to Eve telling her the he’s going to put “enmity” between her offspring and that of the serpent. That word “enmity” actually means “hostility” and can be taken to refer to the animosity between two parties, or get this, two different types of beings. However, God also let’s Eve know that her seed will “bruise” the head of the serpent. Ultimately, Eve will be most effected in the sphere where she is called to operate and exist, and that is the home. The text says that the woman’s pain in childbirth was greatly increased. Ladies, that’s not so much referring the “physical” pain associated with having a baby, but instead it’s referring more so to the sadness that is brought in the joy of being a mom because your children and mine, whether natural or adopted, are imperfect and they will fail us. When the text here says to the woman, “Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.”, many have taken this to have sexual connotations because of the connections they see in the text to childbirth and nakedness. On the other hand, the majority of interpreters don’t see sexual connotations in the text. They base their argument on the way the Hebrew is constructed here and the use of this word “desire” in the plot structure of Genesis, especially its use in Genesis 4:7. The word “desire” is actually better translated as “control”. The arguments against Genesis 3:16 as having sexual connotations are as follows, (1) First, it doesn’t fit with the phrase “he [Adam] shall rule over you.” (2) Second, it implies that sexual desire was not part of the original creation, even though Adam and Eve were explicitly told by God to be fruitful and multiply. (3) Third, as I said before, it ignores the usage of the word in Genesis 4:7 where it refers to sins desire to control and dominate Cain. Either way, what seems to be going on in the text here at Genesis 3:16 is the introduction of the struggle and conflict that will take place between the man and woman that will characterize all of human history. This might be termed, “the battle of the sexes”. (Pause) In verse 17 through 19 God speaks to Adam, and as with Eve, Adam will be affected in the sphere where he is called to function. Note first in verse 17 what Adam is guiltily of, “heeding [obeying] the voice of his wife”, in that he ate from the tree God said not to eat from. Whatever you want to make out of this text, Adam’s guilt lies in his disobedience to God’s command, and verse 17 makes this clear. Adam is punished because of his desire to be autonomous and independent of his relationship to God which is the same reason you and I are punished. A person goes to hell because they reject a relationship with Jesus; they desire to live their life in a way that’s independent of him. Because of Adam’s sin he will only supply for himself and his family by the sweat of his brow. No, work is not a product of the fall, but all of the hardships that go with it are. Finally, to top it off, when it’s all said and done, Adam will physically die and return to the very ground from which he was made. Now, all of that sounds pretty bleak doesn’t it. That said, I want to conclude by giving you some hope and not only do I want to show you where it is in this text, but I also want to show you how to find it.

Conclusion

I would venture to say that when the majority of people read these verses we’ve looked today they tend to focus their attention of the language of the curse because it’s so severe. I would certainly say that I think there’s some legitimacy in doing that, but I wonder if there’s something else here that Moses wants us to focus our attention on as well, maybe it’s even his point? The way a Hebrew author composed his text can tell a great deal about what he wants us to see in it, and the text we’ve looked at today is composed in the following manner. Verse 8 acts as an introduction and gives us a starting point. It introduces us to what’s going to happen, it sets the scene, if you will. Then, in verses 9-12 Adam is questioned by God. After that, in verse 13 Eve is questioned. Next, in verses 14 and 15, the serpent isn’t questioned (remember I told you we’d come back to that, it’s important); the serpent is cursed. Then, in verse 16, sentence is passed on Eve. Then finally, at the end, a sentence is passed on Adam in verses 17-19. This text is structured as a chiasm (9-12 & 17-19 go together; 13 & 16 go together; and that leaves us with verses 14 and 15. The fall smack in the middle and concern the fate of the serpent.) The way you know that verses 14 and 15 are really important is because God doesn’t question the serpent, that’s the big que! Did you catch the fact that when God talks to the serpent he never once offers him the chance for redemption, oh but he does say that human kind will be redeemed, he says it in verse 15. I like the way one modern English translation renders it, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring [lit. seed (singular)] and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (NIV84). Friends, Paul tells us in Galatians that the seed being referred to here, that seed is Jesus Christ, and he crushed the head of the serpent when he rose from the dead nearly 2000 years ago. Whatever questions we have about the text we’ve looked at today, as interesting as they may be, they are moot points in the big picture when it comes to what is said here in verse 15 because the “Seed” that crushes the serpents head is front and center. The way in which Moses was inspired to construct this text we’ve looked at is meant to point you to the “Seed” that will crush the serpents head. This text is about Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, and if you do not have him as your Savior the redemption that’s mentioned in this text does not apply to you. The fact is that one day you will stand before God and you want be able to look at him and say, “The Devil made me do it.”, you will give an account, for what you did with Jesus. So, I ask you today, what will it be, will he be your Lord and Savior, or will he be your judge?

Invitation

Conclusion