Genesis 3:8-
Notes
Transcript
8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
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Let’s quickly bring everything up to speed… - In the midst of worldwide and heavenly creation, God carved out a small space on the earth called Eden. We are not sure how big this space was, but we can deduce there was a mountain, we are told of rivers, and in the Eastern region of this place called Eden, there is a lush area with trees and plants and animals… and this is simply called, a Garden in Eden.
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God placed a guy named “man” in that garden. We call him Adam… which means… ‘man’.
I’ve read all the Walt Longmire books… Walk Longmire had a dog named… Dog. This is kind of how God named Adam.
Shortly after Adam was created, Eve was created and given to him as a helpmate.
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They had a job… - basically, to manage things there in the garden. Also, there was a greater commission upon humanity as described in chapter 2 when it says ‘God created man and woman’… - they were commanded to go out and fill the earth… and to be fruitful, and to multiply.
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Adam and Eve were not yet, out in the world fulfilling this commission… but they will soon be.
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Why? Because of the events that are going down in this current passage.
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The serpent… a creature we talked about in length last week… this, spiritual being that the Bible later identifies as the devil… challenges God’s word and God’s authority, and deceived Eve into disobeying God.
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What did she, and then also, Adam do? They ate of a tree, that was forbidden. There were two trees in this garden that were uniquely spiritual. One gave them, and possibly even, maintained for them, a sense of immortality. It gave them life in a unique way… in a way that forbid death.
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The other tree, was the tree of knowing good and knowing evil. This tree also had some supernatural significance, for it could make the sustaining power of the Tree of Life, null and void. By eating of it, it shifted their awareness.
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Suddenly, they knew the consequences of disobedience.
Suddenly, they knew the shame that accompanies sin.
Suddenly, they knew a sense of separation and disqualification in the presence of God.
They knew ‘wrongness’ and they knew also, what ‘wrongness’ would do in them personally, and between them and God, relationally.
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We will see soon… that by eating of the tree of knowing good and knowing evil… further eating of the Tree of Life becomes inappropriate. -It will be necessary to cut them off from the source of immortality. - This seems like an odd principle at first… but after seeing how these humans digress in the next 3 chapters… how they become a people whose thoughts and actions are nothing but wickedness continually… - It suddenly becomes clear.
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Wickedness, and immortality should not be joined.
Even the sons of god who came down in Gen. 6, and had relations with the daughters of men… and gave rise to the giants… the Nephilim… they were judged, and they were told by God, that they would die like mere men. So even in this judgment… defined in Psalm 82, we see, that immortality should not be joined to wickedness.
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So… let’s pick up where we left off..
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8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
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Initial observations… we see a few things…
God does not approach silently. He has a sound… - whether His foot steps were audible, or He was humming a song, or maybe He buzzes… I don’t know… but there is a sound that accompanies His approach…
We might conclude… that the sound of God’s presence, is like the sound of wind.
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Why?
From the phrase ‘cool of the day’… which is a very complicated translation. This word ‘cool’ is the standard Hebrew word for wind and the word from which the term ‘Spirit’ comes from. In fact, this is the only time it’s translated as being ‘cool’.
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I would question whether there was such a thing as a ‘cool part of the day / warm part of the day’ since the inhabitants were naked all the time, and one of those inhabitants was a woman.
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It could be said… that God’s presence was heard approaching, because His presence created wind. - Maybe God did not show up on the windy part of the day… but rather, the windy part of the day showed up, because God was there.
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As they heard God approaching… Adam and Eve knew that something was wrong. They experienced something quite different from previous encounters with God. - They felt shame… and that shame compelled them to hide from God’s presence.
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9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
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Yahweh asked a question in vs. 9. He didn’t need to ask this question. God knew where Adam was. But I believe He was asking, to give Adam the opportunity to confess.
In response, Adam said 4 things.
1-I heard the sound of you in the garden
2-I was afraid
3-because I was naked
4-I hid myself.
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Each of these things is worthy of discussion.
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First off… “I heard the sound of you in the garden” - Now, we touched on this briefly… when we looked at the word ‘cool’… as in ‘cool of the day’… -and this is the only place this Hebrew word is translated ‘cool’. It is almost always translated ‘wind’.
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Now… we can take this concept a step further…
One of the other prominent Semitic languages of this day was Akkadian. -Remember, The stories of Genesis were passed on for generations… for literally, thousands of years before they were written out into one volume. Akkadian would have been one of the languages that these stories lived through, and were passed on through.
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Why do we bring this up? Well, if this story was told in Akkadian… this passage would have said, “the wind of the day”… But… the Akkadian word for ‘day’ is also translated ‘storm’.
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I know this seems like a stretch… but we’re trying to line up patterns in the Bible… And if the Hebrew text was translated from Akkadian story telling… or the languages of Assyria or Babylon… which derived from Akkadian… - this phrase might have been, in the original writings of Moses… “…they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the wind of the storm....
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That’s a big switch from ‘cool of the day’… and I’m not suggesting that one is more correct over the other. Remember, these English Bibles are human attempts at translating manuscripts which were copied from other manuscripts which were descendent, over time, from an original manuscript, that was written 3-4000 years after these events occured.
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We can depend on them… but sometimes, a phrase doesn’t fit into the patterns of scripture the way our English has translated it.
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Now, I’m not going to say anything that’s un-true about the Bible. I’m simply going to line up this potential translation, with some other passages, that speak about the presence and the voice of God..
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That’s what we have here, in Genesis 3… we have the presence and the voice of God. What does that look like in other places in the Bible?
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The same words for ‘wind’ and ‘day’ are also paired in Isaiah 27:8…
8 Measure by measure, by exile you contended with them; he removed them with his fierce breath in the day of the east wind.
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Look at this phrase… ‘fierce breath/wind in the day of the east wind’
Or… it could say… ‘fierce wind in the storm of the east wind’
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Here in Isaiah 27:8… the translation, “day of the east wind” doesn’t fit. It doesn’t make sense.
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Here are some other passages that lay the pattern of God’s presence and voice out more clearly.
1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
6 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
15 “For behold, the Lord will come in fire, and his chariots like the whirlwind, to render his anger in fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
18 The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind; your lightnings lighted up the world; the earth trembled and shook.
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And of course… the event in Acts 2 is very familiar to us…
2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
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I’m not saying that ‘cool of the day’ is wrong… but I am saying, that God’s presence and voice elsewhere in the scriptures, is like a whirlwind in a storm.
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This might explain why Adam heard the Lord coming..
And this might explain the second point from vs. 10… - Why Adam was afraid.
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This is the first time in the Bible, where someone is afraid… This is the first account of fear. Not a ‘fear of respect’… but rather, a fear of consequence.
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In Gen 2.25… it says that they were both naked and were not ashamed.
But now… that is no longer the case.
The feeling of shame revealed guilt… these were new feelings… and then, on top of all of that… was fear. None of these things existed before they ate of the fruit of the tree of knowing good and knowing evil.
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They were supernaturally changed… and it wasn’t for the better.
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Now… third point. Adam confessed that he was naked.
But wait a minute. Didn’t we read last week that they sewed fig leafs together and made clothes for themselves? They had made an attempt to cover up their shame…
And yet..
They were still ashamed..
And Adam confessed… “Yes, even though I tried to make myself some shorts… I am still naked.”
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They were new at this ‘sinning business’. They hadn’t learned things like, denial, or deception. Adam knew, that his attempts to cover his shame, did not work.
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People have since learned to deny better… and to deceive themselves better. People come up with ideas, philosophies, concepts, beliefs and practices that make them think that they are good. They think they are good… why? Because good people get good rewards. Good people make others happy. If there is a god, good people will go to heaven. -
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This is how most people think. They look at their lives… and they say, “I am good.”
“I am a good person.”
“I have done good things… therefore, I get to go to heaven.”
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10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
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What is Paul trying to say here?
He’s saying… that nobody, in their own will, in their own strength, in their own nature… IS RIGHTEOUS.
Compared to God’s standard of goodness… nobody is good.
Without grace… without the gracious leading of the HS… nobody is seeking after God…
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20 Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
6 We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
There is no good in people…
So… where does the goodness come from?
16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
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23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
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This reflects the prayer of confession that we pray when we first become redeemed believers in Jesus… - We confess to God… that we have sinned… that we are not good… that we are unable to earn His acceptance or our own salvation… we confess… that we are naked.
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Adam was yet to be self-deceived. Even has he had a couple leaves covering him up… he admitted still… that he was naked..
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there is one other thought on this…
maybe… simply… the wind of the storm of God’s presence… blew those fig leaves away…
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Now… the 4th statement from vs. 10
“I hid myself”
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But… he wasn’t hidden. God knew where he was. God knew what was going on.
13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
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What a pointless act.
He wasn’t unwilling to be found. He did, after all, answer God.
But still, he hid.
He knew, instinctively… he knew… that there was something wrong… about bringing his shame into the presence of God. - God didn’t have to teach this to Adam… the fruit from the tree taught it…
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And as we will see throughout Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy… that this will be a huge issue between man and God. Humans will not be able to, simply enter into God’s presence. There will have to be sacrifices… bloodshed… and loss. Only the priests will approach Gods presence… and they will have to go through a specific process to do so....
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God illustrates this reality in Leviticus 10.
In chapter 9… Aaron follows specific instruction to approach God… and God’s presence responds… and the people saw it. Then, in chapter 10, Aaron’s two sons, Nadab and Abihu wanted to do what dad did. They wanted to make a religious show in front of the people. They wanted the people to see God’s presence respond to them too. They did it for the wrong reason… and they did it the wrong way...
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And, in a way… they got their wish. God’s presence did respond… -Fire came out from the presence of the Lord, and consumed them.
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Adam knew, in this moment… in Genesis 3… what Nadab and Abihu did not know. There was something really wrong, about bringing sin into the presence of God.
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11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
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Again… God knew what the answer was… but He was giving Adam and Eve the opportunity to come clean..
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Adam blamed Eve, and in a way… also blamed God
Eve blamed the serpent…
the serpent didn’t blame anybody… he just took it.
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The question in vs. 11 is interesting. ‘Who told you that you were naked?’
The word for naked is pretty simple… there is no figurative meaning to it. It simply means to have no clothes on, or barely any clothes on.
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Clothing, was simply a thing… a concept that neither Adam nor Eve knew about. Nakedness was a state, that they were unaware of. This was new information… and interestingly, they had just eaten a fruit that was supposed to give them information…
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They are exhibiting all kinds of new knowledge here..
shame,
hiding,
fear,
and now… nakedness.
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God asks them, “Who told you you were naked?” - but they don’t answer this question, because the second question covers it.
They would have only known about nakedness, if one of the other elohim had told them.... OR… unless, they ate of the tree of knowing good and knowing evil.
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So, the blame game runs through the family, and stops at the serpent.
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14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
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There is a difference between vs. 14 and 15. In vs. 14, language seems to be speaking of the animal… the snake. But vs. 15 is speaking to the one, unique spiritual being who was responsible for this deception.
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Let’s not forget… this isn’t really about snakes.
If it is about snakes… then their form is only there to remind us of this event.
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It wasn’t a snake that tempted Eve… it was a spiritual being… it was an angel… named in Revelation as being the Devil.
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But vs. 14, shows us, that maybe the image of the snake, in nature, is there to remind us of this event.
Last week we looked at the Hebrew word for serpent, and noticed that the plural form of that word is seraphim… and we know that a seraphim is a type of angel that worships God in the heavens.
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So, the seraphim, may have had an animal image… and there was probably a real animal created on the earth that looked like that angel.
This isn’t a ridiculous thought… - There are angels described in Ezekiel and Revelation that are called ‘living creatures’… and they bear the images of man, eagle, oxen, and lion.
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So I would ask the question… what came first? The angels, or the animals?
I’m inclined to think that angels came first, and obviously, some of the animals we have here on earth were created, at least in part, in the image of those beings..
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Before there was oxen, there was a 4 faced angel in heaven, with one face that like an ox.
Before there was a lion, there was a 4 faced angel in heaven, with a face like a lion… - and so forth..
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And if the language comparison between serpent and seraphim hold up… it appears that there might have been an angel in heaven, who looks like a serpent.
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But God illustrated to the devil, and to us… that serpents on the earth will be cursed. The seraphim had six wings and six feet… if the original ‘snake’ had this… it came to an end in Genesis three. From this point forward, the snake crawling on its belly in the dust would be reminder… to us, and even to the spiritual forces of darkness… - that God is not pleased with their rebellion.
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Gen. 3 opened up by telling us the serpent was more crafty than any other beast… and now, in the curse, the serpent is told that is is cursed more than all livestock and above the beasts of the field.
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Slithering on its belly must be different than what it did before, since it is part of the curse… and the ‘eating of the dust’ is figurative language that was common to this day..
Again… in an Akkadian writing called ‘Descent of Ishtar’… serpents are depicted as inhabitants of the underworld that feed on dust and clay.
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So, vs. 14 seems to focus on the physical animal..
But vs. 15 is speaking directly to the spiritual being that deceived Eve.
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God says to the serpent… “I will put enmity between you and the woman.”
Enmity… is not fear. Enmity is ‘hostility’. The curse here is not aimed at the woman… it is aimed at the spiritual angel, that is the serpent.
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This word ‘enmity’… speaks of combat.... specifically, between the serpent and its offspring… and between the woman and her offspring.
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This doesn’t mean that all the children of Eve will be at war with all the baby snakes of Satan..
But it does mean… that those who follow in the way of the serpent… will be at enmity with the one, singular offspring of Eve.
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We talked about the offspring of the serpent last week… especially in terms of when John the Baptist and Jesus called the religious leaders of the Jews… a ‘brood of vipers’.
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The word for ‘offspring’ for the woman, is also translated ‘seed’. - It could be plural or singular… but I emphasized the singularity of this for one reason.
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The second half of vs. 15… calls her offspring ‘he’.
A hindsight view of the work of Jesus on the cross… makes it clear… that her seed, will be Jesus.
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From here… we go to the curses upon woman and man… things we are all familiar with intimately… but we will talk about those next week and close here.