It Happens

-illustration Did you know that there’s a school of thought which suggests the snake in the Garden of Eden wasn’t a snake? The problem is that the word used there, which every English translation of the Bible turns into either “serpent” or “snake”, could actually refer to any of over 200 different things depending on the context, and the context here is less clear than it could be. The word is nacash (naw-cash) and while it can mean serpent, it could also mean any of about 200 other things, including sailor or anchor or – this is my favorite – gorilla.

One of the arguments for this is that a snake is uniquely designed to slither, so it doesn’t make sense that God cursed it to crawl on the ground. A gorilla, though, could walk upright, but instead lurches about on all fours, dragging its belly in the dirt. Another argument points out that a snake who talks doesn’t make much sense – the tongue of a snake would make vocalization impossible. But a gorilla has an almost identical physical structure to humans.

Now, let me make sure I’m clear about this: I’m not saying that it was a gorilla. I don’t happen to think that it matters. And even though I am a Biblical literalist who takes this story more or less at face value and believe that it actually happened, I know a good number of commentators, including some very conservative scholars, who believe it is a parable and not a history. I think they’re wrong, but I acknowledge that we can’t know for certain and I don’t generally argue about it, because I don’t think that matters either.

-proposition (principle/teaching of story) Whether you take the story to be literal truth or metaphorical truth or something in between isn’t what matters. What matters are the truths revealed by the story: Human beings can and do choose to disobey God’s commands. There are consequences. God’s grace provides salvation. What matters most in this story isn’t that it happened then. It’s that it still happens now.

-purpose (application) We need to accept God’s grace or we will be lost to the consequences of our own poor choices.

-reference to text

Today’s scripture, if you haven’t found it already, is from Genesis, chapter 3, and it’s a story you have probably heard before, but if you listen closely, I suspect there will be more in there than you may have realized. I. 1st Part of Story

A. Narration

Genesis 3:1 (NIV2011) 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 being crafty doesn’t mean that it spent its spare time knitting or scrapbooking. Some translations use the word “shrewd” here, but that always sounds kind of negative. It’s actually intended to mean the serpent had more wisdom and skill. In this story, the serpent is like that mountaintop guru people go to for advice.

B. Discussion (proves or explains this part of story)

I should also point out that the serpent here is a wild animal, created by God. Christians like to turn it into either the supernatural agent of the Adversary, or perhaps into Satan himself, but that’s reaching. In Revelation, Satan is called an ancient serpent who leads the world astray, but other than that this idea is hung entirely on a comment in the writings of Ezekiel that King of Tyre was in Eden. A lot of people like to interpret that prophecy and this chapter and the references in Revelation into a whole framework of a story about who Satan is or was and what supernatural mischief he gets up to here on earth, but the simpler truth is that the story of the serpent in the Garden isn’t about unimaginable supernatural forces. It’s about a choice that humans made about whether they would obey God’s instructions or not. It’s not about some cosmic challenge that happened then so much as it’s about the decisions each of us make every day to obey, disobey, or ignore God’s instructions.

C. Application

It’s not that it happened; it’s that it happens.

II. 2nd Part of Story

A. Narration

So, to get back to our text, we have a wise and skillful snake who says to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

Let’s figure out an answer to that before we go on. Take a look back a page or two at Genesis 2:16-17 (NIV2011) 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.”

So, did God say not to eat from any tree in the garden? <wait for response> No, of course not! He built the garden as a good place for humankind to thrive and grow. So let’s go back to Genesis 3 and see how the woman answered the snake.

Genesis 3:2-3 (NIV2011) 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 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.’ ”

Well, now, that isn’t quite right either, is it? The woman seems to have added something to what God said. Why is that?

B. Discussion (proves or explains this part of story) The obvious reason would be that this is something humans seem to do. We love to add just that one little thing that makes something our own. With rules in particular. Remember how I talked last week about how someone might have a patch of beautiful grass so they put up a sign: Keep off the grass. But to make sure that’s obeyed, their neighbor puts up a fence around the yard so no one can walk there. Then a fence around the fence so no one can lean over and touch the grass. And then a fence around that fence so you can’t touch the fence which might be touching the grass. It’s crazy, but it seems to be part of human nature to create these giant gulfs where a casual boundary will suffice. In this instance, where God has said not to eat the fruit from this one plant, the woman is now saying not to even touch the tree.

What do you think? Does that seem reasonable? I think so too, but many ancient commentators saw a different possibility. Scripture records God giving his instruction to the man, but there is no indication that God told the woman. That task, said the rabbis, fell to the man. And he added the extra fence by telling her, “Don’t even touch the tree.”

The Midrash, which is a collection of ancient Jewish teachings and commentaries around the scriptures, posits a couple of different ways in which the serpent demonstrated to the woman that what she had said wasn’t true. One commentator says that he actually pushed her up against the tree and held her there until she realized she didn’t die and hadn’t even been hurt. Another suggests that the serpent touched the tree with his hands and feet and shook the tree so that some of its fruit fell to the ground, then said, “See? You won’t die!” One rabbi even said that the serpent may have eaten some of the fruit.

C. Application And while I can’t tell you exactly how this went down, I can tell you that what matters again is not that it happened; what matters is that it happens. Every day, in hundreds of ways, we find ourselves faced with choices of who to believe and why. If we’ve built a false wall around the truth, will we stop believing and acting on the truth when that false wall comes down? Maybe not, but probably we will.

When Jesus was teaching, the people of Israel were looking for the Messiah, this long-promised savior of their people. They were an oppressed nation, held firmly beneath the heel of the Roman Empire, subjugated and held in poverty and near-slavery by the Empire and by their own puppet kings who served Rome first, their own desires second, and their people not at all. In response, the people watched carefully for the savior God had promised; the one who would set captives free. And they began to build up an idea of what that would take. Rome was a military force unlike any that had come before, so the people reasoned that the Messiah must be a great war leader who would form a rebellion which would destroy the legions and lead Israel to become the new and improved Empire which ruled the world. Then came Jesus, who fulfilled all of the scriptural prophecies, but when his followers pushed him to become the warrior and rebel that they were waiting for, he taught them they should turn the other cheek, help Roman footsoldiers as they traveled, and love their enemies.

And when the false fences of their understanding of what the Messiah would be came down, they ignored the truth of who Jesus was and nailed him to a cross because he had shattered their illusions along with their craving for revenge.

It’s not that it happened; it’s that it happens.

III. 3rd Part of Story

A. Narration Let’s see what happens when the serpent challenges the woman’s beliefs by showing her that a piece of what she thinks she knows is untrue.

Genesis 3:4-7 (NIV2011) 4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 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. 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.

B. Discussion (proves or explains this part of story) It’s short, but let me just recap. The serpent says, “I hear you can’t eat any fruit,” and the woman says, “We can eat whatever, except for this one untouchable tree.” The serpent says, and probably shows, that it can be touched and says that God is holding out on humankind. Convinced that the bit about touching the tree is a lie, the woman rejects all of God’s warnings and eats the fruit. Then she hands some to the man – WHO WAS WITH HER. Did you notice that? How he was with her all along? Right there, listening in, watching and then eating once the woman has a bite without dropping straight to the floor? If her sin was one of commission, his was one of omission; she acted and he didn’t object, but did follow.

There is something else in this that I had never noticed before, and when I say it I bet you’ll go back to check to make sure because you never noticed it either. At no point did the serpent ever suggest that she should eat, try, taste, or even that she should touch the fruit. It misrepresented the reason God withheld permission to eat from the tree and it said that God was wrong about the consequences of eating, but it never suggested the humans disobey. No matter how they might plead that the devil made them do it – and they will plead that, in a moment – the truth is that the decision to disobey God was entirely their own, born out of their own pride.

C. Application

What do I keep saying? What’s surprising isn’t that it happened; it’s that it this is exactly what happens to us now. Start thinking about some of the poor choices you’ve made over the last month. Yes, you’ve made some. So have I. You’ve got one in mind already, don’t you? What REALLY inspired you to make that choice? Did some outside force take over your body and force you to do whatever it was? No! You may not have thought about it much before you did it, but you decided to do it and then you did it. So chew on that while we go through the rest of the story.

IV. 4th Part of Story

A. Narration So our couple has eaten and now they recognize that there is evil which could be done to them and by them, and they look at one another and realize that they are completely uncovered. In the instant they ate, their innocence died.

Now, depending on which school of thought you follow, making some kind of cover to wear was either the first or the second thing they thought to do. And if you need me to explain that, ask after the service.

So, because it was all they could think to do, they stitched some leaves together into covers. They pulled them on. Then…

Genesis 3:8-11 (NIV2011) 8 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. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” 10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” 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?”

You know what another good question could be? How about, “Why is God asking them questions?” I mean, he knows, right? And in a way, this is easier to understand if you are or have been a parent, because parents use this same approach all the time. But we all do this among each other as well. We ask questions to preserve relationships. When I know my child has done something wrong, I may ask them what they have does because that creates an openness or a light where the disobedience had created shadow. The question is a plea to restore the relationship, to make it possible for the asker to forgive the transgression. It can also be the moment in which a wrong gets compounded by further lies and the relationship further broken by a failure to be open to sharing the truth.

When God asks, “Where are you?” it is because the man heard him coming and hid instead of going to him the way he had. God knows what is wrong, but he gives the man and the woman a second chance to come to him and be open and honest. “Where are you?”

When called directly, the man answers, because he knows that God knows where he is. I see him crouched down behind a bush when he hears God coming, ducking down. He holds his breath and thinks, “please don’t see me, please don’t see me,” while God walks through the garden. As if God isn’t going to be able to find him. Then when God actually calls for them, there is that catch of breath from the humans, knowing they’ve been found out. And as they exhale and stand the man admits they hid because they are naked, which they shouldn’t be able to know, so God asks, “Who told you? Or did you eat from the tree I commanded you not to eat from?” And at this point the man can tell the truth and restore what can be restored or he can break that relationship further.

Genesis 3:12 (NIV2011) 12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

The man chooses what we used to call the nuclear option. He goes scorched earth on relationships, throwing both his relationship with God and that with the woman into the fire. The LORD asked him a simple question: Did you eat from the tree? How different things might have been if only he had said yes! But instead he denied responsibility for his own choice by saying, “It was THAT WOMAN who YOU put here! It wasn’t me. It was you.”

Genesis 3:13 (NIV2011) 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.”

“It wasn’t me! It was that SNAKE!”

B. Discussion (proves or explains this part of story) <Pause>

As much as I want to yell at them for what they are doing, I can’t. I certainly have no moral high ground to stand on here! Which one of us can say that we have never lashed out at someone else because we were ashamed of ourselves? Oh, we usually lie to ourselves when we’re doing it. We say the same thing that the man and woman did: It’s not my fault I lied about that. What that other person did or said made me. It’s not my fault I stole that; they owed it to me. It’s not my fault I crawl into that bottle night after night; it’s because those people make my life too stressful. It’s not my fault I put that needle in my arm – it’s because that life God gave me hurts too much. It’s never our fault, not so long as we have someone else we can point to, right? It’s not me; it’s them!

C. Application

Which is the truth we come back to in this story. What’s amazing isn’t that this happened; it’s that it happens. This is a story from the beginning of humankind, but it’s a story from our lives right now, isn’t it?

V. 5th Part of Story

A. Narration And what happened next is also really no different than what happens now. Every action has a consequence, doesn’t it?

Genesis 3:14-15 (NIV2011) 14 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. 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.”

This idea of eating dust becomes an idea of total defeat and Israel will continue to use that image throughout their history. But there is a deeper theological suggestion here too. There will be enmity – a struggle – between the serpent, a symbol of death and defeat, and the offspring of the woman, a future descendant. And in the exchange the serpent’s strike will fail to stop the victory of that coming son. The symbol of death will be defeated by the symbol of hope. So even in cursing the serpent, the LORD offers hope to his people. But even with that promise of ultimate victory, there were immediate consequences to be faced.

Genesis 3:16 (NIV2011) 16 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.”

In traditional Jewish thought, this curse belongs to the woman; the Bible never says or implies that the punishment described is to extend to her descendants. Her sin led to consequences in her relationships with her children and her husband, just as our sins ripple out to affect those who are closest to us. This passage cannot be taken to mean either that all husbands will or should rule over their wives. It also cannot bring you to the conclusion that epidurals should be avoided in favor of experiencing the full pain of hard labor. Her sin led to her consequences. Other’s sins will lead to their own consequences.

Genesis 3:17-19 (NIV2011) 17 To [the] 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. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 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.”

B. Discussion (proves or explains this part of story) In consequence of having eaten fruit that was not his, the man will no longer have trees providing him with food that he doesn’t work for. No, that’s not quite right. Food he doesn’t TOIL for. That’s better. Work itself was created as a blessing, a part of our purpose in life. Work done well provides a satisfaction all its own, even now. It also wears us down at times. It can be frustrating. It tears us up and breaks us down and we may need to take a break from it, but not too long or the fact we are not working begins to weigh on us too. We need it, but it is a challenge which grinds us down at the same time. We are not caretakers of paradise any longer.

C. Application

In this as in all the rest, the story is about what happened, but it is also a perfect description of what happens. As we read we can consider how our lives reflect those of our predecessors and we may find that we begin to ask: What can we do to repair or restore our relationship with God? Is what was all that can be? Or is there something more we can look to in the future?

VI. 6th Part of Story

A. Narration Genesis 3:20-21 (NIV2011) 20 [The] Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. 21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

B. Discussion (proves or explains this part of story) A name! Eve. In Hebrew it means “Life”, which is appropriate for the woman who would bring new life to the world by bearing and delivering children. Probably lots and lots of children, though we will only hear about a few of them by name. The man doesn’t actually appear to have a name assigned to him until later in scripture, and his name, Adam, essentially means “dirt” or “man” because it was from the dirt that God formed and created him.

Something else was given here, something powerful and important. Grace. Their sin left Adam and Eve naked and desiring cover as they entered into the world and so God provided them with cover.

C. Application

Sin happens, but if we bring it to God, he gives us grace. In this case, his forgiveness came with a custom-made suit. And that suit came from the skins of animals and there are those who want to build a whole connect-the-dots-to the sacrifice system God would establish as an atonement for the sins of his people. However, just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should, and it seems best, and perhaps most sobering, to reflect that it is likely God took and slaughtered two animals to make the clothing necessary for his people to cover over their sin.

VII. 7thPart of the story

A. Narration

There is a final consequence for our first parents as well.

Genesis 3:22-24 (NIV2011) 22 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.” 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.

B. Discussion

Remember how God said that to eat from the fruit of that tree was to die? We saw the death of their innocence happen immediately. The death of their relationship with God begin what it had been came next, followed by the death of the lifestyle they had lived until now. And now a larger death comes with the removal of the means of immortality for humans. The Tree of Life and the whole of the garden around it are set apart from Adam and Eve and guarded by a terrible angel. Paradise is not for mortal man.

C. Application

Conclusion

-reference to proposition (principle)

Which brings us to the point where we decide if this matters to us today or not.

There is a theological concept called Original Sin, which suggests that it is Adam’s sin which causes the rest of us to sin. If only Adam had refused to eat the fruit of that one tree, then the rest of us would never disobey God! But that’s a gross oversimplification of the point of the story. It is far more accurate to say that we sin AS Adam and Eve did, not because they did. We make our own choices, good and bad, and face the consequences of those choices, just like our first parents did.

The most remarkable thing about the story in Genesis 3 isn’t that it happened. The most remarkable thing about the story is that it still happens to us today. We hear God’s commands and we choose to obey or disobey. Either way there are consequences, good or bad.

-reference to purpose (application)

In relation to the poor choices we all make, God provides us with three things, if we choose to accept them. The first is an opportunity to speak the truth. Honesty is always the best policy, as the saying goes. Or, to put it in more Biblical terms:

Proverbs 28:13 (NIV2011) 13 Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

Just as a parent gives a child that opportunity to tell the truth, so God give us the chance to maintain and even build our relationship with him by being open and honest with him. He already knows, so there should be no reason to try to hide from him. God provides us with the choice to be honest.

Second, he gives us grace. Grace is a word which means gift, or some prefer the phrase “unmerited favor”. By his grace to us, God is always ready to restore his relationship to each of us. Ephesians 2:4-5 (NIV2011) 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

No matter who we are or what we’ve done, God’s grace is available to us, and by his grace we are saved.

Third, and finally for this morning, God provides us with the tools we need to face our consequences. I wish I could say that accepting God’s grace and facing every hard truth with transparency meant that there would be no consequences for your past choices, but I can’t. What I can tell you is that God doesn’t leave you to face the music alone.

Deuteronomy 31:8 (NIV2011) 8 The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.

God will stay with you through everything you face. He will hold your hand when it is needed; he will hold you up when you need it; and he will provide you with people in your life who care and will help carry your burdens where they can. It is not good for humans to be alone, remember, so God ensured that we never have to be.

-altar call

At the front here, we have two places of prayer set aside. We have them here because for two centuries the church has found that having a place to come and unburden yourself to God before his altar is something which brings great comfort.

I don’t know what speaks to your soul this morning, but I do know that when I heard that my Creator wanted to meet me where I was; that he didn’t hate me; that he had a gift of forgiveness to give to me or to anyone else who asked, no matter what, I was excited. I wanted to talk to him about it and to accept that grace and let his presence come and wash me clean.

How about you? Whether you need to accept God’s grace for the first time or the thousandth, whether you need to unburden your soul and let God set you free or whether you want to thank him because he has, let me invite you to come and do so.

-music / choruses

While people are entering into their own times of prayer, let’s sing through Amazing Grace. It’s song 308 in the red songbooks and, hopefully, the words will appear on the screen. We’ll do the first three verses.

<sing>

Verse 1 Amazing grace! how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind but now I see.

Verse 2 'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, And grace my fears relieved; How precious did that grace appear The hour I first believed!

Verse 3 Through many dangers, toils and snares I have already come; 'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home.

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