Genesis 3.1-7-The Fall of Adam
Wednesday August 24, 2005
Genesis: Genesis 3:1-7-The Fall of Adam
Lesson # 15
Turn in your Bibles to Genesis 3:1.
This evening we will complete our study of Genesis 3:1-7, which records Satan disguising himself as a snake in order to deceive Eve.
Last night we studied about the person of Satan but this evening we will study his tactics in deceiving the woman to disobey the Lord.
Genesis 3:1, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
Genesis 3:2, “The woman said to the serpent, ‘From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat.’”
Genesis 3:3, “but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’”
Genesis 3:4, “The serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely will not die!’”
Genesis 3:5, “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Genesis 3:6, “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.”
Genesis 3:7, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.”
Genesis 3:1-7 records three different steps that lead to sin against God:
(1) Added to God’s Word: God did not say that Adam could not eat from any tree in the garden but rather He prohibited eating from only the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 3:1); God did not say that Adam could not “touch” the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but rather He said do not eat from it (Gen. 2:15-17)
(2) Altering God’s Word: God did not say that they would die if they touched the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but rather the Lord said they would die if they ate from it, which Eve omits.
(3) Denying God’s Word: Satan blatantly called God a liar and contradicted what God said to Adam by saying “You shall not surely die” (Gen. 3:4).
“More crafty” is the adjective `arum (sWru) (pronounced: aw-room) is used in a negative sense to describe the “craftiness” of the snake and forms a word play with the adjective `arom (sw{ru) (pronounced: aw-rome), “naked” that is used in Genesis 2:25 to describe the sinless innocence of Adam and Eve.
The two words describe a contrast between the innocent vulnerability of Adam and his wife and the craftiness of Satan.
“Craftiness” describes the skill or ability used for evil purposes, cunning, deceit, guile.”
Satan’s craftiness is demonstrated in addressing Adam’s wife and not Adam and asking her a question.
Satan approached the woman rather than Adam because the woman was the “weaker” of the two in the sense that she is a responder and is therefore susceptible to flattery and deception.
1 Peter 3:7, “You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.”
Also, Satan approached the woman rather than Adam since Adam was the one who received the prohibition directly from the Lord to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and not the woman since she was not created as of yet (Gen. 2:15-25).
Therefore, the woman heard about the command to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil directly from Adam rather than from the Lord.
She also would be with Adam when the Lord at the end of the day reminded Adam of the prohibition (Gen. 3:8).
It was Adam’s responsibility to relate the prohibition accurately to the woman since God delegated him as the authority over her.
Her failure to accurately convey the Word of the Lord back to Satan was in essence Adam’s failure as the head of the marriage since she received the command from him and he was right there while she was conversing with Satan according to the phrase “she gave also to her husband with her” in Genesis 3:6.
Adam kept silent the entire time that his wife was being tempted by the devil, thus he failed in his responsibility to protect and care for his wife.
God did not say that Adam could not eat from “any” tree in the garden but only that they could not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:17).
Satan deliberately distorted the Word of the Lord in order to get Adam’s wife to doubt God and of course, ultimately to deceive her into disobeying God and then Adam would follow.
Satan employed this tactic of distorting the Word of God when tempting the impeccable human nature of the Lord Jesus Christ in the wilderness (Mt. 4:1-11), but the Lord Jesus Christ defeated Satan and resisted the temptation to sin by having a precise and accurate knowledge of the Word of God.
Satan is emphasizing God’s prohibition rather than His provision to eat from any tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and he did this in order to make God appear harsh.
Genesis 3:2, “The woman said to the serpent, ‘From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat.’”
Genesis 3:3, “but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’”
The woman is correct in identifying that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil had a prohibition attached to it but she was incorrect in adding to the prohibition by saying she was prohibited from touching it.
The Lord did not say that they could not touch it but rather that they could not eat from it and this failure to accurately convey what the Lord prohibited gave Satan a foothold and she was now open to deception.
Failure to accurately understand and apply the Word of God leads to deception from Satan.
Genesis 3:4, “The serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely will not die!’”
After hearing Eve inaccurately convey what the Lord said in the prohibition, Satan blatantly calls God a liar by saying that they would not die if they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
John 8:44, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
Genesis 3:5, “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Not only does Satan deny the Word of God and calls God a liar but he also casts doubt upon the character of God suggesting that God was envious and jealous, holding them back from their destiny.
Of course, Satan is envious and jealous of God and is therefore involved in “projecting” meaning he is ascribing to God his failure of jealousy and envy of God (cf. James 3:14-16).
Both Adam and his wife had not reason to doubt God’s love and goodness since like Satan, their entire existence originated directly from God who created them.
God had their best interests in mind and in fact, by prohibiting Adam and his wife from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the Lord God was protecting them from evil and calamity.
God prohibits us from doing things in order to protect us from misfortune rather than to prevent us from enjoyment.
Adam and his wife had no reason whatsoever to accept the suggestions of this stranger (Satan) over obedience to the commands of their loving and caring Lord.
God had withheld no good thing from Adam and Eve and yet they rebelled against Him like Satan, which is a sin of the worst kind, namely, ungratefulness.
Satan has successfully gotten the woman to mistrust and be suspicious of God.
Also, Satan states that if she ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that she will be like God knowing good and evil, which is ridiculous since God knows about evil but not through personal experience, which would be the case when the woman disobeyed God.
Genesis 3:6, “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.”
The steps leading to Adam and his wife disobeying the Lord by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil are described in Genesis 3:6, which correspond to the description given by the apostle John in 1 John 2:15-16.
1 John 2:15, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
1 John 2:16, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.”
“Lust of the flesh” is a temptation appealing to the physical appetite and was used against the Woman and is recorded in Genesis 3:6a, "When the woman saw that the tree was good for food.”
“Lust of the eyes” is a temptation appealing to personal gain and was used against the Woman and is recorded in Genesis 3:6b, "that it was a delight to the eyes.”
“Boastful pride of life” is a temptation appealing to power and glory and was used against the Woman and is recorded in Genesis 3:6c, "that the tree was desirable to make one wise.”
Notice that Adam was with his wife the entire time that Satan tempted her and remained silent throughout the entire conversation.
Paul states that Eve was deceived and not Adam who knew what he was doing.
1 Timothy 2:14, “And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.”
Adam knowingly ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because he chose his relationship with his wife over his relationship with God, which is illustrated by the fact that he listened to his wife rather than obeying God.
Genesis 3:7, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.”
“The eyes of both of them were opened” means that Adam and his wife had a knowledge of sin and evil through personal experience and did not make them like God as Satan claimed it would but rather produced guilt in their souls.
They became a aware of their guilt and had nothing to hide their guilt so they attempted to hide themselves from God and cover their genitalia with loin coverings sewed from fig leaves.
The loin coverings not only were a manifestation of their alienation from God but also from each other.
The sewing of fig leaves together in order to make loin coverings for themselves to cover and ease their guilt was an act of self-righteous arrogance since only God can solve the problem of guilt through the forgiveness of sins, which is available through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.
Instead of seeking out God and confessing their guilt, they attempted to conceal their guilt from both God and themselves (1 John 1:8-10).
It is interesting that the only tree that our Lord cursed was the fig tree recorded in Matthew 21:18-19 and He did this not only to teach that Israel had rejected Him as Messiah but to relate God’s attitude towards the self-righteous actions of Adam and his wife.
Adam’s sin in the garden brought a curse not only on the entire human race of which he is the “federal” head but it also brought a curse on the earth itself.
Romans 5:12, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned (when Adam sinned).”
Romans 8:20, “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope.”
The temptations of the Lord Jesus in the wilderness correspond to that which Eve was subject to in the Garden of Eden.
Satan appealed to the physical appetite of Eve in Genesis 3:1, “You may eat of any tree” and the Lord Jesus in Matthew 4:3, “You may eat by changing stones into bread.”
He appealed to personal gain with Eve in Genesis 3:4, “you shall not die” and with the Lord Jesus in Matthew 4:6, “You will not hurt Your foot.”
Satan appealed to power or glory with Eve in Genesis 3:5, “You will be like God” and with the Lord Jesus in Matthew 4:8-9, “You will have all the world’s kingdoms.”