What Went Wrong
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· 4 viewsThe Fall of Man
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Here’s where we are- Moses is writing down the stories the Israelite people were telling, which informed them of where they are from and what God is doing.
We looked at creation. God speaking order into chaos during what is described as seven days. Made it very good.
We looked at making humans in the image of God.
He made them male and female and gave the gift of relationship and marriage. A relationship of mutual joy and help, completing the image of God and a symbol of his love and intimacy.
His desire was to rule the world with us, through us, sharing the world with us.
When he finished creating he rested and blessed that 7th day as a day of enjoying God’s gifts and stopping work. A work God described as “very good”.
He gave us work to do, and rest to enjoy it.
So… what went wrong?
Check out Genesis 3:1
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
Snake or serpent, poisonous snake. Nahash. Hisser.
Crafty? He’s sharp. Astute.
So much so that he talks? And Eve seems cool with it?
The way the passage is presented is very simple and a little frustrating for people like me who have so many questions and want to know the details.
Who is this serpent?
We have the advantage of reading other biblical writers to see what was known or believed about this serpent.
· In one of the oldest stories recorded in the Bible, the book of Job, there’s a character named Ha Shatan
The Accuser, Enemy
· In the New Testament 2 Peter 2:4 we are told that a bunch of angels rebelled against God or “sinned” (in Greek, “To miss the mark” or fall short of a goal of righteousness). Their sin condemned some of them to a place translated “hell” – a prison of eternal darkness and torment. Those who aren’t already there are called demons. Their leader in the NT is called Diabolos or “devil”.
2 Peter 2:4 (ESV)
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell...
· No really clear origin story for him but it makes sense that if the demons are angels that rebelled, then their leader is the same.
Isaiah (14:12-14) in the OT talks about a human king falling from grace, rebelling against God with pride, and uses poetic language to describe him and during that description it sounds like an angel of great rank rebelling against God.
At the end of the Bible we get it all tied up for us.
He = an angel
And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,
· All this to say there’s a powerful supernatural being, in charge of many others, who seems to have set himself up as God’s enemy, and ours.
1. We have an enemy.
He’s in the Garden now in the form of a serpent, talking to the woman, getting her to question God’s command: “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”
This is where it starts.
Questioning what was said. What God meant by it. Then comes contradiction.
But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
2. Our enemy attacks our understanding of God and His Word.
a. And he’s good at it. He doesn’t come in looking outright evil. He comes in making sense, looking reasonable. Beneficial.
b. Sin looks good but Satan’s a liar. Sin keeps takes you further than you want to go, keeps you longer than you want to stay, and costs you more than you want to pay! Look what happens:
So 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 to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
d. Did they die? No. But what did?
e. The intimacy they shared. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. (Genesis 2:25 ESV) In real intimacy they were completely open and complementary- differences made for harmony. Now it’s dissonance. Now they feel the need to hide from each other. The first thing that died is the intimacy of human relationships. Fear has entered. Distrust.
f. Their relationship with God experienced death as well.
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.
h. They hid from God too.
i. But God doesn’t let us hide. He comes after us.
But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 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.”
k. Wow. Blame game. More signs of relational death.
l. God begins laying out consequences of sin that they hadn’t thought of yet… and offers some hope.
3. Sin’s cost is great, but God’s grace is greater.
a. To the serpent/Satan:
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.
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.”
ii. A human being, a man, will come someday descended from the woman and will crush the head of the snake, and in doing so take a bite from the snake.
iii. Translated: a man, the victim of your deception, will destroy you, Satan, but die in the process.
iv. See how God pursues us? He doesn’t leave us in the state we’re in. There’s a planned solution. Who is he? The rest of the Bible is a search for this rescue from God. In the meantime:
b. To the woman:
To the woman he said,
“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be contrary to your husband,
but he shall rule over you.”
ii. Relational death. Being fruitful and multiplying is wonderful but painful. Marriage is wonderful but now has a power struggle.
c. To the man:
And to Adam he said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”
ii. The harmony enjoyed with nature is broken now too. Work is hard. “Working the garden” is now a fight to squeeze out a living. Until you die.
iii. We weren’t supposed to die. But now we do. Deterioration until death.
iv. The word isn’t used here but all this is the opposite of blessing. Curse.
Next comes a side story that seems strange but perhaps is here to offer more hope.
The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
ii. The woman will, despite the pain, have children. Thus the man, Adam, called her Eve (Havah) , mother of all humanity.
iii. Also, God’s mercy. He gives them clothes, covering their nakedness. But at the price of the lives of some of the animals.
e. Then a final consequence for both humans:
Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
ii. Cut off from God’s presence in the Garden, and the means of sustaining and eternal life. Cast out to work the hard ground, with broken relationships, in a world broken by our rebellion, outside of God’s holy presence which condemns us because we rebelled against him.
Not good.
But hope: God still pursues. God still provides.
Ultimately, someday evil’s source will be destroyed.
Until that day:
1. Recognize there is an enemy.
2. Recognize his lies designed to get you to doubt the word of God
b. Sin doesn’t give you what you think it will. Sin takes you farther than you want to go, keeps you longer than you want to stay, and costs you more than you want to pay.
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
d. That promise is made because the one has come who has stomped on his head.
3. Recognize the results of the curse for what they are. The brokenness in others and in yourself. The solution isn’t in being better. We cannot unbreak ourselves.
4. Only God can heal us. Let’s go to him for help. He promises to end it. He does in Jesus.
Jesus died crushing the head of the snake and ending his power.
Someday Satan will be thrown into the Lake of Fire forever.
YOu and I can be free from sin and it’s hold on us, and it’s ultimate consequence of death.
So stop blaming others. Stop trying religion.
Trust Jesus and keep trusting Him for victory.
Reflection
Pray