This chapter is one of the most important in all the Bible.
What has been said of Genesis as a whole, is peculiarly true of this chapter: it is the “seed-plot of the Bible.”
1. In this chapter there are the foundations upon which many of the cardinal doctrines of our faith rest.
2. Here we find the Divine explanation of the present fallen and ruined condition of the race.
3. We see here the spiritual effects of sin—man seeking to flee from God.
4. We discern here God’s attitude toward guilty man.
5. Here we see the provision which God has made for man’s need.
6. We have revealed the fact that man cannot approach God except through a mediator.
This chapter also refutes the Darwinian hypothesis of evolution. Instead of teaching that man started at the bottom of the ladder and is slowly climbing upwards, it declares that man began at the top and fell to the bottom.
The Serpent
We must not think of the serpent as the writhing reptile we know today. This is the effect of the curse. See v.14. The creature whom Satan used may well have been the most beautiful as it was the most subtle of creatures, less than man.
Satan appeared here as “an angel of light”—2 Corinthians 11-14.
He may also appear as “a roaring lion”—1 Peter 5-8.
Satan is the archenemy of God.
1. His chief aim is to get between the soul and God.
2. His sphere of operations is the spiritual sphere.
3. His whole object is to estrange man’s heart from his Maker.
4. His work consists of substituting his own lies for God’s truth.
Now watch him at work.
1. “Yea hath God said?”—“You shall surely die.”
He begins by throwing doubt on God’s revealed Word. He questions its veracity. As it was then, so it is today.
2. Next he substitutes his own word for God’s.
“You shall not surely die.”
3. Finally he casts reflection on God’s goodness and calls in question His perfections.
“For God knows that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
In other words, Satan is suggesting that God is withholding from man something that would be advantageous to him.
He presents to Eve the promise that if she shall believe his word, rather than God’s, she will become the possessor of knowledge and wisdom previously denied her.
v.6—The woman’s reaction.
This temptation had a threefold appeal, corresponding with the tripartite nature of human constitution.
“The woman saw that the tree was good for food”—This appealed to the bodily senses. Lust of the flesh.
“And that it was pleasant to the eyes”—Appealing to the desires and emotions. Lust of the eye.
“A tree to be desired to make one wise”—Appealing to the intelligence, the spirit. The pride of life.
All temptation comes to us in this form.
Consider Christ’s temptation in the wilderness.
|
Stones into bread |
Bodily senses |
Lust of the flesh |
|
Cast Thyself down |
A challenge to His soul |
Lust of the eye |
|
Worship me |
An appeal to His spirit |
Pride of life |
The woman succumbed to the temptor.
She took the fruit and ate it.
She gave it to Adam and he ate it.
This is the greatest tragedy that ever enveloped the human race.
It was a small thing that God asked of Adam and Eve—2:16-17
Their action has affected every human being.
Romans 5:12
“Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned.”
For as in Adam all die—1 Corinthians 15:22.
The universality of sin.
The total depravity of man.
The doctrine of the imputation of sin.
These results from the sin of Adam and Eve are among the most weighty doctrines of the Christian faith.
v.7—The first effect of their sin was that their eyes were opened and they realized their nakedness.
The second thing they did was to sew fig leaves together to make a covering for themselves.
Through sin man obtained something which he did not have before—a conscience.
When the conscience is working properly it gives us the knowledge of both good and evil.
As this new inner voice convicted them of their sin and exposed their nakedness, they endeavored to hide it by making themselves aprons of fig leaves.
Instead of openly seeking God and confessing their sin, they attempted to conceal it from God and themselves.
This has always been the way of unregenerate man.
The last thing he will do is to own and confess his sin.
He knows that there is something wrong with him, so he shelters behind his self-righteousness and good works.
Name some of the things he will hide under.
Fig leaves at the best—grossly inadequate.
v.8—Quote or read. Hiding from God.
They hid themselves from the presence of God.
Psalm 139—Can a person hide from God?
Jeremiah 23:24—“Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? Saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth?”
“Whither shall I go from Your Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from Your Presence? If I ascend up into heaven, You are there. If I make my bed in sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, ad dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your right hand will hold me and lead me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea the darkness does not hide from You, but the night shines as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to You.”
No man or woman can hide from God.
v.9—Where art thou? Where are you hiding?
v.10—I was afraid, I was naked, I hid myself.
For the first time there was an estrangement, etc.
Adam and Eve realized how holy God was and how sinful they had become, consequently they were afraid and fled from His presence.
Hagar said, “Thou God seest me.”
Nathaniel was sitting under the fig tree when Jesus saw him.
Zacchaeus was up in a tree.
Jonah was in the stoman of a fish.
W. Wilson tried to run away from God.
v.11—read.
When Adam is brought face to face with God and his guilt, instead of confessing his sin he made excuses.
v.12—Adam said, “The woman you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.”
v.13—Eve said, “The serpent beguiled me and I did eat.” Excuses were made and an attempt to shift the responsibility to others.
Compare the excuses given by those invited to the marriage feast.
“I have bought a piece of land.”
“I have bought five yoke of oxen.”
“I have married a wife.”
v.14-15—The results of the Fall or the sin of our first-parents.
1. The serpent is cursed.
2. V.16—The woman’s sorrow is multiplied in childbirth.
3. V.17-19—The earth is cursed.
Four things that we can trace as resulting from the Fall:
1. Man discovered that something was wrong with himself.
2. He sought to hide himself and cover his shame.
3. He feared God and sought to hide himself from Him.
4. Instead of confessing his sin, he sought to excuse it.
The results of the Fall:
1. The serpent is cursed—v.14.
2. The woman’s sorrow is multiplied in childbirth—v.15.
3. The ground is cursed—v.17.
4. Man will eat only by the sweat of his brow—v.19.
v.9—“And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, ‘Where art thou?’”
This was not the call of the policeman, but rather the voice of yearning love.
This clearly reveals the grace of God.
God could have destroyed them, or consigned them to “everlasting chains of darkness,” as He did with the angels who sinned.
But instead, in His infinite condescension, and abundant mercy He chose to be the Seeker and came into the garden, crying “Where art thou?”
This action is typical of God’s dealing with mankind.
Paul says, “There is none that seeks after God”—Romans 3:11.
1. It was God who sought out and called Abram while he was an idolater.
2. It was God who sought Jacob at Bethel when he was fleeing from Esau.
3. It was God who sought Moses when he was a fugitive in Midian.
4. It was Christ who sought the disciples when they were fishing so that He could say to them later, “You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.”
It was Christ who in His ineffable love, came to seek and to save that which was lost.
It is the Shepherd who seeks the sheep—Luke 15.
May God help us to appreciate the marvelous condescension of our Savior to save such poor worms of the dust.
“Jesus my Savior to Bethlehem came,” etc.
Where art thou?
Psalm 139—no one can hide from God.
Jeremiah 23:24—“Can any man hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? Do not I fill heaven and earth saith the Lord?”
God’s question to Adam still sounds in the ear of every man.
It is the call of divine justice which cannot overlook sin.
It is the call of divine sorrow, which grieves over the sinner.
It is the call of divine love, which offers redemption from sin.
Do you hear that call today? “Come unto me,” etc.
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem—you will not come, etc.
Read v.15 at this point. David—Festus—Felix—Agrippa.
In this verse we have judgment against Satan pronounced and the ultimate victory of Christ declared.
Though Satan had been successful in bringing about the downfall of man, this verse announces that One shall come who will utterly defeat Satan.
This One is designated the “seed of the woman.”
1. By woman sin had come, by woman would come the Savior.
2. By woman had come the curse, by woman would come the One who would bear and remove the curse.
3. By woman Paradise was lost, by woman would be born the One who would regain it.
“I will put enmity between you and the woman.”
One of the results of the fall is that Satan and the woman became enemies—Israel.
Consider some of the attacks of Satan on the woman:
1. The famines in Genesis were the first efforts of the enemy to destroy the fathers of the chosen race.
2. The edict of Pharaoh to destroy all the male children.
3. The Egyptian attach at the Red Sea.
4. The plot of Haman to exterminate the Jews—Herod.
5. The horrendous attack of Hitler on the Jews.
6. This will pale into insignificance as Satan launches his final attack during the Great Tribulation.
Notice the two seeds referred to “thy seed, her seed.”
Satan’s seed—the woman’s seed.
This would refer to the Antichrist and the Christ.
The antichrist is the man f sin, the son of perdition, the literal seed of Satan. The Trinity of evil. The great imitation.
In contrast to this “the woman’s seed is the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Note that it was “the woman’s seed”—not the man’s.
This was literally fulfilled. Joseph had no part in Christ’s birth.
Four thousand years after this prediction, “A virgin was with child.”
Galatians 4:4—“God sent forth His Son, made of a woman.”
The third item in this marvelous prophecy refers to a double bruising:
1. The woman’s Seed shall bruise the serpent’s head.
2. The serpent would bruise His heel.
The last clause in this prediction has already become history.
The bruising of the heel of the woman’s Seed is a symbolical reference to the sufferings and death of the Savior who was “wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities.”
Not only do we see the work of man at Calvary, we see the wrath of Satan.
The first of these two clauses awaits fulfillment.
“He shall bruise your head.”
The bruising of the serpent’s head will take place when our Lord returns to the earth, in person and in power.
At this time the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, shall be bound for a thousand years in the bottomless pit—Revelation 20:2, 3.
Finally, after his last rampage through the earth, God will take him and cast him into the lake of fire and he will be tormented day and night forever and ever—Revelation 20:10.
The serpent’s head is its vulnerable point—its poison and venom are stored there.
Satan’s head will be bruised—his power will be taken away—fear of him will cease—he will be crushed forever.
v.21—“The Lord God made coats of skin, and clothed them.”
This verse gives us a typical picture of a sinner’s conversion:
1. It was the first Gospel sermon ever preached—it was preached by God Himself, not in words but by symbol and action.
2. It was a setting forth of the way by which a sinful creature could return to a holy God.
3. It was the first declaration of the fundamental fact that “without the shedding of blood there is no remission.”
4. It was an illustration of substitution—the innocent dying in place of the guilty.
Before the Fall God had defined the wages of sin—“In the day you eat thereof you shall surely die.”
God’s law had been broken and His justice cried for the penalty to be enforced.
Praise God for His mercy, the offender is spared—bt justice fell on another.
God clothed Adam and Eve with skins—animals must have been slain—in other words the penalty had been paid.
The application to the type is obvious.
The death of the Lord Jesus Christ was foreshadowed.
He laid down His life for sinners.
It was God who furnished the coats of skin.
They did nothing—God did it all.
This same truth is illustrated in the story of the Prodigal.
When the wanderer had taken his place as a sinner, the grace of the Gather’s heart was displayed.
“But the Father said to his servants, ‘Bring forth the best robe and put it on him.’”
The father did everything for his repentant son.
So it is with every sinner—Ephesians 2:8-9.
v.24—“So He drove out the man.”
This was the immediate climax in the Divine condemnation of the first sin.
Note that He did not drive them out without first providing for their spiritual needs.
What a tragedy! God and man are now separated by sin.
Isaiah said, “Your sins have separated between you and God.”
While not physically dead, yet spiritually dead—separated from God.
Those who die in this condition take part in the “Second Death.”
The way to the tree of life was guarded by cherubim and also by a sword of fire.
This at first glance may seem rather drastic measures to take. On the contrary these measures show God’s deep love and concern for the human race.
See v.22—“Eat, and live forever.”
What a tragedy this would have been.
Instead God in Christ is offering eternal life to all who will believe.