Genesis 3 – The Fall

 

Wednesday 02/15/17 

Message – The Fall

Series: Thru the Bible – Genesis 3

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The Fall…Genesis 3

The Serpent (satan)

• Was cunning
• The fall of man was predicated upon satan’s own fall.
• Addressed Eve NOT Adam (side stepping God ordained authority)
  • Probably saw a comrade in her (being less in power and authority)
• Baited her with a question he knew misrepresented the truth
• Blatantly lied – “You will not surely die. FOR God knows something YOU don’t!”
  • Incited her to question God’s intentions and heart
  • Appealed to her pride by suggestion of wisdom – “eyes opened, knowing”
• Was prophesied against and cursed.
  • The first part of the curse is directed at the animal that Satan used to bring the temptation. God commanded the serpent to slither on the ground instead of walking on legs like any other animal.
  • The second part at satan and his future at the coming of the Redeemer who would save mankind from their sin.
    • Eating dust served a dual-meaning shared between this creature and satan himself.
      • Literally for the snake and figuratively for satan in that “eating dust” is an aphorism for total defeat in scripture – Isa. 65:25, Micah 7:17. God was telling satan he was condemned to always reach for victory, yet never fail to fall short in defeat.
        • For example…Satan was, in his own thinking, majestic and triumphant over Jesus on the cross, but he failed. In attacking Jesus, Satan made his own doom certain.
    • Enmity between you and the woman.
      • Again a dual-meaning. This is overwhelmingly true of women in general concerning the natural creature, but it was to be true of satan’s ongoing march against the birth of human children and of the Messiah in particular.
    • Heel and head – prophecy concerning the striking of satan at Christ, Who for a moment was within his reach as a human and so was stuck at and bruised but even then only His heel was made vulnerable and it was in fact His vulnerable nature as man that was the heel which crushed satan’s head at the crucifixion and resurrection!

Eve

• Added to God’s words (may or may not be important)
• Considers new information without checking with God or Adam.
  • Never considered that the one accusing God of deception and lies may himself not be trustworthy.
• May or may not have needed to walk to the tree
• Allowed her heart to be deceived entirely – 2Cor. 11:3; 1 Tim. 2:14

NOTE: The base verb apatáō is used twice in the TR (KJV) in 1Ti_2:14, but in the UBS it is used only of Adam having been deceived. When it comes to Eve, the woman, it is exapatētheísa, the aor. pass. part. fem. of exapatáō (G1818) to deceive completely.

• Turned to consider the fruit of the tree
  • Was allured by the appearance – good for food & pleasant to look at
  • Was allured by pride – desireable to make her wise
• Assumed authority not delegated to her
• Her fall was personal and did not infect the entire race…only her.
• She led Adam into sin with her
• Differed blame to the serpent.
• Curse:
  • God does NOT address Eve’s sin at all in the punishment.
  • Greatly multiply pain and toil in bearing children.
  • She would long for her husband (implied is a forever unfulfilled longing – a pursuit never quite caught)
  • desire – rule: The idea is to contrast the woman’s desire and the husband’s rule over her. This speaks of an inherent challenge in embracing the husband’s role as leader of the home and family.
    • This same word for desire is used in Gen_4:7 of the desire of sin to master over Cain. Because of the curse, Eve would have to fight a desire to master her husband, a desire that works against God’s ordained order for the home.
  • He will rule over you…
    • The principle of Adam’s headship as a husband was established before the fall (see Gen_2:18; Gen_2:22). Now the curse on Eve makes it much harder for her to submit and flow with God’s institution of male headship in the home.
    • “As a result of the fall, man no longer rules easily; he must fight from his headship. Sin has corrupted both the willing submission of the wife and the loving headship of the husband. The woman’s desire is to control her husband (to usurp his divinely appointed headship), and he must master her, if he can. So the rule of love founded in paradise is replaced by struggle, tyranny and domination.” (Susan T. Foh, cited in Boice)

Adam

• May or may not have been with her while talking with satan.
• Was WITH her when she took of the fruit and he did NOTHING.
• He surrendered his authority and followed her lead.
• Adam’s fall was the fall of all mankind. In Adam every man, woman and child ever to be born entered into the Fall and died IN Adam.
• He was NOT deceived but knew his actions were treason. – Rom. 5:12, 1Cor. 15:22
• He sinned – not considering the treason but the woman.
• He blamed God Who gave him the woman.
• Curse:
  • Notice Adam’s sin was “heeding or obeying the voice of his wife”.
    • There is a sense in which idolatry of Eve was an aspect of Adam’s disobedience against God.
  • God draws special attention to the fact that He had commanded Adam concerning the tree.
  • The ground was cursed on his account.
    • Before the curse, the earth only yielded things good for man and for his sustenance, NOW it yields worthless and harmful things more readily and those will in fact take over if man does not work to hold them at bay (a lesson in itself).
  • In labor and pain will you eat of it your whole life.
  • Your increase will be a mixed harvest of good food and worthless, harmful weeds and thorns (fitting to his sin – Heb. 6)
  • You will provide for your sustenance by the sweat of your face until you return to the dust which is cursed for the sake of your treason and sin.
• The curse of death shows that the result of Adam’s sin extended to the entire human race. Because of Adam, sin entered the world (Rom. 5:12), death came to all mankind (Rom. 5:15, 1Cor. 15:22), death reigned over man and creation (Rom. 5:17), all men were condemned (Rom. 5:18), and all men were made sinners (Rom. 5:19).
• The principle of Gal. 3:13 is established as we consider that Jesus bore each aspect of the curse upon Adam and Eve in its totality: Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.
• Adam names his wife.
  • Up to Gen. 3:20, the woman was called a female (Gen. 1:27), a helper comparable (Gen. 2:18), a woman (Gen. 2:22-23), and a wife (Gen. 2:24-25; Gen. 3:8).
  • The idea that the woman takes her name from the husband, and the idea that both genders are encompassed in terms like mankind, humanity.Our use of these terms is not merely cultural, it is Biblical.
  • Also included in this reality of the man naming the woman is that a woman gains more of her identity from her husband than the husband ever does from his wife. Though women have strived against this – the more they fight it the more they affirm it’s reality as undeniable.
    • There has never been a man’s lib movement where man, needed to declare independence from the identity they derived from their wife.
  • Adam named her Eve, even though she was not a mother at all at the time. She was not even pregnant yet. Adam named her in faith, trusting God would bring forth a deliverer from the woman, because God said He would defeat Satan through the Seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15).
  • Eve “living or making alive”. Presumably after her function of birthing children.

God

• God knew about the Fall of man before they were ever created.
• God created the instrument of the fall Himself by creating the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
• God placed it in the very CENTER of the garden.
• Called for Adam.
• Confronted Adam’s fear and gave him the opportunity to own his sin.
• Confronted Eve’s guilt and gave her the opportunity to own her sin.
• Confronted the serpent (satan) and prophesied over him and cursed the snake.
• Pronounced a curse fitting Eve’s sin of usurping authority and leading mankind into death.
• Pronounced a curse fitting Adam’s sin of surrendering authority, eating purely from the self-focused joy of human comradery.
• Killed two animals and clothed their nakedness – beginning a line of blood to cover man’s sin and shame.
• Conferred with the Word and the Spirit
  • They have become as one of us in knowing – good and evil
  • Concerned over their plight if they took of the tree of life in this condition.
  • Drove them out of the garden.
• Placed Cherubims with a flaming sword to protect the way to the tree of life.

Adam & Eve

• The shared effect of the fall caused them to understand “self awareness – apart from God” and as a result became ashamed of their nakedness.
• Toiled with their hands and their effort to cover their shame
• They hid from God for fear of Him and shame of their nakedness.
• Shared results of sin…
  • Obscured inner vision was the mental cost of the fall
  • Desire to cover or remove an un-removable awareness of Deep and penetrating shame was the price extracted from the will at the fall.
  • Awful unending sorrow was the emotional burden of the fall.
• They were driven out of the Garden.

 

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