This study will be on Genesis 3.1-24
Remember in the last study The Man and Woman In Eden when God told Adam not to eat or even touch the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil? He was told that if he did he would die. But he didn’t. At least not in the flesh. Worst, he died spiritually. He became separated from God. What an awful feeling that must’ve been! To be close to God and then banished. 🙁
Back to the serpent, oh that clever serpent. The Bible describes him as shrewd, crafty, clever, subtle. He is also called the dragon, Satan, and the beast. Revelations 12.9 And God described him as being the shrewdest of all animals. Genesis 3.1 Notice that God created the serpent but the serpent’s attitude was his own.
The serpent was made by God. Did you know that? The serpent was made by God! Well of course it was! God made everything! It all started in Genesis chapter 1.
I don’t know for sure but I think Adam and Eve could somehow communicate with the animals. Maybe it’s just me and maybe it’s just with the serpent but one day, I don’t know if it was out of the blue or if they had had conversations beforehand but scripture says that the serpent “talks” to Eve. They actually have a short conversation! Now that conversation might have been out loud or it could’ve been through the mind as in our thoughts but in this context, it sounds to me like they actually spoke to each other.
In verse 5, we read how the serpent twisted God’s words. He made it sound like God was tricking them and told Eve that she won’t die, her eyes will be opened, she will be like God, knowing good and evil. At this point, all Eve knew was innocence. She only knew all good things. But looking at it, that fruit, gave her a desire. A desire to gain wisdom. What for? She had God – He is true wisdom!
After taking the fruit her eyes were really opened! She knew that she had done something wrong. The problem was that she played with fire. Instead of running from it, she stuck around and observed it therefore getting enticed by it, questioning it, and finally finding some sort of justification to just go ahead and eat it. After speaking to the serpent, there was a desire for her to know good and evil. James 1.14-15 states, “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” NIV
Well, she gave some to Adam too, and he ate that fruit. By the way, some people say it was an apple but no one really knows. Scripture says it was a fruit, not an apple. Immediately after they took a bite they knew that something happened, there was a change inside of them and they knew it wasn’t good. It was the first time they had ever felt shame. They were and always lived naked but suddenly that became a feeling of shame. They wanted to hide from it. Just like we do when we do something wrong, we feel ashamed of it and want to hide. Well, to hide themselves, they sewed fig leaves together to wear as clothing.
Reading back, Eve was not created yet when God said not to touch or eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He only told Adam. Genesis 2.16 This means that he was in charge of relaying the message to Eve. And guess who else knew? The serpent. He also knew of Eve’s innocence. That may be why she was tricked so easily. But Adam knew. He knew. Like he just gave in. He didn’t think about it. He just took the fruit and ate. And he gave in without question or taking charge of the situation. By the way, at this point Eve was still not named!
So here comes God, they heard him walking in the garden and what did they do? They hid. When God asked Adam, “Where are you?” do you think that he didn’t know where he was or where they were? Umm, of course he did, he’s God! And he already knew what happened. But he wanted him to show himself or for them to show themselves, to face him, to fess up. But even when they did, they each didn’t take responsibility for their actions. The man blamed the woman, the woman blamed the serpent. But they all faced the consequences. God didn’t even question the serpent only the man and woman. And for each of them came separation from him and the consequences.
The serpent would now crawl on his belly for the rest of his life and eat dust. In verse 15 it says, “And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” That was his plan. Jesus is in that plan. There would be war between the followers of God and the followers of satan. And Jesus would WIN! I don’t know about you but I want to be on Team Jesus!
To the woman God said that she would suffer greatly with severe pain when giving birth. See what you did, Eve? I wonder if she had not sinned would women still have pain at child birth? Man, I did that 6 times! Imagine women who have 8, 9, 10, 16 kids! Ouch! Thank God for menopause! Anyway, she would want to control her husband but he would rule over her. Is this why some of us are nags? Clingy? Yikes! Been there. Done that. Not proud.
To the man God said that the ground was cursed because he listened to the woman. Now he would struggle and sweat, working for the rest of his life. Thank God for retirement! Now in Eden, there’s thorns and thistles. I guess before the fall there weren’t any. By the way, in verse 19 scripture really does say, “For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.” I used to think it was something someone made up.
And now finally, the man Adam, named his wife. She was called Eve because she would be the mother of all the living.
So remember back in The Account of Creation when it was said that Adam and Eve could eat all the fruits and vegetation? That it was available for them as food? That’s what they had to eat. They hadn’t tried meat at this point. Well, now God has to kill the first animal so that he could make clothing to cover themselves with. It was the first blood that was shed. I don’t know about you but that makes me sad. What more the blood of Jesus! The point though is that even though they sinned God still loved them and cared for them and he showed it by doing this. He didn’t just throw them out!
In verse 22, here the Trinity speaks. They see that Adam and Eve have become like them, knowing good and evil because of eating the fruit. Wow imagine that – gaining knowledge from eating a fruit! The Trinity did not want them to eat from the tree of life or they would live forever. Well, we do live forever actually just that when we die, we no longer have a body but our soul lives forever. There is an afterlife. But because of this, God banished Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and placed mighty cherubim to the east. I’m assuming this was the entrance. He placed flaming swords that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. This tree disappears. No one has ever found it yet it is mentioned in scripture in Revelations 2.7, 22.2, 22.14. It is like a prize for Christians who make it to heaven. Isn’t it something that the tree is on earth but no one has found it? A thought just came to me. No one has found it because of the flood. I will blog about that very soon.
So you know the prize I mentioned above? It’s available to everyone. To YOU who is reading this. And by the way, thank you for reading this far and for even coming to my site.
I want to encourage you to read about it here:
https://lifeandliftedhands.com/the-plan-of-salvation/
There is a right way to get to heaven and most people miss it. The Bible mentions that in Matthew 7.13 Please give yourself a chance to learn how. I challenge you to give it all you got, to give it your best shot and see if it doesn’t change your life. Please don’t get fooled by false prophets. They are out there and they are abundant. They will say anything and everything that you want to hear. They will seem like they are saying all the right things but they only want to say what your itching ears want to hear like, “Just ask Jesus into your heart and you’ll go to heaven”, “When you die all everyone has to do is pray for you and you’ll get to heaven.” 2 Timothy 4.3 My friend this is FALSE! The devil wants you to believe these lies! Please test it. Ask questions. Test the answers that you get from them whether it adds up and makes sense with the Bible. Test and test again. Test EVERYTHING including what I write here. Don’t trust anyone with your salvation. Always remember that your soul may be at stake. So test, test, test!
Oh and btw, if you have time check out the things I have for sale in my Ecwid store! Click on “store” on the menu above.
THANKS FOR VISITING!