1 “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
Notice that the serpent knew what God had told them
He twisted it into a PARTIAL truth, a PERVERSION of the truth
He tried to refocus them away from all God had provided for them and onto the ONLY thing God had withheld from them.
HIS GOAL: To try to make them doubt God’s goodness
3 and you must not touch it, or you will die
Notice that Eve added to God’s commandment not to eat of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God never said that she would die if she touched it. She had already put her own spin on God’s command.
4 4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Here, the serpent lies to make them doubt God’s truthfulness and love for them. He basically says God lied to them and doesn’t want what is best for them.
Again, he twists and perverts the truth, because their eyes will be open, and they will know that there are things such as good and evil, but the wage of their sin will be death, because they will be removed from the tree of life so they don’t live forever.
In addition, he lies, saying that they will be like God by knowing good and evil. What he doesn’t tell them is that knowing what is good and evil does not empower you to actually do what is good and refrain from doing what is evil. Only God knows what is good and always does what is good. (It is like putting a power tool in the hands of a toddler – they may gain the knowledge that it is a power saw, but they do not have the ability to apply that knowledge and actually use the saw.)
How do we know the serpent was the Devil?
Revelation 20:2 (NKJV)
2 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;
2 Corinthians 11:3 (NKJV)
3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.
1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father[d] is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
Good for food = lust of the flesh
Pleasing to the eye = lust of the eyes
Desirable for gaining wisdom = pride of life
She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
The Hebrew words used there mean that she turned around to her husband, who was standing right there the whole time.
Everyone talks about how Eve is the one who ate the fruit, but Adam was supposed to be her leader, and he allowed Eve to listen to the serpent and eat of it without saying a word, and then ate of the fruit himself. He wanted to eat the fruit and be like God just as much as she did.
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
There were unexpected consequences that came along with getting what they wanted.
They expected to see good and evil in the world around them.
They didn’t expect to find good and evil in themselves, and feel differently about themselves and each other.
Also notice that, for the first time, they would have to provide for themselves – they have to sew clothes for themselves.
Their reaction to seeing their imperfect selves, and feeling shame, was to try to cover it up.
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.
Another way they dealt with their knowledge of evil inside of themselves was to try and hide from God, as if He didn’t create them naked, and hadn’t seen them naked before.
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
God asked them a direct question about what happened and how. Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent.
The last way they dealt with their knowledge of evil inside of themselves was to BLAME each other, instead of taking personal responsibility for their actions.
This shows us that man’s natural reaction to being confronted with his own sin is
to feel bad and ashamed about himself.
To try and cover up the bad so no one else can see it
To hide from God and others, so they will not see the flaws he sees
To be afraid that God and others will find out what he had done wrong
And finally, to blame everyone else except himself for the choices he made, and the consequences to those actions.
And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring[a] and hers;
he will crush[b] your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
Romans 16:20 (NKJV)
20 And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
Luke 10:19 (NKJV)
19 Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
16 To the woman he said,
“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”
Here, the result of choosing self over God is pain in this life
Also, there will no longer be an equal partnership between man and woman, because each will be trying to rule or control the other. It would now be a power struggle instead of a harmonious relationship.
James 4 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
Whereas before, the Lord made the earth to produce food for Adam, so all he had to do was cultivate/nurture it, now Adam would have to produce the food himself through hard work and sweat. The earth would not always give him the food he worked for, either, and it would be painful work.
21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
This is important, because here is the first animal sacrifice. Up until now, man only ate fruit and vegetables, and there was no reason for animals to die. But because sin entered into the world, there had to be a blood sacrifice to pay for that sin. Hebrews 9:22 says that without the shedding of blood, there is no payment for sin, no forgiveness.
God Himself offered a sacrifice to pay for Adam and Eve’s sin. He also provided clothing from the skin of the sacrificed animal, showing that, even though they had been disobedient and sinned, and chosen to go their own way, He still loved them and wanted to take care of them.
22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side[e] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Here you can see that what was keeping them eternally alive was the tree of life. So they were removed from the presence of the tree, which means they would eventually die. So what God said DID happen. All of the consequences of their sin may not have been immediate, but some happened later. The wages of sin is death, and you reap what you sow, more than you sow, later than you sow.
Also notice again how the Trinity is mentioned again, as God says that the man has now become like US.
But God had a plan to release man from the curse of sin through the birth, life and death of His Son, Jesus.
1 Corinthians 15:21 (NKJV)
21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.
1 Corinthians 15:47 (NKJV)
47 The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven.
Revelation 22:3 (NKJV)
3 And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.
Romans 8:21–22 (NKJV)
21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
Revelation 21:4 (NKJV)
4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”