Reflections on Genesis 3

Genesis 03 (Contemporary English Version)
1. The snake was sneakier than any of the other wild animals that the LORD God had made. One day it came to the woman and asked, "Did God tell you not to eat fruit from any tree in the garden?"
   
2. The woman answered, "God said we could eat fruit from any tree in the garden,
   
3. except the one in the middle. He told us not to eat fruit from that tree or even to touch it. If we do, we will die."
   
4. "No, you won't!" the snake replied.
   
5. "God understands what will happen on the day you eat fruit from that tree. You will see what you have done, and you will know the difference between right and wrong, just as God does."
   
6. The woman stared at the fruit. It looked beautiful and tasty. She wanted the wisdom that it would give her, and she ate some of the fruit. Her husband was there with her, so she gave some to him, and he ate it too.
   
7. Right away they saw what they had done, and they realized they were naked. Then they sewed fig leaves together to make something to cover themselves.
   
8. Late in the afternoon a breeze began to blow, and the man and woman heard the LORD God walking in the garden. They were frightened and hid behind some trees.
   
9. The LORD called out to the man and asked, "Where are you?"
   
10. The man answered, "I was naked, and when I heard you walking through the garden, I was frightened and hid!"
    
11. "How did you know you were naked?" God asked. "Did you eat any fruit from that tree in the middle of the garden?"
    
12. "It was the woman you put here with me," the man said. "She gave me some of the fruit, and I ate it."
    
13. The LORD God then asked the woman, "What have you done?" "The snake tricked me," she answered. "And I ate some of that fruit."
    
14. So the LORD God said to the snake: "Because of what you have done, you will be the only animal to suffer this curse-- For as long as you live, you will crawl on your stomach and eat dirt.
    
15. You and this woman will hate each other, your descendants and hers will always be enemies. One of hers will strike you on the head, and you will strike him on the heel."
    
16. Then the LORD said to the woman, "You will suffer terribly when you give birth. But you will still desire your husband, and he will rule over you."
    
17. The LORD said to the man, "You listened to your wife and ate fruit from that tree. And so, the ground will be under a curse because of what you did. As long as you live, you will have to struggle to grow enough food.
    
18. Your food will be plants, but the ground will produce thorns and thistles.
    
19. You will have to sweat to earn a living, you were made out of soil, and you will once again turn into soil."
    
20. The man Adam named his wife Eve because she would become the mother of all who live.
    
21. Then the LORD God made clothes out of animal skins for the man and his wife.
    
22. The LORD said, "These people now know the difference between right and wrong, just as we do. But they must not be allowed to eat fruit from the tree that lets them live forever."
    
23. So the LORD God sent them out of the Garden of Eden, where they would have to work the ground from which the man had been made.
    
24. Then God put winged creatures at the entrance to the garden and a flaming, flashing sword to guard the way to the life-giving tree.
    
    

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    Chapter three of Genesis has an almost perpetual supply of truths to be learned from it. The dynamics played out in this encounter with Satan determine man's plight for all-time. This first sin by mankind seems innocent enough, but has huge repercussions. One lesson we can learn from it is that sin, unlike what many think, is simply disobeying God. Many deny they are sinners because they have done nothing blatant like murder, stealing, etc. But no matter how innocent our actions may seem, our actions in fulfilling our own desire in rebellion of God's instructions is sin. And, as with Adam and Eve, it often involves something that does not have the appearance of evil.
    
    Temptation, as we see from this account, mingles a seed of truth with a lie.  The serpent asked the woman, "Did God really say, 'You can't eat from any tree in the garden'?" The simple answer is 'no'. This is not what God said. But the serpent used the lie to question God's character. The woman's response was not accurate either. She said, "'You must not eat it or touch it." She corrected the serpent about not eating from any tree to say that it was only the one tree from which they could not eat. But she made it a more stringent prohibition. God said nothing about not touching the tree. This is another characteristic of temptation. It exaggerates the prohibition. This is similar to the child who complains to their parent that "you never let me do anything!" Such a statement usually follows one prohibition by the parent, but the child exaggerates it to claim they are not allowed to do anything.
    
    An environment of distrust and grievance toward God had been established. The door was opened for the woman to take a closer look at the subject of the prohibition. The fruit to which she had previously given little attention suddenly became desireable. So it is when we question God, attempting, in the process, to make ourselves a god. This is what we do when we assume to know more than God and to question His integrity. And, it inevitably leads to the outcome that Eve and then Adam experienced. They first encountered a break in their relationship with God, and then an alteration of their lives. Life as God intends it is inevitably altered when our actions are not what He intends them to be.
    
    God, the creator, who has made us and all that exists, offers us an abundant life. But that life is only available or possible if we live life as He prescribes. But we invariably want to live our lives as we wish while expecting God still to give us the life abundant. This cannot be.