Genesis 3

The idilic picture of Genesis 2 is threatened from the outset of Genesis 3.  The writer introduces us to the serpent who is more crafty than any other of the creatures God has made.  He approaches Eve with a question about the prohibition that God gave the couple in chapter 2.  The questions he asks the woman and her answer reveals a great deal about the way that human beings encounter temptation.  Satan asks whether God has said that they cannot eat from any tree of the Garden.  Eve says they are allowed to eat from any tree except the one in the middle of the Garden and they aren’t allowed to touch it either.  Eve overstates the prohibition, as God only told them not to eat from the tree.The serpent impugns God’s motives with words that echo every sin that has followed.  “You will not surely die.”  He directly contradicts God’s words and insists that God is holding out on Eve.  She takes the bait.  Seeing the delightfulness of the fruit and its ability to make a person wise, she eats it.  Adam takes the fruit and eats as well.  In this they demonstrate the heart of sin.  Sin comes from wrongly placed desires and from a failure to believe God’s word.  Adam and Eve had everything they needed, but they doubted the goodness of God and fell for a lie.

The innocence which characterized Genesis 2 fades away as Adam and Eve realize that they are naked.  They hear God walking in the Garden and attempt to hide from Him.  His words, “where are you,” suggest that something is now amiss in the relationship between God and man.  He asks Adam if they ate from the tree and Adam and Eve begin to blame each other and the serpent.  We haven’t stopped blaming other people for our sins since.

God pronounces curses upon the man, the woman, and the serpent.  The serpent will forever crawl on his belly.  Tending the ground is not going to be as easy for Adam as it has been previously.  In fact, Adam will produce food by the sweat of his brow.  Childbirth is not going to be  pleasant for Eve.  She’ll desire to have children, but the process of their birth will be painful.  Finally Adam and Eve’s relationship is going to suffer, as Adam will rule over his wife while she will desire to usurp him.

God replaces the pitiful fig leaves which were covering Adam and Eve with animal skins.  Then they are banished from the Garden.  A flaming sword protects the entrance to the Garden and they are not to enter it again.

Genesis 3 would be wholly horrid and depressing if there were not a glimmer of good news in the torrent of bad news.  As God pronouns the curses upon the serpent, he says there will be enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman.  The serpent will bruise the heel of the woman’s seed, but the woman’s seed will crush his head.  This promise has been called the proto evangelion.  This is the “first Gospel,” as God pledges to make a definitive end to the enemy of Adam and Eve’s souls.  Even in the Bible’s darkest moment, God speaks a word of grace.

“Genesis 1”
“Genesis 2“

For Further Reading:
From Paradise to the Promised Land by T. Desmond Alexander
Handbook on the Pentateuch by Victor Hamilton