Our Beginnings

Genesis 3

¹Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” ² And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, ³ but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” ⁴ But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. ⁵ For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ⁶ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. ⁷ Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. ⁸ And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰ And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” ¹¹ He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” ¹² The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” ¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”  ¹⁴ The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. ¹⁵I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” ¹⁶ To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” ¹⁷ And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; ¹⁸thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. ¹⁹By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” ²⁰ The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. ²¹ And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. ²² Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” ²³therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. ²⁴ He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

The following is a somewhat lengthy Bible Study on Genesis 3, but this chapter is so important, it deserves serious attention. As such, it is divided into two days of study. It does us well to read this passage of Scripture with regularity. We become used to the ways of Satan. He's so good at what he does that we tend to become complacent and immune to the fact that we are constantly being tempted by his cunning deceit.

Notice that Satan only speaks twice. His first weapon is doubt. "Did God really say . . .?"  We all know about doubt. It stalks every single Christian like a shadow. "Will God actually answer my prayer?" "Does God actually love me?" "Can the stories from the Bible actually be true?" Those are just a few examples of the kinds of doubts that we all deal with daily. You can probably supply many of your own. If Satan can get us to doubt God's power and God's love, he wins.
(On a side note, notice that Eve tells Satan "You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die." If you go back to chapter two, you will see that God did not say that. He told them not to eat the fruit of that tree. He said nothing about touching it. For some reason, Eve feels the need to embellish. Always a bad idea.)
Satan's second comment goes straight for the kill. "You will surely not die . . . You will be like God, knowing good from evil." Satan flat out lies. God told them that they would die, and that is exactly what happened. It took several hundred years for them to die, but they're not here today, so . . . Yup, they died! It was a brutal consequence. But once the doubt had been cast, it was easy to take the next step and believe that God might be a liar as well. Satan was right about one thing - they did indeed learn about good and evil. It was a terrible thing to learn. 
We need to read these verses often because they remind us of the ways of Satan. He hasn't changed his tricks since the fall of Adam and Eve. His best weapons are still doubt and lies. Our best defense – an intimate working relationship with the Living God and a solid knowledge of His Word. These always hold you in good stead when the evil one tries to whisper in your ear.

Adam and Eve have done the one and only thing God told them not to do. The guilt of their disobedience is immediate. We know this by their response to the situation. They sew clothes for themselves out of fig leaves and hide out from God. Thus, the fig leaf has come to be forever known as that which covers something shameful.

The important thing to remember here is that Adam and Eve actually attempted to hide from God. They now know that they are naked in every way - not just physically. They know that they have made a poor choice and are most likely terrified and rightly so. When I was raising my two daughters, I had a living example of what happens when we know there has been a transgression. Bethany, my younger daughter's first sentence was, "Hannah did it." (Hannah was her older sister.) Even as toddlers we know that we don't want to be "in trouble." When God inquires of them about where they are, their first response is to lay blame on anyone but themselves. Adam is so bold as to blame Eve and even God. "The woman YOU gave me . . ." When God turns to Eve, she blames the serpent. I have often wondered what would have happened if Adam had immediately confessed the sin and begged God's forgiveness. But neither of them does that. The finger pointing began and we still do it today.
Sin is so incredibly destructive that we usually involve ourselves in even more sin in an attempt to dig ourselves out of the situation. But that is simply not possible. We can never make up for our sin by ourselves. We are in constant need of a Savior. As we try to justify our wicked behaviors by ourselves we only make things worse.