The Fall

The Fall (Genesis 3)

Question of the day:  If you could travel anywhere this next week... drop it all and get on a plane a ship or a spaceship and go anywhere you wanted for one week, where would you go? 

Good morning Class.

This morning we are going to be studying Genesis Chapter 3.  This is a very long chapter so I hope you got a chance to read it.  It is a sober chapter. It is the story of how we got in this mess.  

So last week we saw the beautiful beginning.  The incredible creativity of our God.  We saw the introduction to how our redeemer thinks. We left Adam and Eve in the garden naked and unashamed.  This is awesome.  In fact I want to take just a moment to contemplate that.  

Can you imagine what that must have been like, completely naked and unashamed? 

When I ask I am asking literally and figuratively.  It is interesting to me that the perfection that is spoken of here in Genesis, the perfect state is without shame. 

So what does that say about shame?

Who knew that the very description of perfection, of peace, of communion with God, of Eden is to be without shame.  

Several years ago I read a book that changed my life.  It isn't a religious book, but a book that is filled with truth.  "The gifts of imperfection." by: Brene' Brown.  She talks about shame.  It is a wonderful book and I highly recommend it.  

So Adam and Eve are in the garden without shame.....and then...

Now I really wonder about time.  Was this the next day, was this the next week or the next year?  I wish I knew so I could imagine what this time was like. On second thought maybe that isn't the best idea.  Regardless this weeks lesson is very different from last week. 

This chapter starts with a question.  A question asked by the a crafty animal.  

3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

"Did God really say....?"

I have ever heard that question?  

Have you ever asked that question?

Is there anything wrong with this question?

How many times do we question if God really said something to us? 

  

Then look at the question.  

‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

What do you notice about this question?

The question he asks isn't what God had said,  he is making the suggestion right off the bat that God is restrictive. Ridiculously so.  In asking a false question he is also adding to the doubt in her mind. 

I have to say I have hated Sabbath School when the teacher is always asking trick questions.  You know the kind where they know you will answer one way and they want you to answer that way so that they can make a point and show how you are wrong.  I can't stand that, and if I ever do that here.... PLEASE CALL ME OUT!!!!! 

That is what Satan is doing here.  He knows the answer, he asks in a way that accuses God of being restrictive before he openly accuses God of being restrictive.  It is meant to create doubt and question in Eve's mind.  

Doesn't it seem that the serpent asks a question with an intentionally wrong answer, that will give Eve more reason to question.  To question what she had heard?

Have you experienced this kind of questioning? 

Have you had the question asked outright, or whispered in your ear?

So what does the woman say? 

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

Does she get it right?

What is the first part of her answer?

I love this because Eve is in her perfect state and what does she start with?  She answers the false statement.  She corrects him and also states the glory of what God has done for them.  In her statement there is no mention of "only" or "a few".  

She also continues and tells him that the tree in the middle of the garden..... She give the whole truth the correction to the serpents question.  

The serpent says? 

  

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.”

At the core what is the lie here?

What is the deception?

How does that mirror the lies we hear and are fighting against today?

I want you to think about some of the biggest challenges in your life.... is this lie in the struggle?

Let's continue on and look at what Eve does. 

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. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Is there anything in this passage that surprises you?

In this passage I see a woman who had good intentions.  A woman who made on huge error.  She didn't listen to God and trust that what He had said was truth.  Yet her desire here was not to harm, was not to send us all into this spiraling disaster.  

"She saw"....

She relied on the word from the serpent and her own assessment of the situation. 

Whenever we move away from God's word we get into trouble.  

Even when we have good intentions. 

Do we trust God's word?

So what happens next?

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.

Isn't it interesting that the deceiver uses partial truth?  

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”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.”

What about this strikes you?

What is Adams response?

Do we still use this lie today?

What about when we talk about modesty and lust etc.?

What about Eve? 

What should our response be? 

14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,“Cursed are you above all livestock    and all wild animals!You will crawl on your belly    and you will eat dust
    all the days of your life.15 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.”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.”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.”

These last few verses deserve some time....

20 Adam[c] named his wife Eve,[d] because she would become the mother of all the living.21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed 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.

This week I saw this passage in a whole new light.  I realize here there is the banishing which is what I always saw. But there is also something here that is so beautiful!

What does God do FIRST?

I really believe that this is a huge point we all need to understand.  God clothed them!  He covered them.  He didn't want them sitting in their shame.  There are consequences for their sin. Things that He couldn't do anything about, but he was willing to kill one of his gloriously created beings to cloth them.

Does that ring any bells for you?

What beautiful symbolism. 

The deceiver wants you to sit in your shame, because sitting there is a soul eroding place to be.  

God on the other hand, is willing to sacrifice so that you can be covered and you don't have to sit in your shame! 

Know Love.

Live Love.

Share Love.