Genesis 3 – The Fall

With all the amazing stuff that happened in the last chapter as we all know it can all fall down just as fast! One decision changed life for everyone.

The Serpent

Now enters the serpent slithering into this perfect Eden trying to stir up some trouble. He slithered on over to the woman…. why God did it have to be the woman to make the bad decision? Does this mean our nature is to be easily fooled? Anyways the serpent asked the woman in a deceitful way, “You can eat from any tree here??” How many people think he knew exactly what the answer was?

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.’

“But God did say…..” Does that sound a little like an afterthought? Pretty sure God specifically made it clear and serious that if they ate from this tree they would die! That seems like something that is more important than you can eat from the trees. This reminds me of us parents telling the children you can do this, but if you don’t do this there will be consequences… What do you think they caught out of that? They can do this! They pick up the first part of the sentence and when they heard what they want they stop listening. The consequences are not as important to them as getting to do what they want.

Curiosity killed the Cat

Or in this case curiosity caused mankind to have hard labor and work the land and not live forever! Back to the serpent; we know the devil knows our weaknesses and this serpent was using curiosity to get what he wanted. What he wanted is for Eve to fail to prove to God that the devil has power.

In Verse 4; the serpent uses the phrase “You will not surely die?” Like God didn’t really mean you would die, He just doesn’t want you to become wise like Him! Like the real reason God said do not eat from this tree was pride, and selfishness….. How many times do we fall for this line in our life about anyone? That is why we are trained in the Word to know the truth and spot these traps.

The Road to Hell is Paved in Good Intentions

Yeah we have all heard that one! The serpent offers the woman much to think about. She looks at the tree’s fruit….looks yummy and she could use that wisdom to help her husband and God! Sound familiar? We always try to help God when God is in control. So, yes she ate the fruit and to make things worse she said hey Adam have some fruit! She didnt say hey Adam I got this from the forbidden tree want to sin with me!?!?!?

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.

Does this mean they were walking around blind with no sight? Of course not; this eye opening was spiritual. Their innocence was lifted; and they now felt their flesh so they covered themselves ashamed.

Here comes Trouble

Isn’t that how it happens? You sin and then oh no….He’s right behind me huh? God is never absent from you. You cannot hide anything from Him. Adam and Eve did not know this I guess because they literally hid. When God called out to them; Adam replied they hid because they are naked. Like being caught with your hand in the cookie jar.

God asked Adam did you eat from the tree? Adam passes blame to Eve..although in this case I do believe the woman is guilty. Can you imagine the look on God’s face…like the look from a disappointed parent; “What have you done!?” Now what do you think she did!? Pass the blame again; the serpent made me do it!! I understand passing the blame, but when was any repentance?

Let the Curse Begin

The serpent was cursed.

“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.”

Yikes! I dont even want to look up what all that means! Not good.

The woman was cursed.

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.”

Nice Eve..Well I could write a long time about how Eve basically messed up our lives, but I wont. I do have a question; because Woman was easily tricked, is that the reason God set man to rule over us?

Adam’s turn!

“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.”

Harsh; “because you listened to your wife” I bet this doesn’t settle with some men too well. Aren’t we supposed to listen to each other in a marriage, but look what Eve caused Adam? There has got to be books on this passage alone!

After all this craziness woman finally gets her name. What had Adam been calling her all this time; woman? She was called Eve because she would become the mother of all the living. God made garments and covered them. See even though they had sinned God still supplied their needs. They also had consequences and one was they would not be allowed to stay in the garden of eden or eat out of the tree to live forever.

God then locked that place up like fort Knox or area 51!

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.

So my final thought on this chapter is to listen to ALL of God’s commandments not just the ones that suit us or we are still sinning and the consequences will come to us. We cannot hide from our Lord God because He is always with us.

Here’s some funny stuff to brighten the mood lol