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DISCOVER GENESIS
An exploratory Bible course for disciples of Christ
PART 2 -- The Torah of ADAM (Genesis 2:4 to 5:32)
GENESIS 3
Debating and reasoning about the LORD God’s word leads to death. -- (DATE: The year following Adam’s creation)
OUTLINE of Genesis 3
06. How the wife of Adam was seduced by the serpent in the Garden of Eden. (3:1-5)
07. Adam’s wife and he himself ate of the forbidden tree. (3:6+7)
08. How Adam and his wife tried to excuse themselves in a conversation with the LORD God. (3:8-13)
09. The LORD God condemned the serpent. (3:14+15)
10. The LORD God condemned the wife. (3:16)
11. The LORD God condemned Adam. (3:17-19)
12. Adam called his wife Eve and the LORD God made garments for them from fur. (3:20+21)
13. The LORD God expelled Adam from the Garden of Eden. (3:22-24)
DISCOVER Genesis 3: Among all the living things the LORD God had made, the serpent was the craftiest, and it sought to mislead the humans. So it came to the woman when she was alone and asked, whether the LORD God had told them that they were not allowed to eat from all trees in the garden. Hearing this, the woman answered that the LORD God had allowed them to eat from the trees of the garden, but also that they were forbidden to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, lest they die from eating its forbidden fruit. The serpent however tempted her, saying that she would surely not die, but that the LORD God didn’t want them to eat from that tree, because once they did, their eyes would be opened and they would be like God himself, knowing good and evil. -- Hearing these tempting words, and seeing how beautiful the tree and delicious its fruit looked, she plucked one and ate of it, hoping to become wise. Shortly after, she also gave off this fruit to her husband, who ate of this fruit as well. Then both their eyes were opened and they realized that they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together to make loincloths for themselves. -- When they then heard the LORD God stride through the garden, both became very afraid and hid themselves among the trees. When the LORD God noticed that they hadn’t come to him, he called out to them, wanting to know where they were. Seeing no way around it, Adam answered that they had hidden themselves when they heard him, for they were naked and afraid. Hearing this, the LORD God demanded to know who had told him that he was naked, and immediately after that wanted to know if he had tasted fruit from the tree he had forbidden him. With Adam’s fear rising, he blamed the wife the LORD God had given him, saying that she had been the one to give him off the tree’s fruit. Turning to her, the LORD God wanted to know why she had done such a thing. Very much afraid, the woman cried that it was the serpent’s fault. It was the one who had deceived her into eating this forbidden fruit. -- Unable to go against his just nature, the LORD God had to judge these who had done wrong, and sinned against his holiness. So he cursed the serpent to evermore crawl on its belly and to eat the dust of the earth. Because it had deceived the woman, the LORD God put enmity between them and between their offspring, and that ultimately a Son of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head, just when it would bruise his heel. -- For her disobedience, the LORD God multiplied the woman’s pain in childbirth and made her desire her husband, even though the LORD God set him to rule over her. -- Because Adam had listened to his wife without remembering the words of God, the LORD God cursed the ground, so that Adam and his descendants would from now on have to work hard to reap its fruit from among thorns and thistles. And because Adam had been made from the dust of the ground, when he died, he would return to it. -- Understanding these consequences, Adam henceforth called his wife Eve, for she would become the mother of all mankind. With his judgment over these three pronounced, the LORD God went and made garments from animal skins for Eve and her husband, whom he called Adam, and clothed them in them. -- However, since the two of them had become like God, his Son and his Spirit, and now knew good and evil, he was not willing to let them also eat of the fruit of the Tree of Life. Therefore God sent them away from Eden. And when they were driven out from the garden, the LORD God placed a Cherub (an angel) at the entrance to the garden and a flaming sword that would turn every way to guard the tree of life.
PRAYER: Our just and holy God, we worship you and submit in reverence to your holy judgments. You are spiritually pure and the rebellion of Eve and Adam against your will in eating from the forbidden tree left no alternative than to cast these spiritually impure humans out from your holy presence. Help us to understand that sinning against your will is as serious as death. Thank you that you sent your Son Jesus Christ, born of a descendant of Eve, to conquer the serpent, by dying on the cross for our sins. We praise you that by His resurrection from the dead your Son has become our Tree of Life, so that we can live in holy fellowship with you forever if we eat from it by believing in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Amen
QUESTION 3: How did the serpent succeed in seducing Adam’s wife to act against the holy will of the LORD God?
QUOTES: There are no direct quotes from Genesis 3 in the New Testament. --- However there are 21 very important allusions in the New Testament to verses from this dramatic chapter: Genesis 3:1-7 is ALLUDED to in Matthew 4:3 (Jesus was tempted by the Devil in the desert just like Eve was tempted by the serpent in the Garden of Eden, only that Jesus did not sin in this temptation) -- Genesis 3:1 is ALLUDED to in Matthew 10:16 (Jesus told his disciples to ‘be wise as serpents and innocent as doves’, which alludes to the cunning wisdom of the serpent, which tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden.) and in Revelation 12:9 (In Genesis the serpent was allowed to be where God was, in the Garden of Eden. But later we read about him: ‘And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world - he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.’ This expulsion from heaven down to earth is the result of Christ defeating Satan by dying on the cross for our sins and by rising from the dead for our justification.) -- Genesis 3:3 is ALLUDED to in Revelation 2:7 (‘To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God’, which alludes to the serpent mentioning the tree in the midst of the garden when he tempted Eve.) -- Genesis 3:5 is ALLUDED to in Hebrews 5:14 (‘Solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.’ This alludes to the serpent saying ‘that you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’) -- Genesis 3:6 is ALLUDED to in 1 Timothy 2:14 (The account of the woman being deceived by the serpent was alluded to by Paul writing to Timothy: ‘Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor’) -- Genesis 3:13 is ALLUDED to in Romans 7:11 (Alluding to Eve saying that the serpent deceived her, Paul wrote: ‘For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.’) and in 2 Corinthians 11:3 (Alluding to Eve saying that she was deceived by the serpent Paul wrote: ‘I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ’) and in 1 Timothy 2:14 (same as Genesis 3:6 above) -- Genesis 3:14+15 is ALLUDED to in Revelation 12:9 (God’s judgment on the serpent for deceiving Eve became a reality when Satan was cast out of heaven and ‘was thrown down to the earth’, for Christ figuratively bruised Satan’s head by rising from the dead and Christ was killed, because Satan figuratively bruised the heel of Christ on the cross.) -- Genesis 3:15 is ALLUDED to in Luke 10:19 (Christ empowered his disciples by telling them: ‘Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you’. This takes up the judgment of God on the serpent in the Garden of Eden) and in Revelation 12:17 (God’s judgment on the serpent involved an eternal enmity between the serpent’s offspring and the offspring of the woman. This judgment climaxed in the following event: ‘The dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.’ This is a revelation about the war of Satan against Christians today and in the future.) -- Genesis 3:16 is ALLUDED to in 1 Corinthians 11:3 (God judged the woman’s sin by promising her that her husband will rule over her. Paul alluded to this when he wrote: ‘the head of a wife is her husband.’) and in 1 Corinthians 14:34 (Paul wrote: ‘The women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says’. In this Paul alluded to God’s judgment on the woman’s sin by making her husband to rule over her.) and in 1 Timothy 2:12 (Similarly Paul instructed Timothy: ‘I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.’ This again is an allusion to the same judgment of God over the sin of the woman.) -- Genesis 3:17+18 is ALLUDED to in Hebrews 6:8 (If the land ‘bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.’ This is an allusion to God’s judgment on Adam that the earth will bring forth thorns and thistles making farming tedious for him.) -- Genesis 3:17-19 is ALLUDED to in Romans 8:20 (Because of Adam’s sin, the earth was cursed. Paul indirectly alluded to this when he revealed the ultimate reversal of this curse: ‘the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.’) and in 1 Corinthians 15:21 (God’s judgment on Adam was that he would die and return to the dust, from which he was made. But this is not the end, for Paul wrote: ‘As by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.’ Adam brought death, Christ brought the resurrection from the dead!) -- Genesis 3:19 is ALLUDED to in Romans 5:12 (God’s judgment on Adam’s sin was that he would have to die. Paul alluded to this, when he wrote: ‘sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.’ Sin is not a tiny mistake, but a matter of life and death. We die because Adam committed one single sin! Only Christ can save us, the offspring of Adam, from this divine condemnation.) and in Hebrews 9:27-28 (Another allusion to God judging Adam to die: ‘And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.’ Here again we do not only have the grim outcome of sin, which is death, but the victory over sin, death and the devil in Christ, who secured our salvation by dying for our sin on the cross and by rising from the dead for our justification.) -- Genesis 3:22+24 are ALLUDED to in Revelation 2:7 (God expelled Adam from the Garden of Eden. This is indirectly alluded to by the promise, that this expulsion will be reversed for those who endure persecution for the sake of Christ: ‘To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God’).