Foundations of Our Faith: The Story of Genesis
10/19/2003 - The Story of Adam and Eve
This was a tragic week if you were a Chicago Cubs fan and most of the nation was this week. Baseball fans all over the country were hoping that the Chicago Cubs would finally get to the World Series for the first time since 1945 and maybe even win the World Series for the first time since 1908, 95 years ago.
It looked good when they went up three games to one over the Florida Marlins in the best of seven National League Championship Series. They lost game five to make it three games to two. But that was okay. They only needed to win one more game and they were coming home and they had their two best pitchers left.
And in game six, at Wrigley Field, they were cruising along 3-0 in the eighth inning behind stellar pitching by their ace Mark Prior. With just five outs to go it looked like the dream of a World Series was about to become a reality. So much so that I turned off the TV! Then tragedy struck.
On a foul ball down the left field line a fan, that we now know to be 26 year-old Steve Bartman, reached out his hand, like any of us would do, and interfered with a ball that most likely would have been caught by left fielder Moises Alou and been the second out of the inning. But it wasn't. And then the floodgates opened wide.
That same batter, who would have been out, walked and sparked an eight run Florida rally that ended up burying the Cubs 8-3 to tie the series at three games a piece. The Marlins came back the next night and to the shock and horror of Cubs fans everywhere won game seven to advance to their second World Series in ten years.
All hope was lost. It was tragic. So tragic that Steve Bartman needed a police escort to leave the stadium and later wrote an open apology to Cubs players and fans everywhere. He made a tragic mistake, but anybody in his shoes would have probably done the same thing. Retired Cub shortstop Don Kessinger came to his defense and said, "I think he did what 40,000 other people in that stadium would have done." His father, Ted Bartman, made no apology. Instead he said, "I taught him well. I taught him to catch foul balls when he comes near them."
Tragedy. One event turned the whole series around adding yet another chapter in the painful history of the Chicago Cubs. Today we're going to look at the greatest tragedy that ever happened on this planet, one event that turned the whole world around. It didn't happen on a baseball field, it happened in a garden and if you have your Bible turn to Genesis 3. This morning we continue our series called Foundations of Our Faith with a look at Genesis 3 and the story of Adam and Eve.
Genesis 3 is one of the most incredible chapters in the Bible. Someone has said, "In many ways this is the most important piece of information ever conveyed to man. Ignore the teaching of this chapter in history and the story of humanity becomes impossible to understand. The most striking thing about this chapter is that we find ourselves in it."
Genesis 3 explains why there is cancer in the world and terrorism and car accidents and hurricanes and murder and rape and abuse. But it also tells us how these problems can and will be overcome.
The scene is the Garden of Eden, somewhere in the Middle East near the Tigris and Euphrates River. It's not there anymore, thoroughly destroyed by the Genesis flood, but that's where it once was. And this is what happened there.
Genesis 3:1-7, 1Now 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'?" 2The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3but 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.'" 4"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 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." 6When 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. 7Then 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.
That is the greatest tragedy in human history. Why? Because the affects of what happened on that day in that garden are still being felt today. You and I feel them every single day and so does every person with a heartbeat. So we want to look at this tragedy today and learn from it, because it clearly shows us what draws us away from God. The Bible calls it sin and there are five steps in the process. The process hasn't changed in millennia. It doesn't need to. The evil one doesn't need any new tricks because the old ones keep working for him.
The first step is doubt. Satan always starts with doubt. He comes to Eve in the form of a serpent and says, Did God really say ...? The word for serpent in Hebrew is nachash which literally means "to shine." The serpent was beautiful and worth listening to. Satan took the form of something attractive and planted a seed of doubt about the goodness of God.
Satan tries to make God look bad. He misquotes God by saying, you must not eat from ANY tree in the garden. He wants us to think God's a miser, a killjoy, someone who is keeping something good from us. He wants to warp the image of an all good, all loving God. He did it then and he does it today.
Make no mistake about it whenever tragedy or difficulty comes into our life we will be tempted by the lie that God is not good. God is not loving. We can't trust him. Because if he was good, if he was loving, then this would not have happened. Don't ever fall for that lie. Satan has been using it against humankind since day one. When those times come we need to hold on with white knuckled faith to the truth that God is love and can be completely trusted even in the darkest times of our lives.
I'm sure some of you are wrestling with doubt right now. Doubt is not a bad thing. Doubt is not sin. And wrestling with it has the potential to greatly strengthen your faith if you emerge from the struggle still clinging to the truth of the goodness of God.
Satan's number one lie is that God is not good. Satan's number one temptation is to get us to be our own gods. The choice wasn't really between good and evil. The choice was to become like God. Look at verse 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."
The issue was, "Am I going to be satisfied to be God's creation and worship him and submit to him and depend on him or am I going to step outside the foul lines and be my own God and go my own way?" That's still the issue to this day. And anytime we try to replace God in our lives and be our own boss we commit the same sin that got Satan thrown out of heaven and Adam and Eve kicked out of the garden. The temptation for all of us is to be our own gods and go our own way.
Eve's response is interesting in verses 2-3. When quoting God's command she changes two things. She leaves out a word and includes some extra words. That may not sound like a big deal, but it is. In Genesis 2:16, God said you are "free" to eat from any tree in the garden. She leaves out the best word, "free," when she says in verse two, we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden.
And then she adds a rule that God hadn't given when she says in verse 3, you must not touch it. She makes God's command harsher than it was. She minimizes the privileges and she maximizes the prohibition. And Satan tempts us to do that all the time, to turn the privilege of a relationship with God into a series of rules and restrictions. So step one begins with doubt.
Step two is deception. After Satan knocks Eve off balance with doubt he moves in with flat out deception. He lies and says in verse 4, You will not surely die. Jesus calls the devil the father of lies. He can't say anything that's true. And of course, the best lies are half-truths. Eve wouldn't die physically the moment she ate the fruit. She wouldn't drop dead, but she would die spiritually. Death is separation. And the moment she ate she would experience separation for God and from Adam. Something would come between their relationship for the very first time. Their perfect community would be broken.
Eventually, of course, they would die physically. They'd also watch their first born son, Cain, kill their second born son, Abel. The very first human child would grow up to become a murderer as a result of their free choice to disobey God.
The half-truth continues in verse 5. Their eyes would be opened and they would know good and evil. That's true. But they wouldn't be like God. Yet it all sounded so good to Eve. She had no idea how devastating the consequences would be.
Right now some of you may be struggling with some serious temptation. You may be feeling like God is holding out on you or cheating you or depriving you of something that life really owes you. Those are the same feelings that Satan was trying to stir up in Eve's heart. We all have them at times. And we need to know that they come from the same tempter, saying the same things thousands of years later. He's the one who wants to make me feel like God is letting me down. So I better be my own god, take things into my own hands and do it my way. Wrong choice.
First doubt, then deception, then desire. Look at verse 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.
The woman saw three things. She saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eye, and desirable to make one wise. The New Testament talks about the lust eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life as three areas of temptation. The desire for pleasure, the desire for possessions and the desire for power are all right here.
Her desire grew into a decision. We all know what its like to be tempted. We all know what its like to get to the point where we've allowed the desire to grow so much that we can't say no anymore. Remember, Adam and Eve were still sinless at this point. They had doubts, they were deceived, they had desires, but they still hadn't crossed the line of sin. It wasn't until they made the decision to eat the fruit that all hell broke loose.
And not only did Eve eat, but also her husband that was with her. Apparently Adam stood there the whole time and didn't say a word. Why? He was right there. He could have stepped in at any moment and stopped it all. But he didn't.
When we read this we might think that if we were in the garden we would have obeyed God. If we were Adam we would have stopped it. We wouldn't have messed up. We wouldn't have reached over and tried to catch that foul ball.
But the truth is, we all would have done the same thing. Adam and Eve were the best and the brightest the human race had to offer. And if they failed, so would we.
That's what Romans 5:12 teaches, Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned. Adam was our representative in the garden. He was the best we had to offer and so his sin became our sin. All of us are born into sin because of Adam and Eve's choice. It's passed down in our DNA. We can't escape it.
Doubt, deception, desire, decision and death. Satan said, You won't die. And they didn't. At least not right away. They didn't drop dead on the spot. Instead, they died spiritually at that moment. They were separated from God for the very first time.
More happened that day then they could ever have realized. The whole human race entered into to state of separation from God that has lasted to this day. Not only would they die, but all their children and their children's children and their children's children's children all the way down to today.
How could they have said no? How can you and I say no to temptation in our lives? The way that I respond to doubt, deception and desire determines whether or not I'll make a decision that leads to death.
The best time to handle temptation is not at the point of desire, but at the point of doubt and deception. Start early. Don't allow doubts about God and his goodness or deceptive thoughts about some quick fix to your pain spin out of control in your head. Talk to somebody. Bring it out into the light. Confess your struggle to a trusted friend. Pray together. That's the way of escape.
But that's not the end of the story. In Genesis 3:7-13 we see what sin leads to. 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. 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."
Immediately Adam and Eve do three things. They sew fig leaves, they hide in the bushes, and they start pointing fingers at each other. That's exactly what we do. We sew fig leaves to cover up our sin. We hide in the bushes because we're afraid of punishment. And we point fingers at each other so we can't be blamed.
Shame. Fear. Blame. That's what happens to all of us when we disobey God. We're ashamed of what we've done. We cover up. We're afraid that we'll get caught and be punished. We hide out. And we're ready to blame anyone but ourselves for what we've done. We put down. It's all right here.
Now watch how God handles it. Immediately his relationship with Adam and Eve changes. Their community is broken. But God pursues them. He comes into the garden and in verse 9 calls out the man, "Where are you?" He asks the same question then that he still asks today of everyone of us, "Where are you? I want to walk with you. I want to talk with you. I want to relate to you. I want to be your friend. Don't run and hide."
When they finally stop playing hide and seek God asks them a second question in verse 11, Who told you that you were naked? And then a third question, Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from? Of course God knew the answer. But he was giving them the chance to confess their sin.
God wants to have a conversation with them, not a hearing, but a healing. God isn't out to shame and embarrass them. He wants to give them every opportunity to own up to what they've done so that he can freely forgive them. And finally they both confess, "I ate it." That's what God wanted to hear! Now he's able to start to his work of grace in their lives.
God knows good and evil. He knows everything. And because he is perfect and all powerful, he can know about evil and not choose to do it. They wanted that knowledge. They thought it would make them like God, but it didn't. Instead, it was way too much for them to handle. We can't handle it either. Which is why the Bible says don't get as close to evil as you can, steer completely clear of it as much and as often as you can.
Romans 16:19 puts it this way, I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.
God then comes in Genesis 3:14-20 and talks to them about the results of their sin. 14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 15And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." 16To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." 17To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19By 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." 20Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
God says three things, first to the serpent, then to the woman, and finally to Adam. To the serpent he says, "You will forever be destined to crawl around through the dust of the earth. You will eat the dust that the man was made of."
To the woman he says, "Life will go on. But now it will be painful. You're going to have pain every time you give birth to a new little sinner. That's not the way I intended it to be, that's not the way I wanted it to be, but because of sin that's the way it will be."
"And you will long for intimacy and community with your husband, but instead you'll get domination and a desire to control. That's not the way I intended it to be, but because of sin that's the way it will be."
The woman desires a mate and instead gets a master. And the man gets a new master too. The man is mastered by the earth from which he came and the woman is mastered by the man from which she came.
To the man God says, "You're going to sweat. Work is going to get tough. There's going to be weeds and thorns in the garden. That's not the way I intended it to be, not the way I wanted it to be, but because of sin that's the way it will be." Work wasn't part of the curse, sweat and toil is. Then physical death will come. From the dust you came and to the dust you will return.
One word sums up the curse for Adam and Eve and that's "pain," pain in childbirth, pain in relationships, pain in work. Sin always results in pain to someone, somehow, somewhere.
And one word sums up God's solution to the curse and that's "Jesus." That's right. Jesus is in this chapter. Look at Genesis 3:15, And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."
Verse 15 is talking about Jesus who will one day come and crush the serpent's head while the serpent strikes his heel. God is already looking ahead to the battle between Satan and Jesus. Satan did strike Jesus on the cross. But Jesus crushed him in the process. Jesus comes to reverse the effects of the curse. They ate from a tree. Jesus dies on a tree. They sin in the garden. Jesus is buried in a garden tomb. They're ashamed of their nakedness. Jesus hangs naked on the cross. The curse brings thorns and sweat and blood. Jesus wears a crown of thorns, sweats drops of blood and becomes the curse for us. He reverses the effects of the curse. He comes to end all forms of domination and calls us to submit to him and to one another.
And Romans 16:20 says that one day we will crush Satan too. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
One word sums up the hope for humankind and that's found in these verses too. It's "faith." Look what Adam does in verse 20, Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
Adam named his with Eve because he believed life would go on and she would become the mother of all the living. That's what the name Eve means. Adam believed God's promise to bring life again through Eve.
Then God does a couple of amazing things in Genesis 3:21-24, 21The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22And 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." 23So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
The one word to describe God's response is "grace." First he makes them garments. Why? Because they were ashamed of their sin. So God comes and covers them up. He doesn't say, "That's your problem. Build a bridge and get over it!" No, he takes care of them by performing the first animal sacrifice to cover their shame. From then on animal sacrifices will become the symbol of the fact that one day Jesus would make the ultimate sacrifice for us as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Then he does a second thing that is a huge show of grace. He drives them out of the garden so that they couldn't eat from the tree of life and live forever in a state of separation from God. He didn't want them living forever with that shame and fear and blame that was going on in their lives.
And God doesn't want us living with that shame and fear and blame either. He doesn't want us to be separated from Him. He wants to walk with us and talk with us. He wants to forgive us and to bring us back into a relationship with himself. And so he sends Jesus, his only Son, to die on the cross in our place to take away our sin. We all know the pain of separation from God to one degree or another, but do you know Jesus? Have you discovered grace? Have you put your faith in him as your Savior, as your way back to God? Turn the tragedy of that day into triumph this day by trusting Christ.