Todays Reading Genesis 3:1-24 1 Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. 3 But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’” 4 “No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard You in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” 11 Then He asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” 12 Then the man replied, “The woman You gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.” 13 So the Lord God asked the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “It was the serpent. He deceived me, and I ate.” 14 Then the Lord God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than any livestock and more than any wild animal. You will move on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life. 15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel. 16 He said to the woman: I will intensify your labor pains; you will bear children in anguish. Your desire will be for your husband, yet he will rule over you. 17 And He said to Adam, “Because you listened to your wife’s voice and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’: The ground is cursed because of you. You will eat from it by means of painful labor 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 You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground, since you were taken from it. For you are dust, and you will return to dust.” 20 Adam named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living. 21 The Lord God made clothing out of skins for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them. 22 The Lord God said, “Since man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Holman CSB®, and HCSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers. The Beginnings of Sin and Redemption by Roger Severino I think it is helpful to see the Bible as a storyline with four primary acts: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration (or Consummation). In the first three chapters of Genesis we see two of these described explicitly, with the third introduced in an obscure way. In Genesis 1-2, we see that God has created the world and all humanity. We learn that human beings are a special object of His creation because they are the only creatures said to be made in His image (Genesis 1:26-27). Thus, we learn that the Creator of the universe relates to human beings in a unique way. In His graciousness, God provides for all they need, making only one prohibition. This takes us to Act 2: The Fall. Most of us know the story. There is a serpent in the Garden of Eden who tempts the man and woman through deception. Revelation 12:9 and 20:2 make clear that this is the one called the devil and Satan, God’s supreme adversary. Satan (literally, “the accuser”) accuses God of being stricter than He is (misquoting God in Genesis 3:1) and less loving than He is (questioning God’s motive in Genesis 3:4). As we know, the man and woman succumb to temptation and then face the drastic consequences of their disobedience, including guilt, shame, and fear—things that still plague us today. We see how sin destroys relationships and how the “shame and blame” games begin. When we sin, we are either quick to deflect responsibility, or else we wallow in our guilt and begin to despair. BUT … did you happen to see a glimpse of light in the midst of the doom and gloom? God seeks out the guilty party and covers their shame. In the midst of God’s judgment He makes a prediction, a promise of hope. Is Genesis 3:15 simply about the hostility between people and snakes, or is something more going on here? Since we know that the snake represents Satan, some have seen in this passage the very first indication of the gospel. The New Testament confirms this hint of redemption. “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you” (Romans 16:20).[1] “Now since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these, so that through His death He might destroy the one holding the power of death—that is, the Devil” (Hebrews 2:14).[2] Yes, Satan bruised Jesus’ heel on the cross; but through His death and resurrection, Jesus crushed the Serpent’s head. Some have called Genesis 3:15 the proto-euangelion, that is, the “first gospel.” Jesus Christ is the son of Adam (Luke 3:38) and the son of Abraham (Matthew 1:1). Through the seed of Abraham, all the nations will be blessed. The Bible makes it clear that the ultimate seed of Adam and Eve, the ultimate seed of Abraham, is Jesus Christ the Savior of all (see Galatians 3). _______________________________________________________ [1] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2009), Rom 16:20. [2] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2009), Heb 2:14. Praxis Are you ever tempted to think that God is harsher than He really is, or that He doesn’t have your best in mind (see the serpent’s temptations in Genesis 3:1-4)? What (or who) do you think is the source of these thoughts? How can you combat them? How have you seen the “blame and shame” game played out in your own life? Are you prone to deflect responsibility and deny when you have done something wrong? What is the appropriate response when we fail or sin? We are like our forefathers in that we sin and rebel against God and go our own way (in thought and deed). What hope do you have of forgiveness and salvation? How would you explain how Jesus’ “heel” was struck by Satan, but that the seed of woman (Christ) crushed the serpent’s head?
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 06:02:01 +0000
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