And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
Eve does not seem to know the name of this tree; she only calls it the tree in the midst of the garden, instead of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17).
Reasons for Eve's fall
Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, (Genesis 3:1)
1.Wrong fellowship
Do not be deceived: "Evil company corrupts good habits." (1 Corinthians 15:33)
Misery loves company. You will always find people who are hurting fellowship with hurting people.
How evil company corrupts good habits?
“Has God indeed said (Genesis 3:1)
The fact is that ‘God said’. This evil company begins to sow doubts concerning what God clearly said
2.Adding to God’s Word
‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’” (Genesis 3:3)
Do not add to His words, Lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar. (Proverbs 30:6)
3.Acting on the lies of the devil or other than the Word
Eve believed the serpent took action listening to its lies
Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
The lies of the devil are like the shifting sands.
"But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: (Matthew 7:26)
We do what we feel is right. living Basically living by our feelings, emotions and traditions
For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing the difference between good and evil and blessing and calamity. (Genesis 3:5)
Did eating of the forbidden fruit open their eyes. That again was a lie of the devil, infact it closed their eyes to the spiritual realm.
This reveals a hidden truth that the eating of the fruit of the Spirit will open our spiritual eyes. We will begin to see in the spirit realm.
The fruit of the Spirit is the Holy Spirit working internally in us. When he fixes us up internally we will be capable of seeing clearly in the Spirit realm.
The Three Temptations
“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:16).
The three main areas of temptation
- The lust of the flesh
- The lust of the eyes
- The pride of life
1.Three Areas Eve was Tempted
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food [lust of the flesh], and that it was pleasant to the eyes [lust of the eyes], and a tree to be desired to make one wise [the pride of life], she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat” (Genesis 3:6).
The lust of the flesh - Eve saw that the tree was good for food
The lust of the eyes - Eve saw that the tree was pleasant to the eyes
The pride of life - a tree that would make one wise.
2.Jesus’ Temptations by satan
3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ” (Matthew 4:3-4)
Jesus was tempted with the lust of the flesh but He overcame the devil with the word of God. And so can we.
Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ” (Matthew 4:5-6)
Jesus was tempted in the area of pride but Jesus again overcame the devil by speaking the right word of God.
The greatest deception that can is the deception that comes through the Word itself.
What do I mean by this?
The enemy will use the word, quote the word itself to deceive God’s people. This temptation of Jesus was through the Word. The devil quoted the word to Jesus in an attempt to deceive him into doing something which was not in line with the word of God. (see Matthew 4:5-6)
Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” (Matthew 4:8-9)
Here, Jesus was tempted in the area of the lust of the eyes but He overcame using the word of God.
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” (Genesis 3:8-10)
In spite of Adam and Eve’s disobedience, the true God continued to reach out to man. God called out to Adam and Eve, “Where are you?” And Adam replied, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
He told a half-truth: the truth of the matter was that he was hiding, mainly because he had disobeyed the Lord and was ashamed.
God called out to Adam saying, “Where are you?” not because God did not know but God wanted Adam to know where he had landed.
The Blame Game
Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:12-13)
When things go wrong, the natural tendency is to look for someone to blame. In the Garden of Eden, Adam blamed Eve and Eve in turn blamed the snake for their failure. Instead of owning up to their mistake, they passed on the blame.
The same thing happens today. The next time you experience a failure, think about why you failed instead of who was at fault. Try to look at it objectively so that you can do better next time.
People who blame others for their failures never overcome them. They simply move from problem to problem. They also find people to blame for their problem. Don’t be like them. To reach your potential, you must continually improve yourself, and you can’t do that if you don’t take responsibility for your actions and learn from your mistakes.
Messianic Prophecy
And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.” (Genesis 3:15)
This is the first Messianic Prophecy (Prophecy related to our Lord Jesus Christ)
First, this passage predicts a singular person, who would defeat the work of the Serpent. “His heel” is masculine singular in Hebrew. While this prophecy is vague, it must be prophetic of someone, because there were only two people living in the Garden at this time.
Second, this passage describes the descendant of a woman –not a man. This language is strange, because the Jews were a patriarchal society –not matriarchal. Therefore, it is odd that the text would mention the seed of a woman –not a man.
The Lord declared that He was going to send the seed of the woman to bring deliverance. It was a promise fulfilled in the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross over satan. This is a victory in which every believer shares.
Curses and judgments
Because of their sin, God pronounced five separate curses and judgments.
1. God cursed the serpent.
"So the Lord God said to the serpent: 'Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life'" (Genesis 3:14).
There is a subtle hint here that serpents in those days did not slither on their bellies
2. God pronounced judgment on Eve
"I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children" (Gen. 3:16).
Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you:
This speaks of an inherent challenge in embracing the husband’s role as leader of the home and family.
“As a result of the fall, man no longer rules easily; he must fight from his headship. Sin has corrupted both the willing submission of the wife and the loving headship of the husband. The woman’s desire is to control her husband (to usurp his divinely appointed headship), and he must master her, if he can. So the rule of love founded in paradise is replaced by struggle, tyranny and domination.”
3. The Lord judged Adam to a life of toil
"Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat of it': Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life" (Genesis 3:17).
4. God cursed the ground (Genesis 3:17).
"Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you"
5. Then the Lord sentenced Adam to eventual death.
"In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return" (Genesis. 3:19).
All Human Labour
...In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground,
Therefore, human work itself also appears to be under a curse. In fact every human activity - where God is divorced from the picture - only brings pain and sorrow in the long run.
Does that mean all human work is ultimately futile?
In a sense, without God being involved, yes! But - quite obviously - that does not mean that one should avoid all work and labour. But there is a very real sense in which all human endeavour upon this planet is ultimately futile - only our faithful relationship with God will ever produce lasting fruit.
And to Adam He said, Because you have listened and given heed to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of it, the ground is under a curse because of you; in sorrow and toil shall you eat of the fruits of it all the days of your life. (Genesis 3:17 Amplified)
Listening to any other voice other than the Voice of God causes you to operate under a curse. Listening to the voice of God will cause you to operate under a blessing
Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them. (Genesis 3:21)
Now when all of these events took place, God did something marvelous. He initiated the first blood sacrifice.
We need to remember that Adam and Eve had run from the presence of God and had lost His glory. They were naked and ashamed, attempting to cover themselves with leaves. That is when God selected some animals, perhaps lambs, and killed them.
He covered the man and woman with the skins (Genesis 3:21). I believe that the animals had just been slain and that the skins were still moist with blood when God used them to cover Adam and Eve.
Please note: God's first sacrifice covered Adam and Eve's sin with animals' blood. His final sacrifice covered you and me with the blood of His only begotten Son. When the Bible says, "it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul" (Leviticus 17:11), the word atonement means "to cover."
That is why I believe the shedding of blood had to be a part of the covering. When Adam and Eve sinned, they lost their close communion with God. But through the blood covenant, God was declaring that their sins were atoned for.
So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:24)
It was the cherubim that protected the Tree of Life from Adam and Eve after the Creator
banished them from the Garden of Eden because of their sin. Scripture tells us much more about these heavenly hosts. Centuries later, after Prophet Ezekiel had a vision of God, he began to see these particular angels.
He wrote, “Then I looked, and, behold, in the firmament that was above the head of the cherubims there appeared over them as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne” (Ezekiel 10:1).
Verse 21 of this same chapter gives this description: “Everyone had four faces apiece, and every one four wings; and the likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings.”
Seraphim have six wings while cherubim have only four, but the most unusual aspect is that each has four faces.
Chapters
- Chapter 1
- Chapter 2
- Chapter 3
- Chapter 4
- Chapter 5
- Chapter 6
- Chapter 7
- Chapter 8
- Chapter 9
- Chapter 10
- Chapter 11
- Chapter 12
- Chapter 13
- Chapter 14
- Chapter 15
- Chapter 16
- Chapter 17
- Chapter 18
- Chapter 19
- Chapter 20
- Chapter 21
- Chapter 22
- Chapter 23
- Chapter 24
- Chapter 25
- Chapter 26
- Chapter 27
- Chapter 28
- Chapter 29
- Chapter 30
- Chapter 31
- Chapter 32
- Chapter 33
- Chapter 34
- Chapter 35
- Chapter 36
- Chapter 37
- Chapter 38
- Chapter 39
- Chapter 40
- Chapter 41
- Chapter 42
- Chapter 43
- Chapter 44
- Chapter 45
- Chapter 46
- Chapter 47
- Chapter 48
- Chapter 49
- Chapter 50