The Fall of Man (Gen.3; Part 1)

God created man to be his 'royal representative' and the steward of creation. The Lord God had formed the man from the 'dust of the ground' and breathed the 'breath of life' into him. The Lord God placed the man in the 'garden of Eden' to work it and to take care of it. Man was free to eat from any of the trees except for the 'tree of the knowledge of good and evil'. If he ate from that tree he would die. It wasn't good for the man to be alone so the Lord God made a woman from the man's side and brought the woman to the man. They were both naked and they were 'unashamed'.

¹ The serpent, the ‘craftiest’ animal the Lord God made, spoke to the woman mocking the limitation God had placed on ‘His image’. They were free to eat from the trees in the garden (2:9); they were only restricted from eating from the ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil’. In fact, God warned them that if they did they would die! So the serpent mocks the prohibition and then suggests that God was jealously prohibiting them from acquiring the ‘knowledge of good and evil’.  

² The woman tells the serpent they can eat from the trees in the garden ³ but they’re not to eat ‘from the tree in the middle of the garden, or touch it or they’d die.’ So having mocked God’s prohibition, the serpent proceeds to question God’s good intention towards ‘His image’. They were not to eat from the ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil’ but God said nothing about touching it. They were free and had some choices to make among the options available to them. They could eat from any of the other trees and live (2:9). They could even eat from the other tree in the middle of the garden, the ‘tree of life’ and live forever (3:22). Then, of course, they could eat from the ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil’ but they would die!

Was God restricting their freedom and withholding good from them? The serpent claimed they wouldn’t die, but that they would be like God, knowing good and evil. But, everything God created was ‘very good’ and so to seek a source of knowledge independent of God and apart from God’s word was not good; in fact it was ‘evil’! To stand in judgment upon ‘God and His Word’ and align one’s self with the serpent was to rebel against God. So where was Adam and why was he silent? Why isn’t Adam intervening on her behalf? They needed to trust that what God said was good was good and what God said was evil was evil.

⁶ The woman sees the forbidden fruit is pleasing to the eye, good for food and now she sees the fruit as a desirable alternative source of wisdom apart dependence upon 'God and His Word’. Later, revelation would confirm that wisdom begins and ends with the ‘fear of the Lord’ (Proverbs 1:7, 9:10). Unfortunately, the woman aligns herself with the ‘word of the serpent’ so she reaches out and takes some of the fruit and she ate. Where was the silent Adam? Adam was with her and she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he also ate (3:6).

⁷ Now their eyes were opened, but what they gained was the knowledge of their own guilt before God. With their quilt exposed they sew fig leaves together in a futile effort to cover their shame and nakedness. They had been ‘naked’ before but ‘unashamed’ ⁸ but now when they hear God they’re afraid so they hide in the trees. They were supposed to ‘work and take care of’ the trees in God’s garden, but now the trees become a hiding place from God.

⁹ The Lord calls to Adam, “Where are you?” ¹⁰ Adam was afraid because he was naked and so he hid ¹¹ but God came looking for him. Surely the Lord God knows what has happened but He pursues Adam, and so the Lord God is graciously giving Adam opportunity to confess and repent. When the Lord God asks Adam if he had eaten the fruit, ¹² Adam blames it on the woman and on God who put her in the garden.  Adam fails to take personal responsibility; he fails to confess and turn back to God. ¹³ When the Lord God addresses the woman she says, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” She doesn't directly blame God or Adam, but she does blame the deceptive serpent.

¹⁴ God now turns to the serpent who was the agent of Satan (Rev. 12:9). God ‘curses’ the serpent to crawl on its belly and eat dust which symbolizes the ultimate destiny of Satan (Rev. 20:10). The Lord God will put enmity (hatred) between the serpent and the woman and between your offspring (those who will never repent, and demons) and hers (those elect children of Eve, excluding Cain and others. See 1 John 3:12); he (the singular saving seed, Messiah Jesus) will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

¹⁶ The Lord God tells the woman, “I will greatly increase your pain in childbearing; your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” The woman will continue with the privilege of bringing ‘images of God’ into the world but now with severe pain. ¹⁷ The Lord God ‘cursed’ the ground because Adam listened to his wife when she said to eat from the ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil’. God would continue to provide food for Adam but now the ground would produce thorns and thistles. ¹⁹ Adam’s work would include ‘painful toil’ and would be the ‘sweat of his brow’. Now there’s a ‘struggle’ in childbirth, in relationships, and in work that ends in man returning to the dust from which he was made.

²⁰ Adam names his wife Eve because she would be the mother of the living. ²¹ Then the Lord God clothes the couple with animal skins. ²² Here we have a hint at Israel’s ‘sacrificial system’ that would find fulfillment in the ‘crucifixion of Jesus’; the only proper covering for the guilt of our sin. Now the Lord God now doesn’t want them to reach out in their condition and take from the ‘tree of life’ and live forever. Evidently, this would have sealed them in an unhappy state of separation from God. ²³ So the Lord banished Adam and his wife from the Garden of Eden and ²⁴ placed an angel with a flaming sword there to guard the way to the tree of life.