Genesis 3: The fall of mankind

Genesis 3

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.’”

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⁴“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.

⁵“For God knows that when you eat from 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.

⁸Then 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.

⁹But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

¹⁰He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

¹¹And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

¹²The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

¹³Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

¹⁴So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

“Cursed are you above all livestock
    and all 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 make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor 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 fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
    through painful toil you will eat food from it
    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 By 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.

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.

Genesis 3 (NIV)

Genesis 3 tells the story of how sin entered into the world.

After God created the heavens and the earth, He made Adam and Eve and placed them in the beautiful garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were given dominion, authority and stewardship over everything God had made. One thing they were instructed against was eating the fruits of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil lest they die.

Unfortunately however, Eve got tempted and she ate the fruit from the forbidden tree and gave some to her husband Adam. This caused them to become more aware, they suddenly became self-conscious about their appearance, feeling the need to cover up their nudity with leaves and hide from God.

Because of their disobedience, a curse was declared upon Adam and Eve, the serpent, and even the ground. God then made better clothing for Adam and Eve and drove them out of the garden, and He placed cherubim and a flaming torch to guard the tree of life.

Because of sin, death came into the scene.

Some lessons from Genesis 3

The devil always tries to tempt people when they are alone: the devil is very crafty, he knows there is beauty and strength in togetherness and that’s why he always tries to lure individuals away from the group (e.g. showing you a thousand reasons why you should leave your church, family, friend group etc.). Wandering off alone, away from loved ones often leaves you vulnerable and susceptible to the devil’s attacks. Have you ever noticed that when you start to feel depressed you tend to shut people out (instead of letting them in as it is usually recommended), and when you start to isolate yourself that way things just get worse?
Don’t entertain any conversations with the devil: as a child of God, you have no business entertaining the devil and his cohorts, nothing good can come from doing that. Your only response to the devil should be “away from me Satan!”.
Sin happens when you let yourself be seduced by the devil’s offer: after listening to what the devil had to say, Eve got seduced by the forbidden fruit and the thought of becoming like God, and then she sinned by doing what God had cautioned them against. If you dwell on sinful thoughts, you’ll be seduced into doing sinful acts.
When you hear the voice of God, don’t let anyone convince you to go against what God said. Nothing good can come out of disobeying God.
Sin causes separation from God: when Adam and Eve heard God approaching after they had sinned, their reflex was to hide from God instead of running to Him to repent. That’s what guilt does, it causes you to run away and hide in shame. God abhors sin, but guess what, even when you sin He loves you still. That’s why instead of hiding from God when you do something wrong, you should run toward Him and obtain grace and mercy in the name of Jesus.
Pushing the blame on someone else for your actions doesn’t exonerate you: Adam tried to shift the blame for his sin on his wife Eve, and Eve in turn tried to shift the blame to the serpent and the only thing they achieved from this was getting everyone punished. Everyone had to face the consequences of their actions.
God is Love: even after Adam and Eve disobeyed God, He still cared enough to properly clothe them before sending them out of the garden of Eden. Moreso, He made a perfect plan for mankind to be redeemed (Jesus Christ).

As Christians, we are called to be Holy and blameless, to be imitators of Christ and live lives that are pleasant to God. However as long as we live in the flesh, we are prone to sin. Does this mean it’s okay to live in sin and blame it all on the flesh or on the devil? No. What we ought to do instead is put to death the deeds of the flesh by being spiritually minded. That means finding new ways to please God instead of making excuses to live in sin.

Reflection

Are you doing or contemplating something you know is wrong? You need to stop.
Is there anything in your life that makes you feel unworthy of God’s love? How can you address it?
When you do something wrong do you run away from God or towards Him?
Are there people you’ve cut out from your life because of something they did or said? How can you extend forgiveness to them?

Prayer

God thank you for the gift of life. Thank you for your spirit that dwells in me and causes me to talk, think and act like you. I pray this day that you forgive me of all sin, trespass and iniquity, and teach me to do the same when people wrong me. As I go about my day, help me be more aware of your presence. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.