Before you read this post, I encourage you to read Genesis 3.
This is the second installment to our Old Testament Story series. You can read the other installments here.
Genesis 3 is yet another chapter many of us feel like we could almost recite from memory – at least the first couple of verses. But this is a crucial chapter to understanding the Old Testament because it is the heart of the answer for so many questions that plague us. Let’s look at a couple.
How does temptation work?
Even before the first sin, we have temptation. Satan comes to Eve as a snake. How is that possible? We are given no details. But the Bible is unashamed to present a world where supernatural events happen. We see in Job that Satan was able to control the wind (Job 1:19) and strike a man with disease (Job 2:7). In the garden Satan somehow disguises himself as a snake and he comes to the woman with his favorite question.
“Did God actually say…” (Gen 3:1)
The heart of most temptation is grounded in this. An idea comes to us, perhaps our conscience feels uneasy about it, but somewhere a doubt arises. Did God actually say this is wrong? Did God actually say anything?
“and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” (Gen 3:6)
The other great avenue of temptation is following in the sins of others. Adam sees his wife sin and he doesn’t correct her. He doesn’t cry out, “this is wrong!” He joins her. All of us are quite familiar with how this has snared us in our own experience.
What is wrong with the world?
God created the world good (Gen 1:4), good (Gen 1:10), good (Gen 1:12), good (Gen 1:18), good (Gen 1:21), good (Gen 1:25), and very good (Gen 1:31). There was no hint of anything wrong. So then how did the world end up in such a state as we see around us? Why is this a world of death and decay, a world of crop failures, marriage failures, diplomatic failures, and personal failures?
God comes to the garden and finds Adam and Eve hiding (Gen 3:8) and blame-shifting (Gen 3:13). This is the universal reaction to our sin ever since. God announces that sin will have consequences.
- The serpent will be crushed but he will continue to be the great adversary of humanity. (Gen 3:15)
- The woman will find great pain in motherhood (both in childbirth and raising her kids) and sin will make marriage difficult (Gen 3:16)
- The man must now work, and he will find it to be hard and disappointing (Gen 3:18)
- They will die (Gen 3:19)
- The ground itself is cursed (Gen 3:17). Instead of paradise, the world is a land of earthquakes and drought, hurricanes and disease.
When we look at the world and wonder why it is so broken, we need to examine ourselves and our sin. In a very real sense, the world is a mess because of me.
Why do we hope?
We are a race that seems to be hardwired to hope. It seems to be baked into our DNA, but isn’t that strange? When we look at our frail bodies, our broken relationships, our messy world, it seems we have little reason to hope. Nothing ever gets better. It seems like every year things just get a little worse, a little harder. But we can’t stop hoping.
First, we hope because God forgives. After pronouncing judgment on their sin, God kills an animal (perhaps the very first death in His creation) and makes clothes for them (Gen 3:21). In their sin they realized they were naked (Gen 3:10) and in forgiveness God covers them.
Second, we hope because God promises. In His judgment on the serpent, God promised that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head (Gen 3:17). That crushing did not happen instantly, but would work itself out in time. It would be costly – the serpent would bite his heel, and being bitten by an asp is a death sentence. But somehow victory over the serpent would come even through that bite. Somehow Satan would be defeated even though it would cost the life of the woman’s seed. We hope because from the very beginning God promised forgiveness through the cross.
There is no way for us to get back to Eden on our own. That way is blocked (Gen 3:24). Today we live east of Eden. But the road we could not walk on our own has been opened through the cross (Heb 10:20). And we look forward to that great and final day when the serpent shall finally be crushed (Rom 16:20) and thrown into the lake of fire forever (Rev 20:10).
