9 The LORD God then called to Adam and asked him: Where are you?
Q: God surely knows where Adam is, so what was the point of this question?
When God has to call out to ask where we are, that implies we are far from Him. We have strayed off the path. We are the ones lost. “Where are you” is a spiritual question.
10 Adam answered, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself.”
Q: What does Adam’s response mean?
Adam is afraid of God’s presence because he is afraid about having to confront the truth. He was hiding because that is what sin does – it keeps out of the light.
11 Then God asked: “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
Q: What three things stand out in this question God asks?
First, God is pointing out the cause of Adam’s nakedness (fear and shame), which is disobedience. In doing so, God has removed the burden of explaining from Adam so all that’s left is for him to say is, “Yes, sir.”
Second, notice who God came inquiring after. Surely, God knows what happened with Eve but it was Adam who he comes after. It was to Adam He gave this command.
Third, it appears that perhaps God may not have judged him yet. Perhaps there’s a chance Adam can appeal for mercy? Yet another option for Adam! All Adam has to do is come clean, admit what happened and ask for forgiveness. What does he do?
12 The man replied, “The woman whom you put here with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it.”
Q: Wait a minute, who is Adam accusing?
This is stunning. Adam immediately throws his wife under the bus and then manages to blames God at the same time! Boy, this was Adam’s first time at sin and he’s a PRO. I thought maybe Adam was being timid at the tree, but this show that this guy has some big…. moxie! I think if there was any hope of salvaging this situation, it’s gone now.
13 The LORD God then asked the woman: “What is this you have done?” The woman answered, “The serpent tricked me, so I ate it.”
Q: Do you think Eve’s answer better or worse than Adam’s?
Slightly better. At least she didn’t say, “The serpent who you created tricked me.” Still, it’s kind of a forced confession and Eve doesn’t show much regret or contrition.
14 Then the LORD God said to the snake: “Because you have done this, cursed are you among all the animals, tame or wild; on your belly you shall crawl, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.
Q: What do we make of this curse on the serpent?
One thing for certain is the serpent has been reduced to lowliness by God, showing all of us that evil is not on par with good, and certainly not with God. This is important because many cultures will develop a duality of gods, one good and one equally evil, doing battle in the heavens with unfortunate humans being collateral damage. Throughout the bible, God seeks to undermine polytheism by dethroning the gods of the ancient world, and the serpent was one of them. Here the serpent is “de-deified.”
All that said Satan still won Round One with humans and God. For this reason, Satan/evil will now follow Adam & Eve into the world.
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed: he shall crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
Q: What does this mean?
Enmity between your and her seed: Here the curse quickly outgrows the literal serpent and refers almost exclusively to the invisible tempter. Evil and temptation will haunt the human race from here on out.
He shall crush your head, and you will strike his heel. How do you kill a snake? By the head. God’s statement is that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the Satan. How does a serpent typically attack man? At the heel. This also can inflict a mortal would on the man; so, it means the Satan will at the very least wound, and maybe kill, the man.
Traditional Jews considered this the first messianic prophecy. Christians call it the “protoevangelicum” – the first Gospel.
Q: Who is the woman whose seed will crush the serpent, and who is the seed?
Mary is the woman whose seed will crush the serpent. Jesus is the seed who crushes Satan.
16 To the woman he said: I will intensify your labor in childbearing; in labor you shall bring forth children. Yet your longingness shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.
Q: Explain Eve’s punishment.
“Intensify toil (labor) in childbearing.” Note it says ‘intensify,’ which means there was labor already. The translation from Hebrew also says “worrisomeness,” which relates to the upbringing of children.
“Longing for your husband” could mean sexual but it is primarily thought to mean dependence for sustenance, which was not needed before the Fall.
“Rule over you” – since Eve played the lead in the act of temptation, she will now not be the lead. This is a change from the original divine partnership of equals, and is rectified only when the seed of the woman destroys the serpent.
17-19 To the man he said: Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, “You shall not eat from it,” cursed is the ground because of you. In great labor shall you eat of its yield all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bear for you, and you shall eat the grass of the field. By the sweat of your face shall you eat bread, until you return to the ground from which you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
Q: Explain Adam’s punishment.
Instead of protecting Eve and shielding her from evil, Adam had passively followed her lead in disobeying God’s command. So the dirt (adam) from which ‘Adam’ came will be where he will return.
Q: What is the meaning of this?
When man was formed from the dirt, he was like the animals. Then God breathed spirit into him such that they would not die, symbolized by the Tree of Life. By following Satan and breaking from God, man becomes mortal.
Q: What is meant by the statement to “eat the grass of the field”
As opposed to the opulent fruit of paradise.
20 The man gave his wife the name “Eve,” because she was the mother of all the living.
Eve comes from Hebrew hawwa, meaning “mother of all the living.” This also tells us the human race isn’t over.
21 The LORD God made for the man and his wife garments of skin, with which he clothed them.
God shows compassion even in punishment. There’s a reason for this. He does it throughout Scripture events.
22-23 Then the LORD God said: See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, what if he also reaches out his hand to take fruit from the tree of life, and eats of it and lives forever? Therefore, the LORD God banished him from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he had been taken.
Q: What was the meaning of the Tree of Life?
If they ate from the Tree of Life while in this fallen state, they would have belonged to Satan’s team forever.
24 He expelled the man, stationing the cherubim and the fiery revolving sword east of the Garden of Eden, to guard the way to the tree of life.
Q: What was the meaning of the revolving sword of fire blocking the way back to Eden?
Certain things had to happen for man to regain Paradise. The passion of Christ was the fire that had to be quenched and and the cross became the Tree of Life for all humans.
This concludes the Fall of Man, Chapter 3 of Genesis.
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