Genesis Chapter 3

 ¹ Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

Subtil means sly & cunning. The first thing this serpent devil says is to question God’s commandment. He started a conversation, so he could shift the woman from obedience to God, to questioning God, then changing what she believes, sinning and then to be a tempter to Adam.

² And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of 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 hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

She responds to the serpents question with the truth by relaying what God said. The question the serpent asked was a trap, he knew what Eve would say and was ready with a response.

⁴ And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

Satan challenges what God says and presents his lie. He tells her first that the penalty that God said would occur if she ate the fruit wasn’t going to happen….and then in the next verse he tells her that there is an amazing benefit to eating the fruit that God is keeping her from. He presents his argument with a small amount of truth, but then creates a lie of omission, omitting all the consequences of disobeying God. The truth is, she would be like God in one way, because she would know what good is and what evil is. The problem is satan is selling this event like a good thing for Eve and not like it really is… that Eve would know good from evil because she is aligning herself with evil and because of that, she will lose her direct fellowship with God…….God can’t be in the presence of sin.

⁵ For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

This is how temptation works. We see something that appeals to us that isn’t in line with what God wants for us. Satan starts telling us all the wonderful things we will enjoy as a result of indulging our desires. As Christians, we resist and tell satan that God forbids it… then satan counters with deception. Typically, he gives us good arguments why our situation is the exception or how the verses in the Bible that forbid this sin were put in by man, not God, and we can ignore those verses… or whatever lie he wants to tell getting a Christian to compromise and then fall into sin. As I said before, compromise is the Petri Dish for sin.

James 1:14-15¹⁴ But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.¹⁵ Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

⁶ And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

It seems from this verse that Eve wasn’t even looking at this forbidden tree because of what God told her, but now with satan tempting her, she was looking at it for possible consumption. She noticed how nice the fruit looked, and she thought about the wisdom she would gain from eating it. She ate the fruit and then gave it to her husband to eat. At that point, Adam could have told her NO.

⁷ And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

AFTER Adam, who was given the command by God, ate the fruit, both of their eyes were opened. At this point, Adam and Eve did know good and evil, but it wasn’t how they thought it was going to come about, it was by becoming a sinner themselves.

⁸ And they heard the voice 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 amongst the trees of the garden.

The results of sin, we want to hide from God… from the light that shows our nakedness.

⁹ And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

¹⁰ And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

¹¹ And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

Adam and Even were completely exposed before they sinned, but then it wasn’t a problem because they were pure and had nothing to hide… but now, they are no longer pure and the nakedness is shameful to them. Shame is one of the fruits that come from sin. Because of their sin, they are no longer able to face God. They can not walk in the cool of the evening with God in the garden…. they have broken fellowship because of sin.

¹² And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

In spite of the fact that there were no buses in the garden of Eden, Adam still managed to throw Eve under one for the first sin. He was also blaming God for the sin…. The woman whom THOU gavest to be with me….. so basically he was saying, “It’s not my fault really, it’s that defective woman you gave me.” I think (meaning my opinion is) that Adam said that because of the pain of shamefulness he was experiencing … often when we are feeling so much shame we want to get relief by sharing the blame.

¹³ And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

Eve blamed the serpent for tempting her.

¹⁴ And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

God judges the situation and curses the serpent.

¹⁵ And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

This verse is a prediction of Jesus dying on the cross (bruised heal) and defeating the devil once and for all by crushing the devil’s head at Armageddon in the final judgment. John 3:16FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONL Y BEGOTTEN SON, THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH IN HIM, SHOULD NOT PARISH BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE.
God made a way to restore fellowship with man by sending Jesus to pay the price for our sins, so we could be born again unto life and brought back into fellowship with God. One day we will be able to walk in the cool of the evening, fellowshipping with God and Jesus. I’m impressed in my spirit by how very much God loves and desires to have a relationship with each one of us….. He so much loved us, he sent his Son to die for us to restore what was lost in the garden of Eden. Sometimes I am so disgusted by the sins I’ve committed that I wonder how God could even love me ….it seems impossible to love a wretched person like me and the devil would try to tell me that God is grossed out by me… but the Bible says…. he so loved me (and you) that he gave his only begotten son (HIS SON) to die so our relationship with him could be restored.
WOW.

¹⁶ Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

The wife will now be submitted to the husband, this is the design of God and any deviation of this will cause dysfunction in the marriage. FULL STOP. It means that the marriage will not be working as efficiently as it could be.

¹⁷ And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

The blame shift by Adam didn’t quite work out like he planned, he was judged because he listened to her instead of God and with that he was cursed to hard labor working the soil to produce enough food.

¹⁸ Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

¹⁹ In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

And finally, Adam and Eve are told their bodies are going to die and return to the ground they were taken from. Now they know without a doubt that the devil lied to them.

²⁰ And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

²¹ Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

God covered their nakedness with skins…. the first record of an animal dying to cover a person’s sin.

²² And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

²³ Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

²⁴ So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.