After all of the joy and beauty of the first two chapters of Genesis, Adam and Eve’s sin and disobedience quickly change the direction of the book. But praise God that sin and Satan do not have the final word!
This chapter sets the stage for God’s redeeming grace, the theme of the entire Bible. The serpent was Satan. He was an angel of God who rebelled against God because he wanted to be like God and to rule like Him. So God cast him out of heaven. Then Satan ruled over the earth and became our enemy.
The serpent tempted Adam and Eve with the evil that was in his own heart. But instead of fleeing, Eve moved toward the temptation. She moved from desiring sin to dwelling on sin to doing sin. This momentary pleasure brought an eternal judgment – death to all humanity. What a contrast to Jesus’ temptation in the desert! Jesus used God’s Word to resist the temptations of the devil.
The devil tempts us to sin, but we can choose to resist. How do I respond to temptation? Do I turn to God for help? Do I seek out His Word? Beware of the five steps Eve took from God to Satan:
- She listened.
- She looked.
- She took.
- She ate.
- She gave.
After their sin, Adam and Eve are ashamed. They hid from God. God looks for Adam and calls out to him. Then He confronts the pair about their sin. God was giving Adam and Eve a chance to confess and repent. Instead they play the blame game! Adam blames Eve (and God because He gave Eve to him!). And Eve blames the serpent.
God curses the serpent. Satan and Eve and all their descendents will be enemies. God promises that Eve’s seed will crush the serpent’s head. This is our first glimpse at the prophecy of the Messiah.
And there are other consequences. Childbirth will be painful. Adam will rule over Eve. Adam will suffer hard labor. And the ultimate consequence is death – spiritual death, physical death and eternal death.
Satan planned to turn the world against God. But his plan will fail because he underestimated God’s grace and mercy on mankind. God has graciously provided a way for sinful man to be reconciled to Him. When Adam and Eve sinned, God covered their sin with a sacrifice. He took the life of another to pay their penalty of sin. Jesus did the same thing for us. Because He died for our sins on the cross, we can be reconciled and have a restored relationship with God.
I’ll leave you with this beautiful picture from the lecture:
In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve struggled with obedience related to a tree. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus struggled with obedience related to a tree – the cross. Adam and Eve were in paradise, yet they disobeyed God. Jesus was in a dark, evil place, yet He obeyed God. He climbed the tree of death for us. The tree of death became a tree of life for us.