Site Search Engine

DISOBEDIENCE

Chapter 3

This is considered by many as the most important chapter in the entire Bible: it involves the serpent (the devil - Revelation 12:9), temptation, sin, separation between humanity and God, false religion, propitiation, punishment, and the Saviour.

Without it we would not find any explanation for the huge difference between Chapter 2, where we see everything perfect, man and woman in innocence and in absolute communion with God, and chapters 4 onwards, where we find jealousy, hatred, murder, lies, malice , corruption, rebellion and punishment. Chapter 3 shows us where this change came from.

Man was created a responsible being, and must glorify, obey, serve, and submit to divine rule. Temptation in itself is not an evil: it is a test whereby he who goes through it proves his integrity by resisting temptation, or reveals weakness of character by succumbing to it. The righteous is he who does not sin when tempted (as the Lord Jesus).

Temptation was brought by the serpent (the devil - Revelation 12:9) to the first woman.

The serpent was an animal that could be used by Satan, and that's what he did. The origin of Satan is described in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28; he can turn into an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), and is the deceiver of the whole world (Revelation 12:9).

Woman, not man, was chosen to be tried. The conditions for use of the garden were imposed upon man before she was created, and were probably made known by him to the woman for she knew them (vs.2 and 3). Surely the devil realized that she could be more easily deceived (I Timothy 2:14).

To try her, he used the following strategy:

• Cast doubt on the Word of God, his love, his kindness, his holiness.

• He raised her curiosity.

• He knew that, if he took away her trust in God, woman would be induced to disobedience.

In face of the snake´s  arguments, woman was led to disobedience by the following factors (I John 2:16):

• The lust of the flesh: the tree was good for food.

• The lust of the eyes: pleasing to the eye.

• The pride of life: desirable to make one wise (to be like God, knowing good and evil).

Having eaten of the fruit, she gave some to her husband. He was not deceived, but preferred to be in solidarity with his wife, and deliberately made the decision to disobey the commandment of God.

The result was immediate: their eyes were opened - this refers to their conscience, an acute sense of guilt. Earlier, in their state of innocence, they had virtually no conscience for all that they did was allowed, except to eat the fruit of that tree: hence there was no evil to distinguish from good, with this important caveat.

Conscience is an internal mechanism that accuses us when we do wrong. They immediately realized they were naked and tried to cover themselves with fig leaves not to be seen. It was a weak and insufficient camouflage: a type of the religions created by men to conceal their sin, that can cover it a little, but not completely (in Mark 11, after cursing the fig tree the Lord Jesus went on to purify the temple).

Communion with God was broken, and they sought to escape from Him through the trees of the garden. But God was looking for them, and found them, and the snake was nearby. The dialogue that follows shows the heavy consciences of Adam and Eve, and how they sought to pass the blame on to each other: the man to the woman, the woman to the serpent, and none of them pleaded guilty or asked for forgiveness.

The punishment of God came in the reverse order of the charges:

• The snake, which began the temptation, is cursed and condemned to crawl on the floor and be humiliated (to eat the dust of the earth - Micah 7:17, Isaiah 65:25); it was made an enemy of woman, with its offspring: this is the long struggle between the sons of God (through Christ, the seed of the woman), and the children of the devil (John 8:44, I John 3:10). The last sentence he shall bruise your head and you will bruise his heel is clearly a prophecy (the first) about the Lord Jesus Christ: note that the seed is of the woman is not of man, indicating His birth from a virgin.

• The woman was punished by suffering when giving birth to children and loss of freedom when marrying, having to submit to her husband.

• The man for his disobedience brought the curse of God on earth, making it hard work for him to earn a living. Also his body would go back to dust, as it was before being formed (this applies also to women, because she was formed from man). Physical death is the separation of spirit and soul from the body (Ecclesiastes 12:7). Spiritual death is the separation or rupture of communion between man and God, and it happened at the time of his disobedience. God added the punishment of physical death. The man and the woman, and all their descendants, were sentenced to both (I Corinthians 15:22, Ephesians 2:1, Hebrews 9:27). But who receives Jesus Christ as his Saviour, passes from spiritual death to eternal life, or eternal communion with God (John 3:16). The name Eve means life or life-giving.

Man and woman covered themselves with leaves and hid from God because of their spiritual death. But God gave them tunics of skin and clothed them - it was necessary to sacrifice animals for this: a type of remission of sin through the blood of Christ.

Here we have four lessons:

1. We need to have appropriate cover to draw near to God. Good works do not give us this cover - we are still sinners.

2. Religiosity is like the fig leaves, and is also insufficient.

3. Only God can cover us.

4. The cover he gives us is the blood of Christ. By His death he replaced us before God´s justice.  

God drove man and woman from the garden. This meant their separation from the presence of God, represented by the wonders of that place.

But they did not go to a place of torment: they only had to return to the soil to work from where man was taken. They lost the privileges of innocence, but should not despair. The path to the tree of life was closed, but the hope remained of the promised Seed, by which a new and living Way to the presence of God was opened for us.

 

R David Jones

 

 

 

1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat 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 has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.' "
4 Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die.
5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

 

 

 

 

 

7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
8 And they heard the sound 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 among the trees of the garden.
9 Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?"
10 So he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself."
11 And He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?"
12 Then the man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate."
13 And the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
14 So the LORD God said to the serpent: "Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel."
16 To the woman He said: "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you."
17 Then to Adam He said, "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat of it': "Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.
18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field.
19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return."
20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
21 Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.
22 Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"—
23 therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.
24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

Genesis chapter 3