Genesis: God of Creation: Session 5 - Paradise Lost

(These are my notes from Session 5, per Jen Wilkin)

Look at Genesis Chapter 3 in light of what we have seen in Chapters 1 and 2.

We've seen some big questions get answered:

• We can tell where everything came from
• We know that man was created to bring glory to God and announce the glory of God
• We've answered some "what-if" questions of who we are and why we're here

This session, we will answer another fundamental question: why is there sin and suffering.  What Chapter 3 is going to answer for us is how did everything get to be so broken.  

For the believer, there is another layer to this that is even more personal: why does our God allow sin and suffering?  There are important things to keep in mind as we consder this question:

• We do not mean to say, knowing that God has allowed evil, that evil is good.  In the sum total of things, it must be for God's good and our good or evil would not exist.  Let's place this in an eternal perspective so we can say "I don't understand how this can be something for God's glory, but"....
• We can trust God.  If God is who He says He is that His creation is good, we need to trust that it is good because He is good.  When we speak of a Sovreign God who allows evil and suffering, we have to always hold it in the tension of knowing that He is infinitely good.  This is not a question we can answer satisfactoritly at this time.  But because we trust God and affirm that He is good, one day we will look back on all of this and say "I see it now."

Take A Look at Genesis 3

Verse 1: God is referred to as Elohim, a personal God and a transcendent God. The serpent is meant to be understood as the devil (John 8:44) - "deceiving from the beginning".  

Let's pull apart what's going on in these verses.  Notice how the serpent makes his approach in verse 1:  "actually say" - in our venacular we would say "seriously? Are you kidding me right now?"

"Any tree": is this what God said?

What's the serpent doing here?  He's casting doubt on the truthfulness of God.  He's appealing to something he hopes is in the woman.

Verse 2: She brings it back around to what God really said "we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden."

Verse 3: Look what Eve does.  She said they should not touch the tree that is in the center of the garden.  Did God say this?  No.  What does this remind you of?  Eve is easing herself towards the forbidden thing with her words.  She overstates.  She adds to the words of God.  What next?  She said "don't touch it lest you die."  Did God say this?  No.  He said "lest you surely die."  

So first, she adds to what God has said and then diminishes what God has said.

Verse 4: "You shall not surely die."  The serpent knew.  He echoed the actual words of God.  What do we see here so far?

• Adding to the truth (Eve)
• Diminishing the truth (Eve)
• Flatly contradicting the truth (Serpent)

He waits until Eve has moved down this progression and comes out to say the opposite "you will not surely die."

Verse 5: The enemy is good at deception.  Is this statement true?  Will they become like God?  Well, sort of.  They are going to have an awareness of their own sin.  They are going to understand good and evil in a way they didn't before.  But, will they become like God?  No, because they're limited.

"For God knows" - what does the serpent imply?  He implies that God is withholding something good.  He plants seeds of doubt. 

What is Eve's response?  We will see this in verse 6.

Verse 6: Eve moves through what is for us as well a familiar process.  First she saw (eyes), desired, took, and then gave to eat.  We see here the common pattern of sin:

• I see it
• I want it
• I take it
• I eat it 

Notice how this works: it is an outside to inside pattern.  This is an anti-gospel.  We want to believe the lie that the external things can fix the internal us.  The gospel says the opposite.  The fruit is:

• Practical
• Beautiful
• Beneficial

These are the three highly desirable qualities of the fruit.  What's the problem?

• It is not necessary
• It is not allowed for her

Where did the problem begin?  When she looked at it (saw).  Eve did not start by wanting the fruit.  She started by looking at the fruit.  Desire is inflamed by seeing.  So, fix our eyes on worthier things.

What's Next

Not only does Eve reach for the fruit and eat it, but she's like "hey, Adam, try some."  This is what we do as well.  We spread our sin.  We recruit others to our sin pattern so we don't have to be alone.

Why is it when Eve hands Adam the fruit he doesn't say "God said we will surely die."  But, he takes it instead and eats it.  Because he watches Eve take the fruit, she bites it and she doesn't die. 

God is a liar, but is He? Because as soon as she takes the fruit, she is surely dying. Adam joins Eve in her sin.

Verse 7: It says that "immediately" they knew they were naked - shame comes walking into the garden.  What was the solution to their nakedness?  They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin clothes.

How do we cover our shame?  We sin, we feel the shame, we construct for ourselves flimsy garments of outward righteousness.

Verse 8: This is a tragic verse.  When they hear the "sound", they immediately know it's the Lord God.  The garden was the place that the Lord God was with them.  There's another meaning for this word "garden" - sanctuary.  The Lord God comes to walk in the sanctuary.  He is "God with them."  Their reponse now?  Hide.

Verse 9: Notice that when they hear God in the garden, they do not call to Him.  God initiates the dialogue by saying "where are you?"  Hold on, omniscient God already knows.  What is He doing?  He's drawing man into the dialogue for the purpose of drawing him to repentance.

This is His kindness.  He does the same thing with you.  When God gives us the opportunity to confess, let's meet Him with honesty.  

Verse 10:  Adam has learned from the serpent how to twist language in this verse.  

Verses 11-12:  "Who told you that you were naked?"  Look what Adam says in verse 12.  It looks like, at first, he is blaming Eve, but at closer glance, he is really blaming God "whom you gave to me."  James 1:13 tells us though that God does not tempt.

Verse 13: Eve blames the serpent.  Why doesn't the woman blame Adam?  Because she looks at the man and for the first time, she fears him.

Verses 14-15: There's no redemption for the serpent, no dialogue.  The serpent is doomed to the dust.  The dust where Adam came from.  "And dust you shall eat" literally means "you shall bite the dust."  The serpent is condemned to a life of humiliation and despair.  To eat dust is to know defeat.  Also says "I will put".  Where have we heard this elsewhere?  "Let there be".... God is actually creating something again here in the midst of this tragic scene.

There was already enmity coming from the serpent to the woman, but what is the new thing?  It's the enemity the woman will feel towards the serpent.  She will do everything she can to yield an offspring that will be his demise.  The gospel right here!  This is a prophecy of Christ.  It will be through the woman that the chosen seed comes.  Someone will be brought forth who will crush the serpent (satan).  This is called protoevangelium - the first gosepl. 

Verse 16: What He says to the woman is about so much more than pain in childbearing.  She is going to give birth to the first murderer.  To be a mother is to experience separations and agonies.

Where it was commanded that the two shall become one flesh, now her desire will be for her husband and he will rule over her.  They were created to co-labor; now there will be competition - adversarial relationship.

Verses 17-19: The problem is Adam listened to someone (Eve) instead of God.  He should have listened to the words of God.  His ability to joyfully work and keep the garden will now be subverted.

He came from dust, works the dust, and will return to the dust - pretty dismal.  

Verse 20: Look at Adam's response in this verse.  He then calls his wife "Eve" which means "life-giver", because she was the mother of all living.  What sticks in Adam's mind after all this?  That there is hope.  This woman is a life-giver and from her will come the One who will crush the head of the serpent.  He speaks a prophetic word of hope over Eve in the name he gives to her.

Verse 21: Where did these "garments of skin" come from?  Animals had to die.  Sacrifice of an innocent animal to cover the shame.  It is God who provides the first sacrifice, as it is God who will provide the final one.

Verse 22: God doesn't finish the sentence in this verse.  There's this pause where you can fill in the blank.  What is implied here?  Let him not be frozen in his current state by eating from the Tree of Life.  Let him not be trapped eternally in a state of sin.

Verse 23:  God sent Adam out from the garden (sanctuary) of Eden.  The sanctuary where there was peace and "God with us."

Verse 24: Heartbreaking that Adam and Eve must be driven from the garden.  What do we understand that they must be driven from the garden?  They understand exactly what they're losing.

God defends His holiness by having the Tree of Life guarded.  So a sanctuary guarded by Cherubim with flaming swords.  Does it sound like anything you have heard anywhere else?

When a tabernacle is commanded to be built in the desert, it is commanded that on the Eastern gate, Cherubim be worked into the curtains.  Also, in the curtain that separates the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies, Cherubim again on the thick veil between them to shield them from the Shekinah glory *of God.

So what does Christ do when He comes?

"New Adam".
The NT speaks of Him in Romans 5:12-18 as the  one who comes to do what the first Adam could not do.

The first Adam gives physical life to the human race.  The second Adam gives eternal life to the human race.

The first Adam was given dominion over the earth.  The second Adam is given dominion over all things.

The first Adam is given a bride after being put into a deep sleep and brought back to wakefulness.  The second Adam is laid in the ground with a sleep of death and is raised to life and given the bride of the Church.

The first Adam endures a piviotal testing and he fails.  The second Adam endures a pivotal testing and is perfectly obedient to death on a cross.

In Both Stories

We see a Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  For surely at no other place and time was the knowledge of good and evil more purely displayed than on a hill on a cross.

It was the tree that separated us from the presence of God, and it is a tree that restores us to the presence of God.

The curtain is torn at the second Adam's death (Jesus) - top to bottom.  The Cherubim no longer guard the way to the presence of God.  We are ushered once again into the presence of God.  

Revelation 22:1-3 shows us a picture of the new heavens and new earth.  John is being given a tour by an angel.

The gates of the New Jerusalem are being thrown wide to us because of the finished work of Christ.  We live in the "already but not yet".  We already enjoy some of the fruits of being made whole by the Holy Spirit and also knowing that we still war with sin.

Think About This
The first Adam inhales the breath of God.  The NT tells us that the second Adam (Jesus) exhales the Spirit of God.  The Spirit now dwells in us because with His dying breath He made that possible.

We should live with an eye toward Eden returning to earth.  With an eye toward once again inhabiting the sanctuary that Adam and Eve only know to value as they were being driven from it.

*Shekinah Glory

Shekinah glory is a visible manifestation of God on earth whose presence is portrayed through a natural occurrence.  The Shekinah is a Hebrew name meaning - dwelling or who dwells.  Shekinah glory means "He caused to dwell", referring to the Divine presence of God.

Next Session:  Session 6 Cain and Abel