Walk in the Bible - Genesis 3

     Verse 1 starts right off with GOD showing that he has authority over even Satan himself
by stating that HE made Satan. Interestingly enough, verse 2 shows that Satan has very little 
power of us. His first act is to try and get Eve to do what he wants. Notice that he
can make her do it, he has to trick her into doing what he wants her to do. In effect showing
that he's weaker than he appears to be.

     Notice that he starts off with an inexact quote from GOD and tries to get the woman to buy it.
The woman herself responds with her own inexact quote which only serves to weaken her argument.
Consider when Satan faced Christ in the desert that Christ responded to him with exact scripture
quotes only.   Since the woman knew what she was saying was , in part false, this caused her to loose
her focus. She focused on Satan and his words, rather than GOD and his word.  This shows us that we 
WILL be tempted, and rather than do what the woman did ( She's not called Eve JUST yet!) we need to 
keep our eyes on GOD and keep respond with his word, not our own.

    Verse 4 shows Satan adding on to her lie and waving a false promise in front of her, that she would 
be like GOD, knowing good and evil.  Remember, GOD made the man and her from clay, the only component 
they had that was GOD's was his breath, that's it, there's no way either of them could be like
GOD.  Now, let me be clear, GOD didn't want the man and the woman to be stupid, he wanted them to 
trust HIM.  Once you get a bit of knowledge in you, you tend to think that you can figure 
out everything and not have to do what someone else is telling you to do, because they 
don't know what you know! I short , knowledge becomes a stone to make you stumble.   

     Knowledge became the woman's focus, and of course, the thought of being like GOD.  She stopped
focusing on GOD and focused on what she wanted and we know what happened next. Or do we ?  She 
didn't just eat the apple and cause sin to come into the world, Adam had to do it too, and looking at 
verse 6, it looks like he's been standing there the whole time saying nothing! In fact this is kind of a 
pattern in the Bible, men who do the wrong thing or do nothing because their wife does it first!

     We see in verse 7 , that instead of getting knowledge of good and evil, they realize that they're
nude, and the first thing they did was cover up.  This can almost be seen as a symbolic representation  of
what happens when we sin, we feel shame, then we try to cover it up as well.  Verses 8 - 10 show us the 
next thing that happens, we separate ourselves from GOD.  We try to put a barrier up between us and GOD.
We can see in verse 11 that it doesn't work, GOD can't be hidden from by any means at all.

     Verses 12 and 13 show what typically happens when we get caught in a lie, one part blames the other
rather than taking responsibility. In this case, it's Adam trying to shift the blame.  Eve, at least, in 
Verse 13 actually says what happened, however, I want to point out something interesting here. In the 
culture at this time, a woman's testimony was worthless, only the man's testimony mattered, yet, here's
GOD listening to both the man and the woman equally, showing that they both matter equally in his eyes.
He already knew what happened, HE's omniscient, so it's not like he needs to ask, HE really just wants 
them to come clean to him.

     In Verse 14-19 he doesn't even give Satan a chance to speak, he just sentences him then and there.
He actually gives the harshest sentence to Satan, by the way, that part about "eating dust" that GOD 
mentions, carries connotations of total defeat! The second harshest sentence is given to Adam followed by 
Eve. Where before all Adam and his wife had to do was to maintain the garden, now, they were about to be 
thrown out of Eden and would have to till their own ground, plant their own seeds, pull their own water 
for their own crops. Not just for a little while, but for the rest of his life.

     In verse 20, we see Adam take ownership over his wife, by giving her a new name. However, something
interesting happens in verse 21. We see that GOD made skins from animals for Adam and his wife. In order
to do that, two animals had to die first.  GOD had told Adam that if the fruit from the tree of Good
and evil were eaten, he'd die. However, rather than kill him, GOD killed two animals, one for Adam and 
one for Eve.

     This is foreshadowing of what would happen centuries later when JESUS died on a cross for us. It also 
serves to remind us that when we sin, it's not just us that's affected by it. Others are too! It also 
serves to remind us that when we sin, we separate ourselves from GOD (or at least try to, since you really 
can't separate yourself from him!)

Verses 22-24 show GOD banishing Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, where they enjoyed being able to see GOD
face-to-face, where GOD had built a land  for them to accommodate all of their needs before they even asked for 
them, where their labor was light as well.  Notice that GOD DIDN'T cut them of from himself, he still spoke to
their children, and we'll see that a bit later on, so HE was still with us, just not like it had been before.
Further , he didn't destroy the tree of life, it remained living and in fact is mentioned in Revelation 2:7, 
he just prevented Adam and Eve from eating any fruit from it, because they now knew evil as well as good, and 
he couldn't have them live forever knowing both of those things.

   -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     In summary, this chapter shows us that no matter how good we are, or how good things are, we're going to 
be tempted. What we shouldn't do is look away from GOD, or respond in anyway that contradicts GOD, like
Eve did, or for that matter, try to escape responsibility , like Adam did. It also reminds us that sin not only
effects us, but it can and will affect those around us too!   It also reminds us that sin causes us to separate 
ourselves from GOD, but no mater what GOD is still there, and he still cares for us. It also foreshadows a time 
when GOD's son will pay for our crime with his own life, just as GOD caused two animals to pay for the sin of Adam 
and Eve, rather than take their lives.

How about you ? Is the stain of your sin causing you to separate from GOD?  It doesn't have to, you have  a way back
already bought and paid for , you need only accept it.  If you're not sure how, email me, I'd love to talk to you !

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