Genesis 3: A Blog Style Bible study: what happens when what God gave you doesn't seem good enough?
In today’s blog post, we will be studying Genesis 3, where the fall of human kind first began. With the infamous fruit and the people who ate it. The first woman ever created Eve, and the first man created, Eve’s husband, Adam. This study on Genesis 3 references the King James Version (KJV) Bible translation. I ask that you invite the Holy Spirit to give you understanding for both the translation and revelation. Let’s begin.
Eden (Hebrew) according to the Blue Letter Bible app - pleasure.
“3 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?
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.”
Die (Hebrew) according to the Blue Letter Bible App
to die, kill, have one executed, to die (as penalty), be put to death to die, perish (of a nation), to die prematurely (by neglect of wise moral conduct), put to death, dispatch, to be killed, be put to death
God had already presented all the good He created to Adam and Eve. He prepared it just for them, which was why they came last in His order of creation, He literally created everything that came before them for them. Meditate on that. It had been made known to them that they had all they needed, which is why God excluded one tree that He forbade them to eat and touch, or else they would die. This is what the Truth Himself spoke. Satan himself, being aware of the command God released to His, at the time, perfect creations, decided he would try to deceive Eve to convince her that what God had declared evil, was now good. Whew! How evil the devil is indeed!
“4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
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.”
Red Flag #1: Eve entertained what Satan was saying. As soon as Eve heard something that contradicted what she KNEW the Lord had spoken, she should have dismissed the serpent right then and there, possibly calling on her creator and friend God to intervene in this unusual conversation that did not match the nature of Him nor the things that He created. Just as Jesus did in Matthew 4 and Luke 4, going against the devil by standing on and declaring what God said and even telling him to move from him, letting the devil know that he is not meant to be near what has been set apart for God nor pervert it.
“8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”10 Then Jesus said to him, [b]“Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.” - Matthew 4:8-10 NKJV
Eve, however, reminds me of many believers. Many times we know what God has already told us, whether that be in His word and even personally in our lives. Yet, we allow so many voices and thoughts into our minds causing us to deviate from what God originally spoke, causing us to waver, doubt, and even try to “change” what He said or really, our perception of it.
Red Flag #2: Satan knows how to get us. Although Satan may not be the Ancient of Days Himself (A name for God to describe How he always has been and will always be God), he is an ancient spirit, one that God created long ago. He knows our nature as people and to get deeper than that he even knows the characteristics and personalities that are common in our bloodline. He knows our triggers and our likes, he has studied us and our bloodline. Even if this attempt with getting Eve to eat the fruit from the forbidden tree had been unsuccessful, his cunning nature would not have allowed Him to completely stop. Like with Jesus in Matthew 4 and Luke 4, Satan kept trying until he saw that Jesus stood firm in faith and would not compromise. The Bible tells us that he left and waited for another opportunity to tempt Jesus.
“13 Now when the devil had ended every [h]temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time. Luke 4:13
EVEN OUR OWN LORD AND SAVIOR! Satan did not give up on tempting Him, but we know how that ended. (For those who don't know, Jesus has defeated the devil once and for all, saving all humanity, so that we can have eternal life through Him. Hallelujah and thank you Jesus!) So back to what we were discussing. In the garden in His conversation with Eve, Satan was able to misconstrue what God had said in the eyes and ears of Eve but in a way that seemed really similar to the truth although it was not what God said. Although Satan knows the nature of man, it is important that we listen to the one who created man.
What God said: Genesis 3: 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.”
What the serpent said: Genesis 3:4-5 4 “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: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.”
God said what He said exactly how he said it and it does not change.
We must be careful to examine ourselves and to be honest with our Heavenly Father, or else it can result in drifting away from Him. There are times when God may have spoken something that we may not agree with because we don't like it and what we do to deal with it, is create a voice in our head (our flesh) and call it God, to say God “changed” what He said and we no longer have to do it anymore.
Satan, the truly evil one, the one who is responsible for evil existing, was trying to paint a picture that God, who is good, was the evil one. That God was withholding something good from Eve and Adam by not allowing them to eat the fruit from the forbidden tree, convincing her that she was “missing out”. Satan tells lies to keep us away from the truth. Deception. The Devil told Eve part of the truth and presented it differently, he withheld the truth about the consequences that would come and told them that they would not die when indeed they did. The devil presented a lie as the truth. Deception. Death was never a part of God’s original design for humanity, eternal life was and still is.
Genesis 3:6 KJV “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.”
Saw (Hebrew), according to the Blue letter Bible app- to see, look at, inspect, perceive, consider, to have vision
to look at, regard, look after, see after, learn about, observe, watch, look upon, look out, find out, observe, look at, give attention to, discern, distinguish, gaze at, to appear, present oneself, to be seen, to be visible, to cause to see, show
to cause to look intently at, behold, cause to gaze at, to be caused to see, be shown
to be exhibited to, to look at each other, face.
Pleasant (Hebrew) according to Blue Letter App
desire, wish, longings of one's heart, lust, appetite, covetousness (bad sense), thing desired, object of desire.
Eve became deceived once she saw something as good, in her own sight that God had declared to be forbidden as “good”. So although it was not actually a pleasant thing because God never designed it that way, it became pleasant to the eyes of Eve. Before this occurred it seemed that Eve and Adam did not have any desires, as if they were content and God had already given them everything they needed and wanted without her even really knowing. Like there was no need to want anything else. Many times the enemy steals our focus and makes us focus on the negative, on what we do and/or don’t have. As long as we feel like what God has given is not sufficient enough or too much, when with God everything is just right. Just right for us, the right season, the right timing, the right workload, the right amount of provision etc.
Good (Hebrew) according to Blue Letter Bible App
good, pleasant, agreeable (to the senses), pleasant (to the higher nature), good, excellent (of its kind), rich, valuable in estimation, appropriate, becoming, better
(comparative), glad, happy, prosperous (of man's sensuous nature), good understanding (of man's intellectual nature), kind, benign, right (ethical), a good thing, benefit, welfare, prosperity, happiness, good things (collective), good, benefit, welfare, good things, welfare, prosperity, happiness, bounty
Something I heard is that Satan works from the outside in and God works from the inside out. So Satan influences us with what we see and gets into our mind. God works in us by changing our hearts which then affects how we behave and perceive things outwardly.
No, I am not saying desires are bad, but because we do sin as humans, there are desires that we have that align with our flesh and not God’s will and you can never have both. Galatians 5: 16-18 NKJV “16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. We need to have salvation through Jesus Christ to obtain Godly desires because if not, we’ll have ungodly desires. James 1:13-15 “ 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
Coming into agreement with the Devil brings guilt and shame, two things which are not associated with God because everything He created is good and everything He does is good, so it does not bring shame nor condemnation. The devil is so sneaky, he would tempt us to sin and then bullies us for it. Galatians 5:23 “23 [g]gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”
Romans 8:1”There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who[a] do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Luke 9:26
Adam and Eve were always naked from the beginning of their creation, when they became aware of it through disobedience that’s when it was an issue. The shame of sin makes people want to hide from God. Sin itself separates us from the presences of God (as we will see in verses Genesis 3: 8-10) “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.
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.” When Adam and Eve hid themselves from God, it was because the consequences of sin were now in effect; guilt, shame, and separation from God. Guilt and shame are not determined by feelings, guilt shows that there is an offense, a crime that was committed, shame is embarrassment and humiliation of foolish behavior.
A couple of points I would like to further point out:
God did not ask questions because He did not know what happened, He sees and knows everything.
In Genesis 1, we see that God made us in His image, so Adam and Eve were recognizable to God since they looked like Him. They were made in His nature to be good, have eternal life, and without fault but when sin entered, they became unrecognizable. Why? Because sin brings death, is evil, and makes us imperfect before God; and have faults; it is literally impossible for God to have these things. So once Adam and Eve came into agreement with the devils opposing claim, she no longer saw God as trustworthy; nor as good. So thinking that anything God does can be along the lines of wrong shows that spiritual perversion has entered.
Everyone blamed someone, everyone had someone to blame but the truth is we are all accountable for what we do as individuals. Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the devil but both of them would have rejected Him. The places where we should take accountability, but instead choose to blame could lead to us blaming the wrong ones once the consequences are in effect. The Devil’s punishment is already set. The thing about Him being the deceiver is that He is the most deceived. He is too full of pride to repent. So saying “the devil made me do it” does not suffice for God to excuse us when we fall because 1. The devil is going to get punished regardless and 2. We have the power to overcome Him and not be oppressed by him.
And many times when we do experience the consequences of us sinning, we thought that we could have gotten away with it or feel like God does not discipline us like how He does those other people, like He is more harsh towards us. As we see here, God handled the one who needed to be dealt with the most, first and He always does. We just can’t always see it but God indeed is just. We have to make sure that we are obedient to God and not acting up getting frustrated out of feeling like He’s not doing enough because that’s how we end up doing what Satan wants and getting punished along with Him. When we feel like God is not just enough we begin to take vengeance ourselves and/or distancing ourselves from God.
Eve had left her place of submission to God, which led to her not being submitted to Adam. Adam left His place of submission to God which led to him leaving the leadership position as a husband. These things occurred in the minds and hearts of Adam and Eve before the physical action of disobedience occurred, all they needed to do was believe something different from God. This is why the Bible tells us faith without works is dead. Your faith will produce works in your life showing what you truly believe, whether it is good or bad.
20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. Despite death entering, it did not stop the plan and prophesy of life over them. Eve was still meant to be the mother of the living.
21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them. Despite their sin God did not leave them uncovered. The covering of fig trees could not cover them like God did. Verse 22, God’s instruction to not eat the fruit was to protect, He wanted us to have a good life without knowing there was good and evil out there.
God is very proactive. He is both Alpha and Omega. He was already at John 3:16 when Genesis 3:6 occurred. We already see the plan for redemption for mankind in verse 22, “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 forever:’’.
Life (hebrew) According to the Blue Letter Bible App- I. living, alive
Green (of vegetation), B.flowing, fresh (of water), C.lively, active (of man), D. Reviving (of the springtime)
II. Relatives
III. Life (abstract emphatic)
Life
Sustenance, maintenance
IV. living thing, animal
Animal
B.life
Appetite
D. revival
V. community
I wanted to add a little shift here, for us as the church, the body of Jesus Christ. In these times unfortunately we have seen many ministers and ministries trade the garden God has given us for a poisonous apple that brings forth death. Death to God’s sheep, death to destinies, preaching the word of death instead of the word of God which brings forth the word of life. Unfortunately, many times as believers we don’t address these things well, showing grace that allows them to proceed in these actions instead of the grace that corrects them into repentance, were Jesus can be glorified and strong were they are weak. We have grown weary with God with seeking Him, humbling ourselves before him, and forgetting His heart and only remembering His hand. We are in a time where we have to fight for our faith and the type of fighting I’m talking about is different from the fight of defending your faith before man. The fight I’m talking about is the one where you guard your heart from falling away from the Lord Jesus, where you fight to keep your faith strong and firm in the Lord, where you fight to not get distracted nor fall into deception. It’s when our love for the Lord is pure and active only then will we begin to draw others to Him. The image of the church is us biting a forbidden fruit when we should bear the image of our resurrected savior and His works that were done on the cross. Revival is coming but the church needs to first be revived, and that comes with change. Repentance brings change. Stop looking at yourself. Your past, struggles, gifts, talents, problems, wealth, low income, etc. Look unto Jesus who surpasses all of that. Not having him is literally like not having oxygen. Fight for your right to breathe and live.
Song recommendation Victoria Orenze - I am yours.
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