Sunday
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
“You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
(Genesis 3:1-8, NIV)
Last week Sunday, we read the beautiful story of God’s creation of the Garden of Eden, a magnificent picture of what God intended for his created order. Genesis 1 tells us that God repeatedly observed his universe and declared it “good.” The second chapter of Genesis ends with the story of God’s creation of a woman to be a suitable helper and companion to Adam, and it concludes with a reference to the sexual union of the two.
But Satan enters human history as an enemy of God and, from the beginning of biblical history, we are given a picture of his devious, destructive ways. Notice how Satan, disguised as a serpent, first raises doubt in the woman’s mind about what God actually said. “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’” (v. 1) That, of course, is not what God said. He, in fact, said the opposite: “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden” except one (2:16).
Once doubt has been created, Satan then openly contradicts God and denies that he will cause her to die if she eats of the forbidden fruit. Satan then goes one step further: he promises her she will be “like God.” Satan indeed is a crafty, shrewd being who knows the human heart. The sin of Eve and Adam is the core of all evil in the world today: men and women want to be “like God” – autonomous, rulers of their destiny, self-reliant, accountable only to themselves, recognizing no authority outside of themselves.
Today’s verses graphically record the painful, immediate consequence of sin. Once they eat the forbidden fruit, their sin makes them frightened to be in the presence of the Holy God – so they hide. The sin they committed transmitted to their children, creating envy between their two sons, Cain and Abel. The fourth chapter of Genesis relates the jealousy that leads to the first recorded murder in the biblical record, Cain’s murder of Abel. Sin, the act of disobeying God and rebelling against his authority, broke God’s intended shalom in creation.
Prayer
Creator God, forgive us of our sins and disobedience and our efforts to be our own lords, masters of our own lives. Teach us to trust in you and remove our sinful desires. Amen.