The craftiness of the serpent in Genesis 3 is that he gets you to think about the rules and the consequences of Genesis 2, and you completely forget that God promised to bless you first in Genesis 1.
And God does not break His promises.
Tag: Genesis 2
An Appropriate Sacrifice
What did Cain do wrong? People have pointed to Abel’s “appropriate” animal sacrifice, pointing to God’s covering of Adam/Eve with animal skins in Genesis 3… but I think there’s something else going on here.
We are told that Cain “worked the soil” in the NIV. If you’ve followed along the previous weeks’ studies, you’ve heard this word “worked” before, but in a different form. And connected to a different man.
Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.” Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.
Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil.
Genesis 4:2 (NIV)
It’s Cain’s own dad, Adam. In Genesis 2, we’re told that Adam’s role was to “till the ground.” This word “till” is the Hebrew word “abad,” which means to “labor” or to “work.” And in Genesis 2, the work is GOOD.
Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground.
Genesis 2:5 (NIV)The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Genesis 2:15 (NIV)
But in Genesis 3, the ground gets cursed.
To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
Genesis 3:17 (NIV)So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
Genesis 3:23 (NIV)
What does it mean that the ground is cursed? What does it mean that the work will result in painful toil, thorns & thistles? Why does this point to death?
Cain’s name means “acquired.” As in, “I worked to acquire this.”
This is death.
God’s acceptance of Abel’s offering is unrelated to his own accomplishment. He simply brought the best of what he had: the “fat” (or choicest/best part) of the “firstborns.” The best we have.
It’s the same thing God asks of us today. Not the sacrifice, but our heart.
Separated from Life
Genesis 2 and 3 mention a Tree of Life.
Adam calls his wife the “Mother of Life.”
Genesis 3 seems to separate the man and his wife and put them at odds with each other, right after God brought the together in the previous chapter.
We read that Adam is cursed to die, and that a flaming sword blocks Adam from the Tree of Life.
From Eve? Is Adam separated from both Life and from his wife?
There is so much being said here.
Names
There’s an odd thing about names I’ve just noticed in Genesis.
Genesis 1: God names things on days 1-3, but not 4-6.
Genesis 2: The man names the animals, and he calls the woman “isha.”
Genesis 3: The man names the woman “Eve.”
God never gives gives the man a name. Never.
A Foundation
Genesis 3 introduces sin and death, and it’s understood to be tragic. In some ways, terrifying. But if you’ve spent time pouring over Genesis 1 and 2 and see that a foundation has been laid down by God, you can trust the God of the story to fix what has been broken.
So this is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation;
the one who relies on it
will never be stricken with panic.
Isaiah 28:16 (NIV)
Unashamed
The last verse of Genesis 2 ends with perfect creation. It ends with humanity being like a child, running around the garden in the back yard in their birthday suit, full of trust, full of joy, without any sense of embarrassment or shame.We long for this because God calls us back to this.
Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame
Genesis 2:25 (NIV)
Darkness
Darkness is mentioned at the start of Genesis 1, and the rest of the chapter continues in a description of days, and of things we see in the Light.
Darkness isn’t mentioned in Genesis 2. Or Genesis 3. In fact, we don’t get this word again until Genesis 15, when God makes covenant with Abram. It starts in darkness, and then God shows up. That is the story of our relationship with God.
Trust the Story
In Christianity, we’re taught “first you must know that you’re a sinner,” but this is not the pattern of Genesis.
Genesis doesn’t tell you about sin and death until after it establishes that you are beloved.
God is asking you to trust Him in the story.
The Name of the Creeping Things
In Genesis 3, we’re going to be introduced to the Serpent. He’s a “creeping thing,” unlike “wild animals” or “livestock.” All three are listed specifically in the creation account of Genesis 1.But when Adam names in the animals in Genesis 2, notice what’s missing. It’s the “creeping things” of Gen 1:24-25.
Why?
And out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.
Genesis 2:19-20 (NASB)
I’m not sure, but perhaps it’s tied to this:
Now concerning everything which I have said to you, be careful; and do not mention the name of other gods, nor let them be heard from your mouth.
Exodus 23:13 (NASB)
The creeping things point to the serpent of Genesis 3. The serpent points to all the false gods.
God’s Name and a Burning Bush
Jumping forward to Exodus, we learn that Moses doesn’t know God’s name until Exodus 3:15 when he meets God at the burning bush.
But WE are given God’s name in Genesis 2:4, right before the Tree of Life is described:
This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.
Genesis 2:4 (NKJV)
God’s name and the Burning Bush seem linked, both in Exodus and in Genesis.
I wonder if Moses was given a vision of the Tree of Life, barely obscured by flaming swords (Gen 3:24).
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 3:24 (NKJV)
Perhaps the imagery is that the Tree of Life can only be accessed by Fire. This could point to following the Pillar of Fire, or being refined by Fire, or perhaps being “burned in the Fire” as a Living Sacrifice.
It could be many things, but it seems to be linked… to dying.