Tag: Genesis 3

More Crafty

Posted on by jovial_cynic
I always assumed that the “covering” God provides Adam and Eve in Genesis 3 is a picture of atonement. Like the pitch that covered the ark.

However, that’s not the word used here. A “covering of skin” is a phrase that shows up again later, in Genesis 27. The usage of the phrase may give us a clue.

Then Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau her older son, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob. She also covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the goatskins.
Genesis 27:15-16 (NIV)

Perhaps God is doing something… tricky.

Driven Out

Posted on by jovial_cynic
We read in Genesis 3 that after disobedience, God “drove out” the man from the garden. It feels like we’ve been kicked out. Banished. Hell?

The word is used again later in a story linked to something important: it’s the word used when Sarah drives out Hagar.

And she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”
Genesis 21:10 (NIV)

While we wrestle with Sarah’s unkindness and Abe’s foolishness and Hagar’s slave-status, there’s something that Paul says later about this story that we have to understand. These characters represent something.

For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.
Galations 4:22-23 (NIV)

There’s so much talk about “works” and “faith,” and Paul links these concepts to slavery and freedom as it relates to God’s promise to us.

When Sarah demands that Abe “get rid of” Hagar and the boy, she is using this same word of “banishing” as Genesis 3.

The link should be viewed through an eternal lens: God is banishing the slavery of works and our own attempts at attaining status and relationship from the garden. The Garden is Holy.

He’s not kicking US out. He’s kicking out the works of the flesh.

How do we know this?

Because if you read the text closely, God only banishes Adam from the garden, and not Eve, who represents Life. The spirit. The one through whom God promises to bring redemption. Not through through One born of the flesh, but born of the spirit.

And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Genesis 3:22-24 (NIV)

Cherubim

Posted on by jovial_cynic
Genesis 3 introduces us to a creature that we’re not familiar with. Because of the passing of time, literally nobody is certain what they are.

It’s the Cherubim.

There was a time we thought they were babies with wings. Read the article to know why!

What we know for certain is that “cherubim” is the plural of “cherub,” and they are mentioned nearly 100 times in the Scriptures. However, I don’t recall ever hearing a sermon including them. They seem wildly important, yet they’re never talked about.

It’s interesting.

Separated from Life

Posted on by jovial_cynic
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.

Cool of the Day

Posted on by jovial_cynic
What is the “cool of the day?” Is it a time of day? An event that occurs within the day?

The word here is “ruah,” which is the same word that describes the Spirit of God. It’s the breath that brought life into humanity. It’s a wind, as though it happened during the windy time of day.

It’s fascinating.

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 3:8 (NIV)

But the rabbis point to a different strangeness in the verse: In what way did the man and his wife hear the sound of God walking? What does that sound like?

Connected by Dust

Posted on by jovial_cynic
Dust connects the serpent and the man in the weirdest way.

Then the Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,
Cursed are you more than all the livestock,
And more than any animal of the field;
On your belly you shall go,
And dust you shall eat
All the days of your life;

Genesis 3:14 (NASB)

By the sweat of your face
You shall eat bread,
Until you return to the ground,
Because from it you were taken;
For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return.

Genesis 3:19 (NASB)

Flaming Sword

Posted on by jovial_cynic
The flaming sword is said to “flash back and forth” to guard the way to the Tree of Life.

This has two meanings in the form used here:

to transform oneself
to turn this way and that, turn every way

H2015: הָפַךְ

But also, we never hear about this flaming sword again.

It’s very odd.

So He drove the man out; and at the east of the Garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.

Genesis 3:24 (NASB)

Sexuality

Posted on by jovial_cynic
I don’t believe temptation and the fall in Genesis 3 is specifically about sex, but there are things in the language that seem to link them.

I can’t shake this question: Is there anything more strongly linked to shame and sin than sexuality? Has it always been this way?

It’s an extremely heavy topic, and while I don’t think Genesis 3 is about sex, I think that the hints in the language are meant to help us understand that the brokenness we experience in our sexuality is like a living parable for what spiritual brokenness is.