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Genesis 3:1-21

¹ Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” ² And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, ³ but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” ⁴ But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. ⁵ For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ⁶ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. ⁷ Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

⁸ And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LordGod among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰ And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” ¹¹ He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” ¹² The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” ¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

¹⁴ The Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;

on your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.

¹⁵ I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;

he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”

¹⁶ To the woman he said,

“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children.

Your desire shall be contrary to your husband,
but he shall rule over you.”

¹⁷ And to Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree

of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’

cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

¹⁸ thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.

¹⁹ By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,

till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;

for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”

²⁰ The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. ²¹ And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

And, in this way, sin entered the world. Now, instead of running from the devil, Adam and Eve run from God. To really get at this text we need to see how faith is attacked, lost, and restored.

Scripture is clear, “the righteous shall live by faith” (Hab. 2:4), and, “whatever is not of faith is sin” (Ro. 14:23). Adam and the woman had faith in God before the Fall. The faith that they had was created by the promise of God. This is may be a little bit difficult for us to grasp, but, when God created the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and commanded Adam and the woman to not eat of it, He was giving them a promise to believe. God didn’t put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden so Adam and the woman could choose God or reject God. God put that tree in the garden as a promise. Basically, that tree was God acknowledging that there was evil, and by commanding them to not eat of it was God saying, “There is evil, but I don’t want you to experience or even know what evil is. If you know evil, it’s not going to go well for you. In fact, you are going to die.”

But Satan comes along and puts a question into the mind of the woman. “Did God actually say?” This is the one attack of the devil. He always is trying to get us to doubt the Word and promise of God. “Did God actually say, you should not eat of any tree in the garden?” And notice that the woman adds to God’s promise. She says, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, neither shall you touch it, less you die.’” God had never said anything about not touching the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (at least, it isn’t recorded for us). Satan is attacking God’s Word, but Adam and the woman have not fallen yet. The serpent sees his opening and tells an outright lie, “You will not surely die! For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Now, remember that God had created Adam and the woman in His image – they were already like God, and God declared that they were good. But Satan put before the woman the possibility of becoming more like God and better than they had already been created. It was an outright lie. So, when the woman sees that the tree is good for food, a delight to the eyes, and to be desired to make one wise, she is seeing something that is not true. The devil’s lie has already taken root. In this way Adam and the woman’s faith is attacked.

Now, that faith is lost. The woman looked at the tree and saw that it was to be desired to make one wise. That phrase, right there, is so important as you go about your daily life. To tempt us into sin, the devil gets us to think that God is somehow holding out on us, that He hasn’t given or won’t give us everything we need to live and be happy. It’s a downright, blatant, brazen, barefaced lie. The devil wants us to ignore God’s Word and think that God is holding out on us and limiting our fun by giving us commands. Whenever we fall into sin, it is because we don’t trust that God is good and will give us all good things at the right time. Don’t listen to the devil’s lies.

Unfortunately, the woman does. She takes the fruit, eats it, gives some to her husband who is with her, and he eats. The eyes of both are opened. They had become something more. Now, they knew evil, but it was not better. What had been good, their nakedness, was no longer good. They sew fig leaves together to make themselves loincloths. Their faith is lost.

But now, we will see how beautifully God restores faith. Adam and the woman hear the sound of God walking in the garden, but they hide. They figured that God was coming in order to punish them. But the God who had created the heavens and the earth, the God who had created all the birds of the air, all the fish of the sea, and all the animals of the land didn’t need to come and find them in order to punish them. If God was going to punish them, there is no need to drag this whole thing out. God is not showing up in this text now to punish Adam and the woman. He’s coming to restore what was lost. He is coming to restore faith.

But even as God does this, we will see the horrific consequences that sin and evil has brought into God’s good creation. God calls to Adam, “Where are you?” God still wants to have fellowship with Adam and the woman even though they have sinned, broken His commandment, and lost their faith. But rather than confessing and repenting of his sin, Adam dodges the opportunity saying, “I hid from You because I was naked and afraid.” So, God gives Adam a second chance to repent, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

But sin has so marred Adam that he dodges this second opportunity. He blames the woman, but ultimately, notice that he blames God, “The woman, whom You gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.“ God gives the woman a chance to repent and asks her, “What is this you have done?“ But the woman doesn’t do much better than Adam, she says “The serpent deceived me and I ate.”

The terrible, horrific consequences of sin are already evident. Adam and the woman pass blame, they don’t protect or care for each other, the whole thing is an absolute mess. They are caught and they don’t return to God in faith asking for His mercy.

Adam and the woman will hear God tell them about the mess they have brought to creation – pain in childbirth, pain in eating, and death. But first things first. God’s first response isn’t to lay into Adam and the woman. The first thing God does is deal with Satan. God doesn’t have a conversation with the devil like He did with Adam and the woman. There, in the Garden, God told Satan that He was coming for him. God would send the Seed of the woman to crush the serpent’s head. And Adam and the woman believe this because, notice, at the end of this text, she is no longer called ‘woman.’ Adam gives her the name Eve. She wasn’t called this at any point before in Scripture. Adam gives her the name ‘Eve’ which means ‘life-giver.’ Here’s how we know faith is restored. Eve was already going to be the mother of everyone who would be born. But Adam, the father of faith, changes her name to Eve because she is the mother of all who would believe in the promised Seed who would crush the serpent’s head.

God promised that He would free Adam, the woman, you, and me from the clutches of sin and death. And, today, we have seen Jesus doing this very thing. Opposed to Adam and the woman, who had no lack – they weren’t hungry – Jesus defeats the devil’s temptations in the wilderness when He was starving after fasting for forty days. Jesus will leave the wilderness and cast out the demons. He will heal, restore, forgive, and resurrect those who sit under the curse. But most importantly, He will suffer God’s wrath against all sin – your sin, my sin, the sin of the whole world – on the cross. He does this because though you are caught in sin, your God is merciful and gracious. He wants you to be caught in His loving arms for all eternity, safe and secure from all evil.

Repent. Believe. Live. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.