Genesis 3:7-8
Last time we started with Gen 3. You may recall we divided the chapter as follows,
- The Temptation, vs 1-5.
- The Fall, vs 6.
- Spiritual Death, vs 7-8.
- The Divine Confrontation, vs 9-13.
- The Adamic Covenant, vs 14-19
- The Results of the Fall, 20-24.
Last time we were able to get through the first two sections, the Temptation, and the Fall, and today we get will get through verses 7 and 8, the section on Spiritual Death.
To quickly review, scripture tells us two sure things about Satan. First 2 Cor 11:14 states he appears as an angel of light. Second, Jn 8:44 tells us Satan is the father of lies and his lies concern either God’s Word or God’s character. So when Satan wants to derail us, he will appear as something attractive, reassuring, and beautiful. He will approach you to gain your attention and trust, then will try to create doubt and disbelief in your mind regarding God’s Word. He will get you to question God’s character—does God really have your best interest in mind? This is what he does with Eve. He approaches her in the garden, then attempts to sow doubt in her mind regarding God’s Word. In verse 1, Satan asks the seemingly innocent question, Did God really say? I mentioned we face this same question many times. Did God really say we can be anxious for nothing? Did God really say He will meet all our needs? Did God really say He loves me? Did God really say your sins are forgiven? Satan’s initial line of attack is usually always to create doubt in our minds as to the veracity of God’s Word. In verse 4, Satan comes right out and denies God’s Word. You will not certainly die, he tells Eve. He does the same with us. Satan offers the lie that you really won’t suffer X if you do Y.
In the same vein, Satan also tries to impugn God’s character in our minds. In Eve’s case he wove a web of doubt and planted the idea that God was withholding knowledge from her that she should know. God must not have your best interest in mind if he will not let you know something you should know. In Eve’s situation this was the knowledge of good and evil. We face the same test. I’ve three close experiences of people I love and care about who allowed themselves to fall in love with unlike spiritual partners. Why did they do this? Because they didn’t believe God could or would provide what was best for them. They denied 2 Cor 6:14 of joining themselves to an unbeliever. They chose a partner without God’s help and against His advice.
So this is Satan’s strategy,
- He will appear approachable, reasonable, trustworthy, and with your best interest in mind.
- He will get you to doubt the Word of God.
- He will then get you to deny the Word of God.
- He will cast doubt on and impugn the Character of God.
We left off at verse 6 with the woman eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve followed the pattern of 1 Jn 2:16, (from the NLT) for the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. Gen 3:6 notes the woman saw the fruit of the tree was good for food (the craving for physical pleasure), and pleasing to the eye (a craving for everything we see), and also desirable for gaining wisdom (pride in achievements and possessions—i.e. she would know something no one else would know, thus she would have pride in the possession of this wisdom). The Hebrew word for desire is nechmad and comes from the same root as covet. Eating, she felt, would give her something she felt she did not possess.
This is the same pattern of temptation Satan used against Christ in Luke 4. Christ has been fasting forty days, and Satan appears to him. Verse 3 says, Then the devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become a loaf of bread.” This is the lust for physical pleasure—food. Satan is saying you are hungry, you have the power to turn this stone into bread—go ahead and do it. It will satisfy you! This is the same category of temptation Eve faced. She saw the fruit of the tree was good for food. But Jesus says to Satan, no I’m not going to do that. The only bread I want is the WOG and when God is ready to physically feed me –He will. This is why Jesus says to the devil. It is written Man shall not live on bread alone.
Then Satan takes him up to a high place and shows him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. I am not sure how He did this but the implication is in a flash all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor were laid out before Jesus. Satan then says (verse 6-7), “I will give you the glory of these kingdoms and authority over them,” the devil said, “because they are mine to give to anyone I please. 7 I will give it all to you if you will worship me.” This is the lust of the eyes. A desire or craving for all we can see. Eve faced this temptation as Gen 3:6 says the fruit was pleasing to the eye. The temptation for Jesus was he could have all these kingdoms without going to the cross. But Jesus knows God’s plan for Him. He also knows God owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Ps 50) and will one day give the Son all the kingdoms of the earth when it is time and in God’s plan (which includes the cross!). So Jesus says, The Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’
Then Satan takes Christ high up on the temple mount and tells him in verse 10-11, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! 10 For the Scriptures say, ‘He will order his angels to protect and guard you. 11 And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone. This is the test to show that Jesus is the Messiah. Satan says, go ahead and jump, because everybody knows God will protect you, you will make a soft landing, and everyone will know you are the Messiah! This is taking pride in our achievements and possessions—the pride of life. Jesus can show off his powers and take pride in his abilities. This is the test Eve faced. She noted the fruit was desirable for gaining wisdom –a wisdom no one else had but God. Jesus understands this test and refutes Satan by saying, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.
These are the three categories of temptation that Satan uses: our cravings for physical pleasure, our cravings for what our eyes see—in other words our desire for shiny objects of desire, and lastly our desire for pride (to be more special than another; to have more money, a better car, more education, a better job, a nicer house, better health, a desire for anything that we can boast about as it sets us above our peers). Jesus faced all these categories of sinful temptation, yet did not sin. This is why Hebrews 4:15 tells us, this High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.
Now note, after being tempted, the woman proceeded to eat the forbidden fruit. It was not a sin to take and touch the fruit. It was a sin to eat it. This event follows the sin equation given in James 1:13-15 (from the NIV), When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. In short, temptation (whether a test of physical pleasure, a craving of the eyes, or pride) + thought (or consideration) + time = birth then action then death (3T=BAD).
The Bible states Eve then gave her husband Adam the fruit and he ate it as he was with her. In some way he saw what happened and joined her in disobeying God. The Bible notes her sin was different than Adams,’ for 1 T 2:14 says, and Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. Adam went into full stop. He knew what he was doing, and as we also noted last week, Adam, being the positional head of the woman, was held accountable for their sin. Romans 5:12 states for sin entered into world through one man. 1 Cor 15:22 says, For in Adam all die. You may ask how I am I responsible for Adam’s sin? And the answer is you were genetically in Adam’s loins and thus he passed it on to you. As David says in Ps 51:5, in sin did my mother conceive me. We now come to vs 7-8.
Spiritual Death, vs 7-8.
After they ate four things happened. Three are listed in verse 7, their eyes were opened, they realized they were naked, and then they sewed fig lives to cover themselves; and the fourth is listed in verse 8, they hid themselves. Now let us unpack this.
Vs 7a, Then the eyes of both of them were opened,
First off, their eyes were opened. This is a figure of speech indicating they had a new understanding; and this new understanding was now they knew evil. They had known good, but now they knew evil. But this was not a rational knowledge in the sense of knowing about something. This was the knowledge of experience. You may know rationally that it is painful to break a bone, but until you break a bone, you don’t really know what it is like. Adam and Eve may have known of evil (although there is no indication whether they did or did not), but now they know the experience of evil; to realize you have disobeyed God. To know they have rejected Him. To know they have fallen from God’s favor.
Vs 7b, and they realized they were naked;
Gen 2:25 states this couple had lived together naked for some amount of time. They enjoyed seeing one another. They enjoyed working with and talking with each other, they enjoyed touching one another, and they enjoyed making love to each other, and they were unashamed, because this was how God designed life for them. But now they have a new understanding, and it is of evil, and now they see each other, the same bodies they have seen for years, and now they see themselves and each other as naked. Into their pure relationship perverse and evil thoughts have now entered; lust, selfish desire, blame, anger, and manipulation. They are self-conscious, and have lost innocence. Most of all they experience shame. Now they know shame. Shame is the internalization of guilt which leads to self-condemnation and withdrawal. They are so appalled with themselves and each other they are now compelled to cover themselves.
Vs 7c, so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Figs are common in the middle east and must have been in the Garden as well. Their leaves are large, so Adam and Eve sewed them together to make coverings for themselves. The word covering means belt or girdle, which means they were trying to cover their genitals. MacArthur notes, “Even that pure gift of marriage was so polluted as to make them feel that they needed to hide their loins from God and from each other. That very part of their body which was the source of joy and the source of life became a source of guilt and a source of shame, and they were embarrassed to be naked.”
Vs 8a, 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,
In verse 7, Adam and Eve try to hide their nakedness from each other. In verse 8 they both now try to hide their nakedness and themselves from God. The verse opens with the man and his wife hearing the sound of the Lord God. God is taking a walk. Some commentators say this was a manifestation of the Shechinah Glory, others claim this was Jesus himself. I’m of the bias it was the Christ as Jn 1:18 says, No one has ever seen God, but the unique one, who is Himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.
God is walking in the cool of the day. It is hot in the middle east, but when the sun is about to go down it is cooler and a magical time to stroll. One of my sons lives in Scottsdale. In Spring or fall when the sun goes down it is 7-8 at night and 90 degrees, the breeze is slightly blowing and it is heavenly! In Hebrew, the cool of the day can also mean the breeze of the day. Now, think about this. Adam and Eve sin, and they no doubt are anxious about the Lord showing up and discovering them (although in the Lord’s omniscience he knew what happened). I used to dread my Dad coming home when I was in trouble. They must have had a very anxious afternoon.
Here is the other thing to contemplate. Adam and Eve know it is God walking. How do they know? Because they have been with Him before and know the sounds he makes. This is not the sound of one the animals or the wind rustling through the palm leaves. It is sound of the Lord. When my beloved is gone and then I hear the back door of my house open I know she is home. I know the sound she makes when she opens the door, lays down her keys, and puts whatever she has in her arms on the counter. And what is my response? I get up out of my seat to see her. To behold her beauty and say hello. But Adam and Eve’s response to hearing Him is the total opposite as verse 8b notes.
Vs 8b, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
Adam and Eve hear the Lord God walking through garden, they know the sound he makes, and when they hear Him, they scurry away to hide. It would be like me hearing my wife open the door and I try as hard as I can to run downstairs and hide in a closet so Renee cannot find me. We always want to run and hide from our shame, or bury it somewhere where we cannot find it.
You know what Adam and Eve should have done. They should have run to God and told him everything that happened and ask for mercy. This is why it is so hard to come to Christ; one has to lay out your sin and shame before God. And we want to hide it.
Now a brief summary of what happened here. God said that upon eating the fruit. Adam and Eve would die. To die means the cessation of life. If we think about it, this has a broader meaning for humans than for any other creature because we are the only creature made in the image of God.
We bear His image Physically; our bodies are the form God chose for us. It is the form the Lord Jesus took as well, and when sin entered the world, the bodies of Adam and Eve began the process of dying. The Bible says Adam lived 930 years. That is a long time, but he died. His body returned to dust.
We bear His image Morally. Morals are the internal compass to guide us as to what is right and wrong. Romans 2 says God has placed this internal compass in each one of us. But here is the tragic thing, Adam and Eve ate and they knew good and evil. They now knew evil experientially; They died morally because they chose wrongly. And the tragic thing is they passed this choosing of the wrong to us. It does not mean we always choose wrong, but we are by nature inclined to choose it.
We bear His image Socially. God is communal. He exists in three persons. He communicates within himself. God stated it was not good for man to be alone, so he created woman out of man to be his compliment. We were designed to be social, with each other and with God. Yet when Adam and Eve ate the fruit their relationship with God ceased. They ran, and they hid from Him. Their spiritual relationship died. Their own relationship became distorted as we shall see for Adam blames his wife for his sinful act, and Eve will soon desire to rule him.
We also bear his image Mentally. We can think and choose. Yet when Adam and Eve sinned their thinking became perverted. Blame, shame, hostility, anger, impurity, lust, quarreling, jealousy, ambition. dissension, envy, drunkenness, all entered the way they thought. You ask how is that? In just a few generations, Gen 6:5 tells us, The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and He saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil.
So Adam and Eve died; they began to die physically, they died morally for they chose the wrong over the right; they died spiritually for their relationship with God was severed; they died relationally because now their union will be marred by self-interest; and they died mentally as their thinking is now perverted and evil.
Paul summarizes our state in Eph 2:1-3, Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. 2 You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world.[a] He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. 3 All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.
Next time we will get to the Divine Confrontation in verses 9-13.
