Today was inspiring to learn from the very first God-breathed humans to have existed. God had given Adam His word to not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil before Eve was created. This shows that man is responsible to lead woman in delivering the word of God. Man has the office and the woman held the influence. Sadly, the man gave into Eve’s influence and both sinned by disobeying God. This encouraged me personally in my dating relationship that I must always lead my girlfriend in the ways of God and put Him first before anyone else. Below are quick notes of what I learned from my reading.
Genesis 3 Notes:
“Serpent” is translated from Hebrew either “snake” or “shining one”. The bible teaches Satan is an angel who masquerades as an angel of light (2 Cor.11:14). The bible describes this serpent as cunning or crafty. I believe this was a shining one or angel and not in the form of a snake. The snake description just depicts who he is as a powerful symbol of a cunning angel. For example, Jesus is called the Lamb of God. Of course we don’t ever think it is a literal Lamb, it is descriptive of who Jesus is. In the same way “serpent” is descriptive of who Satan is. He would have appeared to Adam and Eve as a beautiful figure (Isaiah 14:12ff).
Satan’s tactic is to interpret God’s word. The Bible never needs interpretation (2 Peter1:21) but Satan is the first one to bring “private interpretation” into the world by questioning God’s word. “Did God really say…” He introduced a false doctrine.
My girlfriend pointed out to me that Eve now saw the fruit apart from God’s will and it now looked pleasurable. When sin looks desirable, it is because we have separated it from the will of God!
Sin appeals to the senses. Satan has always used the same 3 fold method of temptation we find in 1 John 2:15-17 kjv. The lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life. She saw the fruit looked pleasurable. What in your life are you desiring? Is it in God’s will or not?
Knowledge isn’t always a good thing. Knowledge of evil steals our innocence. I have found in my life that once I have done a certain sin, it is always easier to do it again and more challenging to see things with a child-like heart.
Sin ALWAYS brings shame and makes you want to hide. Immediately they hid and tried to cover themselves. God would later SACRIFICE animals and cover them with wet-animal skin’s to cover their sin. This is the only explanation for how Cain and Abel later knew about animal sacrifice. God taught Adam and Eve and covered them and they in turn taught their children. God showed compassion on them. When you sin, do you hide your sin or run to God’s mercy and covering of blood in the act of confession (1 John 1:9)? When we were baptized, God covered us with His blood. He took our shame and like Adam and Eve there are consequences we must face for our past choices but we are still covered by Jesus’ blood.
Notice they heard God walking in the Garden. This shows as we talked about in the last posting, God has a bodily form and it was evidently large to be heard walking in the Garden.
God being omnipresent already knew their sin, but notice he gives them the chance to confess their sin. He asks questions to draw them out. God is the master discipler! Do you ask questions to draw out your fellow Christians or just jump to conclusions? Even though God already knew the sin, He still asked probing questions that would reveal their hearts.
Adam blames Eve for his sin and also God! What excuses are we making for our sin? Do you place blame on others or even God?
Eve takes somewhat responsibility but still softens the effect by saying Satan deceived her. This may be true, but God desires that we take full responsibility for what we did wrong. We cannot blame Satan. He can only lie to us and not force us to sin.
The serpent/Satan is cursed in a symbolic way of going to be brought down to ashes (symbol of defeat) by the woman’s offspring/seed Jesus the Messiah! The verse (3:15) sets up the whole stage of the Bible. Satan now knew God’s plan to bring the Messiah through Eve’s seed and he would now try to stop the lineage through the rest of the Bible.
I believe v.16 and later in v.20 prove that Eve had many children. Verse 20 (NIV84), the word “would become” can be translated “was” as most other translations put. Adam and Eve had many children in the Garden. That is why v.16 says her pains would “increase” in child-birth implying she had, had children before! This is where Cain would later get his wife. Cain was the first man I believe she had.
The curse was not only upon man and woman but the entire earth. Any sign of death, weeds in the ground, etc. is all because of Adam brining sin and death into the world (Romans 5). Woman would now desire a man, and the man would rule over his wife. Equality was found in the Garden prior to the fall.
The tree of life had to be guarded. God was worried about them eating from it in a sinful-state since they would live forever and thus sin would be dominate forever! The end when he covers them with animal skins shows that God knew evil prior to the fall. He never practiced evil but he knew of it from Satan’s rebellion and now man had this knowledge as well. Anytime we want to be like God it spells disaster. It is what Satan wanted and he fell, and it was what appealed to Adam and Eve and man fell. How is your pride?
Interestingly, Adam was told to go out of the Garden where he was originally formed from the ground and to work the ground.
For the first time in the Bible we see Cherubim. They are one of five classes of angels found in the bible. They protect the throne room of God and here one is placed to protectEden. I personally believe Eden was wiped away after the Flood of Noah.
Genesis 4
Why was Cain’s sacrifice not acceptable to God? We saw earlier that God taught Adam and Eve to sacrifice animals by covering them with skins God made. Hebrews9:22 teaches us that without blood there can’t be forgiveness of sins. Adam and Eve and their children now knew about the coming Messiah and every sacrifice would now pre-figure this. Able sacrificed from the livestock (blood). It cost something! Cain just gave from the ground that was already cursed. Cursed offerings won’t remove the curse! A commentary I read pointed out that Numbers 18:12-14 and Leviticus 27 teach that crops were only to be used to support the ministry and priesthood and never as atonement for sin. Abel’s was one of faith (see Hebrews 11:4) in the coming Messiah and a blood sacrifice. It was a costly grace Abel received. Cain’s was a cheap grace. Since the consequence of sin is death, something must die for atonement.
Cain allowed anger to form in his heart because he wanted God’s favor. Religion started the first murder and has been the source of wars from this point on yet God wants a relationship. The result of anger, jealousy, and bitterness was murder. We must grasp that mortal sins begin in the heart. Lust produces adultery. Anger produces murder. Greed produces theft. What is in your heart?
Cain’s sin was obvious because his face was downcast. It is important that we notice who is down in the fellowship because it could be an indicator of sin. Even God being the great discipler ask him questions to draw him out even after the murder.
It seems there was a tabernacle at this time or a place of worship. In 4:7 it says sin was crouching at the door (most likely door of tabernacle). In 4:16 Cain is driven away from God’s presence most likely in a tabernacle.
One thing I love about reading these chapters is seeing God’s heart and compassion. He took care of Adam and Eve even after they sinned. He also wanted Cain to be accepted and told him what he needed to do. Master his sin! Are you mastering your sin or has it mastered you? Even after the murder, God still protects Cain.
One note is that God’s presence is lost when we are in sin.
There was no death penalty for Cain since the law hadn’t been given yet. There wouldn’t be one until chapter 9.
By4:14 Adam was 130 years old (4:25,5:3). At a very moderate rate of increase there could have been 500,000 people by this time. Cain built a city (4:17). Every son of man had sons and daughters and started branches of the race (4:15-24; 5:1-32; 6:1-2). Cain took his wife from either the children had in the Garden (see above) or could have easily taken one from children after the fall.
v.22 is interesting because a child was named after Cain. In Jewish culture this met someone had a good reputation. Cain most likely was a good person after his sin even though there were severe consequences for his sin.
Genesis 5
This whole chapter shows the line in which the second Adam (Jesus!) would come. Gen. 2:4 shows the family history of the heavens and the earth and here we have man’s family history.
Enoch didn’t start walking with God until Methuselah was born. Something about Methuselah caused him to turn to God. Upon further study Methuselah’s name means “when he is dead it shall come”. When he died, the flood came! Enoch new God’s judgment was coming! Methuselah along with Adam lived during the same time and Josephus says they knew of the coming Flood. Everyone was depraved and in sin except a few.
Enoch, not Methuselah is the oldest man in the bible. Since he has not died yet and Hebrews 11:7 says all men must die at some point. He would be around 5,500 years old today. He walked with God so closely God took him in bodily form to Heaven. Many believe he will die at the resurrection just to be resurrected with his new spiritual body with the rest of the saints.
PRACTICALS:
- There are consequences to sin. Confess any known sin and don’t blame anyone else, God, or Satan.
- Now that you know how Satan tempts men, how can you up your battle plan to overcome temptation?
- What kind of offering are you giving God in your life? One like Cain’s of cheap grace or a costly grace like Abel’s?
- How does understanding the fall of man and God’s plan of redemption help you make sense of the world we live in?
- Please post your thoughts and remember tomorrow is Genesis 6 through 9 as we read through the Bible in a year together!
Mike Patterson
