A Word About Getting Off to a Rocky Start

Today in our new series “Family Business,” we will see how the first couple got off to a rocky start as I comment on Genesis 2 and 3. Let’s begin by reading Genesis 2:15-25:

The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.” 18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper as his complement.” 19 So the Lord God formed out of the ground every wild animal and every bird of the sky, and brought each to the man to see what he would call it. And whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the sky, and to every wild animal; but for the man no helper was found as his complement. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to come over the man, and he slept. God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh at that place. 22 Then the Lord God made the rib He had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 And the man said: This one, at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called “woman,” for she was taken from man. 24 This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh. 25 Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame.

My wife and I dated for over three and a half years before we got married, and we were one of the last couples among our friends who wed. A couple of years before that, my best friend married a young lady; they were both members of our church and my wife and I both participated in their wedding ceremony. All seemed well, that is until they left for their honeymoon.

First, on the way to a family-owned beach house they suffered car troubled, and it was late in the afternoon before they arrived. Next, when they opened the door of the house, they were met with a horrific odor. A freezer full of locally caught fish had malfunctioned and all the catch was now rotting in the summer’s heat. After several hours of smelly effort, they cleaned out the freezer. After taking showers, they decided to go out to eat and let the beach house air out.

The only place open at that late hour was a fast-food restaurant. As they ordered their food, they shyly told the counterman that they had just been married. As they did so, my friend’s wedding ring slipped off his finger, fell to the floor, rolled the length of the restaurant, and then it fell under the crack at the bottom of a door. The counterman just shook his head, and commented, “Well, that didn’t last too long, did it?”

Our friends are still married today, but there is no denying that they got off to a rocky start. As rough as their marriage began, it was nothing compared to the very first couple, Adam and Eve. They, too, got off to a rocky start, and their experience still echoes down the ages until today.

Ground Rules:

Every ballpark has ground rules which address the specific characteristics of the diamond. They exist to make sure both teams are treated fairly. The home team will play there for at least half of their games, and they will come to understand the peculiarities of the ballpark very well, but the visiting teams, not so much. Ground rules prevent those who know too much from taking advantage of those who don’t know enough.

God knew that Adam and Eve were innocent in the truest sense of the word. They were unaware of Lucifer’s rebellion against God in Heaven. They were unaware of God casting Satan and one third of the angels out from Heaven. They were unaware that the Devil would counter-punch God where he thought he could hurt Him the worst, by attacking Adam and Eve, God’s most precious creation, and the highest manifestation of His divine love.  Therefore, God set ground rules for Adam and Eve.

These ground rules were quite generous. They could eat freely of any tree of the garden. No tilling, no pruning, and no harvesting was required. Basically, it was a 24/7, 365, all you can eat, free buffet with only one restriction: they were only forbidden to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. That was their only limitation.

Once people know the reality of evil and violence, they are never the same. Their innocence is lost, and it can never be fully regained. I know this to be the case by personal experience. I once witnessed the aftermath of an accident in New Orleans, in which a pedestrian had been hit by a semi-truck; I will not elaborate on what I saw, but that image is still with me! The ground rules that God put into place were not punitive, but protective; yet they also came with penalties for violating them.

In baseball, a play that results in a violation of a ground rule might prevent a run from being scored or an out from being recorded. The penalty for violating God’s ground rules is much more severe, because the risk to spiritual life is so much greater than the result of a game. God was not playing around when He established these ground rules, for the wages of violating them was death. As Paul reminded the church in Romans, “For the wages of sin, is death . . .” (Romans 6:23a). 

God sets up boundaries (temporal and eternal) for our own good (temporal and eternal). When we violate them, we grievously wound ourselves! God was serious, and Adam and Eve should have taken Him at His Word, but unfortunately for humanity, they didn’t, as we will see in Genesis 3. Let’s begin this chapter by reading Genesis 3:1-5:

Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. 3 But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’” 4 “No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God. knowing good and evil.”

Satan’s Lies: 

Satan is the author of lies, and in this passage, we see him using his deceitful cunning to his best advantage. He took the form of a superior creature to deceive Eve.

Today serpents and snakes are almost universally reviled, although I did have a boss once who liked snakes.  When snakes were created, like all creatures, they were good. They were the most cunning, crafty, and subtle of all beasts. These are not bad traits; the serpent was not condemned before Genesis 3 for having these characteristics. The serpent was like the cartoon character that says: “I can’t help myself; I’m just drawn this way.” It was Satan who took over this creature to ruin it, and all humanity as well.

Not only did Satan co-opt and corrupt a superior animal, but he also used superior tactics. In verse 1 he used insinuation to pry open Eve’s heart. In verse 4 he made inflammatory but unfounded accusations to ignite Eve’s emotions and to incite her to resentment. Both of these tactics attacked God’s justice, authority, and power.

This was not the only time we can observe the Devil using these techniques in the Bible. He tried to show that he was superior to Jesus in Matthew 4 by use of these same tactics of temptation. He, of course, was defeated by Jesus, but since he was successful with Adam and Eve, we can assume that he will use these same techniques against us:

• The temptation to misuse power for our own gain (Greed)
• The temptation to be spectacular to gain fame (Gaudy).
• The temptation to seize power (Become God).

We face these same temptations every day of our lives. We need to see how the first humans dealt with temptation, and measure our own responses, and results, by theirs.

Next, let’s continue by reading verses 2-7:

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. 3 But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’”4 “No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

Humanity’s Fall: 

What we see next is like a train wreck. There is nothing you can do about it, and you know the results will be horrific, but you can’t take your eyes away from the disaster as it unfolds.  

The fall began with a faulty answer to Satan by Eve. She omitted the word “freely”.  She added the words “not . . .  touch it.” She softened the phrase, “you will certainly die.” Each of these changes distorted God’s Word and His revealed will.

In contrast, when Jesus was tempted, His reply did not alter God’s Word. His replies were quoted Scripture. He did not add or take away from the Word. He did not miss God’s revealed will!

In the end, both Adam and Eve succumbed to the appeal of the forbidden fruit. It appealed to the eye: it looked good! It appealed to the tongue: it tasted good! It appealed to the ego: it felt good! When confronted with such temptation, we would do well to remember 1 John 2:15-17, which warns us,

Do not love the world or the things that belong to the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. 16 For everything that belongs to the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s lifestyle—is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does God’s will remains forever.

The bottom line here is this: when we ignore the Word of God, and when we ignore His revealed will, we will get in trouble!

Next, let’s read verses 7 through 19:

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze,  and they hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard You in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” 11 Then He asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” 12 Then the man replied, “The woman You gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.” 13 So the Lord God asked the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “It was the serpent. He deceived me, and I ate.” 14 Then the Lord God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than any livestock and more than any wild animal. You will move on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life. 15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel. 16 He said to the woman: I will intensify your labor pains; you will bear children in anguish. Your desire will be for your husband, yet he will rule over you. 17 And He said to Adam, “Because you listened to your wife’s voice and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’: The ground is cursed because of you. You will eat from it by means of painful labor all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground, since you were taken from it. For you are dust, and you will return to dust.”  

Tragic Consequences:

The consequences of the fall of humanity were tragic to the point of being heart-breaking! 

First, we see the beginning of shame! 

• They were ashamed of their nakedness.  
• They hid from God.  
• They made excuses. 
• They played the blame game.

Just about the only shame response that we don’t see here is substance abuse, but that is only because alcohol hadn’t been invented yet!

Next, we see the advent of death! 

• Death entered our world.
• Death entered humanity.
• Death entered God’s economy against His expressed will.

The penalty for sin is death and so the world had been altered, ruined; it has never been the same again.

We also see the first judgment!

• The serpent would be cursed and reviled: for many people, the only good snake is a dead snake!
• The woman: she would suffer travail in childbirth.
• The man: he must work and sweat.
• The couple: they would experience a struggle for power and respect.

God is love, and His love is perfect, and as Hebrews 12:5-6 tells us:

And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: My son, do not take the Lord’s discipline lightly or faint when you are reproved by Him, 6 for the Lord disciplines the one He loves and punishes every son He receives.

For every sin, there is an eternal penalty: death. There is also a temporal consequence as well.  Our salvation voids the penalty, but it does not void the consequences.

Finally, let’s consider verses 20-24:

20 Adam named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living. 21 The Lord God made clothing out of skins for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them. 22 The Lord God said, “Since man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.

God’s Love:

God has expressed His love by creating the universe and by creating people and allowing them to live in it. His response to the fall of humanity was also loving:

• He killed to cover their nakedness.
• He prevented them living forever in their sin.
• He protected the garden with an angel.
• He prepared a plan for their future redemption.

Even this early, God had a plan to redeem fallen humanity. He would send His Only Begotten Son to the earth to walk among us again. His Son would live a perfect, holy life, and He would die to pay the penalty for our sin. Then, if we took His perfect life and perfect sacrifice as our own, we’d be restored to the fellowship and rest of God.

Today, God would have us take heed of what Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 10:11-13, which both disciplines us and encourages us at the same time:

Now these things happened to them as examples, and they were written as a warning to us, on whom the ends of the ages have come. 12 So, whoever thinks he stands must be careful not to fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to humanity. God is faithful, and He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation He will also provide a way of escape so that you are able to bear it.

Conclusion:

Consider the tragedy we just witnessed:

• God’s creation ruined by death and destruction.
• God’s Word and will ignored and God shown disrespect. 
• God’s highest and best work abasing themselves for the cause of the flesh.
• God’s loved ones suffering banishment and multiplied troubles

But consider also the love of God we have just witnessed as well. Can we deny Him His way with us, today?

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt