Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

What should I learn from this chapter?

• Keep your hands to yourself
• Keep your eyes on the road
• Stay a “head” of the enemy
• Pick ‘n’ choose your “nos”

Genesis 3

• The eyes are that which desired the fruit from the tree of good and evil.
• The hands are that which Eve used to retrieve the fruit.
• The head of the serpent is that which the seed of Eve will destroy.
• The serpent was a heel for getting Adam and Eve doomed.
• The NOs are the words that neither Adam nor Eve chose to use.

The Temptation and Fall of Man

Genesis 3:¹ Now the serpent was more cunning (crafty, manipulative) than any beast of the field which the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) God (‘ĕlōhîm) had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God (‘ĕlōhîm) indeed said (Did He really really say?), ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”

• The Many Faces of the Serpent, Satan
  
  • Satan is Known As: A Dragon, Leviathan, Sea Monster, Crocodile, Rahab, Serpent, and Beast from the Sea … or any reptile that coils or twists (twisting truth or reality).
    
• Satan wooed Eve into tasting the fruit from the tree, and Eve MAN-ipulated Adam.

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Genesis 3:^2-3 And the woman said to (answered) the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God (‘ĕlōhîm) has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”

• “How often God is blamed for all the suffering in the world. It’s like praising Satan for allowing all the good that happens.” ~E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly,

• Why should God stop all the suffering in the world? Every time He does, man uses God’s blessings in immoral ways. God does not want to be an enabler of evil.
• Suffering teaches empathy, people with empathy become nurses to those who suffer leading them to Jesus who heals.

Genesis 3:^4-5 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. ⁵ For God (‘ĕlōhîm) knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God (‘ĕlōhîm), knowing good and evil.”

Genesis 3:⁶ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

• Sin as a metaphor: It is any indulgence or pleasure that is considered illegal, immoral or self destructive.
• Only God, who exists in all dimensions, can determine what is good or what is bad for man, what is right or what is wrong. Only God can see the consequences of choices, especially in the spiritual realms. Wisdom is making the best choice, therefore; since man cannot see everything in every dimension wisdom can ONLY come from God.
  • The beginning of wisdom is the acknowledgment of God.

Genesis 3:^7a Then the eyes of both of them were opened,

Ironically, having one’s eyes opened means to see “Truth” as it really is, and yet it is this “eye opening” event of sin that brings about man’s spiritual blindness.

Genesis 3:^7b and they knew that they were naked (vulnerable); and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

• They needed a “covering” for their sin.
  
• The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil opens men eyes to evil. It is the Law – unnecessary for those who are innocent but fatally toxic to the rebellious, leading to death.

• “As a very young child, about four years old, without the knowledge of evil people I remember the horror I felt when I overheard adults discussing the murder of a child; then I knew about evil; the world I believed in no longer existed. My eyes were opened and I became traumatized. I knew I was vulnerable to being killed by another without the power to protect myself. At that moment I understood the sin nature of man and the Tree of Good and Evil.”

Ezekiel 31:³ Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon …⁹ I made it beautiful with a multitude of branches, So that all the trees of Eden envied it, that were in the garden of God.’

This indicates that Eden covered the Mideast, including Lebanon. The “Garden of Eden” is speculated to be Jerusalem, the place God chose to dwell among men.

Adam and Eve were “driven out of the Garden in Eden” and cherubim guarded the Garden in the east to keep them from returning.

East of Eden is a place of worldliness, like Nod.

Genesis 3:⁸ And they heard the sound of the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) God (‘ĕlōhîm) walking in the garden in the cool (literally: Spirit) of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God (Yᵊhōvâ ‘ĕlōhîm) among the trees of the garden.

• Random Thoughts about Adam and Eve:

• God walked and talked with Adam and Eve in the garden. When Jesus rose from the dead He is referred to as “The second Adam” and He also talked to a woman in a garden.
  
• What was the “sound” of the Lord walking in the garden? My mind imagines that with one bite of the fruit, spring is finished and summer ends as Adam and Eve try to hide their sins with fig leaves which are still green but about to wither and die. The season of “The Fall of Man” becomes metaphoric for the beginning of “Autumn” as leaves on the trees dry up, falling to the ground. The trees are nude, revealing a landscape of unknown emptiness. Adam and Eve hear the sound of rustling leaves being stepped on, crushed under the sound of the footprint of their Creator. The winter of pain begins.
  
• The first commandment of God is in Genesis, the first book of the Bible “Do NOT eat of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden”.
  The last commandment of God is in Revelation, the last book of the Bible, “Do NOT take the mark of the beast” Rev 14:11.
  
• The First letter of the Hebrew Alphabet in Genesis 1:1 is the letter “B”. The Last letter of the Alphabet in Revelation 22:21 is “N” from the Hebrew word “AMEN”. In Hebrew “BN” is the word for “Son”. Everything between the covers of the Bible is about “The Son”.

GENESIS BEGINS WITH MAN’S SIN. REVELATION ENDS WITH THE “MAN OF SIN”

JESUS’ ASSIGNMENT BEGINS IN GENESIS: I John 3:8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.

SATAN’S ASSIGNMENT IN REVELATION: INDWELLING THE ANTICHRIST: II Thessalonians 2:3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,

Genesis 3:⁹ Then the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) God (‘ĕlōhîm) called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”

Genesis 3:¹⁰ So he (Adam) said, “I heard Your (God’s) voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

Genesis 3:¹¹ And He said, “Who told you that you were naked?

• When Satan tells us we are naked and vulnerable we fear. Is God going to protect us or not? It’s time for faith. He either will or He won’t. He either is or He isn’t.

Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”

Genesis 3:¹² Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”

• Put yourself in Adam’s shoes. He was told if he ate of that tree he would die. He has never seen death…but he is about to.
  He is about to watch God slaughter an animal to make tunics for them.
  If biblical patterns hold true, it would be a lamb, a male lamb of the first year. A shadow of things to come.

Genesis 3:¹³ And the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) God (‘ĕlōhîm) said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

• The serpent took me out to dinner, whispered in my ear, and deceived me.

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Genesis 3:¹⁴ So the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) God (‘ĕlōhîm) said to the serpent:

“Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.

To believe Satan’s lies is to get down to Satan’s level, crawling through life and eating his dust.

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Genesis 3:¹⁵ And I (God) will put enmity (war) between you (Satan) and the woman (from the line of Eve all the way to Mary),

And between your (Satan’s) seed (descendants) and her (Eve’s) Seed;

He (Jesus, Eve’s descendant from the virgin Mary) shall bruise your (the serpent’s) head (a deadly blow), and you (the serpent) shall bruise His heel (a non-deadly vain attempt to kill).”

Genesis 3:¹⁶ To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.”

• Two curses: Pain in birth and pain in marriage.

Genesis 3:^17a Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’:

Genesis 3:17^b “Cursed is the ground for your sake (because of you);

In toil (hard work, sweat) you shall eat of it (from it) all the days of your life.

Genesis 3:¹⁸ Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,

Genesis 3:¹⁸ And you shall eat the herb of the field.

• Didn’t they eat the herb of the field before they sinned?
  • Genesis 1:29 And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.
    Before the fall the ground yielded its fruit gladly in the same way Eve yielded to Adam gladly. However, once sin enters, abuse enters. Now, this same herb which gave nourishment becomes a curse, and now, herbs, or vegetables, are used in scripture to symbolize the world and the sin of the world which is “worldliness”
  .
  • The curse isn’t reversed until Revelation 22:3 when there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him; the Messianic Kingdom of a 1,000 year reign.
    
    • Isaiah 11:6 “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, The calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them.
    • Isaiah 65:25The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, The lion shall eat straw like the ox, And dust shall bet he serpent’s food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,” Says the Lord.
    • Romans 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
      
  • By contrast, the fruit of the vine, above the ground, is used symbolically of that which is spiritual.
    • Examples:
      • The Jews wanted to return to Egypt (symbolic of the world and worldliness) to eat their leeks and onions.
        • Deuteronomy 11:10 For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden;
      • King Ahab and Jezebel killed Naboth in order to turn his vineyard into a vegetable garden.
        • I Kings 21:2 So Ahab spoke to Naboth, saying, “Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near, next to my house; and for it I will give you a vineyard better than it. Or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its worth in money.”
        • Note: Ahab wanted to convert a spiritual vineyard into a worldly garden, (symbolically speaking)
      • On the other hand, fruit is like the Spirit of God, the fruit of the Spirit brings forth life.Nehemiah 9:25 And they took strong cities and a rich land, and possessed houses full of all goods, Cisterns already dug, vineyards, olive groves, And fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and grew fat, and delighted themselves in Your great goodness.

Genesis 3:¹⁹ In the sweat of your face (stress) you shall eat bread (literally: bread/meat/food) till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust (red clay) you are, and to dust (red clay) you shall return.”

• In Hebrew the root of “adom” or “Adam” is “dom” meaning “red” for either red wine or red blood. By adding an “A” to “dam or dom” you have man.
  • Example: Jesus would be speaking Hebrew during the Last Supper when He said:
    Matthew 26:28 For this is My blood (dom) of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. (Jesus, holding the cup, was speaking on two levels. The listener would hear either a cup of red wine or a cup of red blood).

Genesis 3:²⁰ And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.

Genesis 3:²¹ Also for Adam and his wife the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) God (‘ĕlōhîm) made tunics of skin, and clothed (covered) them.

See Topic: The Three Passovers
See Topic: The Patterns of Passovers

Jesus is more powerful to save than Satan is to destroy.

Genesis 3:²² Then the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) God (‘ĕlōhîm) said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us (plural),

Genesis 3:²² to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— ²³ therefore the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) God (‘ĕlōhîm) sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.

Genesis 3:²⁴ So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim (angels) at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life (vs the tree of good and evil).

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Symbolic Dictionary for Genesis 3

Eyes Opened: To see something unseen
Fig Leaves: Temporary Protection, like the law
Fruit: From Above
Ground: World, Worldliness, Base
Herbs: Vegetables, Of the Ground, Worldly
Man: The Physical Representation of a marriage (whether good or evil)
Naked: Vulnerable, Needing Protection
Sea: Sea of People masses flowing like water
Seed: Fruit of the Parent, Descendant
Serpent: Lying Predator, Satan
Skin: Covering
Thorns: Curses
Trees: Men/Nations
Tree of Life: Giver of Eternal Life
Tree of Good and Evil: Choices – Obedience vs Disobedience, The Law
Woman: The Spiritual Representation of a marriage (whether good or evil)

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