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?

• One little mistake changed everything. Just one mistake. What happens when we make one little mistake?
• When man sinned, he fell from being Complete (a symbolic number 7) to being Incomplete and needy (the symbolic number of man, the number 6). Sin is the end of being complete. Adam and Eve became In-Complete.

Genesis 3

• About the title: When Sin is Ended, the Salvation is Complete. Until then, man is In-complete.

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’?”

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.’ ”

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:^6-7 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.

• The first prophetic words uttered in the history of mankind were spoken by God in the Garden of Eden after the disobedience of Adam and Eve.
  
  THE PROPHECY: And I will put enmity (hostility) Between you (Satan) and the woman, And between your seed (The Scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ Day) and her seed (Jesus); He (Eve’s seed, Jesus) shall bruise (mar, crush) you (Satan) on the head, And you (Satan) shall bruise him (Jesus the Christ) on the heel.” [Gen 3:15]
  
  The summary of Adam and Eve’s disobedience was this: they were free to eat from any tree in the garden with one exception, they were NOT to eat the tree in the middle of the garden. If they ate from it, they would die. The serpent, indwelt by Lucifer (Satan), tempted Eve, she ate, and she gave it to her husband Adam, and he ate.
  
  Lucifer was God’s archangel who had rebelled, convincing Eve that she should indeed eat and become like the Almighty, knowing good and evil. Hence, the name of the tree in the middle of the garden is now referred to as The Tree of Good and Evil.
  
  After sinning, Adam and Eve must have woken to an incurable “sin hangover” suffering such regrets that are immeasurable, except perhaps by the tears of the ages… at the end of the ages.
  
  How many times in each of our own lives have we made choices which caused us to cry out, “Oh, Dear God. What have I done!” -The woman on the Dr. Phil show who cheated on her husband once and contracted AIDS – the father who would give anything to go back to the time when he made the decision to desert his wife and children—or the mother who sobered up to realize what her addiction had done to her children.
  
  Yet even these examples cannot compare to what must have been the unimaginable regrets of Adam and Eve. The consequences of their choices were dire: the introduction of sin into the bloodline of the human race, immediate spiritual death, and ultimate physical death. All in trade for one moment’s fleeting pleasure. (Lucifer, also known as Satan, is called a “merchandiser” throughout scripture. He trades on the weakness of men’s souls.) If Adam and Eve had taken the time to consider the long-term impact of their sin on all future generations. Just as man does today, they were operating in the “here and now” lure of immediate pleasure.
  
  Like their descendant Esau, they traded their birthright for an immediate “appetite” of “pleasure”.
  
  …They only made one mistake.
  
  After all, when Eve first ate of the fruit, nothing around her had changed. Not a leaf was out of place (yet). That is… Until the untils:
  
  • Until shame overtook her and in futility she attempted to cover herself with fig leaves.
  • Until the ground grew hard and ungiving.
  • Until hunger pains gnawed at her stomach.
  • Until the labor pains of birth gripped her body and folded it like a clenched fist.
  • Until her eldest son, Cain, murdered his younger brother and her second son, Abel.

• Sin, like corrupted DNA, passes from generation to generation. A perfectly holy God cannot tolerate the presence of sin. He therefore withdrew from his creation without abandoning it. He left Adam and Eve with the prophetic hope of Genesis 3:15. Buried within this prophecy is the promise of a coming Redeemer. The Old Testament is resplendent with descriptions of this coming savior. He is called the Arm of God, the Branch, the Cornerstone, the Standard of God, descriptions written between 800 and 1,000 years before the time of Jesus the Christ (the Messiah, the one foretold).
  
  See: Topic: Prophecies Concerning Jesus

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

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

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 among the trees of the garden.

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?

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.”

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.”

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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.

• The belly is where the appetite is fulfilled.

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 and you (the serpent) shall bruise His heel.”

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.”

Genesis 3:¹⁷ 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 3:¹⁸ “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.
Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,
And you shall eat the herb of the field.

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 you are, and to dust (red clay) you shall return.”

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 God (Yᵊhōvâ ‘ĕlōhîm) made tunics of skin, and clothed (covered) them.

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

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

Eyes Opened: To see things 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 man in marriage (whether good or evil)

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