The Old Testament for Christians, pt. 3 - A Study by Scott Sperling [Here we continue a series that deals with references to Christ, to the Christian life, to Christian doctrine, etc., as found in the Old Testament writings. A goal of these studies is to convince ourselves that the Bible is one unified book: a single book, with unified themes, and a consistent Theology.] The Temptation and Sin of Adam and Eve - Genesis 3:1-6 1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” 4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. In this study, we will look at the Fall of Adam and Eve, the event that brought sin into the world, as Paul points out in Rom. 5:12: “…sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way, death came to all people, because all sinned…” And so, the Fall, through sin, clearly affects us all, because sin brought death. If we study the Fall, then we must also study sin. The topic of sin, is not a comfortable one. It’s not a topic that, say, you look forward to hearing about. In fact, quite possibly, as you read this, and see that I am going to write about sin, you may be tempted to skip this study altogether. It’s not a topic that we are normally gung-ho to hear about, or read about. On the contrary, we would like to avoid the topic, as much as possible. In fact, there are many Christian churches that do their best to avoid the topic, because the demographics show that people just don’t like to hear about sin. But this is a wrong thing to do. It is absolutely wrong for a Christian Church to avoid the topic of sin, because we cannot understand the Gospel of Christ, without understanding the seriousness of sin. In a Christian church, the topic of sin should be a familiar one. We should know about sin. We should be reminded that we are sinners. We should be reminded that we live in a sinful, fallen world. Why must this be taught? Because, as Christians, we are to proclaim the Gospel – that is, “The Good News.” But there is no “Good News”, if there’s not also Bad News. How can you understand the “Good News” of the Gospel, and how the Gospel can positively affect your life and fate, if you don’t also fully understand the “Bad News” of the punishment that you deserve for your sin? To fully appreciate the Gospel, to fully appreciate the great gift that we have been given through Christ’s sacrifice for us, we must know and understand the dire punishment we face, the dire punishment we deserve, because we have sinned. And so, on Sunday mornings, we must, at times, speak of sin. We must speak also of the righteousness demanded by a holy and perfectly Righteous God. We must understand the hatred that God has for sin, and that we, as sinners, face the punishment of God because of our sin. Passages about God’s righteousness, holiness, and hatred of sin are ubiquitous in the Word of God. The Psalmist announces the vastness and far-reaching nature of God’s righteousness: “Your righteousness God reaches to the heavens” (Ps. 71:19). The Psalmist also teaches us that “righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne” (Ps. 97:2). In other words, God reigns because of His righteous nature. The Psalmist teaches of the eternity of God’s righteousness: “Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them. Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and His righteousness endures forever” (Ps. 111:2-3). Some erroneously believe that God’s hatred of sin has diminished in the New Testament times, that somehow God is more tolerant of sin. This is absolutely wrong, for “God’s righteousness endures forever.” God’s perfect righteousness extends to and permeates all His actions: “He is the Rock, His works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he” (Deut. 32:4). God’s righteousness is inseparable from His love: “The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love” (Psalms 33:5). There is nothing of unrighteousness in God: “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). And we could go on and on… And so, it is established, throughout the Bible, the importance of righteousness to God. In fact, the major theme of the Bible is wrapped up with God’s righteousness: God is righteous; man is sinful; how can they be reconciled? This is the story arc of the Bible: man sins; man wanders; man is reconciled to God through the sacrifice of Christ. This, in fact, is story arc of every human life. We fall, we sin, early and often, destroying our fellowship with God. We walk in the wilderness, in our sin, just like the children of Israel walked in the wilderness. We wrestle with God, like Jacob wrestled with God in the wilderness. We rebel against God, over and over again, like the children of Israel rebelled against God, over and over. Then, at some point in our lives, we come to a crossroads where we must make a decision: We can choose to be reconciled to God through Christ, or we can choose to continue in our way of sin. We can choose to live our lives following God’s precepts, or we can choose to invent our own “right” way of living (right only in our own eyes). We can choose to accept the great gift of life, and the gift of reconciliation to God, offered through Christ’s sacrifice, or we can choose to seek salvation in our own ways, a salvation of our own invention (which will ultimately fail to live up to the exacting standards of God’s righteousness). And so, the Bible has this story arc, human history has this story arc, and every human life has this same story arc: Sin, Struggle, then either Doom or Salvation. The significance of the Fall cannot be overstated. It has affected all aspects of our lives. In our careers, we toil under the curse of the Fall. As a society, we live in strife, because of the Fall. In our bodies, we suffer pain and sickness, because of the Fall. Even our leisure-time activities are influenced by the Fall: the arts are expressions of man’s anguish as a result of man’s fallen state; even sports and competitions are the result of the Fall of man, as athletes are driven by man’s desire to exalt himself over others. The Fall has seriously affected our ability to relate to one another and to live at peace with one another. Most importantly, the Fall has seriously affected our ability to relate to God and to live at peace with Him. The history of the Fall, as described in the book of Genesis, begins this way: “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals” (vs. 1). Satan uses a serpent, a pre-cursor of sorts to what we know as the snake, to tempt Eve. We know that it is Satan who is working through the serpent from other places in the Bible. John ties Satan to the serpent in the book of Revelation: “…that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the world astray…” (Rev. 12:9; see also Rev. 20:2). So, presumably, Satan possessed the serpent, and spoke through it, in some way. We know from the New Testament, in the time of Christ, that demons possessed humans, and talked to Christ through them. We know also that they can possess animals. In Matt. 8:28-33, Jesus freed men from demon- possession, and cast the demon spirits into a nearby herd of pigs. There’s no indication in Genesis 3, though, that Eve knew she was speaking to anyone but the serpent (presumably, Eve knew nothing of Satan or demons, and the like). And so, throughout history, and even now, many are tempted by Satan, not knowing who he is, or that he’s speaking through others. But that it was Satan, and not just a serpent, did not lessen Eve’s guilt. Sin is sin. The strength and cunning of the method of temptation does not in any way excuse us from falling into sin. The subtlety, the cunning and the guile of Satan is demonstrated in how he tempted Eve: “He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, “you must not eat from any tree in the garden?”’” (vs. 1). Satan did not just say outrightly, “Eve, disobey God.” He drew her in with craftiness, when she was alone and susceptible. Satan began by questioning God’s Word: “Did God really say?…” Satan well knows that the source of all sin is unbelief, and so right away, he sows seeds of unbelief. “Unbelief is the primitive cause and source of all sin, and whenever the devil can succeed, either in getting away the word from the heart, or in falsifying it, and thus bringing the soul to unbelief, he can easily do in the end what he pleases” [Luther]. If we truly believed God’s word, if every minute we truly believed that God is a perfectly righteous, and perfectly holy God, who hates sin, and that each and every sin deserves death, then we would not sin. But our faith is imperfect. Our faith falters when our personal desire is involved. The implication of the question of Satan, “Did God really say?” was that God was being somewhat unreasonable by commanding that Adam and Eve not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The tone of Satan’s question was as if he asked, Did God really make that unreasonable prohibition? And so Satan, even here and now, often tempts us in the same way. Did God really say that you must turn the other cheek? Did God really say that you must not lie? Did God really say that you must not cheat on your taxes? Did God really say that you must not commit adultery? Did God really say that you must not divorce, in this day and age?... etc . The world is constantly questioning God’s commands, God’s clearly stated law. We tend to snap at such doubts, just as a cat snaps at a mouse, hoping that the doubts provide an excuse to dive into sin. We must remember that the doubt of God’s word leads to death. So, Satan here, in order to lead up to the temptation of eating of the fruit, tempts Eve first to doubt God’s word, to doubt God’s command, to mistrust God, to weaken the force of the prohibition. Satan also here is trying to sow the seed of discontentment in Eve. Paul wrote to Timothy: “Godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Tim. 6:6). We are much more susceptible to sin, after the seed of discontentment has been sown. In a discontented state, we say to ourselves: I’m not happy. I should be happy. I deserve to be happy… And then we sin, thinking that sin will bring happiness. We should strive to appreciate all the great things God has given us, rather than being tempted into discontent by focusing on things that we don’t have. Eve replied to the serpent: “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die’” (vs. 2). Eve here purportedly repeats to the serpent the command that God gave to her concerning eating from the tree. Did she repeat the command correctly? Let’s look at the actual command of God: “…You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die” (Gen. 2:16-17). Did Eve get it right? Not quite. She added the words, “…and you must not touch it…” Well, so what, you may say. What’s wrong with adding prohibitions to God’s command (you may ask)? Here’s what’s wrong with it: it misrepresents God. It makes God out to be more “picky” than He really is. It depicts God as being unreasonable with His command. We can see from Eve’s incorrect restatement of the command, that Eve was already succumbing to the temptation of the serpent, because what the serpent said in verse 1 was meant to suggest that God was not being reasonable by commanding them not to eat from the tree. Now, one might say, “Well, Eve had good intentions by adding to God’s command. After all, if she didn’t touch the fruit, then she couldn’t eat the fruit.” Yes, it’s all well and good for Eve to set a boundary on herself, in order to help her carry out the command. However, we are not, under any circumstances, to misrepresent what God said. We are not to take away from God’s commands, nor are we to add to them: “Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you” (Deut. 4:2). God’s law is perfect. It is not for us to subtract from it, nor even to add to it, no matter how well-intentioned we are. Apparently, Eve had convinced herself that God did say not to touch it, and the fact that she added to God’s command was exploited by Satan to get her to doubt the reasonableness of God, as we see in the next verses. Satan’s next assault is in vss. 4 and 5: “‘You will not certainly die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” So here, Satan goes from sowing doubt on the reasonableness of God and His command, to direct denial of what God said: “…you will not certainly die…” said the serpent. And then to support his contention, Satan impugns God’s motives for making the command. Satan claims that God’s motive for making the command is not for the good of Adam and Eve, but rather that God wants to withhold something from them: “…for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Satan, in effect, is saying: Look what you’re missing out on! God just doesn’t want you to be happy! God doesn’t want you to have knowledge! God doesn’t want you to reach your full potential! And of course, Satan uses these exact same techniques, these exact same temptations here and now, in this day and age. “Look what you’re missing out on! This won’t really harm you!” So note the progression: sowing doubt, directly denying what God said, impugning God’s motives, and then Satan just outright lies , in saying: “…you will be like God, knowing good and evil…” Satan claims that there will be no harm done by eating the fruit. More than that, Satan claims that Eve will actually get a benefit from eating the fruit. He suggests that Eve won’t be “under God” anymore. Eve will be like God, not under God. The suggestion is that Eve would have no more need to listen to God, for she herself will know all about good and evil. Eve was affected by Satan’s words. They caused her to look at the tree differently, as we see in the first part of verse 6: “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.” This is a fascinating verse, because it ties to other passages in the Bible, and, in effect, summarizes the Three Motives for All Sin . John references these motives for sin in his first epistle, as he warns Christians about living in this fallen world: “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world” (1 John 2:15-16). John is saying that everything in this fallen world that is not from God, comes from these three things: “…the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life…” If you think about it, there are three motives , or root causes , of all things sinful: “…the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life…” Certainly, we can see that Eve was tempted by all three of these things. From verse 6: “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food…” This is lust of the flesh. And then: “…and pleasing to the eye…” This is lust of the eyes. And finally: “…and also desirable for gaining wisdom…” This is the pride of life. And then, the result of all this: “…she took some and ate it.” She fell into sin, by succumbing to the temptations of the world. This is a solemn warning from the Apostle John to us: “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world” (1 John 2:15-16). The temptations of the world. The allurements of the world. “…The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life…” Take care not to succumb to them. They promise far more than they deliver. For Eve, the result was nothing short of the eternal ruination of the human race. Bibliography and Suggested Reading Ainsworth, Henry. Annotations on the Pentateuch. Glasgow: Blackie & Son, 1843. Alford, Henry. The Book of Genesis. London: Strahan & Co., 1872. Calvin, John. Commentaries on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis. 2 Vols. Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1847. Cook, F. C. The Holy Bible with an Explanatory and Critical Commentary. Vol. 1. New York: Scribner, 1873. Dods, Marcus. The Book of Genesis with Introduction and Notes. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1882. Fuller, Thomas. Expository Discourses on the Book of Genesis. London: Tegg & Son, 1836. Henry, Matthew. An Exposition of All the Books of the Old and New Testament. Vol. I. London: W. Baynes, 1806. (Originally published in 1710). Jacobus, Melancthon. Notes, Critical and Explanatory on the Book of Genesis. New York: Carter & Brothers, 1865. Jamieson, R.; Fausset, A. R.; Brown, David. [JFB]. A Commentary, Critical, Experimental and Practical on the Old and New Testaments, Vol. I. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1866. Keil, C. F., and Delitzsch, F. Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament. Vol. 1. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1885. Lange, John Peter. Genesis (A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical, edited by John Peter Lange, D.D.). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1898. Mackintosh, C. H. Notes on the Book of Genesis. New York: Loizeaux Brothers, 1880. Murphy, J. G. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Genesis. Andover: Draper, 1866. Patrick, Lowth, Arnald, Whitby, and Lowman. A Critical Commentary and Paraphrase on the Old and New Testament. Vol. 1. Philadelphia: Wiley and Putnam, 1846. Spence, Rev. H. D. M., and Joseph S. Exell, editors. The Pulpit Commentary: Genesis. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner and Co., Ltd, 1891. Thomas, W. H. Griffith. Genesis: A Devotional Commentary. 3 Vols. London: The Religious Tract Society, 1909. Wordsworth, Christopher. The Bible with Notes and Introductions. Vol. I. London: Rivingtons, 1872. Most of these books, those in the Public Domain, can be downloaded free of charge from: http://www.ClassicChristianLibrary.com