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The Fall of Man(A Little Light Reading!)

Satan temped Eve the same way he tempts us now:

He questions whether what hes tempting us with is a sin or not, Genesis 3:1, He denies that there was any danger in it, Genesis 3:4. He suggests theres an advantage to committing the sin, Genesis 3:5.

He appealed to Adam & Eves reason and intellect.

Eve only understood the Tree by what the devil had said to her.

When Adam caught up with Eve, she had eaten the fruit, and wanted him to eat it too. When we sin, we dont want to be the only ones in trouble. We want to feel like our judgment was sound, and anyone in the same spot would make the

same stupid choice.

Adams firstsin was disobedience.

When they were busted, shame and fear seized Adam and Eve. Now, when it was too late, they

saw the happiness they had fallen from. They saw theyd forfeited Gods favor for what theythought would be a lasting benefit, and realized that the sin didnt live up to its billing.

They saw that they were naked, or stripped, of all the honor and joy of their paradise state, andexposed to all the miseries that might be expected from an angry God.

They feebly tried to cover up their shame with leaves. People are more worried about saving their credit before men, than to obtain their

pardon from God.

God came to visit them as one that was willing to be familiar with them.

When God asked, Who told you that youre naked?

He was basically asking why are you nowequating naked with shameful? God asked, Did you eat of the tree that I told you not to eat from?

o He wants a confession of us, not that He may be informed, but that we may behumbled.

o When you look at your sin the container of the commandment youve disobeyed, itshard to deny or argue about.

Verse 1312 The Man said, "The Woman you gave me as a companion, she gave me fruit from the tree, and,yes, I ate it." God said to the Woman, "What is this that you've done?"13 "The serpent seduced me," she said, "and I ate."

God is asking them if they will own the fact that their sin is their fault. Neither of them does

this fully.o Adam blames Eve, but does it in a way that points a finger at God (the woman

You gave me)o Eve lays all the blame upon the serpent.

God didnt even ask the serpent a question or to give an account. Why?

1. Because Satan was already convicted of rebellion against God.2. Because Satan was to be forever excluded from pardon; and why would anything be said to

convince and humble Satan, who was already wallowing in unrepentance?

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14-15 GOD told the serpent: "Because you've done this, you're cursed, cursed beyond all cattle andwild animals, Cursed to slink on your belly and eat dirt all your life.I'm declaring war between you and the Woman, between your offspring and hers. He'll wound your

head, you'll wound his heel."

Cursed beyond all cattle and wild animals,All animals, when God made them, were a blessing from God, but sin turned the

blessing into a curse.

Cursed to slink on your belly and eat dirt all your lifeThe serpent will not be even a little off the ground. It will crawl in the dirt, whichsignifies a base and despicable condition. Remember, what clean and unclean and the

washing of feet meant to these people. This was a VERY humbling curse!

I'm declaring war between you and the Woman The inferior creatures were made for man. It was a curse upon any of them to be turned against man, and man against them. War is proclaimed between the offspring that would come from woman, and the offspring of

the serpent.

The result of the hostility is,(1.) That there is a continual conflict between God's people and him. Heaven and hell

can never be reconciled.(2.) That there is a continual struggle between the wicked and the good, but its not aneven fight. God will triumph.

Three things concerning Christ happen here:(1.) His human form will be delivered from a woman. Satan had now trampled upon the

woman, and insulted her; but the offspring of the woman would be raised up at

the right time to avenge her fight with Satan, to crush Satan, to capture him,

and to triumph over him, Colossians 2:15 (And having disarmed the powers and

authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross).(2.) Bruising the heel: The sufferings and death of Jesus will hurt Jesus for a little time.(3.) Would your head: Jesus victory over Satan will be a death blow to Satan.

16 He told the Woman: "I'll multiply your pains in childbirth; you'll give birth to your babies inpain. You'll want to please your husband, but he'll lord it over you."

She is here put into a state of sorrow;

Particularly painful will the process of birthing children, It includes all those impressions of grief and fear which the mind of most women can fall

prey to, and

As a tender Father, God allows sorrow for our necessary correction, that we may behumbled for sin, and weaned from it.

17-19 He told the Man: "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree that I

commanded you not to eat from--'Don't eat from this tree,'--the very ground is cursed because ofyou;

getting food from the ground will be as painful as having babies is for your wife; you'll beworking in pain all your life long. The ground will sprout thorns and weeds, you'll get your foodthe hard way, planting and tilling and harvesting, sweating in the fields from dawn to dusk,Until you return to that ground yourself, dead and buried. You started out as dirt, you'll end updirt."

God doesnt accept Adams excuse; though it was Eves fault to persuade him to eat

it, it was his fault to listen to her.

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When you justify your sin by the behavior of others, you are not excused fromYOUR sin.

Fruitfulness was its blessing for man's service, Genesis 1:11-29, and now emptiness was itscurse for man's punishment.

His business before he sinned was a constant pleasure to him; but now his labor became hisweariness.

20 The Man, known as Adam, named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living. God named the man, and called him Adam, Adam, proving his leadership of the woman, named the woman Eve - That is, life.21 God made leather clothing for Adam and his wife and dressed them. The leather coats had significance. Animals had to be killed to make them (First deaths). They were killed before Adams/Eves eyes to show them what death is. They were probably killed for sacrifice, to make a picture the great sacrifice which Christ

would make. So, then first thing that died was a sacrifice, to represent what Christ would have to do

eventually, to save us.

22 GOD said, "The Man has become like one of us, capable of knowing everything, ranging from

good to evil. What if he now should reach out and take fruit from the Tree-of-Life and eat, andlive forever? Neverthis cannot happen!" One of the advantages of eating forbidden fruit was an awareness of bad choices and the

willingness to deceive to make those bad choices.

It is thought that this was said to give humans a sense of their sin and foolishness. That is,seeing themselves so completely deceived by following the devil's counsel, they might try to

pursue the happiness God offers, in the way he tells us to.

23-24 So GOD expelled them from the Garden of Eden and sent them to work the ground, the samedirt out of which they'd been made. He threw them out of the garden and stationed angel-cherubim and a revolving sword of fire east of it, guarding the path to the Tree-of-Life. This showed the exclusion of Adam (and Eve) and his guilty race from that non-threatening

relationship with God which was the bliss and glory of paradise. But where did he send him when he turned him out of Eden?

o He might justly have chased him out of the world, but he only chased him out of the garden:o he might justly have cast him down to hell, as the angels that sinned were, when they were shut out from the heavenly

paradise, 2 Peter 2:4, but man was only sent to till the ground out of which he was taken.

o He was only sent to a place of toil, not to a place of torment.o He was sent to the ground, not to the grave;o to the work-house, not to the dungeon,o not to the prison-house; to hold the plough,o not to drag the chain: his tilling the ground would be recompensed by his eating its fruits; ando his converse with the earth, whence he was taken, was improveable to good purposes, to keep him humble, and to mind

him of his latter end.

The first man and woman chose to deny themselves the privileges of their state of

innocence, yet they were not abandoned to despair; God's thoughts of lovedesigning them for a second state of probation upon new terms.

He gave themand usa chance to CHOOSE to make it RIGHT!!!!