Temptation and the Fall

Temptation and the Serpent’s Cunning

Well, this morning we break ground in chapter 3. I think I sent out in the afternoon yesterday that we'd be looking at verses 1 through 13, and that is no longer the case. It seems like the past two chapters we've had three messages, and I think we're going to be par for the course here on chapter 3.

So we're going to look at verses 1 through 6 this morning. And let me just give you kind of a glimpse of what we'll do with chapter 3. We'll look at it in three parts. This morning will be verses 1 through 6 where we're talking about the temptation and the fall.

Next week, part 2, will be verses 7 through 13 where we'll talk about the consequences of the fall. So today is more focusing on the dynamics of the serpent and the woman, the deception, the temptation.

And we'll end at verse 6. We'll look at the damage of the fall, what actually took place, the way the relationship between man and God and man and man, man and family, man and society was impacted by the fall.

And then in part 3, we'll begin at verse 15 through 22, and we'll look at the redemption of the fall. And really with chapter 3, perhaps with Genesis 1 through 3, it feels like we're on the range in the Himalayas.

As the biblical storyline begins to unfold, we realize these are some of the greatest, most significant chapters in the Bible. We're sort of on K2, looking to Mount Everest, which I think is Genesis 3 .15.

This is massive, what we're looking at. It's so incredibly significant to understand who God is, who we are, why things are the way they are, what things will be like. The whole drum of history, the whole significance of creation is all bound up with what we're looking at here.

We come to the plot, the drama, the twist of what God had made here in chapter 3. So this morning, part 1, the temptation and the fall, verses 1 through 6. Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

And he said to the woman, Has God indeed said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to 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 has said you shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.

Then the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. 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. We're going to look at this in four parts. First, identifying the serpent. Then the woman, deceived. Third, temptation and the fall. And fourth, we'll have some application.

The Serpent as Satan and the Strategy of Doubt

So the serpent in verse 1.

Notice, the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. Now, the way we normally approach this is we think the serpent here, the literal, physical animal, the serpent, the class of serpents, was more cunning than any other beast of the field.

So the idea is we approach this and we say, the serpent, who's a beast of the field, was the most cunning out of all the beasts of the field. That's not the only way to approach this verse. In fact, I don't think it's a very helpful way to consider the serpent in verse 1.

There's a comparative word here, and it indicates a contrast. So the serpent is being contrasted with the beast of the field. But that does not mean that the serpent is a category that's like a beast of the field.

In other words, the serpent could be in a category or a class all his own. And I think that's very important. Roland Ward would say, the words may be read as placing the serpent outside of the category of the beast of the field.

In which case, another cunning creature, but not an ordinary snake, is meant. The creature, then, is Satan himself, a fallen angel. That's the category to which he belongs. Now, of course, we do have this reference to snake, and then we have the curse upon the snake that will follow.

So there's a very clear parallel here. The Hebrew for serpent is nechash. And you got to nechash when you say it.

Nechash.

And it's related also to seraph. And sometimes you'll have it translated the shining one. Think of 2 Corinthians 11, where Satan is described as an angel of light. In other words, he's an angelic being.

Jesus reveals that much. He was one of the shining ones. In Isaiah 6, and other places in Ezekiel, there's a connection between the word seraph, or shining, and serpent. These words are brought together, for instance, in Numbers 21, where we have the fiery serpents that God sent among the people.

Literally, the shining ones. Numbers 21. Now, the serpent is very significant, as it is part of a historical narrative. Therefore, it's not a mythical symbol. It's an adjective, and therefore, we call this a substantive.

It's a serpentine being, if you can put it that way. That's the reference here in verse 1. The serpent-like being. The serpentine being. What Revelation will say was the dragon, or the ancient serpent.

Now, to most people, outside of Scripture, this seems like a mythical symbol. Oh, this is an interesting origin story from the ancient Near East, and this is just some mythical symbol that attempts to explain the plight of humanity.

But of course, we as Christians cannot view it that way. This is not a mere mythical symbol, but rather, it's a part of a historical narrative. This serpent-like being, as Moses reveals, has personal qualities.

Speech, intelligence, ethical capacity, which means he can be judged by God. In fact, he is liable to God's judgment in verses 14 and 15. And therefore, this is not myth, unless we very carefully and delicately explain what we mean by myth in the way that C .S. Lewis says somewhere, in Christianity, every myth comes true.

Meaning, all that's true of human myth, if it is true, is true because of Christianity. And I think that's a very wise saying. The symbolism of this time, for instance, has been studied. We can go back to Egyptian relief carvings, and we have winged serpents that flank the throne, standing with thrones upon them.

We have reports, even many centuries later, of Herodotus, an ancient Greek historian, who talks about the flying serpents of the Mesopotamian region. And the point in all of this, as Robert Gonzalez argues, is the Israelite reader would have rejected all these pagan distortions, but he would have no obstacle in viewing the serpent of Genesis 3 as a supernatural being of angelic status that rebelled against Yahweh and became the supreme antagonist to his divine will.

In other words, the ancient Near Eastern mythical concept that we find in the pagan nations of a semi-divine, dragon-like serpent reflects this faint, cultural, human-embedded memory of this primeval mutiny in Eden.

Do you see what's being said? Just like the global flood was preserved in different forms in other cultures, so was this serpent-like being that led humanity into betrayal. So was this status of the serpentine being that was part of the host of heaven before he fell.

That's what's being said. By the time we get to the New Testament, this serpent is fully identified as Satan, Lucifer. Clearly not a literal snake, and not even perhaps using an animal as a mere mouthpiece, but instead he is the serpent.

And that seems to function then as a title describing him, even here in Genesis 3. This is his title, the serpent, the dragon, Satan. Since later revelation identifies Satan as a fallen angelic creature, perhaps what Adam and Eve saw and heard in the garden was not a mere snake, but rather a serpent-like creature belonging to the higher order from which he fell.

Now as we continue with verse 1, we find the serpent saying to the woman, Has God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? There's a professor at the seminary who, as he looks at all the German higher criticism and the way they cast doubt upon the Scriptures, whenever he reads this verse, he always reads it with a German accent.

Has God indeed said? Because that's what the serpent is doing. He's casting doubt upon what God has revealed in his word. So this is the beginning of the cunning deception of the serpent.

Did God really say?

One of the greatest works of English poetry, John Milton's Paradise Lost, the epic poem all about this fall in Genesis 3. This is what John Milton writes, Say first, for heaven hides nothing from thy view, nor the deep tract of hell.

Say first, what cause moved our grandparents in that happy state, favored of heaven so highly, to fall off from their Creator and transgress His will, all for one restraint,.

Lords of the world. Besides?

See what he's saying?

What caused them to fall from the One who made them when they only had one restraint, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But beside that one restraint, they were lords of the world.

They were vice-regents.

Who first seduced them to that foul revolt? The infernal serpent. He it was, whose guile stirred up with envy and revenge and deceived the mother of mankind. He's preserving there again this devil as, what does Jesus say in John 8, a murderer from the beginning.

What we have is not just a deception, but really a murder plot. The devil, Satan, this ancient serpent is leading Adam and Eve to slaughter. And yet the cunning, it seems so thoughtful, so innocent, so concerned for their benefit and welfare.

And this is how Satan always seems to untrained ears, isn't it? We expect Satan to assault us like roaring lions. And certainly that's how Peter describes him, but that's not how we often encounter him.

Very rarely do we encounter Satan as a roaring lion. That's in the reality what he's doing, but as far as our experience of encountering him or encountering deception, it's a lot more like Eve. Smooth words, subtle compromises, just a little doubt upon what we know to be true from what God has revealed.

We often don't expect him or we're not prepared for that quiet interaction,.

Those smooth words.

They always seem so helpful. They always seem to be our best interest or our need for the moment. And this is what we see in 2 Corinthians 11. Satan transforms himself into an angel of light. And so he comes secondly to the woman being deceived.

Eve’s Deception and the Nature of Sin

Verse 2 and following, the woman said to 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 has said, you shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.

There are two places in the New Testament where Eve is referenced. And in both of those places, the fact that she was deceived is emphasized. She reports that of herself when she's responding to God. The serpent deceived me and I ate.

2 Corinthians 11 .3, as Paul is addressing the church at Corinth. He says, I fear lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity or the purity that is in Christ.

So Paul is saying to the church, you're like Eve. You're the bride of Christ. And my fear is that like Eve, you'll be deceived by this serpent who masquerades as an angel of light. 1 Timothy 2 .14, Adam was not deceived, but the woman, being deceived, fell into transgression.

She sinned.

This actually leads to a theological question. When did Eve sin? I notice there's a book coming out by Jeffrey Niehaus, who's a very good Old Testament scholar. And that's the name of it, When Did Eve Sin?

And I think he makes a very strong case. Some would look at this passage, and they would find Eve's sin in this little exchange. God said, you shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. And the argument goes something like this.

Eve added to God's command. God, if we go back to Genesis 2, commanded that they do not eat of it. She's adding in her reply to the devil that God also commanded not to touch it. And then the logic is, she didn't report the truth.

In that sense, she was bearing false witness, and that was her sin. That's where Eve fell into sin. That could be, but that is an assumption. And we have other places in Scripture where the narrator or another person speaks and gives information that is later elaborated upon or expanded upon by the other speaker.

Many examples of this.

And then we have to consider what we just read in 1 Timothy 2 .14. We have to think about this carefully.

Notice what Paul says.

Adam was not deceived, but the woman, being deceived, fell into transgression. The logic seems to be that Eve is deceived, and then sins. Subsequent to being deceived, she falls into transgression. I don't think this is her somehow bearing false witness to what God commanded.

I think she reveals more of what was implied. Rather, I think what Paul says in 1 Timothy 2 .14 is she was deceived, and she fell into sin when she ate of the fruit. Now, this deception is given in detail.

Against God the Creator is clear command.

The proper word there is Torah.

God the Creator gives Torah.

He gives the law.

He gives command. He gives an instruction. Remember how we said in that one command that was given, all the Ten Commandments, the whole moral law was contained? This Creator God puts the entire Garden of Edom at the disposal of Adam and Eve, and He gives this one restraint, this one command, this Torah.

All is yours, but do not eat of the fruit of this one tree. And against all that, the serpent begins to deceive. The serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die. God knows in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

Now, notice the path of deception here. First, he casts doubt on God's command.

Did God really say?

Are you sure you're reading that correctly? Did God indeed say? Second, he directly contradicts God's warning. God said, in the day you eat of it, you will die. What does the serpent say? You will not die.

In Hebrew, not is the very first word in that. Not you will die, surely. He said, no, God is completely wrong on this. He's lying to you. That's what Satan's saying. So he first cast doubt on God's command, and then on that shaky ground, he directly contradicts God's warning.

Third, he impugns God's character. He basically takes God's trustworthiness and begins to cast doubt upon that. God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened. You can't trust Him. He's holding out on you.

He doesn't want what's best for you. All Eve would have to do is say, He doesn't want what's best for me. He made me. Do you not know that I'm in paradise? The one who made me from dust and gave me the bounty and the beauty of this, could I not trust Him that He has my best interest at heart?

And will I not honor Him as my Maker and as my God by obeying this effortless restraint He's put upon me? But Satan, who's now doubting and contradicting God, is casting this impugning of God's character.

And then he lies about the consequence. He lies about the result of sinning. If you sin, you will be like God, knowing good and evil. The sad thing is, Adam and Eve were already like God. They were made as a perfect reflection of His image.

They were made with His original righteousness, as perfectly crystal clear mirrors reflecting the perfection of His attributes. They were already like God, and they're about to throw that away.

And become like Satan.

In effect, by accepting Satan's Torah, by accepting Satan's command, Satan's suggestion, Satan's instruction, Eve was calling God a liar. And she was rejecting God's authority. And this is significant because by this act, she's giving Satan legal entree to the world.

Now she's no longer accepting God's authority, God's ownership of the reality and the situation of the world. Now she's accepting Satan's authority, Satan's suggestion of what the reality is. And therefore, Genesis 3, right here, is why Satan can offer the kingdoms of the world to Jesus at the outset of the ministry.

The kingdoms of the world never belonged to Satan. How in the world does he think he could offer these to Jesus? Shouldn't Jesus just say, these aren't yours, you're pretending to hold these things you can offer?

No, Jesus doesn't respond to him in that way. There's a sense in which, yes, you do have ownership of the kingdoms of this world. Where does that come from? It comes from this in Genesis 3. Satan is given ownership, he's given a foothold over creation because the first man and the first woman view him as the authority and reject God.

Right here in Genesis 3 is why Satan is called in 2 Corinthians 4,.

The God of this world, lowercase g.

Blinding the minds of unbelievers. He's called in Ephesians 2, the prince of the power of the air. He has power. He has authority. Jesus describes his ministry as binding the strong man so that he can plunder his house.

Satan is the strong man. He has power in this world. He has a certain dominion, a certain domain in this world that has now become split open, crushed by the death and resurrection of Christ, the true king who is now expanding his kingdom aggressively against that of the strong man, that of the prince of the power of the air.

That's why this is significant. Eve is accepting Satan as the truth teller and God as a false witness. She's accepting Satan as more interested in caring for her than the God who made her and put her in paradise.

And this is all the deception.

It was Satan who is the false witness.

He's the father of lies.

Satan himself is the one in Revelation 12 who accuses the brethren day and night before our God.

That's courtroom imagery.

He's always the false witness.

This morning, he is in the throne room of God saying, why would you accept these people here, worshiping you so pitifully with such sane behaviors, with such pitiful returns?

How dare you, the Holy One?

Doesn't this besmirch your character and the infinity of your perfections to take to yourself a people like this? He's the false witness. And we know what's revealed in Revelation 12 about our advocate, about our paraclete, about the pleas that are made for us, which are on the merit of Christ and his sacrifice alone.

We're prone to forget as we look at this passage that temptation to sin is never revealed in its true colors, is it? Sin comes to betray us like a Judas with a kiss, with flattering words. The forbidden fruit seems so good to Eve, and yet it casts her out of Eden.

Everything she thought it would give to her, it gave her nothing, and it took from her everything. David is just lounging on his rooftop. That seems harmless enough. And how does that end when he sees, like Eve, when all the same verbs are used here, the same verbs that are used with Eve, seeing the fruit, seeing its desirable, acting upon it.

That's how David looks upon Bathsheba. And how does that end? With murder and with adultery. You remember, I think it's just such a powerful scene. If you've ever seen the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and you have this king figure, Theoden, who's refusing to act, making poor decisions,.

And it's because he's being deceived.

By this very pale serpent-like creature named Grima Wormtongue,.

Who's whispering deceits,.

Deceiving, paralyzing, weakening the king. That's just a great Tolkien image of what the serpent is and what he does. Deceiving, paralyzing, weakening. We're reminded that the devil has schemes. He has devices.

Paul says we should not be ignorant of them. Sin gains a foothold in our minds and in our hearts because it always appears attractive and desirable and necessary. If I don't lie, how am I going to get out of the situation?

If I don't do this with this relationship, how can I move forward? How can I find comfort? How can I find help if I don't commit these sins? This three-headed enemy, the world, the flesh, and the devil, it taps us on our shoulders, whispers in our ears, you deserve better than what God has provided.

It's the same dynamic, the same temptation. Should we not trust God, our provider? No, no, no, you deserve better than this. You wouldn't be in this situation if God was really that good of a provider.

You need to provide for yourself. He's holding out on you more than what you have. Follow my way. Bend to me. I can affirm you. I can give you influence. I can give you power. If you're seeking happiness or comfort or accomplishment,.

I can give you that.

If you would but bend, if you would but bow, if you would but put your faith in me instead of in your God. That's the voice of the serpent. And it's constantly calling all of us to pursue the passing pleasure of sin and to find that as more satisfying than obedience to a God who is good and all-wise and all-powerful.

Richard Sibbes, the great Puritan, says, Satan gives Adam an apple. We'll give the Puritans, who are normally quite precise, a break here. It's just fruit. It's definitely not an apple. It's just fruit.

Satan gives Adam fruit, but we'll give him a break. Satan gives Adam an apple and then takes away paradise.

Think about that.

How powerful a deception is that? You can have fruit, and you'll lose paradise. Therefore, he says, in all temptations, let us not consider what is offered,.

But what we lose.

The Fall of Adam and the Loss of Original Righteousness

Now we move to verse 6, and we see the temptation in the fall. When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

There's this old saying, by the time of choice, most of the choosing is already done.

And that seems to be the case with Eve.

By the time you make a decision, you've already made your decision. That's how temptation works, isn't it? We keep getting closer and closer and closer to justifying or feeling helpless. Well, what can I do now?

I'm practically already absent. When Eve saw, she coveted, she acted, she sinned, and in that sin, we have the first tragic stain upon what was a flawless humanity. We have the entrance of death and corruption.

She took of its fruit and she ate. The great theologian William G .T. Shedd writes, Eve looked upon the tree of knowledge not only with innocence, but with sinful desire. What we call in the Western moral tradition,.

Concupiscence.

She has no innate evil desire. She's made in perfect, original righteousness, but when she looks upon the forbidden fruit,.

There sprouts this evil covetousness, this evil desire.

And it provokes her to act. It moves her will. This seeing, this rationalizing moves her emotions and her affections. It seems so desirable.

It seems so good.

And then it breaks her will. It becomes an act when the will gets involved with that sinful desire. She not only had the natural created desire for it as producing nourishing food or as a beautiful object to the eye, she came to have beside these the unnatural.

Unnatural. This is not human nature at this point in human history. Human nature is perfect. She has an unnatural, self-originated desire for it, yielding a kind of knowledge which God had forbidden.

She lusted after a knowledge of good and evil which God would not give to her. And this lust of Eve for knowledge that God had prohibited was her apostasy. And then the question comes up in verse 6.

Where is Adam?

Where has Adam been? The whole chapter 2 is mostly about Adam and the significance of Adam. And yet here in chapter 3, in these first five and a half verses, he's conspicuously absent. And the answer here is in verse 6.

Where is Adam? Look at verse 6. She also gave to her husband with her.

And he ate.

He was with her. Silently with her. As this unfolded. Think about that.

He was with her.

The passivity and the silence is part of the condemnation. It's the most tragic part of what we're looking at here. Adam was to be the head, the guardian, the protector, the keeper. And he's with her, passively, listening to the serpent corrupt his wife.

Watching his wife go through these motions of cosmic treason against her Creator. And he's just with her. Completely passive. He never utters a word in his whole exchange.

And this is meant to boil us.

According to Genesis 2 .15, Adam was commissioned to guard and keep the garden. The garden, as I think we've described,.

It's a temple.

Eden is a temple. If we mean by temple the dwelling place of God. The temple is where God has a unique manifestation of His presence. That's a massive theme in scripture. Eden was a temple then. No wonder that when God gifted the spirit to artisans to decorate the tabernacle.

Or when the first temple was built, Solomon's temple. The way it was decorated with garden imagery, with fruits and leaves. It's because it's recreating Eden as a temple. And it's interesting that in those very commissions, the priests are called to keep and to guard the temple.

They're to protect the purity of the temple. To make sure that it's sacred character is preserved. That God and His dignity is honored in that space. And this is what Adam was called to do as a priest in that garden.

He was called to guard it and to keep it. But instead of guarding it from this corruptor and this deceiver, he stood by utterly passive and utterly silent. As this serpentine being has slithered in to deceive his wife.

And to bring destruction and corruption upon God's garden. And in this respect, Eve's sin was a sin of commission. She had a sinful desire and it gave birth to an act and that was her transgression. That was a sin of commission.

Adam's sin was a sin of omission. His sin was in what he failed to do. Notice 1 Timothy 2 .14. It gets more tragic. We often focus on Eve in 1 Timothy 2 .14. What about Adam? Look at this. Adam was not deceived.

But the woman being deceived fell into a transgression. Think about this. Adam is with her. Adam is not deceived. He knows. He knows. He knows that Satan is lying through his teeth. He knows his wife is about to plunge herself into death.

Her soul will be separated from a rotting body. Her soul will be separated from God, her Maker. He knows this. He was not deceived. She was deceived. We often take little paw shots. Hey, you're the ones that sinned.

Hey, Eve led Adam into sin. Not according to Paul. He was not deceived.

This was willful.

According to Paul, Adam was seduced by his affection for Eve.

I listened to her.

Adam was seduced by his affection for Eve rather than deceived by the lie of Satan. In other words, he fell with his eyes wide open to the fact that he would die. He fell with his eyes wide open.

Eve was deceived.

Adam was not deceived. He wasn't duped.

He was willful.

No wonder as we go back to Romans 5 from a few weeks ago, verse 12. Through one man, sin entered the world.

Eve sinned.

Eve was deceived and she fell into transgression. But Eve was not the covenant head. She was not representing mankind. Adam was. And through Adam, through that one man who sinned with eyes wide open, who sinned knowing what God had said, knowing that what God had said was true, knowing that the consequences of what God had said was true, with his eyes open to that fact, he took the fruit, utterly silent, utterly passive,.

And he ate.

And he plunged humanity into death and into depravity. Why are there child rapists? Why are children torn limb from limb? Why is there genocide? Why do children in third world countries die of starvation and horrific diseases?

It's because Adam sinned with his eyes wide open.

He rejected God.

And God's testimony, though he knew it to be true, it's in Adam that the responsibility and the curse of the fall ultimately lies. And that makes the brevity here stunning. Isn't it stunning? He's so passive that even the report of the fall is passive.

We don't have Adam as the main subject of any verb here in the first six verses. And she gave it to him and he ate. That's all you get about Adam's fall.

This is the fall of humanity.

And it comes in this little passive phrase at the very end. And she gave it to her husband and he ate. The brevity is stunning. It's wild. Shouldn't he have knocked that out of her hand and grabbed her by the neck and say, Do not do this.

She was being deceived, but she hadn't partaken. There was still time for him to guard and to keep. A sin had not been committed yet. He's utterly passive and he just repeats what she does. And he plunges humankind.

Indeed, the cosmos is now groaning for redemption because of this. And tying all this together is the power of deception. And this is just the beginning. We're going to see next week the aftershocks of the corruption of this moment.

I don't know.

This is something that I think, I don't know if I should recommend this or not. I think it's profound. I think it's amazing. Although it's this sort of poetry event. And so it's weird in poetry event, like instead of clapping, they snap their thumbs, which I always think is kind of weird.

But it was this Christian night, I think, called Rhetoric. And this was from 2014. And a husband and wife who have a ministry and they've written and preached, or at least he's preached and done some really powerful stuff.

And the woman, Jackie Hill Perry, she has an amazing testimony. Her husband, Preston. You can find this on YouTube. I can send out the link. I'm going to reference this again next week.

I'll just give you a part of it.

I think they understand so well what's taking place here in Genesis 3. They're going to reference what I'm getting at even though we're going to be a little ahead in the text. And I'll try to read it.

If you watch it, you can barely catch how insightful and beautiful this is. But Jackie Hill Perry is playing Eve. After the fall, she's confronting Adam. And Adam is confronting Eve. So we're beginning to see this relational separation and this antagonism.

And the whole thing is beautiful. I'm just going to read the first part of it. And it's called The Fall.

So Eve says,.

I guess it was convenient for you to turn your back on the woman who held your spine.

She was the rib, right? She was meant to be the helper, the support.

And she's saying, You're just going to turn your back on me. You said it was me who led you. You were with me, right? I guess it was convenient for you to turn your back on the woman who held your spine.

Adam says,.

You were brought forth from my side, created to support me, like the gravity-stricken moon does to the brisk breath of nightfall. But when fear clawed its way into my heart and he called my name in the garden, you shrunk and hid your shameful body.

Where were you?

And he says,.