Genesis 3

So we've seen God's power.  We've seen His intimacy.  We've seen the deliberate attention that God gives to the creation of man and His call to care for creation.  Now we get to see the beginning of sin.  Onward!

Genesis 3

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

The First Sin and Its Punishment

3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” ² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; ³ but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’” ⁴ But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; ⁵ for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,^[a] knowing good and evil.” ⁶ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. ⁷ Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

⁸ They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰ He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” ¹¹ He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” ¹² The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” ¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.” ¹⁴ The Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,
    cursed are you among all animals
    and among all wild creatures;
upon your belly you shall go,
    and dust you shall eat
    all the days of your life.
¹⁵ I will put enmity between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and hers;
he will strike your head,
    and you will strike his heel.”

¹⁶ To the woman he said,

“I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing;
    in pain you shall bring forth children,
yet your desire shall be for your husband,
    and he shall rule over you.”

¹⁷ And to the man^[b] he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife,
    and have eaten of the tree
about which I commanded you,
    ‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
    in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
¹⁸ thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
    and you shall eat the plants of the field.
¹⁹ By the sweat of your face
    you shall eat bread
until you return to the ground,
    for out of it you were taken;
you are dust,
    and to dust you shall return.”

²⁰ The man named his wife Eve,^[c] because she was the mother of all living. ²¹ And the Lord God made garments of skins for the man^[d] and for his wife, and clothed them.
²² Then the Lord God said, “See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—²³ therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. ²⁴ He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.

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It is fascinating to me that we don't hear about how long Adam and Eve lived in the garden without sinning.  Did they make it an hour?  A day?  A month?  A decade?  We don't know because that is not the point of the story.  The point is that our relationship with God changed in a dramatic way that day.  The story of God and His children entered a new beginning through this series of choices.

I have heard a lot of preaching on this text.  I have heard theories about free will and maturation and prophecy and gender issues and allegory and salvation that all base themselves in this passage.  The beginning of humanity's broken relationship with the Divine is fertile ground for teaching.  The aspect that jumps out to me as I read this is the consequences of sin.  The Ripple Effect if you will.

We tend to think of sin as a personal choice with personal repercussions.  I messed up.  I feel bad.  I repent.  I try to make amends if someone got hurt then I move on.  Most of my sin is internal, state of the heart matters so I am able to shrug off my sin as matters between God and myself by saying that they are "victimless crimes."  If there was ever a definition of "victimless crime," surely it would be eating a piece of fruit.  I mean, who is hurt by that?

The fallout, however, is intense.  The serpent is cursed.  Childbirth is cursed for all women.  The relational dynamics of men and women are broken.  The earth itself is cursed to only yield food through backbreaking labor.  Humanity's relationship with God is broken.  All this comes not because they took a bite of fruit.  It comes because they chose to take a different path than God.  "Good" is being with God.  "Evil" is being apart from God.  Just that simple.

My sin is not isolated from my world.  It effects my marriage and my children, how I deal with my money and my time.  It ripples out from me.  I could yell at my wife who could then yell at our daughter who could then yell at her friend who could then yell at their father who could then yell at his employee who could then yell at their son.  The world is messed up because everyone is dealing with both their internal issues as well as the ripple effects of everyone else's poor choices...ripples that date back to Adam and Eve.

There are two clear responses that I see to this reality that I have gleaned from a friend: a soft heart and a thick skin.  A soft heart that connects with God and walks with Him in order to deal with my own brokenness and limit the offense I give to others.  A thick skin that keeps me from taking offense when others' ripples fall over me.  And may God pour His grace upon us all.