Confrontation in Eden
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2019 · 6 January 2019
We're going to look again at Genesis 3 and look at origins. Many people try to find out why the world is the way it is, how it got this way and where it's going. Well the Bible tells all that God intended us to know about the origin of sin. Sin explains all the troubles in the world. Everything evil, everything wrong, everything imperfect and death all comes from an event that occurred and is recorded in Genesis 3.
Genesis 3 is the accurate record from God about how sin came into the world. We cannot understand redemptive history and it’s ending unless we understand its beginning. Why is it important to have a Savior who dies, why is it important that He returns again and restores this world, and then ultimately destroys the entire universe and recreates a new heaven and a new earth?
We cannot understand why mankind is the way he or she is unless we understand Genesis 3. It explains the universal condition of men. It explains why there must be a Savior and why the universe must ultimately be destroyed and a new universe brought into existence in its place. If you do not believe Genesis 1, 2 and 3, and if you do not understand them, you cannot have the correct world view.
God created the entire universe as it now exists in six 24-hour days. You must understand God's purpose in creating men in His own image, giving a helper to him, namely woman. You must understand the foundation of the physical universe and of man's role in it. You must understand the Fall of man. Man fell from perfection and innocence in the image of God, into sin and depravity.
He descended instantly from his original creation in the image of God to his current condition in sin and under divine judgment. Mankind was created in one day with full maturity. He was created for fellowship with God and to enjoy the world that God had made. And he fell into the fallen state ever since. And it all happened in one event described beginning in Genesis 3:1.
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And 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 midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.”
“5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, 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 themselves loincloths.”
Now we have already studied those seven verses. We met Satan, the one who having fallen out of heaven because of his own rebellion is cast down to earth, that wicked Lucifer. The devil comes and solicits evil from Eve, and through Eve from Adam. His strategy is to lie about God, that God is not kind and good, that God is harsh, and that God is holding back from her something that is good.
And that you can't trust God's Word, even though He said you would die, you won't die. And through the strategy of deception comes the seduction. The seduction starts to take place, in verse 6, when lust begins to conceive sin. Eve thinks it would make her wise to know good and evil and she would become like God. So she and her husband both eat and that is the act of disobedience that results in the shame.
Their eyes are opened, they understand evil not by some academic process, they understand evil because it is now in them and they feel it. And they feel it even in the sexual realm so that they become embarrassed about what they had never been embarrassed about, that is their nakedness and attempting to cover their guilt, they cover themselves with some leaves that they have sewn together to try to hide their shame.
With that one act on that day an avalanche of sin was loosed that would never stop until the final destruction of this universe. For that we learn in Genesis 3: 8 – 13, “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, 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 And 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 of 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 of 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 deceived me, and I ate.”
What a dramatic change. This is a hundred and eighty degree reverse of their attitude toward God. They were instantly corrupted by that one sin such that they not only felt the shame of that corruption, but they resisted any fellowship with God and they resisted honest repentance. Their conversation now is evasive, deceptive and it shifts blame. That is the nature of depravity.
Depravity is a condition in which one is unwilling to honestly repent. Depravity is not just seen in man's inability to stop sinning, but in his inclination to avoid repentance. Even when mankind experiences the sin, feel the guilt and shame, even when confronted by God he will do everything to shift the blame away from himself. And if he's finally confronted by God he will not acknowledge his own sin.
It isn't that Adam and Eve didn't know they sinned, they had experienced sin. They had experienced the knowledge of evil. They had experienced wicked corrupt thoughts that somehow related to their sexual conduct and therefore covered themselves in that area. They were feeling guilty before God from their consciences and they knew they were going to be judged and that judgment was death.
But in spite of the shame and guilt, in spite of accusing consciences, in spite of judgment from God, in spite of impending death, rather than repent they tried to shift blame. Depravity is a condition in which the sinner will not repent and cannot repent of his sin. That is why Ephesians 2:1 says, “You were dead in the trespasses and sins.” They cannot stop sinning, nor can they honestly repent.
Since they understands that there is God and there is judgment, the only thing they can do is to hide. Atheists hide from God by saying there is no God. Self-righteous people hide from God by saying God is not as holy as some people would think and I'm good enough to satisfy God on my own. Other people hide from God by redefining Him. And Jews hide from God by refusing to accept Christ as their Savior.
Ninety percent of the people in America believe in God. But the vast majority of those 90 percent believe God to be the God that they have created themselves in their own minds. That's why where the Word of God is preached and God is worshiped, such as in our church, and God is exalted, sinners are not comfortable. That's exactly what we see in Adam and Eve. They are now experiencing evil.
When we come to verse 8, some time has passed since they fell, since they found some fig leaves and sewed them together. It's the cool of the day, the evening as the sun began to set in that paradise, the evening when the gentle breeze began to move. Verse 8 says they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. Wait a minute. God is a spirit, right? Yes, but now the Lord Jesus is there with them, right?
On several occasions in the Old Testament, particularly in the book of Genesis, God appeared in visible, physical form as a man. He could be seen and He could talk to you. That shouldn't surprise us. Isaiah had a vision of God in Isaiah 6:1, "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up." According to John 12:41, “Isaiah said these things because he saw His glory and he spoke of Jesus Christ.”
Isaiah actually saw Jesus when he saw God on a throne. He saw the pre-incarnate Christ. These are called theophanies, appearances of God, or christophanies, appearances of Christ. The divine Lord was comfortable in human form even before the incarnation on earth. After all, man was made in the image of God, the second member of the trinity, the Lord, who would ultimately be made a glorified man forever.
The Lord appeared to Hagar in Genesis 16, called the messenger of the Lord and the angel of the Lord, which was the Lord Himself. In Genesis 17 and 18 the Lord appeared to Abraham. In Genesis 26 the Lord appeared to Isaac. In Genesis 28, Genesis 32 and Genesis 35, on three separate occasions the Lord appeared to Jacob which was the last of these christophanies in Genesis.
God appeared in the form of a man so that He might speak to man as a friend. So, one of the blessings, that Adam and Eve enjoyed in the garden, was intimate conversation with God the Creator who appeared to them in visible, physical form like a man. Perhaps something like the transfigured Christ of the New Testament. Up to that day whenever they would hear God walking in the garden, they would run to Him.
But now in verse 8, "And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden." Man is still trying to escape from God in God's own garden. The sinner may deny His existence, that's a form of escape. He may reject the true God of Scripture and invent a god of his own. Even Darwin said, "Of course there is a God, I believe in God but not the God of the Bible."
When God says in verse 9, "Adam, where are you?" He's not asking for information. He knew where Adam was, He is omniscient. And when He says "where are you?" He's not asking "where are you located in the garden?" He's asking "where are you now in terms of your condition?" The word "called" in the Hebrew, is a word used in the Old Testament for summoning someone to give an account.
It's a question like the one in Genesis 4: 9. Cain killed Abel and then the Lord says to Cain, "Where is Abel, your brother?" The Lord knew where he was. He was dead on the ground. God is not asking for information because in verse 10 He said, "What have you done, the voice of your brother's blood is crying to Me from the ground." God was giving Cain the opportunity to explain what he had done.
This is Adam's reply, Verse 10, “He said, 'I heard the sound of Thee in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself.'" You see, the man can't tell the truth now. That is the mark of depravity, it seeks to hide from God. Satan had promised them freedom from God's limiting control. Well, they didn't get freedom, instead they got slavery to sin, slavery to shame and slavery to guilt and fear.
Adam will not admit that he sinned. He is now evasive. He has fallen and he will not acknowledge his sin. So God asks Adam in verse 11, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” Where did the shame come from, Adam? Did you know that that shame was a direct result of your and Eve’s disobedience?
Verse 12, “The man said, 'The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree and I ate.” Adam has spoken in half-truths and evaded things and now he starts shifting the blame. All he has left is to say, "O, I am just a victim." His fallen nature is now corrupt. Corruption is evasive, it is deceptive, it is self-protective, it is self-justifying, and it is blame shifting.
Eve is the problem and actually You are the problem because You gave her to me. This is a weak argument because from the beginning Eve was his helper and he was the leader. She was created to be led by Adam, but she became Adam's seducer with disastrous results. And now he blames God. When their whole sinful world collapses, it's now God's fault, because He made the world the way it is.
Depravity settles in so fast and turns the lover of God into the hater of God. Blame it on somebody else. Maintain your victim status. That's what the sinner does. They now resent God. They see God as their judge, not as their friend. They have no interest in God's honor. They have no interest in God's glory. They are devoid of holiness or purity. They are now full of sin.
Look at verse 13, “Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” God said, “Explain yourself, Eve." Adam did not defend his wife, he blamed her and God. Adam didn't try to protect his wife, even though he's supposed to be a protector of his wife. That relationship has become so bad that Adam blames her and blames God.
"What's the remedy?" Nobody would ever be saved unless God in His sovereign grace breaks those bonds of depravity. And that's what God does when He awakens the sinner, from being dead in sin, to life everlasting. That is why we celebrate Christmas, the birth of Jesus and we celebrate Easter, His great resurrection and we honor Him for everything He continuous to do for us now in Heaven. Do you believe that? Let us pray.