More Gospel in Genesis 3 -- 8/31/08

Sunday, August 31, 2008

MORE GOSPEL IN GENESIS 3
Genesis 3:20-24

Lord willing, we are going to finish Genesis 3 this morning. When we think of Genesis 3, what is the first thing that usually comes into our minds? Immediately, I think of the fall of man. In only the third chapter of the Bible, man has already rebelled against God. What a tragedy! Isn’t that sad? Not only do we read about the fall of man in Genesis 3, but we then read of the curses that came as a result of the sin of Adam and Eve.

Praise God that isn’t all we find in Genesis 3. Let’s go back and read that wonderful promise in Gen. 3:15. Before we read it, remember that this was actually a part of God’s curse upon Satan. Isn’t it beautiful that the first promise of the Savior came in the middle of a curse. “Sorrow may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Ps. 30:5). Now let’s read Gen. 3:14-15…
And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: 15. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Because we have the privilege of looking back from the other side, we know that the seed of the woman is Jesus, who bruised the head of Satan at the cross. As we talked about last Sunday evening, it was there that Jesus stripped the devil of his power. The day is soon coming when Satan will actually be destroyed by the seed of the woman.

This is not the end of the good news in Genesis 3. This morning we come to verses 20-24. There is much more here than we may realize at first sight. Let’s read it… (Gen. 3:20-24)
And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. 21. Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them. 22. And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23. Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

May God speak to us as we consider this portion of His Word.

I. The Seed of Faith in Adam (20)

Read verse 20 again, “And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.” When we read this in the English, it is a bit hard to see the connection, but it becomes much clearer when we understand that the Hebrew word translated “Eve” means “life.” Adam named his wife “Life.” Up until this time Adam called his wife what? Let’s read it in Gen. 2:23-24, "And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. 24. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." From the Hebrew language, Adam called her “Ishah” because she was taken out of “Ish.” And I suppose that was a very special name in itself, for no one else had that name. It was unique to her.

So now we must ask the question: Why would Adam give his wife a new name? He hardly needed to distinguish her from anyone else named “Woman.” And furthermore, why would he give her a name which meant “Life”? We are told it was because she was the mother of all living. But wait a minute; she wasn’t the mother of anyone. How could Adam give her the name “Life,” when they were under the curse of death? Remember what God had told Adam, as recorded in 2:17, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." With the smell of death hanging over them, Adam gives his wife the name “Life.” Of course, we know now that every human being since then has been a descendant of Eve, but Adam could not see that. God had promised them death for the sin they had committed.

I want to suggest to you that in this name which Adam gave to his wife we see the faith of Adam. But what is faith? Heb. 11:1 gives us this definition: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence [conviction] of things not seen." Faith is simply believing what God said. That’s what it has always been and that’s what it is today. Whether it’s Old Testament times or New Testament times, faith is still believing the Word of God. So what had God said to Adam and Eve? Yes, He told Adam that he would die in the day when he ate the fruit, but that isn’t the end of the story. While God did not speak the words of verse 15 to Adam and Eve, they certainly heard what God said to the serpent. “And I will put enmity between your seed and the seed of the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.” God spoke of the seed of the woman.

Now let’s go back a bit in the story. Remember when God created mankind. Let’s read what He said to them in Gen 1:27-28,
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

God told them to be fruitful and multiply. That was His plan for Adam and Eve. But before they could begin to obey that command, they rebelled against God. And what was it that caused them to do so? It was certainly their lack of trust in God. But what was the specific incident that revealed this lack of trust? We remember well that the serpent came and tempted the woman. He was very deceptive from the beginning, saying, “Did God say that you can’t eat from any of these trees in the garden?” After listening to Eve’s answer, he then became more bold, saying, “You will not surely die. God knows that if you eat from that tree, you will know good and evil and become like him. Surely God is holding out on you. He doesn’t want the best of you.” I’m reading between the lines a bit, but it isn’t difficult to do. When we boil it all down, the bottom line is this: they trusted Satan instead of trusting God. They fell for his pack of lies.

Now what happened when they disobeyed God and ate the fruit? As soon as they ate (end of verse 6), then it is immediately stated in verse 7, “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked…” As soon as they sinned against God, things changed. We read at the end of chapter 2 that they were both naked and they were not ashamed. But now they are ashamed. Sinful thoughts have risen in their minds. Now they are dealing with guilt and shame. They thought the serpent had their best interests in mind, but now they knew better. Now they could see that he was a liar. Yes, they knew good and evil, but it wasn’t like they thought. They knew evil because they were experiencing evil. As one man put it, they knew evil like a cancer patient knows cancer. Don’t you know they regretted listening to the serpent? But they couldn’t go back and change their decision. He had deceived them and now they were reaping the consequences. No doubt, both Adam and Eve remembered well what God had said about death as a result of eating the tree.

That brings us back again to verse 15. Adam not only remembered what God said about death as a result of eating from the tree, but fresh in his mind were these words about the seed of the woman. In spite of what God had said about death, now He was saying that Eve would have children, and some day one of those children would defeat that lying serpent! But how could it be? Everything was so dark now. Adam and Eve couldn’t even face each other, much less God.

In this context, Adam gives his wife the name “Eve,” or “Life,” recognizing her as the mother of all living. Though she had not borne a child, he names her “Life.” Surely it was because he was trusting God. He was simply believing what God said. If God said she would have children, then he was going to trust God to bring those children.

Isn’t this a beautiful picture of faith! Before Adam and Eve fell to the temptation of Satan, everything was wonderful. They lived in a garden that was paradise. The Creator of the universe walked and talked with them. No one could ask for anything more. Yet in that situation, they distrusted God and believed Satan. But now, when it seems like nothing is right, when they are filled with guilt and shame and have hidden themselves from God, Adam expressed his faith, trusting what God has said. It is no different for us. We walk by faith, not by sight. Faith often arises in the darkest times. It doesn’t seem to make any sense, but we find it to be so.

II. The Story of Redemption in Picture (21)

When Adam and Eve sinned and immediately realized they were naked, what did they do? They covered up as best they could. That wasn’t very good, because clothes were a new thing for them. They had no experience at making clothes. We are told that they sewed fig leaves together and made aprons for themselves. In other words, they got something together to cover themselves. Instead of coming to God in repentance, they covered themselves and hid from God.

In verse 21 we see something completely different. Let’s read it again, “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” The word the KJV translates as “coats” is rendered “garments” by the NASV and the NIV, and “long tunics” by the Amplified. Whatever the exact detail of this piece of clothing, notice that the Lord “clothed them.” He didn’t just cover them; He clothed them. Adam and Eve hurried to cover up, but God carefully clothed them.

If you have been through the Stranger Study with us, you know that we make a big deal out of the fact that the Lord clothed them with garments made from animal skins. And where did the Lord get animal skins? That’s right – from an animal. By the way, there are some who believe that the Lord told Adam and Eve to kill an animal and use its skin to make clothes. While that is certainly possible, it seems best to me to take this very literally, that God Himself was the one who killed the animal. At any rate, it was His initiative. It was God’s idea completely.

So why is it so important that God killed an animal? It is important because this is the first sacrifice found in the Bible. When we read the Old Testament, we read over and over again of how the people offered sacrifices to God because of their sins. We see it again in the very next chapter, and the practice goes on from there. Of course, there are many who contend that because we find the idea of animal sacrifice in most every ancient culture, this was something that was just a part of man’s thinking. No, the reason we find it in various ancient cultures is because it had its beginning with the beginning of the human race. The root of animal sacrifice in every culture is found here in Genesis 3, for all men were descended from Adam and Eve.

We have already said that Adam exercised faith by believing what God said, but don’t forget that Adam and Eve sinned against their Creator. As a result, they died in their relationship to God. We are not speculating, we are simply noticing that they now hid themselves from God. Things are not the same. Sin has made a mess of their wonderful relationship with God. Is there anything that can restore that relationship? Will faith do it? Faith is a wonderful thing, but it isn’t faith that saves us. Remember that a dead man can’t do anything for himself (see Eph. 2:1). Someone from outside the coffin has to do something. When God killed an animal, He provided what was needed to cover the sins of Adam and Eve. We read later in the book of Hebrews that there is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood (Heb. 9:22).

So why is this shedding of blood necessary for the forgiveness of sins? Someone might think, “That’s just what God decided. He could have decided that spinning around three times was what was necessary. It was just His arbitrary decision.” Nothing could be further from the truth. The animal that God killed in Genesis 3 was only a picture of the real lamb, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Recently someone pointed out to me that there is an alternative translation to Rev. 13:8. However, I still believe “from the foundation of the world” is referring to the slaying of the Lamb. Even if that is not the sense of Rev. 13:8, that is the sense of the overall message of scripture, for we were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. God’s plan to give us Son to die on the cross was formed at the beginning. It was not a plan He came up with after the sin of Adam and Eve. The blood of the animal God killed in Genesis 3 was sufficient to cover the sins of Adam and Eve because it looked back to the eternal plan of God from the beginning and it looked forward to the reality of Christ’s death on the cross. “Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). No, they didn’t have perfect understanding of all that, but they believed what God said.

The animal God killed was not just the source of their clothing, but it was also the sacrifice for their sins. But what a beautiful picture we have here. God gave His Son on the cross as a substitute for our sins. “For he made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Cor. 5:21). Jesus’ death not only provides forgiveness for our sins, but in Him we are made the righteousness of God. That is, we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, just as they were clothed with the skin of that animal sacrifice. Our Lord has done all things well.

Don’t miss the beauty of this picture. It is applicable to every human being. There is no one who has sinned more than Adam. He disobeyed the direct command of His Creator. You couldn’t sin like Adam, even if you tried. We are told in Rom. 5:14 that death reigned over us who did not sin after the likeness of Adam’s sin. Adam’s sin was terrible, “but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Rom. 5:20). Praise God! But nothing less than the death of the sacrifice can make you clean. You can’t do anything for yourself. You can’t even provide the sacrifice. Who was it that killed Jesus? It was God the Father, for it pleased the Lord to bruise Him (Is. 53:10). “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (I John 4:10). God sent His Son into this world that He might die on that cross under the wrath of God, paying the penalty for our sins. That’s why we don’t have to pay the penalty; it is because Jesus paid it all. He tasted death for us, that we might not have to taste it ourselves.

It must have been a terrible thing to watch that animal die. It never did anything wrong. Because of the sin of Adam and Eve, God killed it. And as they watched it die, it must have been a scary thing. After all, they were under the sentence of death, but they had never seen death. Now they were observing it firsthand. Was this what would happen to them? God could have killed them on the spot. He would have been just, if He had chosen to do that, giving them no opportunity to repent and believe. Praise God that He was merciful and that He is merciful! “For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee” (Ps. 86:5).

III. The Sending Away from the Tree of Life (22-24)

Now let’s read again verses 22-24…
And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23. Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

There are different ideas about the sense of the first part of verse 22. Some see it as sarcasm, but I’m not sure that’s the way it is. Man did become like God in that he knew something about good and evil, but even that was a tragedy, because he learned about evil in the wrong way (by doing it). That is the only way man became like God. In reality, he was cut off from God, as a result of his decision to trust the serpent. When the Lord says, “Behold, the man is become as one of us,” we can only assume that the “us” is evidence of the Trinity. You will remember that we first encountered this in 1:26, “Let us make man in our image…”

The biggest question here has to do with the possibility of man eating from the tree of life. What would happen if Adam and Eve had eaten from the tree of life in their fallen condition? Some contend that they would have lived forever in their present sinful state. Of course, that would indeed be very tragic. Others question the truth of that idea. They would say that Adam and Eve would be tempted to eat from the tree in an attempt to avoid death. God had promised death if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they had eaten, so death awaited them. They would likely have thought that they could escape death by eating from the tree of life.

God did not choose to give us the details, but He does make it very clear that He didn’t want them to eat from the tree of life. It is interesting the way this is stated in verses 22-23, "And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23. Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken." The statement of verse 22 isn’t finished; it is left incomplete. In order that Adam and Eve not eat from the tree of life, “therefore the Lord God send him forth from the garden of Eden…” Regardless of how we interpret the details, the tree of life was no longer available to them.

We then read that God sent Adam out of the garden to till the ground from which he was taken. In this action we see the mercy of the Lord. God would have been justified in destroying Adam, but He did not. Rather, He enforced the sentence He had already passed upon Adam in verse 18, “…thou shalt eat of the herb of the field.” Though life would not be easy, Adam would continue to live and be able to produce enough food to live on.

There is a strong indication that Adam was not very receptive to this plan. Notice that in verse 23 God sent Adam out of the garden. But in verse 24 we read, “So he drove out the man.” I get the impression that Adam didn’t go willingly. Is it any wonder? He was leaving the luxurious garden of plenty to go out and fight the thorns and thistles.

So that Adam and Eve would not be able to change their minds and enter the garden again, God posted a guard at the entrance of the garden. No, He didn’t place a lion or tiger there. Rather, the Lord placed cherubim at the entrance, along with a flaming sword. Now who are these cherubim? Where else do we find them? There are many references to them in the Old Testament (in the New Testament, only Heb. 9:5). When I think of the cherubim, my mind goes immediately to the ark of the covenant. Many of you will recall that when they made the lid to the ark (called the mercy seat), they made two winged creatures as a part of it. These were cherubim. These winged heavenly creatures are associated again and again with the throne of God and the presence of God. It seems accurate to say that they guarded the presence of God, just as they guarded the tree of life here in Genesis 3.

So is there any application for us? Surely there is. Sin has excluded us from the tree of life, from the life that God intended for man. We have been shut out of the garden of His presence. But just as Adam and Eve heard the promise of a Savior who would come and deal with Satan, so we have read the good news of that Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that Jesus said, “Don’t think I have come to send peace on the earth; I didn’t come to send peace, but a sword” (Matt. 10:34). Until that sword falls upon us, we cannot partake of the tree of life; we cannot share the life of our Lord. Speaking of Himself, Jesus used another figure that accomplishes the same purpose as the sword. Matt. 21:44, "And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." That is why Paul says that the true Christian was crucified with Christ. The old man was crucified with Christ; the old man was dealt with by the sword, that we might partake of the tree of life.

Conclusion

What good news we find in Genesis 3! As it was with Adam, so it is with us. He rebelled against his Creator, trusting Satan instead of God. So we have rebelled against our Creator, taking our cues from Satan, who was our master. As God would not allow Adam to partake of the tree of life in his sinful condition, so God will not give us His life, as long as sin rules us. But praise God that the cherubim guarded the tree of life. While they did not allow Adam and Eve to enter at that time, they preserved the tree of life. Remember that while God would not allow them to immediately eat of the tree of life, He did not destroy it. He had a plan by which a man or woman could share His life, and that plan was centered in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the animal the Lord killed was a picture of Jesus, whom the Father would crush on the cross. And as Adam and Eve were clothed with the skin of that animal, so all who come to Jesus are clothed with His righteousness.

Are you clothed with the righteousness of Christ? Has the sword fallen upon your life, so that you have been crucified with Christ? Are you partaking of the tree of life, sharing the very life of the Father and Son? That is what’s available to you in Him.