7-Day Commentary Challenge - Genesis 1-3Sample

THE FALL OF MAN, 3:1–24

Temptation and Disobedience, 3:1–7

This passage provides the answer to another of the big questions of life: How do we account for the origin of sin and evil in the world? The Genesis record makes it clear that sin was not a part of God’s original creation. Rather, it came as the result of the temptation of the first human pair, whom God had created with the power of choice. Man freely chose to rebel against God at the suggestion of an alien evil spirit. That spirit is not merely some impersonal force, but a powerful supernatural personality in conflict with God. His power is so tremendous that even the arch- angel Michael did not dare bring a judgment against him (Jude 9). Presumably Satan’s own rebellion against God had occurred before the creation of the earth or at least before the creation of man. 

Satan used as his instrument in the temptation the serpent, apparently a very wonderful creature in its uncursed state. His approach was first to question whether God had not permitted Eve to eat of every tree of the garden. Perhaps he came to Eve with that doubt because she had gotten the prohibition secondhand. Adam heard the command directly from God and knew certainly the details of it. Eve had received the word from Adam and might have been made to question whether she had heard right. At any rate, Satan was able to concentrate on the prohibition and make her forget all the privileges she enjoyed in the garden. At least that was the implication of her reply; note that she omitted “all” or “every” in 3:2 and added “neither shall ye touch it”  in 3:3. In the latter case she seemed to be saying, “Not only can’t we eat fruit of the tree of good and evil, we can’t even touch it.” Satan next moved on to declare categorically that God was wrong, that she would not die if she ate. And finally, he asserted that if she ate she would become as God.

Eve’s first major mistake was giving audience to Satan. Her second error was consenting to linger and look on that which was forbidden. And she “saw that the tree was good for food” (Gen. 3:6), or appealed to the appetite (lust of the flesh, 1 John 2:16); “and that it was pleasant to the eyes” (lust of the eyes, 1 John 2:16); “and a tree to be desired to make one wise” (the pride or vainglory of life, 1 John 2:16). So her temptation was on the same pattern as that with which Satan confronts human beings today and with which he confronted Christ in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1–11). Eve and Adam both ate of the fruit of the tree, and their eyes were opened—but only to see their shame and guilt. Eve was deceived, but Adam sinned knowingly (1 Tim. 2:14); why he did so, we can only speculate. Some suggest that he chose to stand by his wife; he preferred the woman to God. Adam knew what God had said, but he deliberately ate of the fruit because Eve asked him to do so. Therefore Adam’s sin was greater than that of Eve, and the human race is said to have fallen in Adam and to have incurred death in him rather than in Eve (Rom. 5:12; 1 Cor. 15:22).

Sometimes questions are raised concerning why the fall of man should hang on such an insignificant issue as eating a little fruit. Actually the sin was not in the eating but in the disobeying and rebelling prior to that act. The first pair chose to believe the word of Satan rather than the word of God and sought to elevate the will of man above the will of God. They wished to break the bounds of limitation imposed upon them and to become like God.

The eyes of Adam and Eve were opened, as Satan said they would be, but not in the way they had anticipated. The world at which they looked was spoiled as they projected evil onto innocence (Titus 1:15). Once comfortable with each other, Adam and Eve were now ill at ease; their experience was something of a fore-gleam of fallen human relations in general. “They knew they were naked” and wove or plaited loincloths made from leaves to hide their shame. They now knew evil experientially with all of its attendant guilt, sorrow, shame, and misery. The age of innocence had ended.