There's A Snake In The Garden Pt 2

Genesis 3
Verses 4, 5:  The first lie is recorded in the Bible, “You shall not surely die!”  The serpent/Devil flat out calls God a liar and this is why he has the title the father of lies (John 8:44) and he hasn’t stopped lying and deceiving since the beginning of time.  He is actually trying to negate what God CLEARLY said.

Satan continues by saying, “God doesn’t want you eating from that tree because if you do then you will become like him.”  Essentially he is calling God an oppressive, egocentric and insecure God.

Verse 6:  The root of sin (1 John 2:16) - Eve “saw the tree was good for food and it was a delight to her eyes and the tree was desired to make one wise.”  All of the woman’s sinful desires were appeased as she heeded the words of the serpent and ate the forbidden fruit.  Sin always clouds our judgment and always pushes God out of the picture.  Sin often looks appealing and delightful and it may even satisfy for a SHORT moment.  But it always comes up empty.  It is easy to get caught up in the moment of sin and have no regard for the consequences. 

Not only did the woman fall into full blown sin but she invited her husband to sin with her.  Both blatantly and knowingly disobeyed God and chose to believe a lie.  They did not take into consideration the consequences for their disobedience.  They believed that they would not die otherwise they would not have eaten. 

Verse 7:  Their eyes were opened and they saw they were naked and they were ashamed; so they tried to cover their nakedness.  The symbolism is thick here.  After they sinned they came into their right mind and their eyes were opened to the guilt of their sin.  In desperation and shame they tried to cover their guilt or sin by sewing loincloths out of figs.  They tried (like so many of us do) in their own humanness to cover their sin and they did not understand that there is nothing we can humanly do to make things right with God when we sin.    

Verse 8:  To make matters worse when they heard God walking in the garden in the cool of the day… Take a moment and think about that.  The man and woman in the Garden had perfect communion with God.  He would come and walk in the Garden he created and gave to the man and woman and they would have perfect fellowship.  God was with them.  He walked among them.  But that fellowship was soon broken as their sin severed the relationship.

They were afraid and tried to hide from God.  What used to cause great excitement and joy (hearing God coming to fellowship with them) now became something they feared.  In their fear they tried to hide from God.  Maybe he wouldn’t notice.  This sounds like the most ridiculous thing ever but how often do we try and do the same with God?  Men and women in the Bible have tried to hide either personally or spiritually their sin from God and all were unsuccessful.  Cain tried to hide his brother’s murder from God.  David tried to hide his sin of adultery from God.  Jonah tries to hide from God by running.  The list goes on.  We cannot successfully run from God.  He always finds us.

Verse 9:  God calls out to Adam…”Where are you?”  God is not asking this because he doesn’t know where Adam is; the question could be better translated, “Why are you hiding?”  God knew they were hiding.  In this question we already see God’s attribute of mercy.

1. God’s mercy.  The promise was if they ate the fruit they would surely die.  This probably meant spiritual death but it certainly meant physical death.  Instead of destroying the man and woman he calls out to them.  Why?
2. In his mercy he gives man an opportunity to confess his sin.  God knew what happened and he gives man the opportunity to own up to his sin.  In this we see God’s grace and compassion.