Gather at the Table - The First Bite
If the serpent is more crafty than any beast what chance do we have?
A Personal Note: I had this written yesterday morning. I just didn’t shove it through the editing software and I got distracted. November is NaNoWriMo, which is National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to start writing on November 1 and by November 30 have a completed novel. I’ve never participated before but I am this year and I’m struggling to stay on pace with my word count. It’s impacting my weekly writing a little bit, which is why you have Monday Morning with Jesus on Tuesday. I’ll try to do better but bear with me through November. It won’t affect Advent as that is already written.
Our scripture today comes from Genesis 3:1-13.
1Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
2The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;
3but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’ ”
4The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!
5“For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
7Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.
8They 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.
9Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”
10He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”
11And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
12The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.”
13Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Genesis 3:1–13 (NASB95)
My favorite part of this scripture didn’t become my favorite part until recently. Someone, I don’t recall who highlighted the way the Devil attacked Adam and Eve. I’m combining the two because while Eve bit first and took action first, Adam failed to properly communicate God’s command to not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They are equally complicate in the Fall of Mankind. The cool phraseology centers around verse 1. Someone suggested a paraphrase might be, “Did God really say…” (This also might have been Erick Erickson.)
Pastor Kristen might have thrown that out in a sermon at some point. I don’t know. But the point is that the Devil loves to make us question God. Now, I don’t believe God is worried about our questions. Presenting questions to God and questioning things He has said, done, or commanded isn’t the problem for Adam and Eve here. The problem stems from them deciding inside themselves without seeking counsel from anyone else, including God if God really said.
Eve decides, on her own authority, that the tree is really good to eat and they should eat of it (verse 6.) This is where it all goes wrong; these thirteen verses go wrong for all of creation. The Devil knows it, too. We need to make sure we read scripture, all of it, considering it in its totality, for every verse we read, or we run the risk of falling for the Devil’s first lie of omission, just as Adam and Eve did so long ago.
How can this first lie possibly still be deceiving people? Easy. The Devil is “more crafty than any beast.” He knew exactly what he was doing.
In verses four and five, the Devil, who knows how things are made, as well as any angel in Heaven and God Himself, lies to Eve by not telling her all the truth. “You surely will not die!” The Devil knows Eve doesn’t know how creation is structured. He knows her fleshly body won’t cease when she bites the apple, which is how she understands death. She has no concept of the difference between the flesh and the spiritual. Eve doesn’t understand what sin is or how it affects human beings, but the Devil does, and God, who set the command, does as well.
So, when Eve “…she took from its fruit and ate…” and saw that her earthly body did not cease, she trusted the Devil more than God, and gave the fruit to Adam, who trusted her. Thus, did sin enter into the world through the failures of Adam and Eve. But more importantly, let’s consider how the Devil did it.
Satan, another name for the Devil, didn’t tell Adam and Eve everything. That’s called the lie of omission because he omitted pertinent facts Adam and Eve needed to understand the full topic being discussed. We get the lie of omission all the time from every single news organization, yes, even that one. They only tell you what they want you to know to move your opinion in the direction they want it to go.
Sometimes, the motion is as innocent as knowing who their core audience is and desiring you to tune back in or think favorably of them. Other times, it is actively trying to advance an agenda. All organizations are guilty of this if they have a marketing department. It is Marketing’s job to make you think a certain way, and they are very good at it, one might say as crafty as any beast.
That was what occurred to me when reading the scripture. However, it didn’t happen until the sermon was underway, as I was working with the ushers on Sunday, which was All Saints Sunday.
Pastor Kristen Lee was back and gave the message. She opened with the idea that this set of scriptures is where creation ends and living begins. I hadn’t thought about that, but she’s right. Everything prior to the man and the woman being made was all about creating a place they could live in that would support life, and that would be pleasant for them. Once the first humans were made and deposited into creation, living began. In that sense, life doesn’t begin until people are conceived for all creation.
Pastor Lee’s theme through the message was, “What really happened?” That question got me worried we would be questioning some aspect of the traditional creation story. That is not what happened. She asked everyone to shout out what they thought happened in a single word. A few came out, but the point was that this was a great disobedience.
She quickly pivoted and wanted everyone to know that she wasn’t trying to set the stage to tell us God knew what would happen and set humanity up to fail on purpose. However, that has always been my number one question. God knows everything and knew what Adam and Eve would do when put into the garden. He also knew He would have to come to earth later as Jesus to set it all right again. If He knows all of this and knows all the pain and suffering some of us will go through, why start it at all? I don’t have an answer to that. It’s my biggest question about creation, and one I toy with all the time.
That’s somewhat off-topic for the sermon. Pastor Lee pointed out that if you tell someone, “Don’t look over there.” They will look over there to see what you don’t want them to look at. It’s like going to a Mexican restaurant when they drop that plate in front of you and say, “Hot plate.” The first thing I do is tap it with a finger to see how hot it is. That’s just how humans are.
She inserted a homework assignment, and one I will endeavor to perform. I present it to you here, one day late, so that you too might work it with me.
Homework: Think about the setup of creation in the Garden of Eden.
I would add that it is in the context of today’s scripture passage from the sermon. I have more thoughts on that, but I’ll keep those to myself for now and maybe share my homework response later.
She went on about how this is the origin story of all that is Bad. But she suggested we don’t look at it in that light. This is where she went into the “What really happened” question.
So, what really happened? Yes, sin entered into the world, and by that, scripture meant that Mankind gained the knowledge (notice scripture doesn’t say wisdom, nor do I) about things. Scripture doesn’t say we gained all knowledge either. Really, what I think happened here is that we learned we had choices between right and wrong, good and evil.
This might also shed some light on why God didn’t punish Adam and Eve more harshly. Why? Because maybe they had no choice when the Devil (Satan or Stan if you fat finger it and miss an a) told them they could eat the apple. Let’s consider that at this time, Lucifer (another name for the Devil, Satan, or Stan) was an angel of God in good standing. Why would the woman not believe him? This beautiful and glorious creature of God tells you it’s really okay. You are absolutely devoid as a person (meaning Adam and Eve were devoid as people) of discernment to separate truth from a lie because they simply don’t know what a lie is. They don’t know what disobedience is. They also don’t know what obedience is. When the Devil says you can eat it, she believes and eats it. Only after she eats the fruit (Pastor Lee suggested it was an apricot maybe and not an apple) does she finally understand what she has done. However, she can’t fully realize what she’s done. If she did, Eve would never have given the fruit to Adam to eat, so he must have been close by. We aren’t told he is there, and most tellings of this story do not suggest he is. I am not suggesting Adam is just standing by watching all this unfold, but if he is, he has more culpability in the Fall than I thought because he let it happen.
Regardless, God said don’t do it, and the Devil said it’s okay, go do it. Adam and Eve went and did it, and their eyes were suddenly opened to the error they’d made.
So, what is sin?
Sin is whatever God says it is. Sin is whatever God says is bad. Sin is doing something God says not to do. Sin is making a choice and choosing whatever is not of God.
1See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
2Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.
3And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
4Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.
5You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.
6No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.
7Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous;
8the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.
1 John 3:1–8 (NASB95)
What is the result of sin?
We have scripture for that, too, mentioned in the sermon.
22even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;
23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;
25whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;
26for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Romans 3:22–26 (NASB95)
So, what does sin do? It separates us from God because God is not sin and cannot be sin. Sin cannot be in Him, which is one of the reasons Jesus came to wash us clean because God wants us with Him. We cannot be with him if we are dirty in sin, which all humans are. Thus, Jesus comes to wash us clean. This is why only those who follow Jesus end up with God because He is the way, the truth, and the life.
5Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?”
6Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
7“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”
John 14:5–7 (NASB95)
I’m not sure what the Devil hopes to gain by steering us away from God, but that’s his goal. It is the goal of all those asking, “Did God really say?”
Pastor Lee got to the meat of her message here. Most of the time, we focus on this scripture for the fall aspect of it, for the sin entering the world aspect. However, she pointed out something interesting. When Adam and Eve discovered they were naked and hid, God came looking for them.
She pointed out that God knows everything. He didn’t need to ask, “Where are you?” He already knew, but Adam and Eve didn’t know that. This conversation doesn’t contradict a “supposedly all-knowing God not knowing.” This is God presenting Himself to His now enlightened children so they would return to Him, and Adam and Eve do. This is a model for us today, presented at the beginning of all creation.
When we sin, God still seeks us and wants to be with us. He calls to us. He is there for us.
“But God threw Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden and punished them,” you would say. Yes, He did because actions or choices have consequences. Adam and Eve now had to bear the burden of those consequences. They now have all the knowledge from the tree, understanding the choice between good and evil. God is closing the circle, demonstrating the consequences of disobedience, and we are presented with that demonstration in the first pages of the Bible. We may choose to ignore that first lesson, but it is there and taught nonetheless.
The more important point is that God came. God was seen looking for His children. He knew what was going on, and He came anyway. Jesus came anyway.
Pastor Lee pointed out a Hebrew word used here in verse eight, where her translation used “breeze” the King James and NASB used ‘cool of.’ She highlighted the “spirit” aspect, meaning God’s spirit was what was “walking in the garden.” However, there’s more there. I’ll include Strong’s Hebrew definition, but it also includes an aspect of anger. This was not a happy God’s spirit moving through the garden.
Hebrew Strong’s Number: 7307
Hebrew Word: רוּחַ
Transliteration: rûaḥ
Phonetic Pronunciation: roo’-akh
Root: from <H7306>
Cross Reference: TWOT - 2131a
Part of Speech: n f
Vine’s Words: Spirit
Usage Notes:
English Words used in KJV:
Spirit or spirit 232
wind 92
breath 27
side 6
mind 5
blast 4
vain 2
air 1
anger 1
cool 1
courage 1
miscellaneous translations 6
[Total Count: 378]
from <H7306> (ruwach); wind; by resemblance breath, i.e. a sensible (or even violent) exhalation; figurative life, anger, unsubstantiality; by extensive a region of the sky; by resemblance spirit, but only of a rational being (including its expression and functions):- air, anger, blast, breath, × cool, courage, mind, × quarter, × side, spirit ([-ual]), tempest, × vain, ([whirl-]) wind (-y).
James Strong, “רוּחַ (2),” Strong’s Talking Greek and Hebrew Dictionary (WORDsearch, 2020).
I like to think this is an appearance of the Trinity. You have a person's body walking in the garden, which would have looked exactly like Jesus because it was Jesus. You have the Holy Spirit in the “breeze” or “cool of” the day, and God that Father, which is the power that binds it all together in the unseen nature of His righteousness.
This should be incredibly good news because it demonstrates God’s power is greater than the Devil’s. Satan caused sin to enter into the children of God, those He created in His image, and yet God still came to be with them more than once. Sin does not hold more power than the grace of God.
2God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?
3“Lord, they have killed Your prophets, they have torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.”
4But what is the divine response to him? “I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”
5In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice.
6But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.
Romans 11:2–6 (NASB95)
1 Kings 19:10-18
When the Devil and sin try to separate us from God, God shows up. When God shows up, we can accomplish anything if we are willing to turn our backs on our sins and take up His ways.
14“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up;
15so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.
16“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
17“For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
18“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19“This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.
20“For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
21“But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”
John 3:14–21 (NASB95)
Yes, sometimes we walk through the weeds and brambles off His path, but that’s because we walked away from Him in the first place, and now we have to wade through that hardship to get back to His path. But once we do that, He is still waiting there for us with arms spread wide like the Father welcoming the Prodigal Son home. Nothing can separate us from the Love of God, so here’s the final question to contemplate with the homework question at the top: What does it say about who we are and who God is if He is willing to love us even after we have walked away from Him?
18‘I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight;
19I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.” ’
20“So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.
Luke 15:18–20 (NASB95)
Consider that passage in light of “What really happened.”
Mark, thank you for the inspiring words you shared. Meant to send this earlier in the week. Keep up the GOOD WORK! Emily N.