Gen 3:1-13 · Read 10 min · think and write 15 min
In the last lesson, God put the man in the garden of Eden and commanded him: “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden” (Gen 2:16); “but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die” (Gen 2:17).
That chapter stopped at: “The man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed” (Gen 2:25).
This lesson reads what happened next.
1Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?”
2The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden,
3but not the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden. God has said, ‘You shall not eat of it. You shall not touch it, lest you die.’”
4The serpent said to the woman, “You won’t really die,
5for God knows that in the day you eat 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 to be desired to make one wise, she took some of its fruit, and ate. Then she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate it, too.
7Their eyes were opened, and they both knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together, and made coverings for themselves.
8They heard the LORD God’s voice 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.
9The LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”
10The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; so I hid myself.”
11God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13The LORD God said to the woman, “What have you done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Has God really said? “Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which the LORD God had made” (v. 1). The serpent’s first words are a question: “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?” (v. 1). What God had said was, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden” (Gen 2:16); only one tree was forbidden.
You won’t really die. The woman answered that they could eat from the trees of the garden, but not from the tree in the middle of the garden (vv. 2–3). The serpent said, “You won’t really die, for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (vv. 4–5).
He ate it, too. “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 some of its fruit, and ate” (v. 6). “Then she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate it, too” (v. 6). The passage says that both of them ate.
Their eyes were opened. “Their eyes were opened, and they both knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together, and made coverings for themselves” (v. 7). The last lesson ended with “naked, and they were not ashamed” (Gen 2:25); now they want to cover themselves.
Among the trees. “They heard the LORD God’s voice 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” (v. 8).
Where are you? Then “The LORD God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’” (v. 9). After they hid, it was God who called first. The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; so I hid myself” (v. 10).
The woman, the serpent. God asked, “Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” (v. 11). The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it” (v. 12). God asked the woman, “What have you done?” (v. 13). The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate” (v. 13). Both of them said ‘I ate’; and both of them first named someone else.
Israel’s wisdom books have this line: “Behold, I have only found this: that God made mankind upright; but they search for many inventions” (Eccl 7:29).
Readers can see this: the man God made was good to begin with (Gen 1:31); afterward man went his own way. When Israel read Genesis 3, they were reading where that way began.
Perhaps you, too, are hiding right now: you did something wrong and do not dare let anyone know, nor dare to come before God; or you have already pushed the blame onto someone else, though you know better in your heart.
This lesson does not say that what you did does not matter, and it does not say that once you come out, everything will be fine. What it shows you is this: when people hid, it was God who called first, “Where are you?” (v. 9). In the Psalms someone says: “I acknowledged my sin to you. I didn’t hide my iniquity” (Ps 32:5).
This week: Think of something you have been keeping hidden. This week, find a quiet time and bring it honestly before God; if it has hurt someone else, think about whether, and how, to go and talk with that person.
The passage says: “she took some of its fruit, and ate. Then she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate it, too” (Gen 3:6).
The New Testament speaks of this: “Therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin, so death passed to all men because all sinned” (Rom 5:12). And: “For as through the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous” (Rom 5:19).
Read the two side by side: the disobedience in the garden, and what Paul says, “through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous” (Rom 5:19).
Scripture: World English Bible.