Genesis 3
“Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman. Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent. We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” Please notice the woman made three mistakes when she told the serpent what God had said. First: The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was not in the midst of the garden: the TREE OF LIFE was in the midst of the garden. Second: the Lord had not told them they must not touch it, on the contrary, they were to dress it and keep it. Third: the Lord had not said, “Lest ye die”, but, “Thou shalt surely die.” Men today are the same, they do not trouble to listen to what God says, but put their own thoughts in place of His words. Today many think that Knowledge, and our Knowledge of Good and Evil, is the center of God’s ways for us. No! It is The TREE of LIFE, of which we may freely eat.
Let us mind God’s words and never change to what we think is better. Now hear what the snake, the serpent said. First, “Hath God said?” Secondly, he comes out boldly and says “No” to God’s word: “Ye shall not surely die”. The serpent was speaking for the devil. When men doubt God’s Word, and ask, “Has God said?” then you know the devil is speaking. We must hear and believe every word in the Bible. Alas, the woman listened to the devil, and seeing that the fruit on the tree was good for food, and was nice to look at, and would make one wise, she took the fruit and ate it. She also gave it to her husband, Adam, and he ate. Then their eyes were opened and they knew they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.
The Lord God came down in the cool of the day and walked in the garden. When Adam and his wife heard His voice, they hid themselves amongst the trees of the garden. What a wonder it is that the great Creator should come down and talk with man! The Lord called to Adam, “Where art thou?” And he said, “I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself”. His own best doings, the fig leaf aprons, could not cover him. In the sight of God he was still a naked sinner. The Lord said. “Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat?” Then he replied that the woman gave it to him. The Lord asked her what she had done. The woman said that the serpent deceived her. The Lord put a curse on the serpent so he should go on his belly always, and eat dust. And God would put hatred between him and the woman, and between her seed and the serpent’s seed. The woman’s Seed would bruise the serpent’s head. The serpent would bruise His heel. And God told the woman that she would bear her children with sorrow, and that her husband would control her. The Lord God told Adam that because he had listened to his wife’s words, and had eaten the fruit which God said he must not eat, the ground would grow thorns and thistles, and Adam would have to eat his bread by the sweat of his face, until he went back to the dust: because Adam came from the dust, and he must go back to dust. Adam named his wife Eve (meaning, Living) because she was the mother of all living people. We would have thought Adam would have called her the mother of all dying people, for sin had just come in; and with sin Death had come: but Adam trusted in God and called her Eve, the mother of all living.
God had said in the day they ate the fruit of that tree, “Thou shalt surely die.” Adam and Eve should die that same day: but God in His kindness provided a way of escape. He killed some sinless animals instead of Adam and Eve, and with their skins, He made coats, and clothed them. The sinless animal must shed its blood to cover their sinful bodies, so that they can stand before God. So God showed Adam and Eve at the very beginning, that there is no other way to cover sin, except by blood. We should not try, like Adam, to cover ourselves with the fig leaves of our own doings. If we will give up our own works, and believe on the Lord Jesus Who died for us, God will count us to be righteous.
The devil still tries to lead men and women, old and young, into sin and down to hell. But God told the serpent that the Seed of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head. Who is this Seed? The Lord Jesus Christ. When He bore our sins on the cross, He bruised the head of the serpent, and saved us. And the serpent surely bruised His feet on the cross! His hands and feet were pierced with the nails; and He died for us. In the Bible, we see that the Lord God told us four thousand years ahead that He would come to this world and suffer for us. When He died on the Cross, He took the load of our sins. So the Lord Jesus said: “He that believeth on Me, hath everlasting life” (John 6:47). God wishes to give everlasting Life without any cost to all who read this book today. How good!
Sin and death came by Adam, so death comes upon every man and woman, and often to boys and girls, “for all have sinned”. Just now the Lord Jesus offers to us new life—eternal life. Even when death may come and call us to leave this world, those who have heard His Word and have eternal life have no need to be afraid.
But if God calls you and you say, “I’m too busy,” or “I’m too young,” or “Please wait a little while,” you may keep putting God off until death comes. Which will you choose? Eternal Life? Eternal Death?
The Lord God said that the man had become as one of them to know good and evil, so for fear lest he should eat the fruit of the tree of life, and live forever, the Lord drove them both out of the Garden of Eden to work the land. At the East of the garden the Lord placed cherubim-like angels with a flaming sword that turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.