The story of redemption thus far had ben incredible. God created man and put man in a place of honor to care for all creation in a beautiful garden. Now things take a dark turn.
Genesis 3 tells us the story of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. We know the story. The serpent talks to Eve, and she is tricked into eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Eve then turns to Adam, and he ate as well. But there are a few things about this encounter that we need to understand.
First, while there are passages of allegory in scripture, this is not one of them. Jesus references them as “man” and ‘woman” not by name but by talking about the creation of man and woman and quoting Genesis 2:24 when talking about marriage. So, Jesus felt the story was real. Paul spent a lot of time talking about the fall of Adam in his epistles. He believed the story was real. As did the apostle John when referencing the serpent (Rev 12;9; 20:20). So, we should accept this as a historical event.
Second, while both Adam and Eve sinned by eating of the fruit from the tree of good and evil, it is Adam who is attributed with the sin for all mankind. We know this from Paul when he states “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way, death came to all people, because all sinned” Romans 5:12. Why can we say this? Well, we know that God gave the commandment of not eating from the tree to Adam alone as Eve was created after the commandment was given. While the commandment was shared with Eve, it was Adam’s responsibility to ensure it was obeyed. And where was Adam? Genesis 3:6 tells us. Adam was not distant. It states that Eve gave the fruit to her husband “…who was with her”. Adam heard the serpent and heard from God, and rebelled against God’s command siding with the serpent when he should have protected Eve.
The fall had ramifications that were both immediately and currently felt. First there was enmity between the serpent and the woman, which culminated with Christ defeating death and will overcome Satan entirely as indicated in the New Testament. The woman had pain in childbirth and her relationship with her husband will be strained by competitions over leadership within the marriage. How many marriages are strained and end in divorce because of this competition to lead? And the man, was condemned to working the ground throughout his life, dealing with obstacles the entire time, culminating in his death where he returns to death. And Adam and Eve were removed from the Garden of Eden, a land of beauty and not allowed to return. What was it about the tree of life that God did not want them to eat of it? Why did God not want them to live forever? Footnotes in my Believer’s Commentary indicates that it was actually a blessing. Because of the curse if Adam and Eve ate from the tree of life, they would live forever with the curses upon them. The struggles in marriage, childbirth, working the ground. God wanted us to eventually have a reprieve from the curses that were now upon us. We find fulfillment of that reprieve through eternal life with Christ where the curse is fully removed.
Genesis 4 tell us the story of Cain and Abel. Cain became angry with Abel because God favored Abel’s sacrifice over Cain’s. The reasons that God favored Abel’s sacrifice are debated. Some say that it was because God instituted a blood sacrifice, which was required for the remission of sins. I tend to lean on what scripture says about the sacrifices though. Cain offered fruits from the ground, but it does not indicate first fruits. Compare that to Abel’s sacrifice which were the first of his flock and their fat portions. My view is that God wants us to offer our best to Him. Not just going through motions, but actually giving thought and caring into it.
Regardless, God did not reject Cain but the sacrifice. While he blessed Abel and did not bless Cain, God still reached out to Cain to ask why he was angry. Notice the response of God to Cain in Genesis 4:7 “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” That is our problem as well. Often when we feel God is not accepting us, sin is crouching at the door waiting for us. We should turn away from sin, toward righteousness that can be found in Christ during those moments. Cain instead murdered Abel, leading God to curse Cain to wander unable to get yield from the ground. But notice God still was merciful to Cain. When Cain complained that this was too harsh and he would be killed, God out a mark on Cain indicating seven-fold vengeance on anyone who killed Cain. So again, while Cain felt God had turned from Him, God showed Cain incredible mercies including blessing his children with gifts. Notice everything Cain’s generation did and developed.
Meanwhile God provided another offspring to replace Abel. Seth, who is part of Christ’s lineage. Genesis 5 discusses that genealogy from Adam to Noah. Two are of interest. The first is Enoch. Of Enoch, it starts by saying that Enoch lived 65 years and then he fathered Methuselah. Then it states “Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years…” Was there a pivotal meeting with God, where Enoch developed a strong relationship with God after the birth of Methusaleh? We don’t know. What we do know is this family was one of strong faith, leading up to Noah, who is also noted to walk with God. The other interesting man was Methusaleh. Methusaleh lived 969 years. It is believed he died in the year of the flood. I would imagine as his grandfather Methusaleh taught Noah much about Enoch leading Noah to walk with God in a world that was becoming increasingly wicked.
My Bible Journey In A Year (Chronological) 