Genesis 3:1 Commentary and Bible Study

Genesis 3 deals with the fall of man. If we have no understanding of this doctrine, we can make little sense of mankind in his present state in this world. We will constantly be taken by surprise at what he is capable of, our remedies for evil in the world will be superficial, and above all we will not see how great is our own personal need and that only in Christ is there a remedy for sin. The language is deceptively simple, yet it is so profound. It is about the fall of man; it is about sin today also; it is the explanation for sin in the ongoing world. It is literal history; there is no doubt about that. That is how it is presented in the word of God, and that is how all the later books in the Bible treat it. It is the key to seeing the human condition and understanding it. It is the key to understanding the state of the world. It is the source of all understanding about conscience: the existence of conscience, the nature of conscience. It is the key to understanding the origin of wars, hostility, cruelty, greed, selfishness, and the key to understanding one of the greatest mysteries in society: the antagonism of people most generally toward God. It explains, of course, the mysterious absence of a single good person in the world – not one. It shows, almost more than anything, the absolute necessity of grace for salvation. A salvation which is not earned and not deserved, but given as a gift by the grace of God, and of course, it has to be revealed because the whole message of Genesis 3 is so contrary to human pride, no human literature would ever give rise to an account like this of the origin of the world. You might think that that word ‘subtil’ or crafty is there is to prepare us for what lies ahead: ‘Of course, the serpent must be intrinsically evil; the serpent must be cunning beyond anything we can imagine.’ And yet, the word is probably used here in a good sense. We are not talking, just at the moment, about Satan making use of the serpent, but the serpent or the snake as it appeared in the Garden. Probably, we could read it something like this – the serpent, the snake was more intelligent, more seemingly clever, more subtle, in a good sense. It seemed to know exactly what the right thing to do was. After all, the serpent was made with all the beasts of the field and God pronounced that what he had made was good. What we are being prepared for is to understand in part why Eve should have accepted a message from a talking snake, because this creature was very wonderful and endowed with tremendous capability by God. That is how it appeared in its original form; it was a creature that suited Satan’s purpose. He spoke through this animal, possibly to reduce Eve’s sense of alarm.But we learn, as the narrative goes on, that this is not just a serpent, this is Satan taking possession of a serpent or speaking through a snake. the Garden of Eden is a place of such beauty that it is beyond human description now. A place of purity, a place of happiness, a place of fellowship, very close fellowship with God, and every pure sensation is experienced by Adam and Eve. There is no hurt, there is no grief there, there is no sin, no fear and no death. But Satan comes into the picture – proud, a destroyer, a liar, malicious – and we later learn that it is he who is responsible. He appears by the forbidden tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and he addresses Eve through the serpent.He begins by insinuating that the words of God are open to interpretation – either there is latitude in them, or they are not fully reliable and not to be believed. It is a question: ‘Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?’ Doubt is put on the words of God, and Eve’s mind is directed not on the many good things she has been given, but on the one thing she has been forbidden. Now there was a tremendous gulf between man and the animals. Adam has named the animals; God instructed him to do so. The lesson of this is obvious – that Adam is king in his domain, under God, of course, but this paradise, the Garden of Eden is his realm, his domain, his kingdom. He is to be over it. He has a commission from the Lord to rule it and govern it, and he is over the animals, and he has given them their names, no doubt very descriptive names. He knows their limitations. He is an expert zoologist. And here now is an argument, a discussion coming from an animal. What is Satan doing? Well, we believe that Satan could not achieve any incarnation of himself. That is something he cannot do, and cannot do right to the end of time. And so he must use some kind of an instrument. But what is in the mind of Satan? Well, he wishes to bring God down. He is intensely antagonistic to God and jealous of him. He wishes to ruin his creation. He is also intensely jealous of man. Man, who has been given this special place and this authority over this domain. Satan wishes to bring him down, but in the most painful and humiliating way, and the cause of his fall will be, in one sense, an animal. An animal, a creature that he is to reign over and he is supreme over, will be the means of bringing down the human race. It is a double humiliation, and so he speaks through the serpent.