Genesis 3:6 Commentary and Bible Study

By now it is too late. Eve has listened to openly to the words of the serpent. She has lowered her garden the arrow of Satan has penetrated her heart. It has affected her eyes, so that she now sees through the serpent size and not the Lords. The trust has shifted. She looked at the tree as she had never looked at it before. Previously she had seen the fence of God’s prohibition that guarded her from its danger. Now she saw gain for herself, the potential for pleasure. What did she see in the tree? Three things are named. It was good for food – she was tempted to eat at this most basic level. Although she had many other trees to choose from she now wanted this tree more than any other. It was pleasant to the eyes. By our eyes we are drawn after many sins. What we see, we wish to possess. It was a tree to be desired to make one wise. This was the thrust of Satan’s temptation. She wanted wisdom and she believed that God’s prohibition stood in the way of it. These three elements: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, all formed part of her sin. She saw the possibility: to know all those alternatives, to know evil, to know anti-values, opposites, and to be able to decide for yourself, and be independent of direction and command and standards, and she wanted that possibility. It would make one wise. What she did is recounted step by step; it was not a sudden, impulsive, ill-thought-out action. She took and did eat. Why is it so elaborately laid out? Stage one, she looked. Stage two, she considered and weighed up the advantages. Stage three, she took. Stage four, she ate. It is all to indicate to us that she understood what she was doing; it was deliberate; it was guilty.‘And gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.’ Adam took, and he ate, and he understood the arguments, because he is condemned later. He is condemned with more words than Eve is condemned. We shall see that to Adam is read the formal charge, which was not read to Eve. He appears to be held more responsible, and he is dealt with in an even more formal way than Eve. So, although the record is a little bit more telescoped, we are left with no doubt that Adam was fully responsible. They thought about it. They weighed what they thought was the advantage.There were two trees, probably very close to each other. The tree of life, how desirable was the tree of life. Nothing could be more desirable than security in the paradise, the Garden of Eden. Nothing could be more desirable than keeping all the blessings they had. Life was there. and in order to take of the tree of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, they had to turn away from life. It was a deliberate taking the eye off the tree of life and preferring the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because it was good for food. Their thinking was, ‘This is an unreasonable command. It is a delight to the eye and the senses. Why should we deny anything which is intrinsically attractive? And it will make us wise and independent.’ So deliberately, in wilful disobedience, they ate. This eating involved a whole cluster of sins, a compound sin. Eve was tempted: to doubt God; to be ungrateful; to suspect that God was unfair and unreasonable; to covet something which was withheld; to revolt and disobey; to disbelieve and disregard God’s promises and warnings; to be proud and place confidence in herself; to steal what was not hers; to justify and falsify what she was about to do, and of course, they fell, immediately, just as God had warned.As they stretched forced to sin, all these evil things sprang into existence, which had not existed before. The possibility of evil existed before, as implied by the command and threat of God, but evil did not actually exist in the world until Adam and Eve disobeyed God.