I want you to turn in your Bible now to the third chapter of Genesis. And we finally arrive at the text itself. We have talked about this chapter. We have done a lot of background on the chapter on the issue of sin, the problem of evil in the universe and evil in the world. And all of that was really a prelude to the text itself; the Biblical record of why the world is the way it is. The fall of man and the fall of the created universe is presented in this chapter. This is God’s word on that most defining and influencing of all events. It is the divine record of the entrance of evil into the natural world. And I want to say, although it goes without saying, that the true and historical and actual way in which it happened is precisely what is described here in Genesis 3. This tells us how the perfect, good creation of the all good and only good God became corrupted and evil. The New Testament does not treat this as fiction. The New Testament does not treat it as legend; does not treat it as allegory; does not treat it as myth. You study the New Testament, you will find a number of references to Adam. One of them is in the genealogy of Jesus in Luke Chapter 3 Verse 38. The genealogy of Jesus starts from Adam, through his son, all the way down to the Lord Himself. You will find New Testament references to Satan as the “serpent in the garden,” as the one who lied to Eve, as the one who “deceived Eve.” You will find references to Eve as the one being deceived. So the New Testament gives many, many references back to Genesis Chapter 3, and all of them treat it as dealing with actual people; a man named at Adam, a woman named Eve, in a garden, and a “serpent” who was none other than the “devil and Satan.” There are, in every case where reference is made to this event, no indications that it is anything other than actual history. Even Jude 14 says Enoch, identifying him in human chronology, was “the seventh from Adam.” Adam was the first man. Eve was the first woman. And this is the real story of how sin came into the world.
Let’s read the first seven verses. You follow as I read. “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Indeed, has God said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden?’ And the woman said to the serpent, ‘From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.’ And the serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely shall not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be open, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” “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 desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.” And that is exactly how it happened. God has revealed to us this account as an explanation of the sinfulness and fallenness of our universe.
Now this is by far the saddest event in history, obviously. All problems, personal and environmental — all that is wrong, evil, immoral, incomplete, all that is decaying, all that is inferior, all failure, all disappointment, all weakness, all sadness, all sorrow, all pain, all disillusionment, all trouble, all discomfort, all remorse, all regret, all conflict, all hate, all jealousy, all envy, all bitterness, all vengeance, all fear, all crime, all selfishness, all confusion, all lies, all deception, all error, all intimidation, all manipulation, all deviation, all distortion — everything that fails to be as perfect as God is came from this one event. This then is a monumental event. It truly defines life in our universe. It is the reason for all imperfection and death.
Now the story is built on several elements, and I always like to create a little outline so we can work our way through, and we’ll do that. We’ll take one at a time.
First of all, I want to introduce to you the solicitor, the solicitor or the tempter, who is none other than Satan. And we have discussed this in detail. But in reference to this outline of the text itself, I want to just pick that up. Verse 1: “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.” The Lord God had made a lot of animals, as we well know. That, the creation of animals, is discussed back in the first chapter. And the Lord made a wonderful world of animals, including reptiles. More than any other animal which God had made, this particular serpent was wise. And the reason he was wise is because Satan himself, that fallen angel Lucifer, “son of the morning,” who had been thrown out of heaven for his rebellion, had moved into that reptile and was speaking through that reptile the supernatural wisdom that he possessed as a fallen angel.
This is a real reptile; a reptile, the term “nachash,” sometimes synonymous with “tanin,” which is the word for dragon; sometimes “serpent,” sometimes “dragon.” And that’s consistent with Revelation 12:9, Revelation 20 Verse 2, which says of Satan that he is the “serpent” and the “dragon.” Some kind of an upright reptile who approached Eve. But really, it was Satan. Satan, that fallen angel, that supernatural enemy of God and man — wiser, more cunning than any animal — because literally, this animal had the very mind of the supernatural being Satan. He had fallen, as we remember, from Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. We also remember from Revelation 12 that when he fell he took a third of the angels with him.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
