THE FLOOD, Genesis 6, 7, 8

In our study of the foundations of the gospel, as seen through the book of Genesis, we come today to the story of the flood.  As you know, I usually preach verse by verse, chapter by chapter.  However, today I am going to try to cover the material found in three chapters of Genesis. If I were to use my usual approach, it would take several messages to cover this event.  I don’t think I want to approach it that way, and so I hope to be able to give a summary of the three chapters in one message today.  

But before we really begin to dig into the text, which by the way is one of the Genesis texts met with the most skepticism by critics, second only to the creation account, I would like you to consider what Jesus had to say about it. In response to the disciples question of “when will these things take place,” speaking of the end of the age, Jesus responds in Matthew 24:37-39  "For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.”

Every indication in Jesus’s  answer is that the flood was an actual, historical event, that not only really happened, but also serves as a foreshadowing of the second coming at end of the age.  Now concerning the time of Noah, in Moses’ account in Genesis 6 vs 5 he says, “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”  

This is a description of the society of man in the days of Noah, and I believe it is also an indication of the society of man in the last days when the Lord Jesus returns.  And I would suggest, that we are living in those last days at this very moment.  God said in his critique of the days of Noah that He would not strive with man forever, but the length of his days would be 120 years.  Many scholars consider God to be saying that He would allow 120 years for Noah to preach righteousness and repentance before their destruction came.  If we are indeed living in the last days, we have no idea how many more years we may have been given before the wrath of God comes upon the world. But we can be certain that God has set a time limit.

Peter said in 2Peter 3:3-9 “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with [their] mocking, following after their own lusts,  and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For [ever] since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation."  For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God [the] heavens existed long ago and [the] earth was formed out of water and by water,  through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.  But do not let this one [fact] escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.  The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”

So Peter said the first judgment and destruction of the earth and it’s inhabitants was by the waters of the flood.  But the second judgment and destruction of the earth and it’s inhabitants will be by fire.  But in both cases, God does not wish for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.  However, though the patience of God waits,  He will not wait forever. God has set a time limit, and one day the door will be shut, and the wrath of God will be poured out.  And then it will be too late for repentance.

Now in Noah’s age there were some things in particular that precipitated God’s judgment.  Chapter 6 vs 1 describes one of those things. “Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them,  that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.  Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years."  The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore [children] to them. Those were the mighty men who [were] of old, men of renown.  Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.  The LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.”

During these days of rapid population expansion (due not only to procreation but because of long lifespans in the pre-flood world), there was an exponential expansion of evil caused by the ungodly intermarriage between the sons of God and the daughters of men. The sons of God most probably indicates angelic creatures, which in this case were fallen angels, demons that somehow took upon themselves the form of man. We know of many times in scripture that angels appeared as men.  And so they would seem to have the ability to take on human form, and in this case, they took on human form because they desired sexual union with human women, referred to as the daughters of men. There are other possible interpretations of what that could be talking about, but I believe this one is most validated in scripture. 

For instance, Jude speaks in vs 6 of the angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode. Jude goes on in vs7 to tell us just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh. So here in Genesis 6, as in Sodom and Gomorrah, there was an unnatural sexual union, demons going after the strange flesh of women.

Jude 6 also makes it clear what God did with these wicked angels. They are kept in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day for not keeping their proper place. The demonic purpose in this sexual union was to bring about an unredeemable race. To corrupt the human race through whom the promised Messiah would come, and thus prevent the seed of the woman prophesied in the Garden from appearing as the means to crush Satan’s head.

 

In 1 Peter 3:19-20 it says during the three days Jesus was in the grave, He, in the Spirit, went to these disobedient spirits in their prison and proclaimed His victory on the cross over them.  But in Genesis 6, God pronounced destruction upon the entire human race, because they had given themselves over to that corruption.  He says I will not strive with man forever, but his days shall be 120 years.  Some have erroneously concluded from that that man would live to be no more than 120 years old.  But a better reading is that God was forecasting that man had 120 years left before the destruction of the human race.  

Peter refers to that 120 years as the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, not wishing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance.  Peter also says in 2 Peter 2:5 that Noah was a preacher of righteousness.  So during this 120 years that Noah build the ark, in some way or another he was also preaching about righteousness and the judgement to come, calling people to repentence.

Now this union between the daughters of men and the demonic spirits seems to have produced an offspring which are called the Nephalim.  The KJV translates that as giants.  And that is one possible translation. However, it also can just mean fallen ones.  My thinking is that they may have not been giants, but fallen in the sense that they were unredeemable, as are the demonic spirits, and had they been allowed to continue to breed, the entire human race would have eventually become a demonic half breed that presumably would be unredeemable. 

I also don’t think that they actually had to have been giants, but it might indicate they had supernatural strength. Much like the demoniac whom Jesus healed had supernatural strength, or the one demon that beat up the seven sons of Sceva had supernatural strength.  We know from scripture that is one common characteristic of some demon possessed people, and it’s likely that it was also true of these creatures. Moses says they were men of renown, that indicates superior prowess, or strength.

But just as demonic activity was a characteristic of the days of Noah, in like manner, we should expect to see more demonic activity, and even an embracing of the doctrines of demons in the last days, which I think has certainly already begun in our day. But in any respect, the evil of man exploded exponentially in those early days. Wickedness begets more wickedness and evil begets more evil.  Adam and Eve sinned what seemed an innocuous sin, but they beget a murderer in their son Cain, and from the line of Cain came Lamech, who boasted, “For I have killed a man for wounding me; And a boy for striking me.”  Violence and evil metastasized on the earth until every thought and intent of man’s heart was only evil continually. And God was sorry that He had made man.  I think that refers to God grieving over man’s condition.

But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD: While God commanded all the earth to be cleansed of this corruption, He found one man with whom to begin again: Noah, who found grace in the eyes of the LORD. Noah didn’t earn grace; he received grace. No one earns grace, but we can all find grace if we turn to the Lord.

Vs 9 says, Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God. This description of Noah not only refers to the righteous life of Noah, but also to the fact he was uncorrupted by Satan’s attempt to sow something like a virus among the genetic pool of mankind. And his three sons will be used by God to repopulate the earth after the flood.

Vs 11 Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.  Then God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.” We have already said that  evil had spread on the earth so that everything was corrupted. Now we read God’s pronouncement of judgment.  All flesh, man and beast, will be destroyed. The same is prophesied for the end of the ages. Only at the end of the age it will be by fire, but God will preserve a remnant, who will repopulate the new heavens and the new earth which comes down out of heaven.  Let us not diminish or ignore the wrath of God against sin. God must act in judgement against evil, and He has promised it, and we ignore it to our own peril.

So we all have heard the story of Noah and the ark.  We need not belabor it. Many have questioned how an ark could possibly hold all the creatures of the earth.  I’m not going to spend time trying to defend that this morning.  I would recommend that you go to see the Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky where there is a life sized reconstruction of the ark. I would also encourage you to explore a website called Answers in Genesis which has many articles and videos on the flood and other aspects of Creation which are scientifically based, which can answer many of your questions.  

I did, however, read somewhere that the average size of a land animal is smaller than a sheep. The ark could carry 136,560 sheep in just half of its capacity, leaving plenty of room for people, food, water, and whatever other provisions were needed. But I think ultimately, believing is not a matter of science, but of faith.  However, just because it is by faith, does not mean that it is the opposite of science. But it means that you need to seek out alternative views of science as opposed to evolution. And personally, I think you need more faith to believe In evolution than to believe in creation.

Hebrews 11:7 says,  “By faith Noah, being warned [by God] about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.”  Genesis 6 vs 22 says,  “Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.” Faith is obedience to what God has said.  Faith is not just an intellectual assent. And by faith comes righteousness as the grace of God. The ark then is a metaphor for salvation by grace through faith.

Chapter 7:1 “Then the LORD said to Noah, "Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you [alone] I have seen [to be] righteous before Me in this time.”  After preaching for 120 years, Noah has only 7 converts.  He makes me feel a little better about my own efforts at preaching for the last 17 years, I suppose. But only slightly.  But it is a sad commentary on the human condition, that man will not repent, but continue to harden his heart to his own damnation. 

So God caused all the animals to come into the ark. We see even today evidence of the migratory patterns that animals and birds can travel great distances as if some unknown force were directing them. So in some similar fashion God caused the animals to come to the ark. Some have surmised that once in the ark God may have caused a deep sleep to fall upon many of the animals, similar to hibernation.  That’s supposition, but it’s a possible explanation of how they might have survived being on board the ark for so long.  But what follows is perhaps one of the most tragic statements in the Bible which is found in 7:16, “and the LORD closed it (that is the door of the ark) behind him.”

Vs 10-12  “It came about after the seven days, that the water of the flood came upon the earth.”  You talk about a test of faith.  Noah had been preaching and building the ark for 120 years, and now when God brings them all in the ark, He makes them wait for seven more days in there before the rain began. Imagine what that felt like. Imagine hearing people outside knocking on the walls of the ark and laughing at the fools inside. 

Then in Vs. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.  The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.”  So not only did the firmament above break open and pour down rain but the waters under the earth burst open. And it continued to rain for 40 days and 40 nights.  The text goes on to say that the tops of the mountains were covered by 15 cubits, which works out to be 22.5 feet. Mt. Everest is 29000 feet tall. Incredible to think of that much water and the pressure that caused upon the earth.

Vs21-24 “All flesh that moved on the earth perished, birds and cattle and beasts and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind;  of all that was on the dry land, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died.  Thus He blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky, and they were blotted out from the earth; and only Noah was left, together with those that were with him in the ark.  The water prevailed upon the earth one hundred and fifty days.

You know one thing that I will suggest is that the fossil record, upon which so much scientific theory rests, can be explained best by the flood.  I’m not a geologist, but I can tell you that if you bury a bone in the ground in your backyard, and dig it up 500 years from now, you will not find a fossil.  You probably won’t find a bone either.  It will simply deteriorate. Dust to dust.  But in a cataclysmic event such as the flood, when vast amounts of earth is turned to sludge and mud and rapidly covers what used to be life, and then compressed by millions of tons of water, then you will find some fossil remains in that hardened sediment. And the fact that you find such all over the world, and fossils of fish and shells in the middle of the desert, or on the sides of mountains, are to me at least, evidence of a world wide flood as described in the Bible.  I think it also accounts for a dramatic climate change upon the earth as evidenced by drilling in the Arctic tundra, which shows signs of a once tropical landscape far beneath the ice. 

But as I said, other Creation websites and books can better give scientific evidence for these things than I can.  I am going to try to finish the account and expound whatever spiritual principles that we can glean from the text and leave the science for others that are better qualified to explain it. 

But I will repeat a quote by Charles Haddon Spurgeon who said, “Noah underwent burial to all the old things that he might come out into a new world, and even so we die in Christ that we may live with him.”

So in chapter 8, God remembered Noah and He caused the caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided. Also the fountains of the deep and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained; and the water receded steadily from the earth, and at the end of one hundred and fifty days the water decreased. In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat. Mt. Ararat is in Turkey, about 16,800 feet above sea level, by the way.

And there is much historical evidence for the ark coming to rest there. in 275 b.c., Berosus, a Babylonian historian, wrote: “But of this ship that grounded in Armenia some part still remains in the mountains… and some get pitch from the ship by scraping it off.” Around a.d. 75, Josephus said the locals collected relics from the ark and showed them off to this very day. He also said all the ancient historians he knew of wrote about the ark. And in a.d. 180, Theophilus of Antioch wrote: “the remains [of the ark] are to this day to be seen… in the mountains.”

When the ark rested on the mountain, Noah eventually goes to the one window which is high up on the ark and releases a raven.  The raven is a scavenger, and doesn’t come back to the ark. Then Noah sends out a dove, and the dove comes back because it can’t find a dry place to land. Then after another week, he sent out he dove again, and she came back with an olive leaf in her beak.  Much significance has been given to the dove being a sign of peace, and an olive leaf being a sign of healing.  And that may be true. But Noah knew that the earth was drying up, and that life on earth was being renewed.

Noah had entered the ark on the seventeenth day of the second month of the six hundredth year of his life. So this is almost a full year later, and in the second month of his six hundred and first year Noah left the ark. It seems he was in the ark a full calendar year.  But what I like about the text is that Noah opened the door and saw the earth was dry, and yet he waited almost two months until God told him to go before he left the ark. Noah really and truly walked with God.  He didn’t lead and God followed.  He didn’t lean on his own understanding.  He waited upon the Lord for every decision.  That’s a pretty good example for our walk of faith.  Don’t rely upon your reason, upon your common sense.  Seek the Lord and wait on the Lord in every circumstance.

Vs20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.  The LORD smelled the soothing aroma; and the LORD said to Himself, "I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done. While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, And cold and heat, And summer and winter, And day and night Shall not cease.”

Noah’s first act after leaving the ark was to worship God through sacrifice. His gratitude and reverence of God’s greatness led him to worship God. It’s ironic though that after all the death and destruction were seemingly over, the first thing Noah does is to kill some of the animals that had been preserved with them on the ark. But as is the nature of true sacrifice, this was a costly offering unto God. It’s also a picture of the innocent dying in place of the guilty. Only by the sacrifice of the innocent Jesus Christ on behalf of we that are guilty are we made at peace with God.

Spurgeon said, “The sacrifice is the turning-point. Without a sacrifice sin clamors for vengeance, and God sends a destroying flood; but the sacrifice presented by Noah was a type of the coming sacrifice of God’s only begotten Son, and of the effectual atonement therein provided for human sin.”

Paul says in Romans that having been saved from the judgment to come we are to present a sacrifice as well, dying to sin, and living by faith.  Rom 12:1-2 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, [which is] your spiritual service of worship.  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” 

I hope that you have trusted in Christ by faith, dying to sin, that through Christ you might be saved from the condemnation of death, and being transformed into a new creation, so that you may be described as Noah, as a righteous man, blameless in his time; who walked with God.

The Fall of Man, Genesis 3:1-21

Contrary to the prevailing,  popular opinion, the creation account is not mythology.  It is not an allegory. It’s an actual, historical account which is spoken of as such numerous times in the New Testament, and by Jesus Christ Himself.  I am not going to spend a lot of time trying to defend the historicity of the account in Genesis then, but rather try to expound on the historical facts to relate the relevancy and repercussions of the fall to our lives today.

Moses begins by introducing a new character, one he simply calls the serpent. And considering the importance of this figure in the saga of human existence, it’s amazing that he doesn’t elaborate more.  But he simply says in vs 1, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.”

I’m sure you have seen many paintings and depictions of the temptation of Adam and Eve, and the serpent is usually pictured as a kind of beguiling, almost cartoonish snake that is in a rather upright position.  I think that is somewhat misleading.  The Hebrew word for serpent is “nahas”, and one of the possible interpretations of that word is a dragon. Now I know that may sound even more improbable to you than a talking snake, but I believe there is ample evidence that there were dragons in the world before and after the flood, and possibly even until the middle ages.  Practically every ancient culture has paintings of dragons dating back hundreds of years, and no matter how isolated they might have been from other cultures, the representations all look very similar.

Theologically it makes little difference if it’s a snake or a dragon, but I believe that the Bible speaks often, especially in Revelation, of the dragon as a symbol of Satan.  Furthermore, the Bible describes dragons in various places with terms and descriptions that can really not be concluded to be anything else.  So I believe that this serpent is a dragon.  You can believe what you want.

Moses says the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field. I don’t necessarily think that this is speaking of the dragon, per se, but it’s a reference to Satan.  Satan is a spirit, like all angels are spirits.  And we know that demons or Satan can take possession of a human body.  So in this event, it would seem that Satan himself had possessed the body of a dragon, and thus was more crafty than any beast of the field.  Crafty can also be interpreted as cunning, or shrewd, but all are used in a bad sense.

But that’s about all that Moses has to say about the serpent.  Although the ensuing dialogue between the serpent and Eve reveals more about the nature of Satan.  But we are not told where he came from. He just appears on the scene.  Moses says that he is more shrewd than all the animals that God created, which indicates that God made all creatures, even the dragon, and by extension, even the angels.

I don’t want to get sidetracked here on demonology but I will point out that nowhere in the creation account is there a mention of God creating angels.  You could say that possibly in the creation of the stars there could be an allusion to angels. And so possibly the angels were created with the stars.  However, I don’t think that is what is implied there, as it specifically says that the stars were lights in the heavens.  That would seem to be a reference to actual stars, not angels. And furthermore, I find it hard to believe the Creator God did nothing for billions and billions of years until suddenly one week He created everything that exists, everything in the spiritual realm, and everything in the physical realm.

Furthermore, I think that the Biblical description of the fall of Satan from heaven in Isaiah 14 probably speaks of an event that predates Creation by a considerable amount of time. But that is supposition on my part, however I think there is some evidence for that theory. Moses however, doesn’t really introduce Satan, because I think Satan was already in existence. Satan had already fallen from heaven and taken 1/3 of the angels with him. And I think that Satan and his angels had been exiled to earth which prior to creation was a dark, formless and void, water covered lump of coal floating in space. And so upon creation Satan’s goal was to destroy God’s creation, especially the object of God’s love, which is man.

So Satan’s strategy then towards that end is revealed in the next couple of verses.  And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”  Notice that Satan grossly exaggerates God’s prohibition.  God had said you shall not eat of one tree in the garden.  Satan says, “Has God said you cannot eat from any tree of the garden?”  I also think that his starting with the word “Indeed!” Is a type of mockery.   It’s like someone saying “Really?!! Are you kidding me?”

So Satan mocks the word of God.  And he questions the word of God. Satan’s strategy has not changed today.  He still questions the word of God. “Does it really mean that?? Are you seriously thinking that God meant that?”And by questioning God’s word, he gives Eve an opportunity to defend God.  But for some reason, Eve ends up exaggerating as well. Vs 2 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, or you will die.’"  God never said you could not touch it.  He said you shall not eat from it.  Adding to the word of God or taking away from the word of God is just another way to rebel against God’s word.  But we will give Eve the benefit of the doubt, and say that was an innocent mistake on her part.

But now the serpent moves from mocking God’s word, to questioning God’s word, to exaggerating God’s word, and then to flat out lying.  Vs 4 The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die!”  Satan says that God isn’t telling the truth when He said that you will surely die.  God is just trying to be a kill joy. Satan is saying that there will not be any consequences to sin.  This is still the strategy that Satan employs today.  Questions God’s word. Twists God’s word.  And flat out lies and denies God’s word. 

Jesus said to the Pharisees in John 8:44 that Satan was a liar and the father of lies.  "You are of [your] father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own [nature,] for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

So basically Satan promises that they will not die, and furthermore that God isn’t telling the truth. He is promising that there will not be any repercussions from disobedience.  You know, you could argue that Adam and Eve did not know death, and so they did not really understand the full ramifications of death.  But even if that were true, that does not excuse them.

This also eliminates another common excuse for man’s sin today, which is that man is a product of their environment. That a person is not really responsible for their  sin because they are just a product of a bad environment.  Adam and Eve lived in a perfect environment. They needed nothing.  Everything God created was good.  And yet they still sinned against God.  The truth is, that man will do whatever he thinks he can get away with. If there is no punishment, then there is nothing to stop man from choosing to sin.

Then to Satan’s denial of God’s word with an outright lie, he adds another layer of deception, which was to demean the character of God.  He says in vs5 "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  So not only are there no repercussions from doing evil, but Satan says that there is a blessing in it that God doesn’t want you to enjoy.

And this is really a multifaceted deception.  First he says your eyes will be opened and you will be like God. Isn’t that a good thing? Aren’t we told in scripture that we are to be conformed to the image of Christ? So it would seem that it would be a good thing to be like God.  As far as knowing good and evil, the devil seems to be saying that God knows good and evil, and it’s not a bad thing.  God is trying to withhold something from you that is good, that is pleasurable. God is actually then not good, because He is trying to control you and keep you from having fun, or having some good thing.

In all of this temptation and dialogue, Eve is beginning to question God’s goodness.  The very nature of God is what is being decided here by Eve.  She begins to think that she knows better than God what is good or right.  It looks good to eat to her.  It is desirable in that it makes you like God. It seems right in her eyes. It will make her smarter, wiser.  And the devil’s suggestions and lies reinforce to her the rightness of her thinking.

Then comes the most fateful, tragic statement in the entirety of human history. Vs. 6 “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.”

Sin is rebellion against God’s word.  1John 2:16 defines that rebellion; “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.”  Eve’s sin covered all three characteristics of sin.  The lust of the flesh; she saw that the tree was good for food.  The lust of the eyes; she saw that it was a delight to the eyes.  And the pride of life; she saw that it was desirable to make one wise. 

And so it met her criteria. So she took of the fruit and ate. We don’t know what the fruit looked like.  It may have been an apple, it may have been something else.  But it looked good, and I’m sure it tasted good.  The Bible says that sin is pleasurable for a season.  But the end thereof is death.  Getting drunk is fun for a little while. Having immoral sex is fun for a few minutes. Eating of the forbidden fruit tasted good for as long as it lasted.

You know, when I was taught this story growing up, I was always under the impression that Adam was off working somewhere in the garden and Eve was on her own.  But if you notice vs 6, “she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.”  The indication in scripture is that Adam was with Eve when she was being lied to and tempted by the serpent.  Now what that means I’m not sure.  But if it is true, it is much more damning to Adam than I originally thought.  Because if he was there, then he abrogated his responsibility of headship in the marriage to Eve, and let the devil take advantage of her.  He heard everything, and yet did not defend her or God.

There was obviously some reason that Satan picked Eve and not Adam to go after.  I’m not sure what that reason is, but in some way, Satan must have believed that she would be more vulnerable to his strategy. And Adam, poor guy, he couldn’t see anything but his love for Eve.  Eve may have been seduced by the serpent, but Adam was seduced by Eve. Adam was willing to sacrifice anything for her, including his life.  Paul says in 1Ti 2:14 “And [it was] not Adam [who] was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.”  

But make no mistake, both sinned.  Hers was a sin of initiative.  His was a sin of acquiescence. Eve was deceived, but Adam sinned with his eyes wide open. But when they ate of the fruit, then their eyes were opened to carnal knowledge. They knew good and evil. But not as God knew good and evil.  Someone explained it this way.  God knew evil the way a surgeon knows cancer. He knows it intellectually.  The patient though knows cancer experientially. And that is an important distinction.  Knowing good and evil did not make them like God.  It made them evil. Sin is a cancer that metastasizes quickly, spreading from one little act into a way of thinking and decisions that are in opposition to God.  

And with sin comes shame. Vs.7,  “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.”  The knowledge of their sinfulness made them aware of their nakedness.  That wasn’t a problem before their sin, but sin opened their eyes to their sinfulness and brought shame.  

The solution to their shame though wasn’t to turn to God and seek forgiveness.  But it was to try to cover up their sinfulness. I’m reminded of David’s sin with Bathsheba, and how he tried to cover up his sin, by having her husband killed.  Sin begets sin. And even when we try to hide our sin, then we err even more.  

Adam and Eve looked for the largest leaves they could find, which happened to be fig leaves, and sewed them together to make loin cloths for themselves.  We can just imagine that wasn’t sufficient. Our efforts to cover our sin, to make amends for our sins are never enough.  God sees the heart.  Fig leaves don’t make any difference to God.  What you do behind closed doors is not hidden from God. What you whisper in the ear is heard by God.  What a man thinks in his heart is known by God. 

Heb 4:13  “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.”  And yet how many times do we think we have gotten away with our sin because no one saw it. And how often we think because there is no immediate punishment then God doesn’t really care. 

But God does care.  He cared for Adam and Eve. And He came to them to hold them accountable.  Vs 8, “They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.”

The indication from the original language is that the Lord was in the habit of walking in the evening to fellowship with Adam and Eve.  Another interesting thing is that they heard the sound of the Lord walking. So this would be a physical manifestation of the Lord.  That’s what is known as a theophany, a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ.

But rather than running to meet the Lord, Adam and Eve run from the Lord and try to hide. Imagine, running from the only One who can help them. Vs 9 Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?” This is the cry of an anguished Father.  Of course God knew where they were already. But He wanted them to recognize where they were.  They weren’t in fellowship with God. They were hiding from God.  They were running from the Lord.

God was giving them an opportunity to see where they were, to see that they had sinned, to repent, to come to Him in repentance.  God was initiating their restoration, as He does in our salvation. He comes to seek and to save those that are lost.  And thank God for it.  Because in our foolishness and sinfulness and blindness, we tend to run from the only One who can help us.

So Adam answers God’s question. Vs 10 He said, "I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself." And [God] said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?"  The man said, "The woman whom You gave [to be] with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate."  Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" And the woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Sin made Adam afraid of God’s presence and afraid of God’s voice. Ever since Adam, men run from God’s presence and don’t want to listen to His Word.  God knew the answer to this question of who told you that you were naked? He asked it because He wanted Adam to make the best of a tragic situation by repenting right then and there, but Adam didn’t come clean and repent before God.

Instead, good old chivalrous Adam blamed his sin on his wife. And notice actually he blames God for giving him Eve for his wife.  A few minutes earlier, Adam was willing to rebel against God and even die for the sake of being with his wife.  Now that his eyes are opened to evil, he turns against his wife and blames her for his sin, and also by extension blames God for giving her to him. You talk about falling from grace. Part of Adam’s punishment is going to be that he has to live for 900 or so years with this woman that he has just maligned.  I’m sure he never heard the end of that.

Of course I’m kidding, but it does reveal how drastically Adam’s nature changed immediately after the fall.  And that is what we inherit from Adam.  We don’t inherit from Adam that particular sin, but the sin nature that comes from rebellion against God. And then notice that Eve blames the serpent.  Like Flip Wilson used to say, “the devil made me do it.”  She didn’t want to accept the blame either. But she does admit that she ate of the tree.

So sin brings the curse. First the curse is given to the serpent. vs14 The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life;  And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”

It would seem that God actually curses the serpent or the dragon.  In some way, the dragon must have been complicit in it’s part in the temptation by Satan. He would no longer be upright, but be on his belly.  And the serpent would be hated by men.  I believe that tends to be generally true of snakes, but I suppose it was also true of dragons, to the point that they were hunted until they became extinct.

The second part of the curse is directed against Satan himself. God placed a natural animosity between Satan and mankind. Enmity has the idea of ill will, hatred, and a mutual antagonism. Satan’s hatred of man was already in effect — but now man will, generally speaking, have antagonism towards Satan.  But especially, the second Adam, who is Jesus Christ, would be against Satan, and defeat Satan, and will one day destroy him by throwing him into the lake of fire.

God says to Satan concerning the seed of the woman, “He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”   In this, God prophesies the doom of Satan, showing that the real battle is between Satan and the Seed of the Woman. There is no doubt this is a prophecy of Jesus’ ultimate defeat of Satan. God announced that Satan would wound the Messiah (you shall bruise His heel), but the Messiah would crush Satan with a mortal wound (He shall bruise your head). In this statement, God was announcing His plan of salvation for man,  to bring deliverance through the one called the Seed of the woman.

This prophecy also gives the first hint of the virgin birth, declaring the Messiah — the Deliverer — would be of the Seed of the Woman, but not the seed of the man.  Because through Adam, the first man, the sin nature was passed on. Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.”  So by Adam the sin nature is inherited, thus by the virgin birth Christ did not possess the sin nature.  He was the spotless, sinless, Lamb of God who was slain for our sins, and by His death He took the sting of death away.  Heb 2:14-15  Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

God prophesying Satan’s defeat when the devil had seemingly won the victory shows God that knew what He was doing all along. God’s plan wasn’t defeated when Adam and Eve sinned because God’s plan was to bring forth something greater than man in the innocence of Eden. God wanted more than innocent man; His plan was to bring forth redeemed man.

Then God cursed the man and the woman. vs16-19  To the woman He said, "I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you."  Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat from it'; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life.  "Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field;  By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return."

These curses show that God did not ever intend that immediately upon eating the fruit that they would die.  But as I said last week, what died immediately was their spirit, that essence of their being that would have fellowship with God, that could worship God. Physically, they would eventually die, but in Adam’s case it was 930 years later.  That seems like forever to us, but in actuality it was but a day in light of eternity.  But in the process of living until that death, God multiplied hardships upon the man and the woman and in fact, cursed the earth. All of creation became under the curse of sin.

Romans 8:20-22 “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope  that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.  For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.”  So in effect, both Adam and Eve’s curse was applied to the earth itself in some measure.

Vs20 Now the man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all [the] living.  The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.”  Adam named her Eve, even though she was not a mother at all at the time. She was not even pregnant yet. Adam named her in faith, trusting God would bring forth a deliverer from the woman because God said He would defeat Satan through the Seed of the woman.

And in order for Adam and Eve to be clothed, a sacrifice had to be made. An animal had to die. Without shedding of blood there is no remission (Hebrews 9:22).  Guilty Adam and Eve were clothed with a garment that was purchased with the innocent life of another. They were saved through substitutionary atonement. And in the same way, we are clothed with a garment of righteousness that was purchased with the life of another, Jesus Christ.

This grace of God, together with their faith in God’s promise, indicates that Adam and Eve were rescued from their sinful condition. Adam had faith in God’s promise of a Savior, and God provided a covering for them through a sacrifice. I believe that every indication is that they were justified by faith, and therefore were saved from death, because they believed that One would come from the seed of the woman who would take their place by dying for their sin, and provide His righteousness for their covering. We are saved in the same way, by faith in Christ, given the grace of God unto salvation. The innocent taking the place in death for the guilty, that we might be covered in the garment of righteousness through Jesus Christ and be given eternal life.