Genesis 3
Man’s Rebellion and God’s Solution

Genesis 3

The Fall of Man

1 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’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 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.’ ” 4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 5 “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.” 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. 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.

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. 9 Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” 11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” 13 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.” 14 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; 15 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.” 16 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.” 17 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. 18 “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; 19 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.”

20 Now the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. 21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.

22 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— 23 therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.

Unpacking Genesis 3

Life is filled with difficulties. We all know it.

Sometimes we’re tempted to ask, “If God is so loving, why is there so much pain and suffering in this world? And why doesn’t God do something about it?” We’ll find the heart of the answer to these questions in today’s study of Genesis 3.

So far, we have seen the overview of God’s creation of everything in Genesis 1 and the overview of God’s creation of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2. In Genesis 2:16-17, we saw God gave Adam the command to not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If they disobeyed, they would die. In Genesis 3, we learn that Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command and the consequences of their disobedience.

Genesis 3 opens with an unknown period having passed between chapters 2 and 3. At some point, Satan tempted Eve to disobey God. Verse 1 specifically calls him “the serpent.” We know from Revelation 12:9 this serpent is actually Satan.

Before we get too far in Genesis 3, you might ask: “Who was Satan, and where did he come from?” In a nutshell, Satan is a fallen angel who defied God and now seeks to lead others to defy Him as well.[1]

Going back to Genesis 3, verses 1-4, we learn that Satan tempted Eve to disobey God. He did so by twisting her understanding of God and His message. Satan persuaded Eve to think God did not want her and Adam to be like Himself and that somehow the Lord was withholding wonderful “knowledge” from them (i.e., evil). If they just followed his instructions, they’d learn all about evil!

Notice what they would learn if they followed Satan’s counsel. They would learn evil. They already knew “good,” which is clear from Genesis 1, where the Lord repeatedly declared His work was good! So, Adam and Eve already knew good, but they didn’t know any evil. Therefore, Satan promised they would learn about evil if they disobeyed God. Indeed, they did.

As we know, Eve is duped by Satan’s line of thinking and eats the fruit. Then she hands it to Adam. We tend to think Adam was off in the distance somewhere, but we can see from verse 6 that he is right there with her. Perhaps he was waiting to see if she would drop dead. She does not. He eats the fruit, too, and their rebellion brought evil into the world we’re still dealing with today.

This brief encounter shows us what sin is. Romans 14:23 says whatever is not of faith is sin. 1st John 3:4 says that “sin is lawlessness.” Lawlessness is acting like God has not given standards of right and wrong. In Genesis 3, we see that this lack of faith leads to rebellion against God and disobedience to His Word. It departs from what is good and holy, and pure. It is rooted in a distrust of God and the pride of a desire for independence from Him.

Tragically, the sin of Adam and Eve ushers in the curse that starts to unfold in the next set of verses. In verse 7, their eyes are opened; they see their nakedness and try to cover their sin with fig leaves. They tried to cover their sin and shame with their own ideas about how to solve the problem. It didn’t work.

Then, the Lord calls them to give an account of their rebellion. Adam quickly shifts the blame to Eve in verse 12. Eve shifts the blame to Satan in verse 13. This shifting of responsibility gives us an unpleasant window into the heart of justification. Justification is when we declare something is just and righteous. Adam tried to say his actions were “just” in light of Eve. That his sin wasn’t his fault, it was Eve’s! Eve followed suit and tried to pin her actions on Satan. Even today, we sometimes try to justify our sins by blaming someone else. Instead, we just need to acknowledge our disobedience and cling to God's solution.

In verse 15, we see the first mention of God’s solution. Theologians call this the “Protoevangelium.” The term “protoevangelium” literally means an early version of the Good News. This is the first Gospel promise God gives to deal with the problem of sin and Satan. The Lord tells Satan that one day a descendant of Adam and Eve will come. Satan will bruise Him on the heel, but He will bruise Satan on the head.

The word “bruise” can also be translated as “crush,” as rendered by the New International Version. Think about the different kinds of damage these two actions would cause. To have one’s heel “crushed” would make for a bad day, but to have one’s head “crushed” would be fatal.

That is the victory of Christ’s cross over Satan! So, here we have an early prophecy of Christ’s victory over Satan, which means that God promised to solve sin and evil from the very first day that sin and evil entered this world!

Let’s go quickly through the rest of this chapter. The Lord lays out the consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin in verses 16-19. The peace, joy, and goodness they’ve always known will now be riddled with the evil they wanted to learn about. They will have marital pain, physical pain, pain at work, and generally pain all around. This pain is a lifelong reminder of sin. It also gives us a constant incentive to look to God's only solution for our sins: the cross of Christ.

As we finish our study in Genesis 3, we also see God’s mercy in this passage in two unlikely places: their new clothes and their new home.

You’ll notice in verse 21 the Lord made garments of skin for them. This is an important theological lesson. Why did they need clothes? Because their sin had changed everything. They were now naked and ashamed. Wasn’t their clothing of fig leaves good enough? No. God had to make clothing that would properly cover them.

How? Through the death of animals.

Here we see that sin led to death, and it took the death of someone else or something else to cover the consequences of their sin. This is an early window into the principle of atonement. Sin and its consequences must be covered. The only suitable covering must come from God. This points us to the cross, where Christ gave His life as a covering for our sins.

Verses 22 to 24 tell us why God sent Adam and Eve out of the garden. We might think God banished them from the garden because He was so angry at them and couldn’t stand to look at their faces! Not so.

Verse 22 gives the reason why the Lord sent them from the garden: So they wouldn’t have access to the tree of life.

The tree of life would have enabled them to live forever. Why would that be so bad? Because they’d live forever separated from God and in a cursed existence intermingled with evil. This is not God’s plan for people! Sending them from the tree of life meant Adam and Eve would eventually die, as we all now do. Yet, although death is awful, it is also a doorway back to God and His holy realm of perfection. So, when God sent Adam and Eve out of the garden, He was actually making a way back to Him.

As we wrap up our study in Genesis 3, we now have the answer to the question: Why is there so much pain and suffering in this world, and why doesn’t God do something about it?

The answer is… He has.

Pain and suffering result from our sin and what it means to learn about evil. But this is not God’s eternal plan for all of mankind. He’s been working out our salvation since the garden. One day, through our death or His return, He will take His people out of this cursed existence to be with Him in glory forever.

Study and Discussion Questions

Listening to the Key Chapters Podcast on this chapter provides further insights into the following questions.

1. Draw a box around Genesis 3:15. This is one of the most important verses in the entire Bible. Why? What hope does this give to us?

2. Using different underlining methods (for example, a single underline, double underline, or dash), underline God’s judgments on Satan, Adam, and Eve. What is different about how each person will experience the curse? Why do you think men and women experience the curse differently? How do we all experience all aspects of the curse?

3. How did Satan tempt Eve to doubt God’s integrity? What is the significance of the fact that Satan used lies and deception to cause Eve to question God? How does Satan sometimes deceive people into doubting God today?

4. Once Satan twisted Eve’s understanding of God, she was more amenable to sin. In what ways does a twisted understanding of God’s Word also lead to a twisted understanding of God? How might this make a person more willing to sin?

5. What does sin look like in the Bible? What does it look like in our world today? How about in our own lives?

6. When Adam sinned, “what” did he want to learn about? How does this same root desire still manifest itself in our lives today?

7. In many ways, the “curse” that mankind currently experiences can be summarized as God allowing the evil that man wanted to know about to exist in our world. What promise and hope does God give regarding a Savior in Genesis 3:15?

8. Who is Genesis 3:15 speaking of, and what will He one day do? How is getting crushed on the head far worse than being wounded on the heel? How did Jesus fulfill this promise?

9. After the fall, Adam and Eve began to have conflict in their home. How does this passage help us understand the conflict that sometimes arises in our homes today?

10. Did God’s command to work come before or after the Fall? How does the curse impact our work experiences today? What kinds of things can a person do to minimize this impact?

11. What do we learn from the account of God making clothes for Adam and Eve made of animal skins? What does this teach us about God’s loving mercy and provision for His people? Why do we need God to “cover” our sins?

12. According to the study, why did God send Adam and Eve from the garden? What would be so bad about living forever in an eternally separated state from God? What hope does this give us about our future?

13. How does this study help us answer the question, “Why doesn’t God do something about the pain and suffering in the world?” How does this answer give us hope and comfort as we still live in a world that “knows evil”?

[1] If you want to know more about the backstory of Satan, I encourage you to listen to the Key Chapters podcasts on Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14.