We came from God. We were made to be like God. So, What is this “sin” we have done? So, what is our problem? Genesis 3:6-13

Genesis 3:6-13 Complete Jewish Bible

⁶ When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it had a pleasing appearance and that the tree was desirable for making one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her; and he ate. ⁷  Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together to make themselves loincloths.

⁸ They heard the voice of Adonai, God, walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, so the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Adonai, God, among the trees in the garden. ⁹ Adonai, God, called to the man, “Where are you?” ¹⁰ He answered, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.” ¹¹ He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I ordered you not to eat?” ¹² The man replied, “The woman you gave to be with me — she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” ¹³  Adonai, God, said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman answered, “The serpent tricked me, so I ate.”

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

We came from God. We were made to be like God.

We could not be happy, humbled, joyous, satisfied with this incredible miracle?

So, what was Adam’s problem?

So, what was Eve’s problem?

So, what is our problem?

Genesis, again, holds the answer.

Chapter 3 tells the story.

In the beginning, everything God made was good, very good.

The instructions Adam is given are simple enough, easily understood, no complexity there, the directions we are each handed are simple enough.

Genesis 2:15-17 Complete Jewish Bible

¹⁵ Adonai, God, took the person and put him in the garden of ‘Eden to cultivate and care for it. ¹⁶ Adonai, God, gave the person this order: “You may freely eat from every tree in the garden ¹⁷ except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You are not to eat from it, because on the day that you eat from it, it will become certain that you will die.”

But then time passes.

But then things change.

But as with any change, then things always seem to get more complicated.

But then, somehow, confusion knocks us upside our heads and we get dizzy.

We were “introduced” to alternatives, to choices and a host of contradictions.

It seems as though there came to Eve this unannounced, most uninvited guest.

There was this tree and now entering the scene is this smooth talking serpent.

There are no formal introductions, no polite greetings, no knocks on any trees.

And neat as you please, as if it were the most natural of acts, they’re conversing.

Nobody seems to be expecting any trouble, no one seems to be on highest alert.

But, here, can anyone sense the incredible tension with is building as a volcano?

God had put Adam and Eve in a perfect place, a garden called Eden, where they could eat from any tree except one, the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

God said to Adam, “Do not eat from it, because in the day you eat of it you shall surely die.” What about Eve? Did anyone feel the need to ensure understanding?

Genesis 3:1-5 Complete Jewish Bible

3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any wild animal which Adonai, God, had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You are not to eat from any tree in the garden’?” ² The woman answered the serpent, “We may eat from the fruit of the trees of the garden, ³ but about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden God said, ‘You are neither to eat from it nor touch it, or you will die.’” ⁴ The serpent said to the woman, “It is not true that you will surely die; ⁵ because God knows that on the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Adam and Eve are in the garden minding their own affairs and tending to the tasks which God assigned to them, and the serpent comes slithering along and a wildly bizarre, strange conversation ensues between the serpent and with Eve.

He speaks to the woman.

Why didn’t Eve think anything was strange here, did all the animals speak?

Why didn’t Eve question the serpents motives behind this sudden engagement?

Taking quick, sudden advantage of the situation, the serpent further asks “Did God really say to you that you shall not eat from any tree in the garden?”

Amazingly, Eve unaware she was being set up, actually answers him. “We can eat from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ’You shall not eat from the tree that is in the midst of the garden, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

Then the serpent replies, “You will not die. God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Right now, don’t you wish Adam had jumped into action and said, “Liar, liar, pants on fire!”? But no! He just stood there and watched as Eve took the bait.

Let’s sum this up… God has spoken: Do not eat of the tree or you will die. The Serpent has spoken: Eat from the tree and you will not die but become like God.

Now they have two messages, one from God and the other from the serpent.

Their choices (did they even have an awareness of what choices are?)- who will they listen to? God who made them? Or this strange serpent who seems to know so much, and accuses God of lying and withholding something from them?

Do you hear voices, words, encounter choices that are contrary to God’s Word?

I’m not talking about a mental disorder, I’m talking about influences that would “smoothly” invite you, entice you to taste forbidden fruit… Watch out!

Who you look to for information and who you listen to for guidance determines more about your God awareness. spiritual wellbeing, than you may now realize.

But back to Genesis 3. We have all the advantage here, don’t we? We get to be the seated audience of this event and overhear the conversations and actions.

We already know this story.

In fact, this story is so familiar we can almost recite the words from memory.

But, strangely enough, when the tempter pulls his smooth talking ways on us, for some reason, things get contradictory, confusing and we can tend to forget.

The serpent’s offer is that they will become like God if they eat. The truth is, they are already like God! He made them to be like him! They can’t become more like God by disobeying God! That’s twisted! Besides, if God is so bad that he lies and withholds good things from them, why do they want to be like him?

But, here comes the text’s real point: The fruit looks good! And when I look to lust after the fruit, my heart becomes clouded and I too lose that good judgment I have when I’m in the audience watching Adam and Eve do the same thing.

There’s a sparkle of temptation and delight in that fruit, one that blinds me from the light of truth, from the simple uncomplicated instructions God gave us. So, Eve stops thinking about God’s warning and starts thinking about her own lusts, wanting’s, her desires, her yearning for this new forbidden wisdom.

Suddenly she decides. She reaches out for it. Was her heart beating faster? Was there excitement of anticipation in her hands? Was she nervous? She took the fruit, ate it, and gave to Adam who was with her, and he ate. And in just that singular moment, the human family fell deep into sin and separation from God.

Their eyes were indeed opened, but not in God’s likeness, but in shame and nakedness, chaos, confusion, fear, sin, punishment that would lead to death.

James describes this scene for us. 

James 1:13-25 Complete Jewish Bible

¹³ No one being tempted should say, “I am being tempted by God.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, and God himself tempts no one. ¹⁴ Rather, each person is being tempted whenever he is being dragged off and enticed by the bait of his own desire.  ¹⁵ Then, having conceived, the desire gives birth to sin; and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death. ¹⁶ Don’t delude yourselves, my dear brothers.

¹⁷ Every good act of giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father who made the heavenly lights; with him there is neither variation nor darkness caused by turning. ¹⁸ Having made his decision, he gave birth to us through a Word that can be relied upon, in order that we should be a kind of firstfruits of all that he created. ¹⁹ Therefore, my dear brothers, let every person be quick to listen but slow to speak, slow to get angry; ²⁰ for a person’s anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness!

²¹ So rid yourselves of all vulgarity and obvious evil, and receive meekly the Word implanted in you that can save your lives. ²² Don’t deceive yourselves by only hearing what the Word says, but do it! ²³ For whoever hears the Word but doesn’t do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror, ²⁴ who looks at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵ But if a person looks closely into the perfect Torah, which gives freedom, and continues, becoming not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work it requires, then he will be blessed in what he does.

Sin separates us from God. Sin distorts and destroys God’s likeness in us.

Listen to what happens next.

They see their nakedness and try to cover themselves.

Then they hear the sound of God coming…

oh no! Not God! Cover Up! Hide! Hide from God! Run to the trees. Get away from his presence! Why? Sin clouds, separates us from God, makes us hide from him.

But it does even more terrible things to us.

Listen both intensely and intently. Adam and Eve run from God and hide, but God calls to them: “Where are you? Adam answers, I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked so I hid myself. God replies, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I told you not to eat?”

Now. Freeze frame!

Here’s Adam’s chance.

God’s questions are clearly for Adam’s sake.

Will Adam bow, broken and repentant before God? Will he confess his sin and seek God’s forgiveness? No. What if Adam had said, “Lord, I disobeyed you, I ate the fruit, and I didn’t protect the woman you gave me, please forgive us.”

What do you suppose God would have done in that case?

We will never know, will we?

And that is an undeniably significant problem …

It is not written down for us in the Scriptures.

Instead, listen to Adam’s response to God:

“The woman that you gave me, she gave me fruit from the tree and I ate.”

In other words, “God, it’s not my fault!

It is her fault and by the way, you are the one who gave her to me.”

What is he doing?

Blaming God? YEP!

Blaming Eve? YEP!

Blaming self – taking responsibility for his own actions? NOPE!

Adam attempts to hide behind blame. In doing so he accuses both the woman and God for his sin. Do WE hear that? Do WE understand what has happened?

Does Adam sound like God with these words?

No! Who does he sound like?

Who in this story blames God of lying, keeping good things from his children?

The conniving, manipulative, gas lighting, smooth talking, slithering Serpent.

Doesn’t Adam sound a lot like that now?

Amazing! What has sin done in Adam?

He sounds a lot more like the serpent, than God.

Sin has turned him into an Accuser and a Liar.

That is what the word Satan means: accuser.

Instead of becoming more like God, they have become like Satan, God’s enemy.

Instead of acquiring the image of God, they are stained with the image of Satan.

Do we understand what is lost when we sin?

Do we see what we become when we take that fruit that looks good, when we know God said, “Don’t do it?” but do it anyway? Sin gives live birth to death.

Listen intently, intensely, to our condition when we sin: 

Ephesians 2:1-3 Complete Jewish Bible

2 You used to be dead because of your sins and acts of disobedience. ² You walked in the ways of the ‘olam hazeh and obeyed the Ruler of the Powers of the Air, who is still at work among the disobedient. ³ Indeed, we all once lived this way — we followed the passions of our old nature and obeyed the wishes of our old nature and our own thoughts. In our natural condition we were headed for God’s wrath, just like everyone else.

[Olam Hazeh (Hebrew meaning “This World“) is the world in which we live, where each of us is given the opportunity to honour the Name of the Lord by performing “Mitzvot” and learning and teaching Torah, according to his or her gifts, behaving in an honest and decent manner with our fellow human beings.]

We came from God, but we have a problem, don’t we.

That problem originated here.

Death began here.

Distortion of God’s image in us began here.

Listen intently, intensely to

Romans 5:12-14 Complete Jewish Bible

¹² Here is how it works: it was through one individual that sin entered the world, and through sin, death; and in this way death passed through to the whole human race, inasmuch as everyone sinned. ¹³ Sin was indeed present in the world before  Torah was given, but sin is not counted as such when there is no Torah. ¹⁴ Nevertheless death ruled from Adam until Moshe (Moses), even over those whose sinning was not exactly like Adam’s violation of a direct command. In this, Adam prefigured the one who was to come.

1 Corinthians 15:20-24 Complete Jewish Bible

²⁰ But the fact is that the Messiah has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have died. ²¹ For since death came through a man, also the resurrection of the dead has come through a man. ²² For just as in connection with Adam all die, so in connection with the Messiah all will be made alive. ²³  But each in his own order: the Messiah is the firstfruits; then those who belong to the Messiah, at the time of his coming; ²⁴ then the culmination, when he hands over the Kingdom to God the Father, after having put an end to every rulership, yes, to every authority and power.

Is this true?

Is this really where sin began?

Is this just a religious story that attempts to explain away the human struggle with evil?

Listen intensely, everything else in the Bible deals with what happened here.

I tell you, that if this is not true, we might as well just simply trash our Bibles, because everyone who knew God in it, including Jesus, believed this to be true.

If it is not true, we have no idea where we came from or what our problem is or what the answer is. But if it is true, and it is, God has revealed to us the root and fruit of our problems in this world!

So, Where did we come from? God! You and I were made in God’s image. What is our problem? Sin. You and I are living in a world made by God but marred by sin.

We are separated from God and therefore we are separated from one another.

The farther we are from God, the awareness of His Truth the less human we are, and all the farther we’ll become from one another. Separation from God causes separation from one another. Unawareness of Sin is the worst human disaster.

God is always aware of sin always grieved by His awareness of our unawareness.

How acute, how severe, lethal to our souls, is our present state of unawareness?

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Psalm 139 Complete Jewish Bible

139 ⁽⁰⁾ For the leader. A psalm of David:

⁽¹⁾ Adonai, you have probed me, and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I stand up,
you discern my inclinations from afar,
³ you scrutinize my daily activities.
You are so familiar with all my ways
⁴ that before I speak even a word, Adonai,
you know all about it already.
⁵ You have hemmed me in both behind and in front
and laid your hand on me.
⁶ Such wonderful knowledge is beyond me,
far too high for me to reach.

⁷ Where can I go to escape your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I climb up to heaven, you are there;
if I lie down in Sh’ol, you are there.
⁹ If I fly away with the wings of the dawn
and land beyond the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand would lead me,
your right hand would hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, “Let darkness surround me,
let the light around me be night,”
¹² even darkness like this
is not too dark for you;
rather, night is as clear as day,
darkness and light are the same.

¹³ For you fashioned my inmost being,
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I thank you because I am awesomely made,
wonderfully; your works are wonders —
I know this very well.
¹⁵ My bones were not hidden from you
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes could see me as an embryo,
but in your book all my days were already written;
my days had been shaped
before any of them existed.
¹⁷ God, how I prize your thoughts!
How many of them there are!
¹⁸ If I count them, there are more than grains of sand;
if I finish the count, I am still with you.

¹⁹ God, if only you would kill off the wicked!
Men of blood, get away from me!
²⁰ They invoke your name for their crafty schemes;
yes, your enemies misuse it.
²¹ Adonai, how I hate those who hate you!
I feel such disgust with those who defy you!
²² I hate them with unlimited hatred!
They have become my enemies too.

²³ Examine me, God, and know my heart;
test me, and know my thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is in me any hurtful way,
and lead me along the eternal way.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

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