Because you have done this...

Genesis 3 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

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.

Yesterday, in the account of creation, we saw that all that God created was good and after He created man and woman, in His own image and likeness, it was very good. If all of God’s creation was good, why is there so much evil in the world? and why does God allow it? Many today want to blame God or discount His goodness because of the existence of evil. If we look today, at the fall of man, Adam and Eve’s original sin, which brought about the curse, perhaps we can better understand good and evil.

The account says:  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’?” 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.’” The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 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.”     The very first lie or deception of the devil was that he could give Eve something she already had. The enticement to eat was based on the promise that by eating, they would become “like God.”  The truth is that when God created them, He created them in the image and likeness of God. They were already like Him. It is important to know and understand that the tree which they ate from was not evil. Like all of creation, it was good.  It was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We will get back to that later. The second lie of the devil was that he said:    You surely will not die!  The truth is, as it says in Romans 6:23:  The wages of sin is death.   

Disobedience to God is sin and the wages or the consequence of sin is death. Adam and Eve were created in the image and likeness of God. So, they were created to be immortal, like Him. But after they had sinned, the account says:   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.”…     “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”—  therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.    The wages, the consequence for Adam and Eve’s sin, was both that they would not be immortal and that creation itself would be under a curse; all because they now possessed the knowledge of good and evil.

There is another hidden deception which we can see in the account of the encounter between Eve and the devil. It says: “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’s actual instruction or commandment is in Genesis 2:16-17:   The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely;  but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”     So Eve was also deceived because she added to the commandment and the restriction of God. In her defense, it may have been Adam who added the extra restriction about not even touching the fruit, but regardless, one of the most destructive deceptions comes as a result of man adding more rules and regulations to the simple truth of what God has said for our good. God’s commandments, like everything He created are good and for our good, adding to them causes deception which leads to rebellion.   

Remember when I said:  It is important to know and understand that the tree which they ate from was not evil. It was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We will get back to that later. So, here’s the thing about that. We’ve seen that the curse, the evil in the world is a result of sin, not a result of God’s creation which was good. In today’s text, after the fall, it says:  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.”   The seed of the woman is Jesus Christ, the Son of God who would come to redeem both man and creation to what God intended. In John 3:16-21 Jesus says:   “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”    We, have a choice, knowing good and evil, we are free to choose. If we believe in Jesus and God’s promise from the beginning, to redeem us from sin and restore us to what He intended, we are restored to immortality, like Him. We have eternal life. In John 10:10 Jesus says:  “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”   We can choose to listen to the lies and the deception of the devil who comes to steal, and kill and destroy what God has given us. We can choose to listen to the deception of the added rules and regulations of man; or having been redeemed and restored, believing in Christ and His sacrifice for our sin, we are free to eat from the tree of life. We are free to live in the abundance of the good and very good creation of God, having all that we need in Him.

Trust in the Lord and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He will do it. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light And your judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him.  Thank You heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and precious Holy Spirit; You are good, very good, and I choose to believe in You and so to live in the abundance that You have promised and provided. Knowing good and evil, I choose the light of Christ over the darkness of deception. I choose the freedom of Christ over the bondage of lies.   Amen.