As we work through the narrative of Genesis 3 we arrive at verse 7 and wonder if the serpent was right. Adam and Eve have eaten from the forbidden tree, their eyes are opened, and they do not die.
The garden was both reality and symbols – a real place of natural provision and God’s presence for Adam and Eve; yet also a symbol of the fullness of life in the presence and life of God (think of the trees, rivers, and jewels). And before Genesis 3, Adam and Eve flourished in the presence and provision of God. Further into the Old Testament we will learn that the life of Israel’s worship was centred in the temple – the place of God’s presence. If one was expelled from the camp, you were expelled into a kind of living death (cf leprosy laws of Lev. 13). Following their sin, Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden to cursed ground, away from God’s presence, away from the tree of life. Though physically alive, they were spiritually dead and destined for physical death.
The consequences of sin are real, and they are deadly (Rom. 6:23). How crafty is this serpent? Notice that he did not once say: “Eat the fruit.” Our first couple came to that conclusion on their own, influenced by the lies and half-truths to which they submitted. The serpent persuaded: did God really say; you will not die; your eyes will be opened; you will be like God! It all sounded so appealing. Eve saw, took, ate, and gave to her complicit husband (he “was with her” – v6). Their eyes were indeed opened but it was not delight that they saw, nor deep godly wisdom they felt; but abject shame. They saw they were naked, and pathetically hid themselves from the One with whom they once freely fellowshipped.
Something to Praise:
Genesis 3 is a profoundly sad story that resonates through every human culture, through all of human history. Yet even in our darkest hour, God points toward hope and deliverance. In God’s judgment of the serpent he foretells of the serpent’s ultimate defeat through one who “shall bruise his head. (Gen 3:15; cf Rom 16:20)”. Genesis 3 is not the end of the story!