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Episode 94: Genesis 3:1–19, “Did God Really Say?”
We’re back in Genesis 3 for the Fall. The serpent opens with the same question the world still asks Christians: “Did God really say?” We go through Eve adding to God’s command, Satan’s lie that “you will be like God,” and Adam standing right there and saying nothing. Then come the hiding, the blame-shifting, and God’s curses on the serpent, the woman, Adam and the ground. Through all of it God gives the first promise of a Savior (Genesis 3:15), the Seed who will crush the serpent’s head. We also cover why every part of the Bible is God’s Word, not just the red letters, how to test what you read against Scripture, and why sin is a twisting of what God made good.
Full Summary
Recap: where Genesis 3 begins
Genesis 1–2 describe creation. Genesis 2 zooms in on Adam and on Eve, who was made from Adam’s rib to be his helper and companion. Genesis 3 opens with the serpent, “more subtil than any beast of the field,” asking the woman, “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” (Genesis 3:1).
That question should sound familiar to Christians today. “Did God really say?” and “Is that really what it meant?” are still the openings used to raise doubt about Scripture, whether through “that was just the culture back then” or by twisting the Greek and Hebrew. Our answer is that God doesn’t change (Hebrews 13:8) and that not one jot or tittle of His Word will pass away (Matthew 5:18).
Adding to God’s Word (Genesis 3:2–3)
Eve leaves out the word freely and adds “neither shall ye touch it,” which God never said. We compare this to the Pharisees, who built layers of oral tradition around the Law of Moses. Jesus called those layers the “traditions of men” (Mark 7:8–13; Matthew 15:1–9), and they kept people out of the Kingdom (Matthew 23:13). Churches can do the same thing when they set up man-made “guardrails” and treat them as tests of salvation or of spiritual maturity. The gospel is Jesus plus nothing.
Some related points from the conversation:
- The church is the people, not the building. Each believer is a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19), and God inhabits the praises of His people (Psalm 22:3). A spilled drink or a crayon mark on the wall is a sign the church is alive.
- Manufactured worship. Some worship bands are trained to engineer a feeling of God’s presence with build-ups, lights and smoke. If you have to make people feel that God is there, something has already gone wrong.
- “That doctrine is only 150 years old.” One example is the claim that the rapture was invented by John Nelson Darby. The teaching comes from 1 Corinthians 15:51–52 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13–17. We have manuscript evidence for Scripture reaching back nearly 2,000 years.
- The “red letters only” error. All Scripture is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20–21). That includes Paul and Peter, and also the Gospel writers who recorded the red letters, as the Holy Spirit brought things to their remembrance (John 14:26).
Know your Bible
We encourage young people to study Scripture for themselves and to “show thyself approved unto God… rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). The memorization programs many of us grew up with (AWANA, RAs and GAs) hid God’s Word in our hearts in a way that lasts (Psalm 119:11). Good teachers like Charles Stanley, Adrian Rogers and J. Vernon McGee can point you in the right direction. With any book about the Bible, check the passages it cites, read the surrounding context, and see whether they actually say what the author claims.
“Ye shall not surely die” (Genesis 3:4–5)
Satan contradicts God directly. We talk about how much Satan knew. He knew God does not lie, and he seems to have known a Redeemer would come, which is why he has been chasing the promised Seed through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David and Israel, and why he still hates the Jewish people today. We also suggest jealousy as a motive: God formed humans with His own hands and made them in His image.
Satan and his angels are not all-knowing. Their view of the future is limited. We use the slave girl with a spirit of divination in Acts 16:16–18 to show this. Her fortune-telling was a moneymaker with short-range predictions, and it ended when Paul cast the spirit out. Modern psychics are the same kind of thing, and missionaries still tell of people coming out of the occult and leaving those “abilities” behind.
The temptation itself is “ye shall be as gods,” with the hint that God is holding something back. We point out that the same lie, that a person can become a god, shows up in some modern religions. Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44). He comes to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10), and he seeks whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8).
The fall (Genesis 3:6)
Eve reasons her way into sin: the fruit is good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and able to make her wise. Each of those desires was given by God, and Satan twisted them. We connect this to a line the hosts attribute to C.S. Lewis: sin is not the opposite of holiness but a perversion of what is holy. Today the same thing happens with God’s design for intimacy within marriage.
Adam was “with her.” He heard the whole conversation, said nothing, and ate. He had dominion over every creature (Genesis 1:28) and the intelligence to name every animal (Genesis 2:19–20), yet he didn’t stop it. Men are called to step up and say “no” when their families are being tempted. Paul calls Jesus the “last Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45). Jesus did only what the Father told Him (John 5:19; Luke 22:42) and showed what Adam should have done.
Eyes opened, hiding, and blame (Genesis 3:7–13)
- Fig leaves (v. 7): Their innocence is gone, and right away they try to cover their own sin. It’s the opposite of being born again: in place of freedom from guilt, guilt rushes in.
- Hiding (v. 8): They hide from God “among the trees,” like a toddler covering their eyes and thinking no one can see them. We note the Tree of Life Version (TLV) rendering, “Adonai Elohim,” and explain why Jewish tradition uses it in place of the divine name.
- “Where art thou?” (v. 9): God already knew. He gave Adam the chance to come out and confess.
- Fear (v. 10): For the first time, Adam is afraid. Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18), and fear was not part of the world as God made it.
- Blame (vv. 12–13): Adam blames “the woman whom thou gavest to be with me,” which blames God too. Eve blames the serpent (“beguiled,” which in the Hebrew means to lead astray or seduce). Sin makes you foolish in a hurry. Satan didn’t trick them about which fruit it was. They chose with their eyes fully open, which gave the Accuser what he wanted.
The curses and the first gospel (Genesis 3:14–19)
- The serpent (vv. 14–15): It is cursed above all cattle and every beast and sentenced to crawl on its belly. Then comes the protoevangelium, the first promise of the gospel: “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” The cross was only a “bruise to the heel” for Jesus. His death was temporary, while Satan’s defeat is final.
- The woman (v. 16): Pain in childbirth is greatly multiplied, and “thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” We discuss godly, loving, protective spiritual leadership in marriage, not tyranny. Marriage is meant as a partnership (Ephesians 5). We also talk about how today’s culture fights against that design.
- Adam and the ground (vv. 17–19): The ground is cursed. Work becomes painful toil among thorns and thistles, and physical death is announced: “dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” All of creation is affected (Romans 8:22), and animals likely began to fear man from this point. The thorns from this curse later became the crown pressed on Jesus’ head (Matthew 27:29). He literally wore the curse.
- Adam lived 930 years (Genesis 5:5). He saw generations of his descendants, and their sin, starting with one of his sons murdering the other (Genesis 4).
Looking ahead
Next time we pick up at Genesis 3:20, where Adam names Eve. Then we move into Genesis 4 and the first fight in human history, Cain and Abel.
Scripture References
Genesis 1–2; Genesis 3:1–19; Genesis 1:28; Genesis 2:19–20; Genesis 4; Genesis 5:5 · Psalm 22:3; Psalm 119:11 · Matthew 5:18; Matthew 15:1–9; Matthew 23:13; Matthew 27:29 · Mark 7:8–13 · Luke 22:42 · John 5:19; John 8:44; John 10:10; John 14:26 · Acts 16:16–18 · Romans 8:22 · 1 Corinthians 6:19; 1 Corinthians 15:45, 51–52 · Ephesians 5 · 1 Thessalonians 4:13–17 · 2 Timothy 2:15; 2 Timothy 3:16 · Hebrews 13:8 · 1 Peter 5:8 · 2 Peter 1:20–21 · 1 John 4:18
Other References
- Tree of Life Version (TLV): a Messianic Jewish Bible translation
- Teachers mentioned: Charles Stanley, Adrian Rogers, J. Vernon McGee
- C.S. Lewis: idea attributed to him that sin is the perversion of what is holy
- John Nelson Darby: often wrongly credited with inventing the rapture doctrine