Day 2: Genesis 3
Today’s chapter encapsulates the second part of the overarching storyline of the Bible (Creation, Rebellion, Redemption, Restoration): Rebellion. Adam and Eve had been designed by God for a specific purpose: to glorify God by enjoying right relationship with him as their King and Creator, right relationship with each other, and right relationship with work and their surroundings. Tragically, in this chapter, all three of those relationships fall apart due to the conscious rebellion of Adam and Eve.
The first doctrine to be abandoned, thanks to the deceitful lying of the serpent, was the validity of the word of God. In Genesis 1-2, we saw that God’s word brought light and life. Here, however, we see a subtle undermining: “Did God really say…?” And we see the twisting of God’s intentions: “God knows that you will be like him,” says the serpent. In other words, “God is withholding something good from you. He’s not kind. He doesn’t have your best interest at heart. Underneath the surface, God is mean and spiteful.”
How often do our own doubts and sin and patterns of disbelief stem from these two fundamental errors, that God cannot be trusted and that he is not good? When we choose, like Adam and Eve did, to go our own way, we are essentially saying the same things to him. We think our plans our better than his, that his word is outdated or not to be taken seriously, that he is not, in fact, God.
Immediately, the consequences of Adam and Eve’s rebellion become evident. They feel shame at their nakedness, at the exposure of who they truly are. They cast blame and turn on each other. They try to hide from God. And then, two of the elements of God’s beautiful creation, work and family, are cursed for them. Everything is marred and warped and twisted from its original design. Relationships with God, each other, and their surroundings are no longer right. Adam and Eve are cast out of Eden, out of the good and perfect life they had been created for, due to their sin and rebellion against the God who had made them.
And yet, in the midst of this seemingly hopeless situation, a scarlet thread of possible redemption begins here and runs all the way through the rest of the Biblical narrative. Tucked away in Genesis 3:15, we find what has been termed the protoevangelion, or “first gospel.” Talking to the serpent, God says, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” For the rest of time, humanity would be at war with the powers of evil. The serpent, Satan, would achieve some victory against people and do them some harm by “striking the heel.” But the victory would not ultimately be his. There would come a day when an offspring of the woman would deal a decisive death blow to the serpent by “crushing his head.” Even in the midst of terrible rebellion and terrible consequences, God sets forth a path of hope and redemption that will one day lead straight to the cross.
Questions for reflection and discussion: What doctrines of God do you find most easy to dismiss? What aspect of the fall are you currently experiencing most tangibly? How does the “first gospel” in this chapter offer hope in the midst of these situations?
