Genesis

Genesis 1-3 (just chapter 3)

Click here for chapters 1-3 in Bible

Happy New Year!  2020!

(I wrote a stand alone post for Chapters 1,2, and 3)

I recently did a Bible study with teens on Genesis.  Chapter 3 was by far the longest discussion.  In an effort to keep this short I will bullet my points:

  • Did you notice the serpent (satan) spoke to Eve about the tree? Why? Because the direct instruction from God was NOT given to her.  Go back to 2:16:

16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Eve wasn’t even created yet when God gave this command to Adam! So of course the serpent was so crafty he went straight to her.

  • I am not even going to go on a tangent about 3:12.  Good grief!
  • Another favorite is 3:17, God defending what He told Adam directly….

17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

LET’S get to the BEST Part!!  The Plan of Salvation…the Gospel…the Atonement….Right here in Genesis Three!

3:7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

We see here man’s attempt to cover his own sin. But let’s skip to the first FORESHADOW of Jesus on the Cross.  Ready…..

3:21 The Lord made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

Image result for genesis 3:21

We see God’s Covenant of a substitutionary death.  See God killed something innocent to COVER them (that is where the skin came from).  The word atonement means to COVERThe death of another covered their sin.  God set in motion the foreshadow of the Cross right here in Genesis 3

OK, one more thing I have to talk about or I will burst.  Look at the LAST verse of today’s reading.

After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.  Gen 3:24

WHY??  Why did GOD  HAVE to guard the tree??  The Tree of Life was in the garden for immortality.  God could spend eternity with us.  But everything changed.  God cannot be in community with sin and it created a separation between us and Him.

So God states in 3:19 ‘until you return to the ground….’ Death is now a part of this fallen world.  Good or Bad?  Well, here is the deal: If God chose to leave the Tree of Life for us, we would live forever separated from God.  However, God loves us so much that he has placed an Angel to hide the Tree of Life from us so that one day we will all have a death and be reunited with God (and the Tree) and be in community with Him again.

So I ask you… Will we see this tree again in the Bible?  The Tree of Life?  We already read 2 of the 4 chapters in the Bible that show us in perfection…the other 2 are at the end ( flip to the last chapter of Revelation 🙂 that’s right.  We eat from the Tree of Life in Heaven giving us eternal life again with the Lord. ) Pretty cool huh.

BTW, I am exhausted.  Please excuse any typos.

16 thoughts on “Genesis 1-3 (just chapter 3)

  1. So ready to be doing this read thru! Thanks Trish for organizing it!!
    Gen 1-3 I LOVE how creative and intentional God was in Creation ( i mean look at the stars in the sky or around at some of the odd looking creatures on our earth)

    And then the intentionality of the order He displayed in Creation–like create the seas before the creatures that need the sea to live etc–its awesome if you think about it

    I also get convicted when I read chap 3 where God confronts Adam and Eve with their sin and suddenly the blame game starts–kinda like me-looking for someone or something to blame for my own choices-It such a great reminder that I need to own my choices honestly before the Lord in order to deal with them–and the sooner the better!!!

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  2. Wonderful. I need a new Bible because I have so many notes in my old one, but it will hold up for oe more read-through and some more notes. Thank you for begining at the beginning TODAY!

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  3. I have always disliked 3:12🤦‍♀️ I mean, really Adam?? It infuriates me so much but at the same time I can see what Rachel is saying and it makes me want to take a good look at how I handle situations and blame. Also, Eve does her share of shifting the blame..she clearly blames the serpent knowing that she wasn’t suppose to eat from the tree. I always wondered why Adam didn’t stop her and why he took it? Best we can do now is learn from our mistakes and history’s mistakes. I anyway look forward to when we can eat freely from the tree of life❤

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  4. Chapter 3:6 when referring to Eve eating the fruit says, “…..She also gave to her husband WITH her.”
    I use to think of it as if she was alone when tempted but apparently Adam was there all along.
    So yes he plays the blame game, but he was just as much at fault..

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    1. Of course I like to make fun of men and say “nothing happened when Eve took a bite…Just when Adam did”. But God took the time to say that they are “glued” together “cleave” and therefore they did it as a team. She was disobeying what she had obviously been told by her husband, and he was wrong by obviously watching her take a bite and maybe thinking “hmmm, she didn’t die…I will then try it too”.

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  5. I learned dour new things while reading these three Chapters that I didn’t last time! It’s so amazing how God reveals new meanings to you that you’ve read forever! Thanks for explaining things so well!!

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      1. 1. The tree of life was in the garden.. never put all of that together!
        2. God allowed Adam to name ALL the animals not just some of them.
        3. God decided Adam needed a partner not Adam. (Thought it was the other way around)
        4. I also never related the serpent to the devil (because the devil wasn’t mentioned before this so I just thought he was an evil serpent!) now I understand it though.
        These were such simple things that I didn’t fully understand while just reading on my own!! Now I get them!💡

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  6. I was talking with my grandkids about this chapter and the oldest one said “What there were 2 trees in the garden?”…. reminds me we have to get history right to pass down to the next generation .. it is easy to miss the details

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    1. My sister and I are in our 50s and she just this past year realized that the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil were 2 different trees. I always knew they were separate. Just goes to show that even 2 people raised and taught together can see things differently. That is why I feel teaching accurate history is so important.

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  7. I am new to this group and thank you for doing this. I’ve read the Bible through every year since 2010, not saying that to be boastful, but to just affirm what you’ve said already; it never amazes me no matter how many times I read God’s word something new always pops out. For instance 3:5 when Satan told Eve “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God…” This is so ironic because man was created in the image of God and was already like God. Satan is the deceiver, if only Eve could have fully understood this man would have never been under the curse of sin. But thanks to God he made a way to reconcile us back to Him and restore His image in us through Jesus.

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  8. I found another “us” triangle moment I never noticed before. Gen 3:22 “ …… since the man has become like one of us knowing good and evil…”. Pretty cool!

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