GENESIS 3 - The Fall of Man

Claire Lane
Sep 2
6 min read

The scene is set, God is in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. They had been told by God not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil because if they did, they would surely die.

^"The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 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.” Genesis 2:115-17 NIV

In Genesis 3 we see in verse 6 the woman who was not yet named, Eve, saw the tree and It says: "Then the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it." I find it interesting that after the serpent spoke to the woman it was only then did she find the tree pleasing to the eye. Temptation started to creep in, she found it desirable for her to gain wisdom. Then she made the decision out of her own free will to take some of the fruit and eat it. Not only for herself but she gave it to her husband. Despite what God had told Adam about the tree and the consequences of what would happen.

They Hid - Shame / Fear

Verse 8 then says:

"Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden."

They hid from God because their eyes were opened and they knew they were naked. They did not know this before they ate from the tree. Before they ate from the tree, they were in God's full presence, no shame, no being afraid and no reason to hide from God. They were in FULL communion with God.

In verse 9-10 we see God calls out to them:

"But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

Adam spoke the words out: "I was afraid". Being afraid had not happened before in the Garden of Eden. Because they had both eaten from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, this meant that they were now like God (knowing both good and evil). These words were spoken into existence, their words had impact just like when God formed creation he said "Let there be light" and there was light (Genesis 1:3). Their words had an impact and reactions in the presence of God meaning that now their eyes were opened, speaking out these words of being afraid meant there was fear and shame across the Garden of the Eden and the Earth. This is why our words are so impactful today.

Jesus & Satans Battle

Genesis 3:14-15

So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

“Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals!You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.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.”

Now, when reading this, verse I had not seen it in this way before, God is addressing Satan and telling him he will eat the dust all the days of your life, meaning he will be cast to the Earth. There will be open hostility or enmity between him and the woman.

The Meaning of Open Hostility

State of obvious and active conflict or aggression by unfriendly or antagonistic behaviour.
Actions / feelings are not hidden but are clear and visible to others
Manifests actions or expressions of dislike, opposition or ill will.
Division from Gods presence

In scriptures context this means that between Satan and the woman (Gods people, the bride whom Jesus is coming back for) there will be opposition between each other. Satan would not be in God's presence any longer, there will be conflict and there will be actions of doing things to purposefully provoke and counteract what God is doing.

Woman & Man

In the amplified bible verse 15 says

“And I will put enmity (open hostility), Between you and the woman, And between your seed (offspring) and her Seed;He shall [fatally] bruise your head,

And you shall [only] bruise His heel.”Between womans seed and Satans seed there is conflict. From Eve's children and Satans offspring "He shall fatally bruise your head, And you shall [only] bruise His heel.”

Between woman's seed and Satan's seed, there is conflict, from Eve's children and Satan's offspring (the 1/3 of the angels who went with him to Earth), God says: "He shall fatally bruise your head". In this passage he is referring to Jesus. Jesus was the one who defeated Satan and crushed him and his power. God's offspring from Eve will be wounded by the heel by Satan, which means there will be points of weakness or target areas that Satan will use against God's people where they can be attacked, leading to a fall or downfall.

For example; the story of Cain & Abel in Genesis 4. Cain and Abel were the sons of Adam and Eve. Cain was a farmer and Abel was a shepherd, but Cain became angry and envious of his brother. This led him to murder his brother, which was his ultimate downfall. God then had to cast divine judgment because of what Cain had done.

Verse 16 says

"To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth: In pain you will give birth to children; Yet your desire and longing will be for your husband, And he will rule [with authority] over you and be responsible for you.”

Because Eve gave fruit to Adam and Adam chose to eat it, he chose not to cover his wife, he did not reinforce what God had told him before he had his wife. Adam was instructed not to eat from the tree, but Eve was not informed by God but only Adam. Geneses 2:17-24 we see that Adam was told by God not to eat of the tree and then later on Adam was put to sleep as God saw it was good for man to have a helper, which was woman. God then formed woman out of Adam's rib.

Verse 17-19 says;

"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,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

The ground, meaning earth, is under a curse because of disobedience. God told Adam and Eve that they should still eat fruit, but in sorrow and toil. Sorrow and toil were not found in the Garden of Eden before this all happened, so because they ate of the tree, we now have fear of being afraid of God, shame, sorrow and toil. God also mentioned that they will eat bread until they return to the ground.

What bread is he referring to? Well of course who is the bread of life? Jesus!!

In John 6:35-48. Jesus states "I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE". The bread of God is bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. This is the spiritual nourishment and eternal life that people deeply desire today. God told Adam and Eve what they would have physically and spiritually. Because Jesus is the river of life that comes from the heavens and runs into the 4 rivers in Genesis 2, the water that flows into all land is where Jesus is an what we need to be in the presence of God.

So God took Adam out of the full presence of God and placed him somewhere else because of his disobedience. That is what God still does to us today. If we are being disobedient to what God has told us to do, his presence might not feel as tangible, we might not hear him as clearly as we did before.

So ask yourself this: