Genesis 3

Read Genesis 3 in NASB Genesis 3 tells of the fall of man, which is Adam's decision to seek life apart from God.

The Devil
It starts by describing the devil as a serpent. The devil was an angel named Lucifer. Ezekiel 28 is addressed to the King of Tyre, but the wording is clearly describing Lucifer. Lucifer was a beautiful being. He found life in his beauty, but not from God. He grew arrogant and thought that God should have exalted him. Isaiah 14 also talks about Lucifer. He is called the morning star. His purpose was to worship God and point Adam and Eve to God as the bringer of life. But he exalted himself and thought he was the source of his beauty. To make matters worse, God exalted man. This made Lucifer so jealous, that he murdered man by deceiving them into believing the knowledge of good and evil.

His weapon would be lies. Lies about who man is. He would wage a war over this very question. This war over who man is can be seen in revelation 12. It describes a war between Satan and an angel named Michael. Michael means “Who is like God”. He is the chief defender of man kind. He defends man from the lies of the devil with the truth that man is like God.

The names of the devil show this. His Hebrew name, har Satan, means accuser or prosecuting attorney. His Greek name, diabalos, means slanderer.

He came and told Adam and the woman to try to look at the things they need to do produce God’s life. It is called the knowledge of good and evil because it causes a person to judge things as good and evil in terms of whether it affects eternal life.

The devil told a lie. He said that they would not die. He said that it would make them like God. This God likeness means to be eternally self existence.

Three Types of Temptation
He even brought up the three types of temptation that are mentioned in 1 John 2:16, which says, "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world."

The lust of the flesh are the things that our physical bodies crave. This can be many things. Some of them can be biological ways to maintain our lives. Examples could include working out, junk food, sex, thrilling experiences, and much more. Hitler’s plot to create a pure race is another example of a lust of the flesh. Note that some of my examples are not harmful. Working out is not evil, but becomes a lust of the flesh if my flesh craves it as a source of life.

Hitler is not the only political example of a lust of the flesh. Look at economics and healthcare. Both sides of the political spectrum claim that their system is the best way to give people healthcare so that people can live longer and experience more life.

The second type of temptation is the lust of the eyes. These are the things we see as beautiful. Much materialism comes from this. It could be considered stylish. We see something and we lust after it. A significant other is a good example. You might see a person who has a significant other and feel like that thing is missing in your life.

The third and final type of temptation is the pride of life. The best translation of the original Greek phrase for pride of life is empty boasting of what sustains our life. That is the things we boast maintains our lives. It could be political policies, investment accounts, businesses, relationships, buildings, and so much more.

The thing is, these three things are a reflection of the lif ethat God gives us. Temptation is to think that we lack those things. The lust of the flesh comes from our flesh’s need to be sustained forever. God’s gift of immortality will someday forever sustain the flesh of all who accept it as a free gift. His immortality is now sustaining the flesh of Jesus and shall sustain it forever.

The lust of the eyes deals with beauty. Beauty is a physical representation of life. God is the supreme source of life and beauty is a representation of Him as a source of life.

Finally comes the pride of life. It has to deal with boasting of the life we have produced ourselves. But we don’t have to boast in our works. God is our source of life so we do not have to produce life. This is what the apostle Paul repeatedly talks about when he mentions boasting in theLord. It references that God is our source of life.

Genesis 3:6 shows that the woman fell for all three types of temptation. It says she saw it was good for food (lust of the flesh), a delight to the eyes (lust of the eyes), and good to make one wise (the pride of life).

The Fall
The woman partook of the knowledge of good and evil. So did Adam. He was not deceived. He partook because did not want Eve to go through it alone. They looked at the good to perform and the evil they had to avoid to try to produce God’s life. They saw they were naked. They saw their inability to produce God’s life.

They ran from God. God loved them. They had no need to run from Him. They saw their inability to produce God’s life and somehow thought that God would judge them based on their inability. Man was trapped in sin. Sin is when we judge that God is withholding his life from us based on the death we see around us.

Yet God disproved this in the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus had no ability to produce life on his own. His inability was put on discplay on the cross. He had no inability yet God raised Him from the grave and clothed His body with immortality.

When God tried to talk to Adam, Adam blamed the woman. The woman blamed the serpent. God cursed the serpent, and said that there would be the emnity between the serpent and the seed of the woman. The seed of the woman is Jesus. God told the serpent that he would bruise the heel of the seed of woman, but the seed of woman would crush His head. This refers to the death and resurrection of Jesus.

God then told Eve that she would have great pain in child birth. This refers to the truth that bearing fruit would be a difficult process.

Then he said much to Adam. It said that Adam would eat of the ground until he returned to dust. The ground would produce thorns and thistles. This refers to the work to produce life on our own. It will be rough and we will ultimately end up dead.

God saw that they became aware of the good and evil they needed work to try to produce God likeness. For that reason, he cut off access to the tree of life. It would be horrible to keep them alive forever in such a state.

Cherubim were stationed to guard access to the tree of life. It is hard to tell from the grammar of the English translation, but cherubim is actually plural. The cherubim held a flaming sword. The sword is God’s word. Those who try to have life by their own works will not have access to eternal life. See also two cherubim.

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