Gen3: The serpent deceiving the woman leading to the fall of Man

While the previous chapters told of the holiness and happiness of all creation, this is about the sin and misery of mankind, the wrath and curse of God against them, summarised in Romans 5:12: "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned".

• v1: This is one of the most common things the devil will whisper to us - "did God really say that?" - as he tries to discredit God's word, promises and commands. He might have chosen to tempt the woman rather than the man because notice that at the time God gave the command not to eat from the tree of knowledge, only Adam was present. Hence the woman probably received this command second hand from her husband, and therefore be more inclined to discredit it. The serpent's whisper was also subtle - he put forth an innocent sounding question, but intentionally quoted the command fallaciously - "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree...?'".
  
• v2-3: The woman's response - she gives a full account of the law to him. Her first mistake was to continue the conversation - she could've perceived by his question that the serpent had no good intentions.
• v4: Here Satan insists that although it might be an act of disobedience, it will not lead to any dire consequences, in direct contradiction to what God had said. One of Satan's tricks is to teach us to doubt, that there may be fallacy in God's word.
• v5: Satan's next attack was to promise advantage to those who sin - that they could eat of the forbidden fruit and gain. He claimed that God was withholding a blessing, and suited the temptation to the state they were in - as they were in a pure state, he proposed to them intellectual delights and satisfactions, rather than earthly pleasures and gratification. The last point of attack is to insinuate that God had no good intentions towards them in forbidding the fruit - he insinuated that God did not want them to eat of the tree because he did not want them to reach their full potential and no longer be in an inferior state below God. Thus the devil still draws people by suggesting to them hard thoughts of God, false hopes of benefit and advantage by sin, and sows doubt into people's minds about God's goodness and purpose.
• v6: Eve stayed, toyed with temptation, eyed and coveted the fruit. She should have turned away her eyes, but instead lingered and gazed upon the fruit rather than distancing herself. She started to desire what was prohibited (part of our human nature), and probably with trembling hands, reached out and took it on her own accord. Note that Satan may tempt and persuade us to cast ourselves down, but he himself cannot force us and cast us down. And the root of sin always starts with temptation and a failure to flee from it.
• Eve gave her husband the fruit, causing him to fall too. Likewise, when we fall ourselves, we tend to draw others down with us. Your actions have consequences for the others around you. John Eldredge also points out that this fall from grace was also due to Adam's failure to speak out against the devil and his failure to protect Eve. What was Adam doing while Eve was being tempted? He stayed silent. What was Adam doing when Eve reached out to take the fruit? He stayed passive.
• v7: The ultimate consequences of transgression - fear and shame - swept over Adam and Eve as their eyes of consciences were opened. All too late, they saw the folly of what they had done: the happiness they had fallen from, a loving God provoked, His grace and favour forfeited, His likeness and image lost to sin. Thus stripped, they saw their nakedness, degraded from their dignity.
• v8: The source of their fear was the sound of God as He walked in the garden. God however, came walking, as one who was still familiar with them. The consequence of their sin was to hide themselves from the presence of God as their consciences began to accuse them.
• v9: God pursued Adam by asking "Where art thou?" It was not as though God did not know where Adam was, but God chose to enquire, to call, to reclaim, in order to bring him back and redeem him. It was a reminder to Adam that where he was was a place he should not be.
• v10: Adam replied in trembling, yet did not confess until God asked him directly. He was afraid because he was naked: unarmed and afraid to contend with God; unclothed and afraid to appear before Him. We too have reason to be afraid of approaching God if we are not clothed with the righteousness of Christ.
• v11: God had to extract the confession from Adam. Although God knows all our sins, He will require from us a confession, not to inform Him, but so that we may be humbled.
• v12-13: Adam's and Eve's responses were to try to excuse their sin and lay the shame and blame on ohers. Adam attempted to lay all the blame upon his wife, forgetting that as the man, he ought to have taught her and led her, rather than allow himself to be led by her. He allowed himself to be ruled by his wife, rather than by God. Adam even insinuates that God was accessory to his sin - "The woman you put here".
• The serpent "deceived": all of Satan's temptations are fallacies, lies and deception. It is by the deceitfulness of sin that the heart is hardened. Rom 7:11: For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.
  
• v14-15: God did not examine nor ask the serpent what he had done or why, but imediately cursed him directly because (1) he was already convicted of rebellion against God, and (2) he was to be forever excluded from all hope of pardon. This was to testify God's displeasure against sin. God had blessed all creeping things, but sin turned the blessing into a curse. In these verses we have the first prophecy and perpetual reproach upon Satan: He is degraded and accursed of God, detested and abhorred of all mankind, and destroyed and ruined by the Great Redeemer. Satan will only strike the heel of Jesus, Son of Man, while in return, Jesus will crush his head, totally and completely crushing his power. It is the start of the perpetual war between the kingdoms of light and dark, between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, the war in heaven between Michael and the dragon (Rev 12:7). This prophecy, made in the hearing of Adam and Eve, shows three things concerning Christ: (1) His incarnation, that he is the seed of the woman, through which God magnifies his grace: though the woman was first in the transgression, she shall be saved by child-bearing (1 Tim 2:15), that is, by the Messiah who would descend from her. (2) His sufferings and death in Satan's striking his heel. Satan tempted Christ in the wilderness, terrified Christ in his agony, put it into the heart of Judas to betray Christ, Peter to deny him, false witnesses to accuse him, Pilate to sentence him, all in an attempt to destroy the salvation. (3) His victory over Satan. "by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil" Heb 2:14.
  
• v16: The woman is placed in a state of sorrow and pain, of guilt leading to grief. The female, which by creation was equal with man, is for sin, will "desire" and be made subject to her husband and he will "rule over" her. Many have argued that due to the Fall, women naturally exhibit overpowering sexual desires for their husbands, and God simultaneously ordered husbands to exercise authority over their wives. This however, is due to a gross mistranslation of the Hebrew word, now almost universally translated as "desire". The vast majority of the twelve known ancient versions of the Bible translated the Hebrew word to mean "turning", not "desire". The early church fathers too, did not see any other sense for this word other than to mean "turning". The idea of "desire" started with an Italian Dominican monk named Pagnino who translated the Hebrew Bible. Pagnino, according to biblical critic Richard Simon, "too much neglected the ancient versions of Scripture ot attach himself to the teachings of the rabbis". Pagnino's version was published in 1528. Now except for Wycliffe's 1380 English version and the Douay Bible of 1609, both translated from the Latin Vulgate, every English version up to present has adopted Pagnino's rendering for Gen 3:16. Hence 3:16 is more accurately translated as this: "You are turning away from God to your husband, and he will rule over you i.e. take advantage of you". However, in these sentences, mercy is mixed with wrath. The woman shall have sorrow and pain, but "when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world" (John 16:21). The woman shall be subject, but it shall be to her own husband that loves her. Notice also, that while God passed sentence and cursed the serpent, He never cursed mankind directly to bring him to ruin, but rather to bring him to repentance.
• v17-19: Through sin, man no longer dwelled in a distinguished, blessed paradise, but moved to a cursed ground or earth
  pains of childbearing: guilty conscience awakened to sense of sin
  state of subjection: loss of spiritual liberty and freedom of will
  curse of barrenness: barrenness of corrupt and sinful soul
  toil and sweat: difficulty of labouring in the service of God and work of religion
  embittering of food: te soul'd want of the comfort of God's favour
• Jesus, by his death and sufferings answered the sentence passed here
  Christ's painful death is called the pains of a woman in travail (Acts 2:24)
  Christ was made under the law (Gal 4:4)
  Christ was made a curse for us and died a cursed death (Gal 3:13)
  Christ was crowned with thorns for us
  Christ sweat great drops of blood for us
  Christ's soul was in agony and torment
  Christ became obedient unto death
• v20: the naming of the woman as Eve, i.e. life
• v21: Despite sin, God did not disinherit Adam and Eve, but clothed them. Observe that this was the first instance of bloodshed - Adam and Eve were clothed with the sacrifice of an animal. These sacrifices were divided between God and man: the flesh was offered to God as a burnt offering, the skins were given to man for clothing. Likewise, Jesus sacrificed Himself to God, and we are to clothe ourselves with His righteousness.
• v22-24: God shut man out of paradise, to prevent them from having any hopes of self redemption by eating the fruit of life. The first covenant was irreparably broken, and hence the need for a new convenant was put into place.