Genesis 1-3
Manuscript
What’s your idea of paradise? Lying on a beach on some tropical island? No crowds, no noise, except the gentle breeze and the gentle lapping of the waves on the pristine beach. Lying in a hammock, looking out at the sea framed by palm trees, without a care in the world? Is that your idea of paradise? Different people have different ideas of what is idyllic. But perhaps above all, whether on stunning beach or in a beautiful garden or in a luxurious hotel, we want peace. Not just peace as in quietness, but peace in relationships. Lack of tension, lack of shame, lack of guilt, both in our relationships with each other and with God. And we want this to last forever. That is true peace. That is paradise. And you know what? We once had it. Today we are going to talk about paradise lost.
Once the human race had everything going for us. A beautiful place to live. Perfect relationships with each other and with God. Today in Genesis 1-3 it talks about what we had. Perfectness. And how it was corrupted, ruined, and how we now live with the results of that corruption.
There’s a lot in Genesis 1-3. Today is only a brief overview. We’ll be looking mainly at four things:
- The creation
- the fall
- the curse or consequences of that fall
- and the glimmer of hope.
But first – some context. Genesis - what is it? It’s the first book of the Bible, but do we know much beyond that? The first five books of the Bible are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. They are sometimes called the “Penteteuch,” which just means 5 books, or the Jews called it the Law. Together these first 5 books, the Penteteuch, give the history of the world through to the death of Moses.
And Genesis is the first book. Genesis just means “beginnings.” Genesis is the account of the beginnings of the world and of the Jewish nation. It includes the creation of the world, the creation of mankind and then the fall of mankind. It includes Noah’s flood and other disasters, and then the call of Abraham, his son Isaac, his son Jacob, his son Joseph, and finishes with Jacob and Joseph and his brothers in Egypt.
But what is perhaps remarkable about Genesis, is that it is 50 chapters long but only 1 chapter is about the creation of the world! You would think such a momentous event would deserve more attention. In our modern world we are told that the advent of man
is a tiny blip on history after 4.5 billion years of evolution. We are told that we are insignificant, an accident of evolution. And in that Genesis stands in start contrast. The creation of the world is over in one chapter and the rest of Genesis concentrates on people and God’s dealings with us. For modern man, Genesis seems to have things around the wrong way. But it wasn’t just in modern times that it was like that. You see, at the time of Moses, there were other creation accounts around. The people who lived near the Hebrews were polytheists - that is, they believed in many gods. They had their accounts of how the world came into being.
The Emuna Elish is one such account. It was written by the Babylonians and discovered in 1849 in what was once Ninevah and is now Mosul in Iraq. The Emuna Elish and other similar accounts paint a very different picture of the world’s origins than Genesis does. In those accounts, there never was a time when there was nothing. In the beginning there was a formless earth and heaven, and there were no gods, and then the gods somehow appeared, and then the gods slept with each other and had other gods born to them, and then the gods annoyed each other, fought with each other, killed each other. And then one of the gods, when he had killed one of the other gods, from his blood he made people. The reason he made people was so we could work for the gods. The creation of people was an afterthought, a co-incidental point in history, something insignificant.
People thought the sun and the moon were gods. The Egyptians worshipped the sun. They saw gods everywhere, in the stars and in the big animals in the sea. Anything big and unexplainable, they thought they were gods
Oh how different Genesis is! Let’s see how different it is. First Gen 1.1 says In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. What does that mean? It means that in the beginning there was nothing, except God. Absoulely nothing, except God, and God made everything. In verses 14 –18, God made the sun and the moon and the stars. The people around them thought the sun and moon and stars were gods
that they directed the affairs on earth. But God says, no – I created them. They are mine. They are just objects. In Genesis, everything is part of God’s plan, everything is created by Him for a purpose. And so Genesis is so completely different to the paganistic creation accounts of the time.
But it’s also very different to many of the ideas around us today. Today – what are we told? On one hand, the scientists tell us that everything is an evolutionary accident. On the other hand, the new age, which is very popular now among Australians - fortune telling, astrology and so on - it tells us the stars direct our future, just like the Babylonians thought. So Genesis is as relevant as ever, telling us directly that the world and universe is not an accident, but is God’s creation. Telling us that God is not carried along by events, that God is not wrestling with the chaos of the cosmos trying to control it, but that God made the cosmos and everything in it and controls it all.
And there’s something else that Genesis 1 tells us. It tells us that the creation of people was the pinnacle of His creation. Genesis 1.26 tells us that God made people in His likeness. No other part of creation is made in God’s image. The planets and stars aren’t. The animals aren’t. Only people are made in God’s image.
The Babylonian myths taught that people were made as an accidental afterthought from the blood of one of the dead gods. Our modern world tells us much the same. Evolution tells us that we are an accident of nature, a recent trend in 4.5 billion years of pre-human history.
And then today we have others telling us that the environment around us is more important than we are. We are to place the welfare of animals and nature ahead of our own welfare. It’s true that the Bible tells us as people to care for our environment, but it’s also clear that the environment was made for us, and not the other way around.
So so far, what have we learnt from Genesis 1? We have learnt that God is central, God is number 1. And then we learn something amazing about ourselves, that we are the pinncacle of God’s creation.
What else do we learn? Genesis 1.31 says something amazing: Genesis 1.31a And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. Not just good, but very good! The world that God made was very good, in fact – perfect. This also stands in start contrast with other ideas. You see, the Babylonians thought that the world was not perfect in the beginning, and that the world was gradually getting better, that people were making it better. And isn’t that what we are told today? Evolution says the world is getting better. Survival of the fittest produces better and better creatures, more and more powerful and better creatures including humans. That we have been evolving, getting bigger, smarter, better. Some like the Nazis have used evolution to teach the idea of the evolution of a super race, that one race is superior than another. That is the logical consequence of evolution.
But is that what we observe in real life? A world getting better? Sure our internet speeds are getting faster. With facebook we can be friends with more people at the same time as never before. With jet airliners we can get to the other side of the world in less than a day. But is it good? Do we live in peace and harmony? Peace with each other and peace with God?
You see back there in the garden they had that. Paradise wasn’t just a beautiful location, although the Garden of Eden would have been beautiful. But it wasn’t just physically beautiful. You see people were in unhindered relationship with God and their creator. God and Adam and Eve talked face to face as friends.
And Adam and Eve were in perfect harmony with other. Yes a husband and wife with no arguments. God made male and female. In Gen 2.18 it says The the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” The helper was the woman, and the word “helper” means someone different to Adam who would complement him. And so we see that right from the beginning, God made male and female. He made them equal to each other but wonderfully different to each other, complementing each other. They got on perfectly. No–one ever wronged anyone else. There was no guilt and shame, nothing to hide between people and between God and people.
Paradise. We had it all. It was literally perfect. But is the world still perfect? Look around you. Turn on the news. Wars, floods, famine, abducted children. But you don’t have to turn on the news to see the evil in our world. Talk to your friends, the people you know. Divorce, hate, shonky deals, being ripped off, thefts, assaults. If we haven’t personally been subjected to these, we all know those who have.
How did it get to this? How did we lose paradise? Well in chapter 2.16-17, God tells Adam that he can eat of any tree in the garden of Eden, except for the fruit from one tree. Just one tree was out of bounds out of all the trees in the garden. Now we skip over to chapter 3, where Adam and Eve face their first big test. Let’s have a look at that test or temptation. Gen 3.1a says Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.
Who was this serpent? From elsewhere in the Bible we know he is the devil. But where did the devil come from? The Bible doesn’t give much information about the origins of the devil. Perhaps the clearest is a prophecy in Ezekiel chapter 28 where we learn that the devil was originally an angel who through his pride turned against God.
And now he comes to tempt the pinnacle of God’s creation, the only part of God’s creation that was made in God’s image. That is, he came to tempt the woman and the man. The rest of Genesis 3.1 says Genesis 3.1b He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the Garden.’?” Now let us think here - what is the serpent tempting Eve with here? What is he actually saying? He is telling her that God’s word is subject to our judgement.. See the words, “Did God actually say…”
He is asking Eve to be the judge of what God said. And that is what we have today in our world. People judge what God says. People say, “The Bible says its not right to get drunk, but did God really say that?” The Bible says homosexuality is wrong, but people say “It depends on your interpretation.” Today we are told to question God. We are encouraged to stand in judgement over God. We decide whether we will believe God. We decide whether we will accept God. We decide what parts of the Bible – God’s word - we like and what parts we don’t. We decide whether God exists or not, which when you think about is riduculous - as if God needs us to decide if He exists in order for Him to exist!
So the serpent tempts Eve and encourages her to judge the words of God and to take matters in her own hand. The devil encourages Eve to be autonomous, that is, to be independent of God. Eve answers well to begin with and tells the devil what God has told them.
But then the devil tells a lie. In verse 4 he says: Genesis 2.4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.” You see, back in Genesis 2.17 God told them that if they ate from that tree they would die. That there would be judgement and consequence from disobeying God, from trying to be independent from God. And now the devil flatly contradicts God, and says no, you won’t die. That is, you can do what you like and they’re won’t be any consequences. There won’t be any judgement.
And isn’t that what we are led to believe today? We are led to believe that we can do what we like, and if there is a God, well He sits up on some cloud and He won’t judge you. There won’t be any consequences.
I tell you what: that’s the same lie the devil told Eve. The devil told Eve that there would no consequences. She could do what she liked and she wouldn’t die even though God said she would. There would be no consequences. But the devil was lying and Eve and then Adam believed the devil. They thought there would be no consequences, but they were wrong. There was a consequence. There was a curse because of their sin. Adam and Eve had questioned God. They had disbelieved God. They had been tempted and they had succumbed. They had believed the lie that you can sin against God and do what you like and that nothing would happen. Hh how wrong they got it!
In Gen 2.9 God says, Genesis 2.9 But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” Why was Adam afraid? Adam says it was because he was naked, but why did that make him afraid? Before he sinned, before he defied God, he was not afraid of God, he was not ashamed to be in God’s presence. And so because of their disbodience, which was more than just taking some fruit from tree, but it was defiance against God, questioning God, rebellion against our maker, basically saying, “get lost God,” there was a consequence.
God issues 3 curses. One is to the serpent – the devil. More of that later. And the next is to the woman – Eve. And the last to the man – Adam.
There are a number of components to these curses. The first aspect is that life will now be physcically difficult. For the woman, there will be difficulty in childbirth. As we well know, childbirth is not easy. It is painful and this is as a result of the curse, because of sin. And for the man, work will be difficult. Work is no longer straight forward and easy. In Genesis 3 we have the example of the farmer. The ground is cursed. As well as the crops one wants, thorns and thistles also grow. And for all of us as we work, whatever our job is, think about how much of your work is actually wrestling with problems and so on, that in an ideal world wouldn’t be there. To actually produce something, to make something in your work, you also have to contend with difficulties. Our labour is now difficult, whether it is the labour of childbirth or the labour of work.
But that’s not all. Our relationships are now cursed. To the woman God says in the second half of verse 16: Genesis 3.16b Your desire shall be fore your husband, and he shall rule over you. Commentators have spilt much ink over trying to figure out exactly what this sentence means, but one thing is clear from this sentence, and that is the relationship between the man and the woman is not healthy anymore. The relationship between the genders that God had set up, which was one of equality but with different and complementary roles, was now corrupted.
And not just the relationships between husband and wife were corrupted. All human relationships became corrupted. Indeed in the next chapter, Adam and Eve had children, and one of then kills his brother. Sin had entered the human race. There was now discord. Life was difficult and relationships between each other were corrupted.
But that’s not all. The worst part of the curse is right at the end of the curses. Remember, God had told Adam and Eve that if they ate of the tree, that they would surely die. And the devil said, “No you won’t. Do what you like and don’t worry about the consequences because there won’t any.”
Well. Who was right? The devil or God? In Genesis 3.19, God says to Adam,
Genesis 3.19 By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.
You are dust, and to dust you shall return. The worst consequence for Adam and Eve, and for us, is that death was introduced into the human race. Before Adam and Eve sinned, death was not on the agenda. Yes that’s right, as well as living in a perfect world, a beautiful place – paradise. As well as having perfect uncorrupted relationships with each other, and with God, as well as enjoying perfect peace and harmony with God and each other, they were set to enjoy this forever, without the prospect of death.
And now there was death. Death. Something every man and woman and child has had to come to terms with throughout the history of mankind. Death the inescapable. It is said that nothing is more certain than death and taxes, but out of those two, death is even more certain.
And so in Genesis 1-3, we have the creation of the world, which is totally under God’s control. We have the the pinnacle of God’s creation - human beings. We have paradise, and then we have paradise lost. Why? Because Adam and Eve believed a lie. They believed a lie that told them to question God. A lie that doubted God. A lie that said there are no consequences for your actions.
Friends, do any of us here believe the lie today? We are told today that we can do as we like. If it feels good, do it. We are told that truth is relative. You believe in Jesus – well good for you, but your Jesus is not for me. I believe in the stars. Or Buddha, or Mohammed, or science. But can we play God? Can we be as judge over God? Are there no consequences for being autonomous, independent, from God?
Adam and Eve believed the lie, believed there were no consequences. But were they right? No. And they suffered because of that. And we do too when we deny God, when we question Him, when we think we can defy Him and get away with it. All of us will die one day, and then what? In Genesis chapter 3, it looks like all hope is lost. Death is the lot of all mankind.
But wait! There is a glimmer of hope. Just a glimmer, but a glimmer nonetheless. You see in the curse in Genesis 3.15, the curse on the devil, God says:
Genesis 3.15a
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.
That is seen as a prophecy of Jesus Christ, that one day, God would send a deliverer, a descendent of Eve. That is, someone who is human, but also someone who would be able to beat the devil, and beat sin and death. In Genesis, it says that this descendent would bruise the devil’s head. And if we turn to Revelation 20:10 we can read of Satan’s final doom: Revelation 20:10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulphur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Even right back in Genesis, straight after we lost paradise through our sin and doubt, God put into action a plan, a plan to redeem mankind. And what we have in the Bible is the story of that plan in action. And we still wait the final outworking of that plan when Satan will be thrown into the lake of burning sulphur.
And as we go through Genesis we are going to see the genesis of that plan. In the first 11 chapters of Genesis we will see that things just go from bad to worse. We see time and time again the depravity of mankind in murders, war and strife. And then from Gen 12 with the call of Abraham, we start to see God’s plan in action which He prophesied in the curse to satan. We start to see this plan unfold in the calling of the nation of Israel, from whom would be born Jesus Christ, who would give His life in order to defeat death on our behalf.
So what’s Genesis 1-3 mean for us here today? We’ve heard about the creation of the world and of mankind. A perfect world. Paradise. A world made by God with the human race as the pinacle of His creation. We’ve heard about the Fall, that in Adam we defied God, and decided to go our own way. And we’ve heard the consequences. Life is hard. Fractured relationships. And death. The finality of death. But we’ve also seen the glimmer of hope, that one of Eve’s descendents would crush satan and do away with death.
So what’s that mean for us? Well, we learn where we’ve come from. We learn that orignally we were created to be the apple of God’s eye. And we learnt that sin was our undoing. That we as the human race have rebelled against God, and we’ve learnt that the lie back then is the same as today. Today we are told to question God, to doubt Him. “Did God really say do this, don’t to that?” “Surely you can decide for yourself.” We are told we can live as we like, fulfilling our lusts and longings with no thought of the consequences.
Well Eve and Adam thought so to, but they were wrong. And if you are here today, and you think you can do as you like with your life without reference to God, then you have fallen for the lie too. But there is hope – but only in Jesus Christ. You need to trust in Him, turn from your life without God and ask Jesus to help you change you so that you can start living for God.
