Genesis 3:8-15
The Devil Made Me Do It!
After reviewing their finances, a husband and wife decided it was time to tighten up, to spend less and save more. A day later, the wife was out shopping and found the dress of her dreams. It cost way too much, but she had to have it. When she showed it to her husband, he exclaimed, “After all we said about spending less, how could you?” She replied, “The devil made me do it.” The husband asked, “Didn't you tell him, ‘Get behind me, Satan?’” “I did,” the wife replied, “but he said, ‘It really looks great from the back, too!’”
Comedian Flip Wilson made famous with his character, Geraldine Jones, the phrase, “The devil made me do it.” An elder in one of my churches told me he believes the reason God is going to bind the devil for 1,000 years—as recorded in Revelation—is so that, for a while, no one can blame the devil for their sin.
Whether you’ve ever blamed the devil, you’ve probably blamed someone. We all play the “blame game.” No one really wants to take responsibility for their sin. It’s embarrassing. It’s shameful. It’s disappointing. We can all identify in some way with our first parents in Genesis 3. They wanted to avoid responsibility as much and as long as they could. Yet, when we avoid, we don’t get better. We don’t get right with God. We don’t find healing and forgiveness and restoration. So let’s learn how to deal with our sin by doing the opposite of Adam and Eve.
When you’ve sinned, take three steps. First,
1. Confess your sin to God (v. 8)
To confess means to agree with. You say to God, “You were right and I was wrong. I agree with you that I crossed the line. I trespassed. I missed the mark you have for me. I screwed up royally.” As soon as the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin, confess it to God.
Adam and Eve put their own desires above God’s command. They thought they knew better than God. That arrogant belief is behind every sin we commit. Note what they did, in verse 8: “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.”
Have you ever hidden from God? Hiding is the exact opposite of ‘fessing up! It’s kind of a comical scene, really, how they hid from God, as if he couldn’t find them. Psalm 139 says there is nowhere we can go where God is not there. Adam and Eve had already made some leaf coverings for their bodies, as their sin had led them to feel shame for the first time. Now, instead of bringing their shame to God, they ran from God.
Like Jonah, though, they discovered you cannot outrun God. Instead of running from God, how about running to God? Run into God’s arms, like the prodigal son who returned home and discovered his father rushing out to meet him with love (Luke 15). That’s what happens when you and I confess, when we bring our sin to God. He is more than ready to hear your confession, and you’ll feel better when you get it off your chest. Yet, a confession is not enough. You also need to ...
2. Repent of your wrongdoing (vv. 12-13)
This is the difference between feeling sorry for what you did and taking steps to not do it again. While confessing means agreeing with, repenting means turning away from. In military lingo, we might call it “To the rear, march!” or “About face.” To repent is to turn away from your sin and to turn back to God. It is taking full responsibility for your sin and throwing yourself at the mercy of a holy God.
Notice this is the exact opposite of what Adam and Eve did. When God finally caught up with them and asked them about their sin, they both shifted the blame. Instead of taking responsibility and repenting, they blamed someone else. Verse 12: “The man said, ‘The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.’” Who was Adam blaming? Actually, both God and the woman: “the woman YOU put here with me.” And what about Eve? Verse 13: “Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’” She blamed the serpent, and he scurried away on his stomach.
Each of our first parents shifted the blame to someone or something else. “The devil made me do it!” Today we might hear, “My parents ruined me. That’s why I’m so messed up.” Or, “My temper is just out of control.” Or, “It’s just my personality; that’s just the way I am.” Or, “They shouldn’t push my buttons! I can’t help it if they make me mad!” Or, “If she wouldn’t dress like that, guys wouldn’t act that way towards her!” All misdirected blame.
Yet, God calls us to follow him, without excuse. And when we fail, he doesn’t condemn us; he calls out lovingly, “Where are you? Why are you hiding from me?” And he calls us to be accountable for our sin, to bring it to him.
In the Garden story, as bad as the punishments got, if you read the rest of the story, God only cursed the serpent and the ground. The man still would make a living, although weeds would make it hard. The woman still would be blessed through childbirth, although it would be painful. (They don’t call it “labor” for nothing!) And the two still would have each other, although some control issues would enter the relationship: welcome to marriage after the fall!
Yet, there is so much grace here, so much forgiveness. God had told them, “If you eat of this fruit, you will surely die.” But they didn’t die! They began to age; but they had many more years ahead of them. If you read the rest of the chapter, even though God evicted them from the Garden, he still provided for them with animal skins: the first time in the Bible we see an innocent die to cover the sins of the guilty. And all of this happened even though Adam and Eve didn’t bring their sin to God. How much quicker the process when we become quick confessors and quick repenters. And when we do, we move to step 3, which is to ....
3. Receive God’s forgiveness (v. 15b)
Right here in the third chapter of the Bible we see God’s forgiveness plan for the entire human race. It is wrapped up in verse 15 where God says, “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.”
This little verse is nicknamed the “Protevangelium,” which means the “first gospel,” because it promises a Savior, a descendent of Eve who will deal the serpent a death blow. If someone strikes your heal, it will slow you down; but if someone crushes your head, you’re dead!
Note the word “offspring;” some English Bibles translate it as “seed.” It’s singular. The verse is talking about one specific member of Eve’s family tree. “HE will crush your head.” Although there will be enmity between women and serpents in general (my wife can vouch for that), there will be one particular descendent who will strike a death blow, not on the serpent family, but on this one serpent in particular: “He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
So who or what is this serpent in Genesis 3? The Apostle Paul had an opinion. In Romans 16:20 he writes, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” Who? Satan, that great deceiver, that fallen angel, the head worship leader in heaven who thought he was better than God. Listen to what the Apostle John foresaw, in Revelation 12:9: “The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.”
The New Testament writers had no doubt who the serpent in the garden was. And they had no doubt who this descendent of Eve’s was. This “God of peace,” as Paul described him is Christ our Lord, the Son of God, descendant of David, born a human by the Virgin Mary, tracing his lineage all the way back to ... Adam and Eve! He is our source of forgiveness and our way to eternal life. Let us pray:
Thank you, God, that you are our loving parent, always ready to receive us back, to forgive us our sin, and to restore us to yourself. Help us to recognize that your plans are best for us. Help us to confess, to agree with you about our sin. Help us to repent, to turn away from our sin and back to you. And help us to receive your loving forgiveness and choose you instead of the next temptation. We ask this in the name of the one who was tempted in every way common to man, yet never sinned, Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.
