The Fall Effect Series

Message

Genesis 3:1-13

Why Are You Naked - The Fall Effect

Let’s go right back to the beginning – to creation – and remind ourselves of some outcomes of God’s creative work.

On the first day – “God saw that the light was good” (Genesis 1:3).

That which was created on the second, third, fourth and fifth days – “God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:10, 12, 17, 21).

Then, as part of God’s creative acts on the sixth day,

God said, “Let us make mankind in our image … So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:26-27

What happens at the end of the day when God sits back and assesses that day?

“… it was VERY good” (Genesis 1:31)

As the creation days unfold God watch everything come into being – and we get a daily glimpse of God’s emotions.

This is good. This is good. This is good.

God’s plans are being perfectly enacted and His goals are being fully achieved. Then mankind comes into the picture. And the goals, and accomplishments, and the fulfilment of God’s purposes goes up another notch.

From good … to very good.

There is nothing that God is second guessing, or regretting, or wanting to revise.

In that environment, at the end of the sixth day,

Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

Genesis 2:25

No shame nakedness.

What would that even be like?

A husband and a wife in a life-long marriage relationship can perhaps say they have experienced “no-shame” nakedness.

But in that same context has it not also been said

“… I’m not in the shape I used to be.”

“… maybe keep the light off.”

Those comments come because someone is not content with their body shape, comparative … well comparative to a body image that few people seem to attain.

And even if there is absolutely no-shame nakedness between a husband and wife – you still make sure the door is locked.

Maybe you could say that people who are in the pornography industry – is that “no-shame nakedness?”

It isn’t, is it.

It is shameless nakedness.

The proliferation of the pornography industry is the result of being exploited to such an extent that one has become totally desensitised and numb to the purposes of God’s plans.

No shame nakedness.

Do you know the only people who experience this today?

Toddlers.

They can play naked in public with no shame.

They don’t question why everyone else has clothes on.

They don’t have any concerns about their body shape.

It is a little celebration of innocence isn’t it.

But even if you actually do let your toddler go naked in public – even then as a parent you are watching. Because your child’s celebration of naked innocence could be the picture of perversion for someone else.

And at some point, as your toddler grows, the day comes when Mister growing-up makes it very clear that Mummy is no longer welcome in the bathroom.

How un-gardenlike our world is. The complete opposite to the time when Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

The opposition transformation is described in Genesis 3:1-13. Let’s turn to the passage and read it.

Let me show you something that is happening in the Hebrew text that you can’t see in English.

Adam and his wife were both naked (arumim), and they felt no shame.

Now the serpent was more crafty (arum) than any of the wild animals

It is called a “word-play”. Using words with a similar sound to identify an underlying motive. The no-shame nakedness … arumim … of Adam and Eve being confronted by the craftiness … arum … of the serpent. A confrontation that is craftily designed to plant a seed of doubt about the “goodness” of God and to questions God’s assessment that everything Adam and Eve know is “very good”.

Did God really say, “You must not eat from any tree in the garden?”

Genesis 3:1

How can God be a “good God” if you can’t have access to everything?

How can creation be “very good” if there are restrictions and limitations?

A seed of doubt is planted.

This is Eve’s response.

God did say, “You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.”

Genesis 3:3

Is that what God said? Let’s fact-check Eve.

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.”