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Genesis 3:8, Ephesians 2:1-2, Various

Here Comes the Judge!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
July 14, 2022

They tried to cover their shame because of subjective guilt because of their sin. But they also knew that a day of reckoning was going to come. At the beginning of Genesis 3:8, they hear it coming. It says, “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day…” The sound of the Lord coming is a frightful thing for sinners. I expect that the first people to ever read Moses’ account of Adam and Eve’s failure in the Garden would have understood this better than most. In Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, we see the people “hear the sound of the Lord” and are afraid and send Moses to speak to God on their behalf because as Deuteronomy 5:25 says, “If we hear the voice of God we will die.” They were right; death was on the line!

The “cool of the day” translation is misleading. Many commentators have observed that it should read “wind” rather than “cool.”  Sailhamer explains in his commentary, “In light of the general context of the picture of God’s coming in judgment and power, the ‘wind’  that the author envisioned resembles that ‘great and powerful wind’ that blew on the ‘mountain … of the Lord’ in 1 Kings 19:11. Thus the viewpoint of the narrative would be much the same as that in Job 38:1, where the Lord answered Job ‘out of the storm.’”[1]

Paul tells us in Romans 6:23 that “the wages of sin is death.” In the previous chapter, 5:12 he wrote, “sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” (Romans 5:12). In writing to the Ephesians, he explains how we too are in the same predicament. Ephesians 2:1-2 says, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.” Hughes says, “We, too, entered the world dead and depraved, since sin colors every part of our existence, so that we hide from God rather than seek him. In an instant, the original couple passed from life to death, from sinlessness to sin, from harmony to alienation, from trust to distrust, from ease to dis-ease. It did not take a day. It happened in a millisecond! Adam and Eve, as our parents, were genetically, historically, and theologically every man and every woman. They are paradigmatic of all of us—not only in their original sin but because the way they attempted to deal with their sin is the pattern with which we attempt to deal with it today. And the way that God dealt with Adam and Eve is the way he deals with us. So there the first couple was, in their ridiculous fig leaves, slouching around paradise lost. God then confronted them in a graciously gentle, remedial way. And in their confrontation, we see our confrontation.”[2] But God had in mind a different covering for us. It would come from the shed blood of a sacrificial lamb.

[1] Sailhamer, John H. 1990. “Genesis.” In The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, edited by Frank E. Gaebelein, 2:52. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

[2] Hughes, R. Kent. 2004. Genesis: Beginning and Blessing. Preaching the Word. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.

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Genesis 3:7, Mark 11:12-14

The First Coverup!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
July 13, 2022

After eating of the forbidden fruit they noticed they were naked. It’s interesting to notice that awakening to their shameful state did not occur until Adam ate himself. This may, or may not, be associated with the fact that God had given the instructions regarding the forbidden fruit before Eve was created. However, Kissling informs us, “According to Jubilees 3 Eve clothed herself with fig leaves before she gave the fruit to Adam, who ate and then made his own garment of fig leaves. But Genesis says that only after both of them ate were their eyes opened.”[1] Regardless, they both had shame because of the guilt they felt for what they had done. They tried to cover their shame. Genesis 3:7 says, “And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.”

I failed to mention when writing about the “fruit” that Eve and then Adam ate was traditionally understood by Jewish Rabbis to be figs. As one web writer says, “Traditionally, in Judaism, the fruit is described as a fig. Even in Michelangelo’s famous painting of the tree on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, we find that the fig tree won the day when it came to depicting the tree of the forbidden fruit. The depiction of this fruit as a fig is fairly natural from the description in Genesis 3:7 of what immediately follows the eating of the fruit.” They used the fig tree leaves to make loin clothes. Maybe this is why Jesus seems to have inexplicably cursed a Fig Tree in Mark 11:12-14. It says, “The next day, as he left Bethany, Jesus was feeling hungry. He noticed a leafy fig tree in the distance, so he walked over to see if there was any fruit on it, but there was none—only leaves (for it wasn’t yet the season for bearing figs). Jesus spoke to the fig tree, saying, “No one will ever eat fruit from you again!” If this was the fruit tree from which Adam and Eve ate, and thus disobeyed God for the first time, Jesus’ statement might be prophetic looking forward to his eventual reign upon the earth where there will be no more sin against God. Notice that Mark’s passage also mentions that the tree is described as a “leafy fig tree.” Thus, the coverings of shame and guilt that Adam and Eve used are suggested.

They used the fig leaves and tried to cover up their shame because of their guilt. But it seems that at this time it was “subjective guilt” rather than a declaration of a verdict, i.e., judicial guilt. One of my Seminary classmates wrote an article for the Michigan Theological Journal and said, “The biblical text does not show a connection between Adam and Eve’s experience of subjective guilt and God’s personally causing these specific emotions of guilt. Subjective guilt is more precisely a post-fall natural human response to original and personal sin. Moreover, this experience of subjective guilt is not presented in a positive or motivational sense. The text does not indicate that these feelings came from God, nor did these subjective guilt feelings motivate Adam and Eve to contrition or repentance. Their immediate actions were to cover themselves with fig leaves. They felt an inner experience of self-accusation and shame apart from an immediate external threat. Adam and Eve subsequently did develop an external fear of God’s wrath which must be seen as distinct from their subjective feelings of guilt.”[2] Exell wraps up his thoughts with this comment: “Sin is able to make the most excellent and glorious of all God’s creatures vile and shameful:—1. It defaces the image of God. 2. It separates man from God. 3. It disorders all the faculties of the soul. Men are more apt to be sensible of, and to be more affected by, the outward evils that sin brings upon them, than with the sin that causeth them.”[3]

[1] Kissling, Paul J. 2004–. Genesis. The College Press NIV Commentary. Joplin, MO: College Press Pub. Co.

[2] Restum, John A. 1990. “Genuine Guilt or Self Atonement: A Theological Assessment.” Michigan Theological Journal 1, no. 2: 180.

[3] Exell, Joseph S., and Thomas H. Leale. 1892. Genesis. The Preacher’s Complete Homiletic Commentary. New York; London; Toronto: Funk & Wagnalls Company.

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Genesis 3:7

The End of Innocence!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
July 12, 2022

In Genesis 3:7, we are introduced to the consequences of sin. It says, “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.” Anyone with any spiritual awareness is made very uneasy by the thought of God’s searching gaze. Remember the scene in the garden after Adam and Eve had first sinned. In their original state, before they fell into sin, they were “naked and were not ashamed” (Gen. 2:25). With no sin to condemn them, they delighted in the gaze of their loving Creator. But after the fall, they hid their shame even from one another, pathetically sewing on fig leaves for garments. Even more, they dreaded the presence of God, fleeing and hiding from him as he approached. This is how many Christians feel in their relationship with God. The thought of his gaze chills their bones. They are willing to do anything but deal with God himself, skulking around the edges of his light rather than drawing near to him. They struggle to pray and seldom do unless forced by circumstances. It is this paralyzing fear that the writer of Hebrews now addresses. As Philip Hughes explains: “Sinners are no longer commanded to keep their distance in fear and trembling, but on the contrary are now invited to draw near, and to do so with confidence.”[1]

Of course, it is merely a popular misunderstanding to imagine that ‘because their eyes were opened,’ they had been created blind. Actually, Adam saw the animals he named and Eve ‘saw that the tree was good to eat, and fair to the eyes, and delightful to behold.’  Augustine continues, “Their eyes, then, could see, but they were not open enough in the sense that they themselves were not observant enough to realize in what a raiment of grace they must have been robed to have been unaware so long of any war between their members and their will. But, once the raiment of grace was removed, they were taught the lesson that disobedience to God is punishable by disobedience to oneself. A strange and irrepressible commotion sprang up in their bodies that made nakedness indecent. They realized the rebellion and it made them ashamed.”[2]

Matthew Henry has some well-written words on this subject. He notes that their eyes were opened. “Now, when it was too late, they saw the folly of eating forbidden fruit. They saw the happiness they had fallen from, and the misery they had fallen into. They saw a loving God provoked, his grace and favor forfeited, his likeness and image lost, dominion over the creatures gone. They saw their natures corrupted and depraved and felt a disorder in their own spirits of which they had never before been conscious. They saw a law in their members warring against the law of their minds and captivating them both to sin and wrath. They saw, as Balaam, when his eyes were opened (Num. 22:31), the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand.… They saw themselves disrobed of all their ornaments and ensigns of honor, degraded from their dignity and disgraced in the highest degree, laid open to the contempt and reproach of heaven and earth, and their own consciences.”[3]

[1] Phillips, Richard D. 2006. Hebrews. Edited by Richard D. Phillips, Philip Graham Ryken, and Daniel M. Doriani. Reformed Expository Commentary. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing.

[2] Augustine of Hippo. 1952. The City of God, Books VIII–XVI. Edited by Hermigild Dressler. Translated by Gerald G. Walsh and Grace Monahan. Vol. 14. The Fathers of the Church. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press.

[3] Boice, James Montgomery. 1998. Genesis: An Expositional Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

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Genesis 3:6, 1 Timothy 2:13-14

Adam Ate!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
July 11, 2022

Freeman says, “Somewhere in history, a story was started that when Adam took the first bite of the ‘apple’ and tried to swallow it, the piece of forbidden fruit stuck in his throat because he felt so guilty. So ever since then the slight projection at the front of the throat formed by the largest cartilage of the larynx, which is usually more prominent in men than in women, has been called the ‘Adam’s apple.’”[1] According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, “The etrog is also called ‘Adam’s apple,’ or ‘paradise apple.’ …the etrog is suggested as having been the forbidden fruit of which Adam and Eve ate in the Garden of Eden.”[2]

Well, Genesis 3:6 concludes with the solemn words, “…and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” Mark Twain said, “Adam was human; he didn’t want the apple for the apple’s sake; he wanted it because it was forbidden.” Well, regardless of  what Adam wanted, he ate of the fruit and as Smith observes, “The sin did not stick in his throat; it went deeper down into the very springs of his being. The heart is deceitful. It is still the belief of many that a man may have a good heart and a bad life.” But it feels that the character of the heart will determine the character of one’s life. It won’t determine the length of his life, his status in this world, or the size of his bank account but in God’s eyes it is the true measure of success. Jeremiah 17:9 teaches that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick…” Proverbs 4:23 says “Out of the heart are the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23).[3] This is why Jeremiah and Ezekiel promise those who come to faith in Jesus, the New Covenant will get a “new heart.”

Paul seems to suggest that Adam’s sin was somewhat different from Eve’s sin. He writes in 1 Timothy 2:13-14, “For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.” Many commentators seem to use this passage to reduce women to something less than men. This is especially true of older commentators. But, I think Shedd is more accurate. He says, “This implies that Adam did not believe the tempter’s assertion that a good would follow the eating of the forbidden fruit and that death would not be the consequence. According to St. Paul, Adam was seduced by his affection for Eve rather than deceived by the lie of Satan. He fell with his eyes wide open to the fact that if he ate he would die.”[4] Culver takes this understanding and connects it with Christ’s love for the church. He writes, “it has been argued that he ate the fruit out of immense love for her, being unable to think of going on in integrity without her. Many sermons have argued thus and compared Adam’s love for lost Eve with God’s (Christ’s) love for lost humanity even to the point of death in each case.”[5] These sermons have at their heart the phrase in Romans 5:14 which says that “Adam… was a figure of him who was to come.” This was obviously referring to Jesus.

[1] Freeman, James M., and Harold J. Chadwick. 1998. Manners & Customs of the Bible. North Brunswick, NJ: Bridge-Logos Publishers.

[2] Singer, Isidore, ed. 1901–1906. In The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, 12 Volumes, 5:262. New York; London: Funk & Wagnalls.

[3] Smith, James, and Robert Lee. 1971. Handfuls on Purpose for Christian Workers and Bible Students, Series I–XIII. Five-volume edition. Vol. 1. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

[4] Shedd, William Greenough Thayer. 2003. Dogmatic Theology. Edited by Alan W. Gomes. 3rd ed. Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Pub.

[5] Culver, Robert Duncan. 2005. Systematic Theology: Biblical and Historical. Ross-shire, UK: Mentor.

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Genesis 3:6, 1 John 2:16

She Ate!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
July 10, 2022

The first nine of the Ten Commandments seem to deal solely with our external behavior. But the last one is different. Francis Schaeffer says, “After all the external commandments come the commandment on which all the others rest. Coveting, wanting that which is not properly mine as I stand as a creature before the law of God, is really the basis of all sin, for it is the internal attitude which leads to the external breaking of the other nine commandments.”[1] But Satan gained access to Eve’s will by employing the same tactic he used with Jesus in the wilderness and with each of us in our everyday lives. 1 John 2:16 seems to be John’s commentary on the temptation that Eve underwent at the hands of the Serpent. He writes, “ For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.” Elwell explains the connection, “He (Satan) gained access to her will by a three-fold attack (1) ‘good for food is the lust of the flesh; (2) ‘a delight to the eyes,’ is the lust of the eyes; and (3) ‘to be desired to make one wise,’ is an appeal to the pride of life.”[2]

Genesis 3:6 goes on to say, “…she took of its fruit and ate….” I’m not sure what her thinking process might have included. Still, I can’t help but wonder if Sproul is right, “The hidden agenda was doing its work, suggesting the idea that the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre formalized: If man is not totally free if he does not enjoy autonomy, he is not truly free at all. Unless freedom is absolute, it is but an illusion, a facade hiding the reality of servitude. This was the innuendo of the serpent, a hint received not only by Eve but by all her children. If we consent to our children’s requests fifteen times in a row, then break the streak with one no, the response is immediate: “You never let me do anything!”[3]

Ryrie has something to say about this thought process as well. He writes, “She began to examine the forbidden fruit and to notice all the ‘good’ things about it. After all, she reasoned, wasn’t it good for food, and doesn’t God want us to eat? And shouldn’t a woman want to set before her husband good food for his nourishment? Then she reflected on its beauty, and the same line of argument applied in this respect too. God created a lot of beauty in this world. Why should he withhold this beautiful fruit? Finally, she reasoned that since wisdom is desirable (and it is), and since the fruit would make her wise, it must be desirable to eat the fruit. Gone from her mind was the central fact that God had expressly forbidden the eating of this particular fruit. Quickly forgotten was His specific command. Gone from her thought was the promise of death for disobedience; her mind was filled only with the rationalizations—the fruit will give me physical sustenance, it will cultivate my aesthetic tastes, and it will add to my wisdom. And having pre-justified her action, she ate in flagrant disobedience to the revealed will of God.”[4]

[1] Schaeffer, Francis A. 1982. The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview. Vol. 2. Westchester, IL: Crossway Books.

[2] Elwell, Walter A., and Barry J. Beitzel. 1988. “Genesis, Book Of.” In Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, 1:853. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

[3] Sproul, R. C. 2009. Who Is Jesus?. Vol. 1. The Crucial Questions Series. Lake Mary, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing.

[4] Grace Seminary. 1998. Grace Theological Journal.

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Genesis 3:6, 2 Timothy 3:14-15

The Path to Wisdom

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
July 9, 2022

God loves us and always has our best interest foremost in mind regardless of our current circumstances. This goes for both trials and temptations. I’ve always been curious as to why the same Greek word in the first chapter of James is at one point translated as various “trials” and then later as various “temptations.” Trials and temptations have one main thing in common. They both lead us into doubting God’s good intentions toward us. A trial, a pain, a sickness, a loss of a loved one, or a plethora of other maladies will challenge our faith in God’s love and care for us. Temptations on the other hand lead us to question whether God really does love us if he’d keep something good from us. The temptation that Eve faced in the Garden was about God’s love and care for her even though he withheld something from them. Genesis 3:6 tell us that Eve saw that the fruit was good for food. Maybe Satan ate it and showed her. She then noticed that it was beautiful, or delightful, delectable, when just looking at it. Exell explains the last thing Eve noticed, “The test selected was the taking of the fruit of a tree …which was good for food, desirable to the eyes, and in some mysterious sense described as a ‘tree desirable to make one wise.’” [1]

What did Eve want so desperately to know? The Mormons argue that it was knowing how to have children. They look back to God’s command to “Be fruitful and multiply” and suggests that Eve was frustrated by her inability to have children she thought that eating from this fruit would be the answer. But Satan never even suggested that eating the fruit would make her reproduce, but just make her wise. For a full discussion of a Mormon understanding of this check out this website blog.[2] Adam and Eve had a sincere desire for children but could not conceive because they did not “leave the garden.” In order to fill the earth they had to leave the garden. God would not allow children unless they left.  Quoting from the Book of Mormon, Here’s what the website says, “But, if Adam and Eve had stayed in the garden of Eden, ‘they would have had no children’ (2 Nephi 2:23). Adam and Eve were given two irreconcilable commandments: have children and don’t eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”

Murphy suggests, “Appetite, taste, and philosophy, or the love of wisdom, are the great motives in the human breast which fancy assumes this tree will gratify. Other trees please the taste and the sight. But this one has the preeminent charm of administering not only to the sense, but also to the reason.”[3] Food is a good thing. Beauty is a good thing and wisdom is a good thing. Paul instructs his young disciple who faced these same temptations, especially the one for wisdom. In 2 Timothy 3:14-15, He says, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” Real wisdom for Paul, was the revealed will of God expressed in the Scriptures.

[1] Exell, Joseph S. n.d. The Biblical Illustrator: Genesis. Vol. 1. The Biblical Illustrator. London: James Nisbet & Co.

[2] https://kindlylight.wordpress.com/2017/03/05/a-tree-to-be-desired-to-make-one-wise/

[3] Murphy, James G. 1873. Notes on the Old Testament: Genesis. Boston: Estes and Lauriate.

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Genesis 3:6, 1 Timothy 6:11, 2 Corinthians 4:18

Eye Appeal!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
July 8, 2022

The Serpent beguiled Eve into discussing God’s dietary restrictions for her and her husband in the Garden of Eden. One commentator suggests “Here’s where Eve made her first mistake—SHE THOUGHT SHE COULD REASON WITH THE SERPENT. She told the serpent that not all of the trees were forbidden and explained the consequences of eating from the tree of good and evil. A big mistake. There’s a time to talk and there’s a time to walk. This was the time to walk. Actually, it was the time to run. In 1 Timothy 6:11, Paul wrote, ‘But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.’”[1] But Eve got carried away with her conversation probably watched the Serpent take a bite out of the fruit (whatever it was!) and smack his lips and say “see it’s perfectly safe to eat.” So it was edible! But it was not only edible, but it was also “delectable.” Maybe she got that from watching the Serpent express great satisfaction and delight in taking a bite. But the next thing that the Text says in Genesis 3:6 is that Eve noticed that the fruit “..was a delight to the eyes…”

Fruchtenbaum points out, “The first phrase of Genesis 3:6: And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, corresponds to the first phrase of 1 John 2:16: the lust of the flesh. The second phrase of Genesis 3:6: and that it was a delight to the eyes, corresponds to the second phrase of 1 John 2:16: the lust of the eyes.”[2] Eve seems to have had a sense of aesthetics already. She knew what was beautiful. According to Webster a beautiful thing is “…possessing qualities that give great pleasure or satisfaction to see, hear, think about, etc.; delighting the senses or mind.” Noticing something beautiful arouses a desire in man to possess it.  Beauty all around us is used by Satan to arouse a covetous desire to possess what we see. I see a beautiful flower, I need to pick it. If one sees a beautiful girl, as David viewed Bathsheba, his mind said I “must have this.” This is the phrase that Samson used when pleading with his parents to get the philistine woman for him: “I must have her.”  In the case of “delectable” food, “I must eat it!” The lie is that I must have this to be happy. The truth is the things of this world, no matter how beautiful they are, will not make us happy. Therefore one of the big ten is “Thou shalt not covet.”

Simply put, the lust of the eyes is the sinful desire to possess what we see or to have those things which have visual appeal. This coveting of money, possessions, or other physical things is not from God, but from the world around us. They are physical things we see or experience with our senses. They are not objects of faith. Paul tells the Corinthians in his second letter 4:18, “…we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

[1] Wilson, Jim L. 2009. Fresh Sermons. Fresno, CA: Willow City Press.

[2] Fruchtenbaum, Arnold G. 1983. The Messianic Bible Study Collection. Vol. 21. Tustin, CA: Ariel Ministries.

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Genesis 3:6

The Fruit was Edible

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
July 7, 2022

The Serpent drew Eve into a discussion about the rightness of God’s instructions regarding the eating rights of humans in the garden of Eden. Her fist mistake was allowing the discussion to happen, because the next thing is that Satan, having an open ear, presented his great temptation and demeaned God’s good intentions for them and suggested that God was keeping something good from them. Eating of that forbidden fruit would make them like the rest of the heavenly beings including God himself, who knew good from evil. But it’s the lie “you will not surely die” that was the clincher. There will be no consequences and all your curiosity will be satisfied and you’ll no longer be naïve little children. By eating of the fruit, you will leave the estate to which you were intended with all the good things God wanted for you and step out into a new realm, a realm that will make you like all the other heavenly beings. The offer was to become like Angels! The reality is that they would become like demons, the fallen angels.

So, the woman began to look things over to decide for herself. The first thing that she noticed was recorded in Genesis 3:6a. It tells us that “…the woman saw that the tree was good for food…” Most children’s books on the Bible suggest that the fruit was an apple. A picture of an apple with a bite taken out of it is the illustration of Eve’s sin in the Garden. But we don’t know that it really was an apple. A blogger did a good job describing this. He said that the confusion of this fruit with the apple may be due to the similarity of the two words in the Latin translation of the Bible, known as the Vulgate. The word evil in Latin is Mali. The word for apple is Mala. But in the original Hebrew the words are not even close.

I’m not sure you can tell something is good for food by just looking at it. It seems like Eve saw something that convinced her it was edible. Several commentators observed this and suggested that the Serpent, Satan, took a bite of the apple to show her how good it was. Or maybe she saw animals eating it. One internet blogger said, “Keep in mind that mankind was not permitted to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, but God did not give any warning to animals. It is possible that an animal, perhaps even the serpent, took some of the fruit and ate before Eve so that she could see that this fruit was good for food.” I can imagine Satan taking a big crisp bite from the fruit and smacking his lips and saying, “This is delicious!” Then not seeing any ill effects Eve was again moved to think about eating the fruit herself.

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