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Welcome back! Here’s what I discovered from comparisons, causes, and conditions/methods in Genesis 3.

Last Week’s Work

COMPARISONS

I noticed two relevant comparisons this week, death/life and evil/good:

• Eve told the serpent God said they’d die if they even touched the fruit; it said they wouldn’t (vv3-4).
  Pain (v17) and toil (v19) last till Adam dies.
  Though she’s responsible for unleashing death (v6), Eve’s described as the mother of all living (v20).  
• The serpent said they would be like God (v5), knowing good and evil (v5).
  Eve saw only good qualities of the tree before they ate (v6), but after came the bad things, e.g., the vulnerability of nakedness (v7), and fear (v10) leading to their voluntary separation from God by hiding (vv8, 10).

CAUSES/MOTIVATIONS

Focusing on Adam and Eve’s eyes being opened and the personal impact of good and evil on them, I discovered these cause statements:

Verses 4-5:
Action: “’you will not surely die.’”
Connector: “for [because]…
Reason: God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
This doesn’t make sense to me: they won’t die because their eyes will be opened? But how would that keep them alive?

Verse 10:
A: “’I heard… you in the garden, and I was afraid…
C: “because…
R: I was naked…’”

Verse 17:
A: “cursed is the ground…
C: … because…
R: … of you…”

Verses 17-18:
A: … cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field (v18).’”
C: “‘Because…
R: you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you [not to] (v17),

Verse 19:
A: “‘By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground…
C: for [because]…
R: out of it you were taken…’”
C: for [because]…
R: you are dust and to dust you shall return.”

Also, in v23, I found a connector I didn’t mention in the instructions last week (my bad!). It’s therefore. When you find therefore in a sentence, the normal rule for finding the action statement and its reason is reversed: the action is usually located after the word therefore, and the reason comes before it. So here, the action is in v23, “the LORD God sent him out from the garden…” Why did God do that? From v22, to prevent Adam from “… [taking] also of the tree of life and [eating], and [living] forever.”

CONDITIONS/METHODS

Looking carefully at the actions described in the verses I’ve been focusing on, here are the conditions and methods I discovered there:

• After they disobeyed, Adam and Eve discovered “… they were naked (v7).” This condition led to Adam’s fear, which they dealt with by [method] sewing fig-leaf loincloths (v7).
• Adam reports he was afraid (v10). This condition led them to [method] hide from God (v10).
• The serpent deceived woman [method] with his words (vv4-5, 13); the woman disobeyed by [method] dwelling on the tree’s attributes, then eating and giving some to the man who also ate (vv 6, 12).
• God responded this way [method]:
  cursing the serpent, forcing it to crawl and eat dust all its life, and endure defeat by the woman’s offspring (vv14-15).
  increasing the woman’s pain in childbearing; placing Adam over her (v16).
  cursing the ground; forcing the man to work to eat from it all his life; then return to the ground (vv17-19).
• God’s method for covering their nakedness: animal skins (v21), which seem far superior to fig-leaf loincloths (v7)!

Dig-In Challenges

This week, I’ll begin collecting the information I need to make sure I understand Genesis 3 correctly, and I invite you to join me working through these refining steps:

1. PRAY. Of course!
2. REFINE by skimming the book of Genesis to determine which of the following types of writing appears most often in it: instruction, law, letter, narrative, poetry, or prophecy. Then reread Genesis 3 to see if you can find any of the other types in use in our study chapter. Write what you find on your Scripture study sheet or in you journal.
3. REFINE: Next, research the book’s historical context by referencing an Introduction to Genesis found in your bound Bible immediately before Genesis 1 or checking out this one from the ESV online.
4. REFINE: Last, examine a few key words and/or phrases from your study using an interlinear Bible tool. This type of Bible details the Hebrew words and phrases the author used, including their meaning in context. I like Biblehub.com’s Hebrew tool for this research. To use: Click the blue arrow to the left or right of the verse citation (“Genesis 3:1”) to scroll to the verse containing words you want to review, then click the number in the Strong’s column that corresponds to the English word or phrase you’re researching. Note anything the Spirit highlights in the information provided.

This “refining” step is more involved than the “mining” we did earlier, but I encourage you to use these tools and dig as much as you can this week. I pray the Spirit will bless your efforts, my friend!

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