Genesis 3 – Study

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Genesis 3:1-6     

1 Now the snake was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, “You must not eat from any tree in the garden”?’

2 The woman said to the snake, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but 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.”’

4 ‘You will not certainly die,’ the snake said to the woman. 5 ‘For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

A. Find Out:

1. What did the serpent ask? v.1
2. What TWO things did the woman say they mustn’t do? v.3
3. What did the serpent then challenge? v.5
4. What did he say would happen instead? v.5
5. What THREE things did the woman then see? v.6
6. How did she increase the crime? v.6c

B. Think:

1. What technique did the serpent use to put the woman on the defensive and extract information from her?
2. How did he then attack?
3. What was it that swayed the woman to eat?

C. Comment:

This is one of the most informative passages in the Bible in respect of Satan’s attacks on God’s world.

First of all he challenges an extreme position (v.1), something that God had not said, so that the woman would make clear what she understood the position to be. She added to what God had actually said under the pressure of the enemy’s questioning (v.2,3).

Second, he challenges the consequences of her actions and says she won’t be harmed (v.4). This lie is always at the heart of deception, “It will be all right!”.

Third, he puts before her the supposed good that will come out of it (v.5). In that he appeals to the “self” in her, “YOU will be better off!”

Note therefore, Satan’s strategy so often: to push you into an extreme position from which you over-react, to make you forget there are CONSEQUENCES to all your actions, and to make you focus on the immediate pleasure that may be gained. It is essential we remember there are ALWAYS consequences to doing wrong and that temporary gratification is short lived!

D. Application?

1. Ask God to help you see when you are being tempted, the consequences of foolishly giving way.
2. Thank Him for His grace to overcome. Read and memorise 1 Corinthians 10:13

Passage: Genesis 3:7-13

7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realised that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

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. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’

10 He answered, ‘I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.’

11 And he said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?’

12 The man said, ‘The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.’

13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’

The woman said, ‘The snake deceived me, and I ate.’

A. Find Out:    

1. What was the first immediate reaction to eating forbidden fruit? v.7a
2. How did they try to deal with this? v.7b
3. How did they then respond to God? v.8
4. Why? v.10
5. What was the man’s response to God’s challenge? v.12
6. What was the woman’s response? v.13

B. Think:

1. How would you describe their first response in v.7?
2. How would you describe their second response in v.8-10?
3. How would you describe their third response in v.12,13?

C. Comment:

We see in this passage the results that always follow disobedience to God. They are:

1. Self consciousness (v.7): sin always results in an awareness of oneself which is followed by an attempt at a cover up.

2. Fear and separation from God (v.8,10): guilt always has an accompanying fear of being found out and exposed. This fear drives us to hide from God.

3. Blame passing (v.12,13): wrong doing is always followed by self justification which is so often achieved by blaming others.

Christian maturity is seen in the way a person deals with their own sin or failure. Maturity is seen in a willingness to face oneself, acknowledge one’s own guilt and go to God with confession and contrition, seeking forgiveness, reconciliation and cleansing.

The Christian faith differs from all other religions or philosophies in the way it faces the human problem of sin. The Christian faces their failure for it is that very sense of failure that drove them to recognise their need of a Saviour.

D. Application?

1. Ask the Lord to search you to highlight unacknowledged sin. Face it, confess it and seek God’s cleansing & forgiveness. (See 1 John 1:9)
2. Thank God that He sent Jesus to pay the penalty for your sin and to set you free from its power so that you may be reconciled to Him.

Passage: Genesis 3:14-19    

14 So the Lord God said to the snake, ‘Because you have done this,

‘Cursed are you above all livestock
    and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
    and you will eat dust
    all the days of your life.
15 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.’

16 To the woman he said,

‘I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
    with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
    and he will rule over you.’

17 To Adam he said, ‘Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, “You must not eat from it,”

‘Cursed is the ground because of you;
    through painful toil you will eat food from it
    all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
    and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
    you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
    since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
    and to dust you will return.’

A. Find Out:

1. Where did God consign the serpent to live? v.14
2. What will the woman’s offspring do to him? v.15
3. How was the woman to be affected? v.16a
4. What would be her role with her husband? v.16b
5. How was the earth to be affected? v.17
6. How was that to affect the man? v.19

B. Think:

1. How was the serpent’s life changed by God?
2. How was the woman’s life changed by God?
3. How was the man’s life changed by God?

C. Comment:

In the previous study we saw three immediate effects in the man and his wife. Now we see effects that God brings because of their disobedience?

First, the serpent will be an enemy of the humans. In v.15 there is a hint at the conflict that would arise between Jesus and Satan at the Cross. Jesus would deal with Satan but in the process would suffer wounds himself.

Second, the woman is going to find increased pain in childbearing and the man would rule over the woman (v.16).

Third, the man is going to have to strive with the earth to bring forth food from the ground, even the very earth itself will be affected (v.17-19).

In the face of the question, “Why should these things be?” the answer may be suggested, “Because God’s presence and blessing is no longer there.” Previously the picture was of God walking on His earth (see 3:8) and wherever He was, there was peace and blessing. Because they chose to walk their own way, God left them to do that (see also the pattern in Romans 1:24 -28) and therefore His blessing was no longer there to be called on for their lives and their work.

D. Application?

1. Today these same conflicts continue, but we may know the grace of God to help us in all things.
2. Thank Him for His wisdom that is available (James 1:5), His grace that may be drawn on (2 Cor 12:9 / 2 Cor 9:8).

Passage: Genesis 3:20 – 4:2        

20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.

21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the Lord God said, ‘The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live for ever.’ 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

1 Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, ‘With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.’ 2 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.

A. Find Out:

1. What did God do for Adam and Eve? v.21
2. What did He say they must not eat? v.22
3. So what did He do? v.23
4. Who was Eve’s first son? 4:1a
5. Who did she thank for him? v.1b
6. Who was her second son? v.2

B. Think: 

1. How, in general terms, did the Lord provide for Adam and Eve in this passage?
2. What must have happened to achieve that?
3. What was the purpose of them being put out of the garden?

C. Comment:

This is a good-news, bad-news passage. First the good news. God provides covering for them both (v.21). They had become self conscious and had tried to cover themselves; now the Lord covers them with skins. Of course to do that an animal had to die first. Here we have a picture of what He would do through Jesus – clothe us in His righteousness through Jesus’ death.

The other good news is that Eve feels God has helped her have her first child (v.1). That is an encouraging sign because it indicates that there was no total cutting off from God by being put out of the garden. There IS hope for the future. The bad news is their exclusion from the garden (v.23). The reasons for that could be several.

First it is the place of God’s dwelling on earth and as they have chosen to go their own way, He puts them out of His presence.

Second they are not to have eternal life by taking it from the tree in the garden for themselves. They are to die at some point and trust themselves to God’s salvation afterwards.

Finally there is a world out there to be looked after and populated. This is not the end but a new beginning.

D. Application?

1. Thank the Lord for the righteousness that IS yours in Jesus.
2. Thank Him that he has reconciled us to Himself through the death of Jesus.