Genesis 3:20-24

 

3:20 – Adam Names Eve the Mother of All

The woman had been called “Issa”

Adam now calls her “Hawwa” (Eve) a form of the word “Haya” that means to live.

Adam did this as a reaction of faith to what the Lord God had said.

 

The basis of true faith is responding to what God has said.

Hebrews 3 and 4 Israel heard promise of Canaan and did not belief – Hebrews 4:12

Genesis 15:6 – Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness

 

Adam heard the sentence of death but he also heard the promise of the seed of the woman.

 

Eve responds with faith in Gen. 4:1-3

 

Adam has learned to believe and accept God’s word.

 

3:21 – Garments Made of Skin

Leaves were used by man in his attempt to fix his problem of:

a)     sin

b)     shame

c)      guilt

The Lord showed that only through the work of God himself which included:

a)     atonement

b)     sacrifice

c)      a payment for the sin

 

God who had began “rest” on the seventh day “made” or “asah” the skins into coverings

 

Adam learned:

a)     The Consequence of sin is death just as Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

b)     Sacrifice and Atonement

c)      The meaning of bruising the Seed of the Woman

d)     Faith, Trust, Confidence, Hope in God’s word.  Salvation.

 

3:22

God says man has become like one of us.

The serpent had said man would be like God but this means something different depending on who is saying it – God or Satan.

 

Man understood it to mean bliss, a throne and advancement.

Reality showed it to mean misery, expulsion and reversal.

Man found nothing and lost everything.

Intimacy with God was replaced with alienation from God.

Man was created in the image of God and lived with God.

Man defaced that image and made himself LIKE God and will have to leave God.

 

Cut off from the Tree of Life means:

1)      cursed – they will die

2)      blessing – their miserable condition will end

a.      By being forbidden from eating from the tree of life which would perpetuate their fallen state

b.      By promising deliverance and atonement

 

3:23 – Banished from Garden to Work the Ground Outside the Garden of Eden

Man must develop his own garden

 

Adam was put in the garden to care for it and to keep the chaos from resurfacing

Adam is no corrupt himself and chaos will reign in his life and in his world.

 

3:24 – Temple Imagery

Man was “banished” in 3:23 which indicates a decree was made but in 3:24 man is said to have been “drove” from the garden.  This might indicate that man did not willingly leave the garden.  After the decree of banishment there was the physical removal.

 

Temple imagery includes:

  1. The entrance to Eden being on the East side just as the temple is entered from the East.
  2. The presence of Cherubim just as the temple walls were covered with cherubim carved into the wood and overlaid with gold.
  3. The presence of two Cherubim just as there were two cherubim on the curtain separating the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place and the two cherubim that where on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant.
  4. The Cherubim guarded the garden just as the Levites guarded the gates and carried the Ark of the Covenant (Numbers 1:51, 53)
  5. The Tree of Life was the center which is similar to the Ark of the Covenant being in the focal point of the temple

 

Cherubim:

2 Sam. 22:11; 2 Sam. 4:4; 2 Sam. 6:2; 2 Kings 19:15; Isaiah 37:16; Psalm 80:2; Isaiah 6; Ezekiel 1:4; 10:1; Revelation 4:1-9

 

The flashing sword would not only make it difficult to enter the garden but made it impossible for man to reach the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Life.

 

When Jesus died the veil with the two cherubim was torn from top to bottom showing the way to the Ark of the Covenant (Tree of Life, Presence of God) was again open through the work of the Seed of the Woman (Matt. 27:51; Heb. 10:19-22)

 

Salvation has always been through faith in Jesus

1 Peter 1:20

Salvation has always been by Grace and not earned.

-          Faith is not a work anymore than seeing is a work.

-          Faith is a condition of the heart.

-          Faith is the response to the word of God

-          Unbelief in God’s word will always result in disobedience

Salvation has always been by Faith in God’s Word or Promise

 

  1. The Basis of Salvation is the Death of Jesus
  2. The Means of Salvation is God’s Grace
  3. The Requirement of Salvation is Faith
  4. The Object of Salvation is God’s Word

 

Sin Effects:

  1. Personal Life
  2. Spiritual Life
  3. Physical Life – Romans 8:19-23 – Man was to subdue and rule the earth away from chaos of Gen. 1:2.  Now man has entered chaos himself and left the earth with out the proper rulership.  Someday the son’s of God will be revealed and creation restored.