Session 3: Week 2 

Genesis 3:6-13

⁶ Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. ⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰ And he said, “I heard You in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” ¹¹ Then He asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” ¹² Then the man replied, “The woman You gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.” ¹³ So the Lord God asked the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “It was the serpent. He deceived me, and I ate.”  

Reading this passage I can’t help but think about God’s Word to us in 1 John 2  ¹⁵ Do not love the world or the things that belong to the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For everything that belongs to the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s lifestyle—is not from the Father, but is from the world. ¹⁷ And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does God’s will remains forever.

Lust can be defined as an intense longing for something. We mostly use the word lust in relation to sexual cravings, but it can apply to anything. It’s interesting that here in the garden of Eden we see Eve lusting after eating the fruit of the tree.

Let me remind you of what Genesis 3 verse 5 says: 

⁵ “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Maybe she was really lusting after the promised wisdom that would come by eating the fruit.

What other kinds of things do we lust after?

I don’t know about anyone else, but lusting after food is a struggle that’s still very real in my life. I’ve been through various levels of correction from the Lord regarding eating and I’ve seen great victory through my asking God for the manifestation of the beautiful fruit of the Holy Spirit of self control in my life. Still though it seems like this is an area where there’s a constant temptation in my life. I think at this point what I’m going to do is write out 1 John 2:15-17 on an index card and keep it in front of me and quote it out loud when I hear the voice of temptation regarding food.  Remember, that’s how we have the victory over temptation – we speak the Word of God – just like Yeshua did in His temptation in the wilderness that we read about in Matthew 4.

How can you help other people know how to fight the temptations they face in life?

What kinds of things are a delight to the eyes in today’s society that become a temptation for us?

Eve saw the food. It was delightful to look at. She saw it as desirable for obtaining wisdom.  What kind of wisdom do you think she though she would obtain by eating it?

OK, let’s go back to Genesis 3:7

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 This is really interesting – “they knew they were naked”. The Hebrew word translated as naked is Eyroomim.

עֵירֻמִּם

This word  Eyroom means naked or helpless.  It comes from the root word עָרַם ʻâram, aw-ram’; a primitive root; properly, to be (or make) bare; but used only in the derivative sense (through the idea perhaps of smoothness) to be cunning (usually in a bad sense):— beware, take crafty (counsel), be prudent, deal subtilly. Does that sound familiar? We looked at this last week.  The word for subtle/cunning as we talked about last week is עָרוּם (Aroom).  We talked about that word from Genesis 3:1.

  וְהַנָּחָשׁ, הָיָה עָרוּם, מִכֹּל חַיַּת הַשָּׂדֶה

Now the serpent was more subtle/cunning than any beast of the field.

Now this week we’re reading how Adam and Eve saw that they were Eroomim which means naked or helpless after falling for the snake’s deception and disobeying God’s instruction. 

So this could be extremely important.  It seems to show us that we take on the attributes of the things that we allow to tempt us.  Now that’s profound!

No wonder Scripture admonishes us to fix our eyes on Jesus. God wants us to take on His attritubes!

2 Corinthians 3:17-18 ¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸ We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.

When we focus on Jesus and the glory of the Lord, we are set free from the attributes that come from humankind being transformed into the image of the Nachash (the snake) – (subtle and cunning); and we’re transformed into Yeshua’s image, which ultimately is the restoration of our being changed back to the image of God.

What does that image of God look like?

In verse 8 we read that Adam and Eve hid themselves from God. In verse 10 Adam tells God that he hid because he was afraid. Now we see that fear had come into their hearts because they were naked. By becoming subtle/cunning/craftiness (the attributes of the evil power tempting them) they also invited fear into their hearts.

Fear is the opposite of faith. Fear is defined as an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. Fear comes when we dread punishment for a wrong doing. Fear is something Adam and Eve never knew before, because their relationship with God was without fault. They had nothing to fear. Perhaps that was what their enemy meant when he said they would know good and evil. Before they ate the fruit of the tree all they knew was faith.  Faith is defined as complete trust or confidence in someone or something.  When they disobeyed God they knew fear, which was a consequence of the evil of disobedience.

How do faith and fear compete for prominence in our lives?

It’s interesting that fear caused man to hide from God. How do we see this play out in the lives of people today?

In verse 7 we also see something very interesting when Adam and Eve make loin cloths to cover their nakedness.  This is a manifestation of man feeling obligated to do something to cover their sin of disobedience. Before they sinned they lived with God without any sense of obligation. They just “were” instead of feeling like they had to “do.”

How does this play out in our own lives?

Then in verses 11-13 we read of a very sad story. We see the abdication of authority of mankind. We see Adam turning his God given authority over to Eve and we see Eve turning over her God given authority to the deception of the serpent.

To abdicate means to fail to fulfill a responsibility or duty.

What are some keys at work in the world today that help turn this around so that men and women fulfill their God given responsibilities and duties?

How do you see this played out in your community?