Genesis 03: The Fall

God asks a question in Genesis 3 that still reaches straight into our lives: “Where are you?” Not “Why did you do it?” Not “What were you thinking?” Just where you are, why you’re hiding, and whether you’ll come back into the light. We open the Bible to the Fall of Adam and Eve and trace how temptation works, how shame spreads, and how quickly blame becomes our favorite escape route.

We also zoom in on details that are easy to skip in a quick Bible reading. Eve repeats God’s command but adds to it, and that small distortion becomes a crack the enemy can exploit. Then we explore the Hebrew nuance behind “serpent,” including the possibility of “shining one,” and why that idea can help some listeners make sense of the scene without softening the reality of sin. However you picture the moment, the takeaway is clear: the voice that contradicts God’s Word is never leading you toward freedom.

Finally, we sit with the hope embedded right inside the curse. Genesis 3:15 is the first messianic prophecy, pointing forward to Jesus crushing sin’s power and making a way back to the fellowship humanity lost in the Garden of Eden. If you’ve been running because you feel afraid, embarrassed, or ashamed, this conversation is an invitation to stop hiding and start coming home. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a five-star review if the podcast helps you read Scripture with fresh eyes.

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Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Transcript

elcome To Bible Breakdown

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey everyone and welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. In this podcast, we will be breaking down the Bible one chapter a day. Whether you are a new believer or have been following Christ for a while, we believe that you will learn something new and fresh every single day. So thank you for joining us and let's get into breaking down the Bible together.

ike, Share, Subscribe, And Connect

Shoutout To New Zealand

ow To Read Genesis Well

erpent Or Shining One?

he Temptation And The Choice

urse And First Gospel Promise

hy “Where Are You?” Matters

rayer And Closing Challenge

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Genesis chapter two. And today's title is The Fall. We're going to talk about the fall, how we all got here, what's kind of going on in all of our lives, and God's complete and total amazing plan all the way back then to get us back where we're supposed to be, which is that fellowship that was found in the Garden of Eden. We'll get into all that in just a moment. So if you have your Bibles, want to go with me to Genesis chapter three, while you're doing that, as always, make sure you take just a moment to like, share, and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you leave us a five-star review on the podcast. It really does help. And make sure you're going to the Bible breakdown discussion on Facebook. There's an amazing group of people doing a wonderful job. And you can get all that information at thebiblebreakdown.com. And I want to say a quick shout out to all my friends in New Zealand. So recently we've had New Zealand kind of, we had some people check it out beforehand, but we've had more people check it out again. It's been coming up on our analytics and all that stuff. So thank you so much for listening to us from New Zealand. I am amazed that you can actually understand a word I am saying. Because you guys, you get English, but I probably have such a thick accent that I just, I'm just sorry. Okay, that's just all there is to it. I am sorry, but I am glad that you are with us. And if you have your Bibles ready as well, we're going to talk about Genesis. I love the book of Genesis because it challenges us in so many ways. Remember, the lens at which we are looking at the book of Genesis is through the lens of who it was originally written to. It was originally written to the nation of Israel who had been rescued from Egyptian bondage, and God is reminding them that all that polytheism they have been taught for 400 years from Egypt is not true. That Yahweh is the creator of all things, and he is setting back right the narrative of creation. And we talked about how there are different ways to look at how to read the book of Genesis. There's the literal, the literary, and the allegorical. The allegorical says none of this stuff actually happened. These are just stories. The literary say that these did happen, but they're more parables of how they happen. They're not blow-by-blow accounts. Then you have the literal that says these are historical events. And we see our world through the lens of these foundational stories. And we're going to be reading these through the historical, literal account. And that is that creation did happen. That in day six, God created male and female, and he put them in the garden and all this good stuff. And then in Genesis chapter three, we're going to read about how all of this went sideways. All right. And to do this, we we're going to do this in layers and levels. We're going to come back later and we're going to get so much deeper because there's just an endless amount of commentaries that is written about this. And one of the things I think is very interesting is to kind of challenge some of the narrative we've always read, just to give you something to think about. And so in this, before we even jump into this, this is an extremely famous story, of course, because it talks about three different characters, people, Adam, Eve, and Snake, the serpent, right? But here's something I want to just challenge you to think about. I've talked to people before who have said, now listen, I got no problem believing in Adam. I got no problem believing in Eve. But can I tell you, if I'm walking around minding my own business, and all of a sudden, you know, Snakey Snake starts talking to me, I'm no longer paying attention to him. I am running to grab the closest tree branch I can find. And I'm gonna take a tree branch off the tree of the knowledge of good and eve. I'm gonna beat it to death. I'm scared of snakes, right? Well, first of all, where do you think that came from? But second of all, I want to give you an idea here. Now, I have absolutely no problem believing that a snake came up and started talking to them because Genesis 1.1 is true. Remember that that is that is our baseline. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. If that verse is true, then everything else in the Bible is at least possible, right? You're gonna hear that more and more. But I want to give you a different thought process. So in the the Hebrew language, especially the old Hebrew language, there's only so many words in the Hebrew language. So so many times a lot of the words would have multiple meanings, so you had to understand context. And it wasn't very hard to do. You know, if you if you were to take the word, you know, which, you know, which could mean a choice, or it could mean the person who cast spells, right? If you say which one of the sandwiches do you want? No one wonders which word is being used, right? And so it's not very hard to tell the difference, but one of the things I want to give you an idea for, an idea about is it says that the serpent in verse one, it's gonna say the serpent was the shrewdest of all wild animals. Well, that word serpent is, I'm gonna mispronounce this, but it's uh Neheshah, Nahosh, Neh Nehash. And it also means shining one. And shining one is one way to talk about spiritual beings. And so it is possible that it may have been a crawling snake who was crawling around. And you can see this in Genesis 3.15 when he says, on your belly you will crawl, but it could also have been a word play here with Moses saying, Yes, it had the form of a snake, but it was a spiritual being that was talking to them. And it that would make a lot of sense because Eve didn't run away. She wasn't surprised that this animal was talking to her. So is it possible that it was actually a spirit being that was talking to her? And that's why she wasn't so worried. Either way, we know that this serpent, whether it was a shining one, whether it was a spirit being, which we know be the devil, or it was an actual snake, she shouldn't listen to it. So let's jump into this and let's see how it all went wrong. Adam, where were you? Okay, here we go. Verse one. The serpent was the shrewdest animal of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, Did God really say you must not eat the fruit of any of the trees of the garden? Of course we may eat the from the trees of the garden, the woman replied. Now, if you've been with us for the past couple days, pause for a second. Do you notice what she did? She took it and added to it. God said, Do not eat it. She added to the word of God and said, You can't eat it or you can't touch it. Where'd she get that? Notice the Bible didn't say that God taught Eve what to do. It said that God taught Adam what to do. So is it possible that in the transmission of the words of God, that Adam changed it? I don't know. But what happened was is she wasn't quite so sure what God had said. Already I can tell you why it's so important that we read God's word, is because we don't need to hear it second hand. We need to know for sure what God's Word says so the enemy can't trip us up. Let's read this again. God said, You must not eat it or even touch it. If you do, you will die. You won't die, the serpent replied to the woman. God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil. The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful, and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom that it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and she ate it. Then she gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it too. At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sowed fig leaves together to cover themselves. When the cool evening breeze were was blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking in the garden, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees. Then the Lord God called to the man, Where are you? And he replied, I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid, because I was naked. Who told you that you were naked? the Lord God asked. Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat? The man replied, It was the woman you gave me, who gave me the fruit, and I ate it. Then the Lord asked the woman, What have you done? The serpent deceived me, she replied, That's why I ate it. And then the Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all the animals, domestic and wild. He will crawl on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live. I will cause hostility between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel. By the way, that is the first messianic prophecy that one day Jesus was going to come and remove the dead of sin, the fall. Here we go, verse 16. Then he said to the woman, I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth, and you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you. And then he said to the man, Since you listen to your wife and eat from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you. Though you eat from its grain, though you eat you will eat of its grains. By the sweat of your brow you will eat the food, you have food to eat, until you return to the ground. You have been made from it. For you are made from the dust, and from the dust you will return. Then the man, Adam, named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all who live. And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife. And the Lord God said, Look, the human beings have become like us, knowing good and evil. What if they reach out? Take the tree from the tree of life and eat it, they will live forever. So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate from the ground which had been made. After sending them out, the Lord God stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden and placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. Man, that is so sad. And so let's summarize this, and then we'll talk about our major takeaways. Now, first of all, to realize that the reason why this happened was because when temptation came, Eve was not certain on what God had said. Therefore, she was open to temptation. And we have to be careful that we don't blame Eve alone here because the Bible says that she gave some to Adam who was with her. So therefore, he was standing right there. So if you want to look at it, it was really Adam's fault, just as much as it was Eve's, because he had heard it from the mouth of God, yet he didn't do anything about it. And I wonder how sad it must have been. That of course God knew, but at the same time, when he went walking in the garden, notice what happened is God didn't say, Why did you? He said, Where are you? He it wasn't that he didn't know if they had sinned, it was why where did you go? Why did you hide from me? And that's the main point that I want to bring about because of this that caused all of this to happen. Is God knew, God had a plan. But that question is one that we should really sit and think about. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, and they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they chose to disobey God, which by the way, he said, In the day you do, you will you will die. That didn't mean they were going to drop dead. It meant that they were going to start the process of death, they were going to start that sin was going to enter into them, and so the decay would begin, and so they do eventually die, but it takes a long time for them to die, and we'll cover that tomorrow. But they do eventually die. What bothers me the most is what God asked and what he didn't ask. God didn't ask why. God didn't ask what. That wasn't his original question. It was where? Why did why did God come? God revealed himself, maybe, because he knew they had sinned, and so he was coming to discuss it with them, to make it right. But instead of running to God, they ran away from God. To where God said, Where are you? Why did you run? Why did you run? Well, because I was afraid. And can I tell you? That's what God still asks us today. God is not asking us if we have sinned, because he knows we have. God is not asking us why we sinned, because he knows. He's not asking, you know, all these other questions you're always asking us, where? Why are you running from me? And if we're honest, our our answer is because I was afraid. I was afraid, I was embarrassed, I was ashamed. But the answer that we should come to is I was ashamed, but I'm coming to you. All of all of history could be looked at, God seeking after his people, and man running away in shame. That's why Jesus came. Jesus came to provide a way for us to come back to the Father. And honestly, it's getting us back to that place in the Garden of Eden where we can be innocent and unashamed because our sins have been washed away. I want to ask you this question. If God were to ask you, Where are you? Would you say, Here I am, see me, all of me, everything in me, or would you hide from God because of sin? Can I tell you? God already knows it's there. God is not surprised by our sin. We don't come to God and say, God, I'm so sorry I've sinned. And he goes, Wait, what? You you sinned? Instead, he'll go, I know. I know. Why do you think I came? I came to fix it. I want to tell you, one of the greatest things in the world is when we realize we have nothing to fear, nothing to be ashamed of in the eyes of an Almighty God when we lean upon him for mercy. So today, say, God, I am so sorry for my sin. I come running to you with all of my sin, with all of my shame, and watch what he will do. He will forgive you. He will set you free, and he'll restore the innocence of your heart. Let's pray together right now. God, thank you so much. Thank you so much that you see us. That you still ask us that same question all the way back in Genesis, and that is, where are you? And it's a rhetorical question, God, because you already know where we are. It's just you giving us the opportunity to own it, giving us the opportunity to admit it, to not put it off on somebody else, but to say, God, I did. I was, I took. And to realize, Lord, that your grace and your mercy is already ready for us. I pray today, God, that you'll give us the courage to step out, to step up, and to say, God, me, here I am. I'm afraid, I'm ashamed, but I come running to you. And Lord, when we do that, we find that you're not there to judge us, you're there to forgive us. That's why you came, Jesus is to set us free. Let us walk in that today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Anyway, what God's Word says in Genesis 1, verse 1, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And if that verse is possible, then anything else is possible. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Genesis chapter four.