Bible Study Genesis Part 40-Comeuppance

The first instinct after sin is not courage, it’s cover. We open Genesis 3 and follow the moment everything fractures: Adam hides, admits fear, then reaches for the oldest defense in human history, blame. Eve follows the same path, and the story turns painfully familiar. We keep it honest and unvarnished because Scripture is unvarnished, and because the Fall still explains the way shame, self-preservation, and betrayal show up in our daily lives. 

From there we sit with the part many people want to skip: God’s justice. Confession happens, but judgment still comes, and that bothers modern ears for a reason. We talk about why God will not turn His back on His own standards, and why the cross is the clearest evidence that He doesn’t simply “wave it away.” If you’ve ever hoped that being sorry, being mostly right, or being less guilty than someone else could fix the problem, Genesis 3 cuts through it: sorry is not a savior. 

We also connect the dots to the wider message of the Bible, including Job’s cry for a mediator and the first prophecy in Scripture, Genesis 3:15. The serpent is cursed, the conflict is named, and the promised Seed is introduced, pointing forward to Jesus Christ and God’s Plan of Redemption. If you want a deeper, Bible-based look at sin, judgment, Salvation, and why the Gospel is actually good news, press play. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review.

Transcript

Why Scripture Matters Here

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Welcome to the program Study in the Chapel. God's Word is supreme at Chapel Ministries. We consider it absolutely essential to a proper relationship with God. We study it, we love it, we rely on it every minute of every day. The following program is an edited recording of the regular Bible studies we hold. And we decided to share these with you in the hope that you too will be able to find inspiration, encouragement, and ultimately salvation through discovering Christ in Scripture. Our intention is to travel all the way through the Bible. It will be a challenging journey, but one that will undoubtedly bring you to a decision. Through this study, you will be faced with either believing or rejecting what God has said to us. It is our intention to provide you with enough knowledge to make an informed decision about God and his word. We strongly encourage you to listen intently and diligently, because though at the moment you may not realize it, these things are truly a matter of life and death. In fact, these are matters of eternal life and eternal death. Never treat what God has said lightly. There's truly nothing more important to you. Now join us as we seek God's will through his inspired word.

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You

Loving God By Knowing His Word

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know, I say it every week. We love God's word. We spend all of our time, at least I spend all of my time, trying to figure out what God is saying to us in Scripture, and then I do my best to share it with you. Listen, I'm not a trained theologian. I never went to seminary. I'm not a pastor. All I am is somebody who loves God's word. It's all I do anymore. I spend my entire day trying to figure out what the Bible has to say about us. It's all about his son. Trust me, I do this every single day, all day long. It's everything about his son. You cannot underestimate how important our Savior is to us. God put him there so that we can get to know him, so that we can trust him and love him. And listen, don't let anyone fool you. There's no such thing as love at first sight. You gotta get to know someone before you can love them. And that's why we have scripture. It is to get to know our Savior and to love him and trust him. We are

Reading Genesis 3 After The Fall

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currently in the book of Genesis. We are currently in the third chapter of Genesis. We are working our way through it. So let's go ahead and start now. And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. Nice to start somewhere other than verse six, isn't it? Verse 11. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee thou shouldst not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. Okay, we say we said last week Adam was honest, but he's still human, and he comes up with a very human response here. Who

Adam And Eve Start Blaming

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remembers reading the family circus comic in what they used to call the funny papers or the funny pages? One little running gag in the family circus comic is they used to, when something drastic or something destructive happened around the house, dad would inquire, who did this? And then all the children would exclaim, not me, I don't know, or nobody. Remember that? Then the writer of the cartoon would draw in those rather ghostly looking characters with the words, not me, I don't know, or nobody, written across their chests as if they were the personification of the evasive nature of guilty children. And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. Of course, technically speaking, Adam was not wrong, but come on, Adam up, will you? It's pretty low throwing the wife under the bus like that. But as I said, we're dealing with humans here.

The Best Humans Still Cannot Stand

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But what makes this so disturbing to read is that this happened when we were at our best. Adam and Eve were the finest examples of humans that ever existed, other than Jesus himself. Nothing had yet come into the human race that now plagues us and holds us back. They were well fed, they were well taken care of, no long commutes, no noisy neighbors, no pesky diseases to make one bad-tempered, no depression to make one sad. Adam and Eve were pure, undefiled humanity in every respect. And this is how the finest of us behave. And God said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? Here's the finest man who ever lived, other than Jesus. This is his response. And the man said, The woman who thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the Lord said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me and I did eat. Another first from the book of Genesis. Here we see the origin of the passing the buck defense. Now, please forgive me for seemingly making light of this. I know this is tragic. Listen to me. This is a picture of the fountainhead of all that oppresses the human race in our day. But what I'm trying to do is get you to see the humanness in all of this. I want you to be able to see how much you and I are like our first parents. I want to dispel this, this is an unpopular thing I am I am about to say. I want to dispel the notion that when within us is any capacity whatsoever to act honorably. If Adam and Eve couldn't do it, we sure can't, this mistaken notion that we've gotten better since Adam and Eve is foolishness. It's not true. We are not improving, we are devolving. Adam and Eve were the pinnacle of humans. We're a long way from them and we have declined significantly. If Adam and Eve could not stand up against sin, neither can we. I want you to see. Listen, I'm not trying to make you feel bad. All I'm trying to do is get you to see your desperate need for a savior. I want you to see that even the most pristine human, ones with every human ability at the very pinnacle of its purity and power, is incapable of living a life that is pleasing to God. We need Jesus. We all need Jesus. Sin entered in and everything was knocked off. And I mean everything. All of creation was knocked off the path that God had set it on. This is the origin of the dark history of mankind. And it is from that original darkness that all of the darkness of humanity has derived its own darkness from. This is the moment we were thrown out of God's presence. And God's presence was the only place, the only place we could have ever thrived. Have

The Coqui Frog And Lost Glory

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you ever heard of the coqui? It's a very small frog found in the rainforest of Puerto Rico. It has a very distinct and very soothing sound. Listen to this. It's called a coquille because that's what it sounds like. As I said, it's native to Puerto Rico. But the coquille has been introduced to similar habitats all over the world. Now listen to me. When they took the co-key from Puerto Rico, it never sang again. They're in huge numbers all over the world. But for some reason, they don't sing. Ever since mankind has been expelled from the garden, he has failed to live up to his created loveliness. All sorts of ugliness has now taken its place. And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? And the man said, Here comes the ugliness. And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to me to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. Here is one of our ugliest traits betrayal, self-centeredness, self-preservation. It sure didn't take long, did it? Adam turned on Eve, Eve turned on the serpent, and it's not stopped ever since. But getting ahead of the story. And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? Can you imagine hearing that sentence from God? What have you done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me and I did eat. And it's

Why God’s Justice Must Come

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at that point that God's justice must make an appearance. Never forget. Never let anyone try and convince you. Listen to me closely. If you listen to nothing else, don't let anyone try and convince you that God will turn his back on his own justice. First of all, it does him no good. It only does him harm. He doesn't need us that bad. He needs his word more than he needs us. He needs his justice more than he needs us. If it was between us and his justice, we wouldn't be here. We may want God to overlook our violations of his standards, but he will never do that. This entire book is a testimony to that truth. That cross with that dying man on it proves that God will not compromise. And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? Did you break my commandment? Do you understand that you did something I told you not to do? Did you sin? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me and I did eat. What comes next is judgment. What must come next is judgment. The next few verses depict God pouring out his justice. And if this doesn't make you nervous, you're not paying attention. And by the way, what you should realize is that God's justice comes. Now listen to me, despite the confessions, we may think, sorry, God should be enough, but it isn't.

Sorry Is Not A Savior

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John, why are you telling us this? Because this is the gospel. This is why the good news is good. God here is demonstrating that, and I'll say it again: everyone needs a savior. Everyone needs the savior. Sorry is not your savior. Honesty is not your savior. Fig leaves are not your savior. And you know what? Not being totally liable, not being fully responsible for your actions isn't your savior either. Both Adam and Eve told the truth. Neither of them are 100% to blame for this. They were tricked by someone much smarter, but they still sinned. They still broke God's law and they must be punished. Just another reason why this section of the Bible does not come up very often. People are always asking me, hey, how come I've never heard this stuff before? How come Genesis 3 isn't taught? It's because of this. It's because the justice of God is laid bare to us. We see He's not going to hold back for any reason. All the reasons we may give for being just, he throws out the window. When Sammy did something she wasn't supposed to do, or she came up to me and said I was sorry, I would melt and say it's okay. She may not agree with that, but that's what happened. This section of scripture is not popular. It's unpleasant, it's dogmatic. And I'll say it, it's repulsive to the human ear, especially the modern human ear. How dare God not let Adam and Eve off with a warning? Any God who wants my worship better handle things better than this. I mean, they're scared, they're remorseful, and you curse them anyway. What kind of God are you? Then you repeat, though you may not think it is, this is the gospel. If you truly understand the point of this section, then you're going to realize that we are all in the need of someone to stand between us and God. Adam and Eve and the serpent had no one to stand in for them. As Job put it, we need a go-between. In fact, let's read it. The book

Job’s Cry For A Mediator

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of Job, chapter 9, starting at verse 33. Neither is there any days, man. It's just an old word that means an umpire. Neither is there any umpire, no arbitrator betwixt us that might lay his hand upon us both. Job is depicting an angry set of people. One is God and one is man. And Job has said, There's no man between us. Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his fear terrify me. Job is laying down what it's like to not have a savior, a redeemer standing between you and an angry God. And believe me, he's angry. Then would I speak and not fear him, but it is not so with me. This is a cry for a redeemer. Job is crying for a redeemer. Man has been seeking a redeemer ever since that frickin' tree. And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? Hey John, what happened to the pleasant part of Genesis? Remember all of the, you know, the flowing gardens and the fruits coming off the why do we have to talk about this? Can't we just skip over this and maybe head over to Moses? This is why Moses had to be, you know, Moses was a deliverer. Moses was a type of Jesus. All of this is set up to show us that we need a deliverer in the type of Moses. Verse 10, and he said, I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. Now, with all those honest confessions laid out, the cursing begins. Verse

The Serpent Cursed Without An Appeal

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14. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And by the way, I want you to notice that God didn't give the serpent an opportunity to confess or to say sorry or even explain his side of the story, truth or lie. He didn't get the chance. Adam and Eve got a chance to appeal to the judge. The serpent wasn't even allowed to open his mouth. Further proof that God has something special in store for the seed of Adam and Eve, his created companions. So you're saying that God excluded the serpent from forgiveness? Sure looks like it. You see, there he goes again. How could anyone worship a God who says some are forgiven and some are not? Listen, you can complain about what you perceive as an injustice, or you can trust that God knows what he's doing and accept his offer to you. If you in your arrogance want to pass judgment on God and out of spider, simply your own ignorance-based sense of right and wrong, turn down what he's offering you. Well, the simple fact is you'll end up getting what the serpent got. Because listen, there are only two choices God given forgiveness or whatever the serpent got. For some reason, listen to me, God decided to devise a plan of redemption for mankind, despite knowing what would happen. Now I say despite, but the truth is because he knew what would happen to his companion Adam, he devised this plan of redemption. God made no such deal with Satan. If you find that hard to swallow, well, then I guess when you start running the universe, you can make the changes that you feel are necessary. Until then, God gets to decide who's forgiven and who's cursed. If you ask me, you should just you should just leave well enough alone and seize upon what he's offering you. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, otherwise, this is what you're gonna get. And the Lord God said unto To the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field, upon thy belly shalt thou go, and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. Please don't sympathize with the devil. I still maintain that the serpent was Satan himself. And I believe that any references to this serpent is merely a figure of speech. I've said that before, I've brought that up before. And we've used scripture to back up my assertion. And I think that God is continuing to use figures of speech here as he tells us the sentence he is passing on the instigator of the fall of man. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. God says that what he is about to impose is a curse greater than any other creature will receive.

Mercy Has Limits For Rebels

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Now there is one interesting theory that does not have scriptural support, so I'll just share it quickly and move on. Satan and his angelic followers rebelled in heaven and were banished to the earth. By the way, that part is scriptural, so we can rely on it. The devil was cast down to the earth, and that's why he is here in the garden tempting Eve. At some point in eternity, Lucifer, Satan, the devil, tried to make himself equal with God, but God wouldn't have it. And so he was exiled with some say two-thirds of the angels. Two-thirds of the angels followed Satan, followed Lucifer, and they were cast to the earth. They were all sent to earth. And this theory goes that up to this point, despite their rebellion in heaven, the situation of these fallen angels was not yet hopeless. There was until this temptation, hope of some sort of reconciliation. But this unsupported scripturally theory says the temptation in the garden, the sin of being a part of the fall of man went too far. That this act of diabolical trickery sealed the devil's fate and those of his angelic followers. Satan's meddling with God's plans was the last straw, and the full and final weight of God's wrath was imposed directly upon him. No one would ever again be placed between Satan and an angry God. Maybe that explains why the devil wasn't given a chance to explain himself. Nothing he could say would now stay God's hands. Friends, there is a point where you can use up all your credit with God. Constantly testing him with your rebellion can go too far. That is scriptural. Though his mercy is extraordinary, it isn't inexhaustible. Again, let me say there is nothing in this passage or any other that says that this was the final sentence of all the fallen angels, but it sure would answer a lot of questions and clear up some of the more difficult statements. And maybe this is why the Bible says the serpent is cursed above all cattle. He lost all chances at redemption. He pushed God too far. The Bible does not, the Bible does say that God said that the serpent would go about on his belly. That's true. Now, of course, this is literally how the actual, how actual snakes move around, but I'm not sure I believe they do so because they're a cursed species. This curse is on Satan. Going around on the belly, that's a curse on Satan. And saying he will go about on his belly, in my opinion, is another figure of speech that means, this figure of speech means that he will forever live in ultimate humiliation and degradation. And by

Belly And Dust As Word Pictures

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the way, this is not a unique use of that phrase in scripture, Psalm 44, starting at verse 23. Listen to this. Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise, cast us not off forever. Wherefore hidest thou thy face and forgettest our affliction and our oppression? Verse 25. For our soul is bowed down to the dust, our belly cleaveth upon the earth. Arise for our help and redeem us for thy mercy's sake. Here the psalmist is not lamenting about actually slithering on the ground, but instead, as the context conveys, is simply expressing the low state of his heart. Could anything be more humiliating than going through life this way? Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. Another relatively common figure of speech. Dust shalt thou eat. Now it symbolizes a life of suffering one defeat after another. We can go again to the Psalms to see a similar use of this saying to help me to support the fact that I still believe this is a figure of speech and not an actual physical condition. Eating of the dust and slithering on the belly, I think, are figures of speech. Psalm 72, verse 9, speaking of the dominion of Solomon, the son of David, the heir to his throne. Psalm 72, verse 9. They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him. Listen to this, and his enemies shall lick the dust. Those that come against this great king will be subject to bitter defeat. All designs against David's son are destined to humiliating defeat. That's the message of this psalm as expressed through that figure of speech. Such was God's pronouncement on the devil for his role in the downfall of God's favored companions. Try as he may, Satan is a defeated foe. And I know I heard a few amens. Now,

Genesis 3:15 And The Coming Seed

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this next verse is one of the most significant in all of Scripture. In fact, verse 15, in my opinion, is a short summary of the next 1,000 pages or so. If you want to know the message of the Bible that I've been blathering on about since we began this study in Genesis, then here it is. Verse 15 is telling you what's coming. It's the first prophecy in the Bible. And frankly, all other prophecies contained in Scripture are in one way or another connected to it. Here it is. Verse 15. God speaking directly to the serpent. Listen, this is still part of his curse. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Now, before we start breaking this down, I want to say none of this had to happen. If Adam and Eve had just done what they were told, then the Bible would be no bigger than a pamphlet. Heck, scripture would be the size of a flyer, one-sided. But instead, sin entered in. Never ever downplay the power of sin. Never. This is what was caused by sin. Adam and Eve did what come God commanded them not to do. And now, because of that, the Bible is not a small little pamphlet, it's a very expansive document. And I'll say it again: here's the summary. Here is why the Bible is so long. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. Her seed is none other than Jesus. We'll talk about that later. It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel. There's a lot here. First, as a part of this curse on the serpent, God declares that there will be what the King James records as enmity between the serpent and the woman. Enmity. Now that's not a word we use very often in our everyday lives. Most of us, in fact, have never heard it used, nor heard anyone else use it outside of church or Bible study. But you don't have to be a road scholar to know what it means. It sounds just like the word enemy, and that's a pretty good place to start. In fact, both words have the same origin in Latin. Both enemy and enmity come from the word inimicus, which literally means to unfriend. So next time you're on Facebook, you're enemies somebody. Now, what sort of strikes me about this is the fact that the enmity is a curse on the serpent. The enmity is a part of God's punishment on the serpent for his role in the introduction of sin into creation. Now, the re the reason why that strikes me is because dang it, it sure seems like we're the ones who are suffering the most from this broken relationship. Let me say, there has not been a single moment of peace for anyone in all of human history since Adam and Eve disobeyed God. And yet God cursed the serpent with the enmity. All I can say is it must really suck to be the devil because it sure ain't a bed of roses for any of us. As I said, there's so much more to cover. And we're just getting started on verse 15. We have a lot to talk about, so how about we pick it up right there next time? See then.

Where To Find And Support

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