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I’m going to invite you to Genesis. Chapter two is where we’re at together today. Genesis Chapter two. We’ve been studying the book of Genesis. I want you to know we are going a little slow here in the beginning through these first three chapters, and then we’re going to pick up some rapid speed through the rest of Genesis simply because I don’t want to spend the rest of my life studying the Book of Genesis. But the first three chapters are so paramount to understanding not only the book of Genesis, but really all of the Bible, the themes of theology that’s articulated throughout all of Scripture. I find the foundation for them is laid in the first three chapters of Genesis. So if you understand these chapters, you get some understanding really about what the rest of Scripture tells us. In fact, I would say that the beginning of Genesis is way the way that the Bible ends. The Bible starts with a tree and a river and perfect relationship connected to God. And the book of Revelation ends with a tree and a river and and perfect relationship with God. And so the story of the Bible interweaves all of that together and how God brings redemption for us. And so understanding this first three chapters of Genesis, very important, I would argue the most important chapters. I think in the Old Testament, when you read these, these, these passages and you begin to understand what God is communicating to us, we find out not only who God is, but we find out who we are in light of him.
And that’s what God surrenders or calls us to surrender to. You weren’t made for you. The best way to discover your purpose in life is to surrender to the Lord and walk in light of how He has designed you. That’s where we find our worth and value and meaning. And we’ve discovered that together. Some people come to the Book of Genesis and they want to treat it like a science book. The Book of Genesis. The first few chapters are written in poetry. It’s not a it’s not a science book. You’ve got to understand, any time a text of the Bible is written, you’ve got to ask the question, What did it mean to the people there? And then before it means anything to us in the here and now, to understand the context in which it was written lets us make proper application to us today. And the Book of Genesis was written by a fugitive who went back to the land of which he was a fugitive from. In order to declare to Pharaoh, let God’s people go. And God’s people had lived as as slaves for generations, and now they’re being set free. And you could imagine going through that kind of circumstances in life how degrading it would be, being treated like a tool rather than a human being. And God in Genesis starts to help them understand everyone’s made in the image of God.
We all have intrinsic worth and value. Your worth is not based on what you do, but it’s based on who you are made in God’s image. And one of the best ways you can honor God in this world is seen in how you care and honor others. And so God is helping these these individuals that have been set free as slaves as they go into this promised land to establish themselves, starting to shape their culture and an understanding of who they are and letting that become an outflow in this world, that God, when he created us in his image and as we were surrendered to that purpose, we live through that. That God’s blessing not only happens in us, but it goes through us. And really we become an artistic expression of the glory of God made known in our lives. And so Genesis chapter one starts with creation. It comes to the crown of creation, humanity on day six and verse 25 to 31, God makes us in his image. And then in chapter two, it starts over again, similar to the way chapter one did in verse four. It starts by by telling us that everything was in chaos, but God created humanity and He breathed into us the breath of life different than any creature God designed. God makes us in his image, breathes into us the breath of life, which says to us that we have this.
This desire to connect to creator and creator has a desire to make himself known to us. He didn’t make this world because he needed anything. He made this world as an expression of his glory. And for us to have the opportunity to look at his glory made known and respond in worship, God made you for worship. And if you don’t align your worship to the Lord, you will align your worship to something because all of us seek to find our value somewhere. And if it isn’t in God, you’ll find it in some idol that will ultimately sell you short. And so God is going through the beauty of our creation in Genesis chapter two. And not only does he talk about us as human beings, he then specifically starts to talk about woman or women. And I think the reason he does that is throughout history between two genders, male and female, it is women that have have faced a harder, a stronger hardship, I would say, and being treated more as as the sum of your parts than as simply a a human being designed in the beauty of the Lord. And in Genesis chapter two, this is where we left off last week and we’re going to look at the end of God’s design of humanity, and we’re going to begin to answer the question, and where did things go wrong? How did we get to where we are? Because when I look at God’s wonderful design in creation and I look at where things are today, those two things don’t correlate.
God had a beautiful design in all of this, and yet we go through hardship in life. And how did that happen? When things fall apart, what’s what’s the reason for that? And so in. And Genesis chapter chapter two and verse 20, It starts like this second half of verse 20. We’re going to talk about understanding God’s design. That’s the first blank in your notes. We’re further discussing understanding of God’s design from creation to humanity to woman, and this is what it says. But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him. This this is just before a woman is made. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man. And while he slept, he took one of his ribs and closed out its place with flesh and the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman. So it kind of goes like this, that God has created all the animals. And then there’s Adam and Adam’s kind of walking around the garden and he’s naming all of the animals, you know, deer, duckbilled, Platypus. What raccoon? Whatever. He’s naming these animals, and he sees all these animals hanging out together in their little animal groups. And Adam starting to realize, like, I have this desire to want to have companionship, but.
But these animals don’t completely cut it. Right. And I was walking around was an interesting moment as he’s walking through the garden seeing all these animals. But Adam, Adam, he’s he’s not connecting fully the way that God had designed him to. And then it tells us, you know, for Adam, this is a big day in creation day six Adam’s made. I mean, he he meets God for the first time. He gets a job from the Lord in the garden. And now he’s about to meet his future bride, of which he’ll spend the rest of his life with. And then what does it tell us? Adam does in the story? Adam takes a nap. Adam Biggest day of Adam’s life. And what does Adam do? Adam falls asleep. Can you believe that, ladies? He’s about to meet his bride, and the only thing that he can think to do is it’s time to take a nap. I mean, but. But I will say, guys, just to defend you here, that it was God ordained that you take a nap. All right. So so Sunday afternoons, if you just feel the weight of the day on you, you think about your week coming up for you to take a nap. It is godly and biblical to nap and you should be able to nap. That’s what Genesis chapter two Solving marriage problems here. It’s okay for your husband to take a nap. All right.
And to be honest, the reason he’s napping is because he’s waiting on his wife. All right? He’s she is late to the party and he has nothing better to do. So So he takes a nap. And let me just encourage you, ladies, according to Genesis chapter two, from the very beginning of creation, it has been ordained that you are allowed to be late to any party. That’s what that’s what it’s saying here in this passage. So helping both of you out here, you can take a nap, guys, If she’s going to be late, you’re allowed to take a nap. That’s how that’s how it works in this story. But you see that Adam here taking taking this nap and and then it describes the the the uniqueness of woman in this passage. It says in the very beginning of verse 20, we look at it here that she is a helper fit for him and that she’s taken from the rib. And we talked a little bit about this last week that the idea of rib isn’t some translations don’t even use the word rib because the word rib is kind of it’s really misleading. Any other time this word rib is used in scripture. It talks about design or architecture direction or architecture. Yeah. And so what it’s saying about the woman is not that she literally comes from the rib, but rather she comes from the side of man and it’s showing equality.
It’s not saying, look, men are in front of women or women are to be in front of men. And it’s saying we’re made of the same substance and we’re equal to one another. And so he’s given dignity and worth in both God’s divine design in male and female. And then he goes on and describes when he’s he’s taken from the woman, he’s taken from the rib, and he describes her as being a helper. And we talked about this last week that helper is not a degrading term. I know sometimes in English we may read that and some someone might say, Oh, is that all I am to you? Right? I’m just I’m just nothing but a helper. But that’s that’s not the intention to this passage. In fact, we looked at John 1416 last week where where Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as a helper and he says actually another helper in John 1416 and the Holy Spirit, we know in Scripture the Triunity of God, the Father’s God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. And when Jesus says another helper, it actually translates in Greek as a another of the same substance, meaning the Holy Spirit isn’t less than Jesus. They’re both God. But, but, but rather what it’s talking about is they they fulfill different purposes. Jesus died for our sins. The Holy Spirit empowers God’s people to accomplish the will of God in this world. And so when it talks about male and female, God is saying, Look, it’s not an accident the way that God designed things, that in fact this word helper means it complements from the opposite meaning when God created us, he made us both strong, but he also he made us equal and he made us unique to the point where in our weaknesses there females complement the weaknesses of males, and and male can complement some of the weaknesses of females.
Together we we honor the beauty of God and what it means to be created in his image. And so in this passage, God is helping the people as they move forward out of slavery to. Understand not only their personal identity, but the worth of one another as they live this out for the purpose in which God has created them in this world. We’re equal and unique. We’re not exactly the same. In fact, if we’re exactly the same, one of us would become unnecessary. And God gifted us with with abilities within one another to to be a blessing to each other, to to serve one another and to compliment each other. I mean, God created you to know Him. And in knowing him, to to use your life to glorify him. And in so doing, you’ll bless what matters to God and what matters ultimately to God are people who are made in his image. And the entire purpose of ministry in this world is, is people. It’s not about accomplishing tasks.
I know in a religious mentality. That’s how religious people tend to think that you go in and you get a job and you do a job in order to to make God happy. And you hope you do your job enough and you just feel all this guilt all the time that you’re never performing, you’re never doing enough. And and that’s not what Scripture says at all. The purpose of ministry. You may end up doing something, but the goal isn’t about simply doing something. God doesn’t simply just need you to do something. God is capable of doing all things himself. He’s got plenty of power in this world. He doesn’t need us. But he wants you and he wants to make himself known to you. And in the joy of knowing him, the outflow of that should be expressed in how you care for the things around you, starting with the people in your life. And in that then God talks about his design for not just male and female, but he gets to the value of relationship by by dealing with the most intimate of relationships, the marital relationship. And so God’s design for marriage. He begins to talk about in these last couple of verses in Genesis chapter two. And he he’s not saying to us, look to to to have a meaningful life, you have to be married. But but he’s he’s helping us shape not only an identity in ourselves but but how that self plays out into relationship with others by talking about the most intimate of relationships which which is marriage.
And he goes on and says at the end of verse 22, it says, After he formed a woman from the man, he brought her to the man. If you want to know where we get the tradition of of father leading his bride or his excuse me, his daughter down the aisle as a bride to be married to the man. It comes starting from Genesis chapter two, where God, the father introduces Adam to his future bride by really, in a sense, escorting her down the aisle. And it’s demonstrating to us in this passage of Scripture, the the picture of of covenant, love, covenant, marriage, and what God’s desire is in the marital relationship. The idea of of covenant is is a stronger picture than that that we typically are used to today in terms of contract in our culture we deal a lot with with contract. Contract is all about I sign up to be obligated in some sense and you sign up to be obligated and we meet each other 5050. But if you don’t fulfill your obligation, I don’t have to fulfill my obligation. That’s contract. But the idea of covenant carries carries with it the thought of giving all of yourself away, 100% of you for the benefit of someone else, to help them become all that God has called them to be.
And likewise, as the husband sees his bride in this passage, giving himself to her. So. So her call in this this world is she covenants with him is to give all of herself for the glory of God to the benefit of him using her life to bless him so he can become all that God has called him to be. This is complementary of of one another and understanding how God has designed us in the marital relationship. Now it’s important to remember in order for that to succeed, it takes two people to walk in humility for the benefit of others. Two people to to participate in the surrender of that for for one another. And in the book of Ephesians, I think chapter five is that beautiful description of of God talking about relationship in the New Testament. He talks about marital relationship and he goes beyond the marital relationship in this passage. But but he says this submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. I think this this thought is an overarching thought for all the relationships he describes after after verse 21 that we submit to one another as as we’re we find our identity in God. We’re not looking for people to validate us because we’re secure in who we are and therefore being secure in our identity. We can give ourselves away to one another. And then he begins to describe what that looks like in the marital relationship, submitting to one another.
It’s humility. And I say to you often that humble people don’t fight proud people. Proud people fight. Humble. People don’t don’t fight. They they serve one another for the benefit of each other. And it says, Wives submit to your husbands as to the Lord. I’ve seen a lot of guys quote this passage and then they kind of stop after this verse. Submit to me. That’s a good one. But but they fail to to look just a few verses later, guys, it doesn’t just tell you to submit for your wife. It actually says, Now go die for her. So I think I think it talks about the idea of serving in submission, but then it goes to the extent of just giving yourself completely away. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word. I love that he compares the relationship of the church to Christ here, and then he relates that back to us. Because what he’s saying in this passage, men, is Christ doesn’t wait for you to be lovable before he loves you. Religious people think that I need to make God love me or avail myself to God by doing enough good so that God would would care about me or love me. That’s not biblical at all. That’s not the gospel at all. Jesus doesn’t love you because you make yourself worthy to be loved.
Jesus loves you in your sin. He doesn’t want you to stay there, certainly, but. But he loves you and your worst of places because God understands. It’s his love for you that transforms you. And in verse 26, that’s exactly what it says. He sanctifies you by the having cleansed her, by the washing of his word. It’s his love that makes her more lovable. It’s his love that transforms her life. It’s his love graciously given, not merited based on what she does, but on who he is. God’s love for you isn’t contingent upon you. God’s love for you is based on his character, his nature. And since first John tells us God is love. The very nature of God is love. That God himself is giving himself away. That’s what we see from the beginning of creation. God didn’t need us, but He still created us. And He and God desires to reveal himself to us that we would have a relationship with him to enjoy for all of eternity. And the reason God does this, God is love. And love is about giving itself away. Not only does God create you in his image, but then God pursues you in a sin and He gives his life for you. That you can be cleansed and renewed in him. And this is the the picture of covenantal love. In fact, in both the Old Testament and New Testament, there are a few passages that remind you of how important it is in the way that you treat one another.
I often read this passage at weddings, but in Malachi chapter two. Listen to this. He’s talking to the man and this is what God says. You cover the Lord’s altar with tears and weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. So he’s saying, Here’s someone that’s broken and they’re sad and they’re coming to the altar and they’re making a sacrifice and they’re just weeping in their brokenness. And look at the response. But you say, why does he not? Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. What he’s saying is you come to God weeping and broken, but God doesn’t want to listen to what you have to say because God has seen how you’ve treated your spouse. And first, Peter, it says the same thing, that God will not hear your prayers if you do not honor her and the dignity and worth that she is worthy of being made in the image of God, not because of what she does, but because of who she is. How you treat people. Matters to the Lord. In fact, one of the most beautiful expressions of worship to God is to honor the intrinsic worth in another human being.
Beginning in your own home. So God describes in this passage the beauty of covenant, where God creates man and woman and he brings woman to the man. And then in verse 23, it goes on and says this. Then the man said, This is the first recorded words in scripture. That man speaks, right? Genesis Chapter two. The first recorded words that man says in Scripture. And what does man say? Or what does man do? I should ask in verse 23, It’s. Man sees his wife for the first time and he says, Whoa, man, like that. But then. But then he sings a song. The first recorded words that that that that stated that that man says in all of the Bible and it’s a song to his bride. Let me just tell you guys it is biblical for you to sing to your wife. All right? And everyone knows it’s the musician that gets the girl. So. So you having trouble learning guitar? It’s not just but. But he sings to her. And when he sings to her, he says what he says. Man said, this is this is is not a very good song, I don’t think. But this at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. He needs some help. This is the first song written all right. He just. We only go up from here.
This is so. But he’s he’s acknowledging the beauty of who he she is by by singing this song. And Adam sings this song of appreciation. I love this. Adam doesn’t know anything about Eve. He doesn’t know what she’s capable of. He doesn’t know what her gift sets are. He knows. Are we? He doesn’t know. He doesn’t know. But the one thing he does know is, regardless, she is God’s gift to me. And as God’s gift to him, Adam honors the Lord. And he blesses his wife. And he sings to her. Just like Ephesians chapter five, where Christ, even in our unlovable state, willing to to love us. And it’s his love that transforms us as he gives his life for us and forgives us. And not only that, Adam, in this song, he appreciates the divine design of each other of one another, as he says, bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. Traditionally in Scripture, the idea of flesh is is an idea of weakness. And bone is one of strength. And so he’s acknowledging we have both strengths and weaknesses in order to to care for one another. We lead out of our strengths for each other and we serve one another in our weaknesses. Bone of my bone and flesh of of my flesh. And not only is Adam acknowledging the way that God has designed them and strengths and weaknesses, he’s also acknowledging he’s discovering himself through that relationship with her.
I think all Adam’s had to look at at this point as animals and all of a sudden he meets his bride and he discovers in looking at her, I doubt mirrors exist at this point. Right? And looking looking at her, he he sees and learns about himself through that relationship. He sees the beauty of God’s design by being able to see someone else and and also how relationships are intended to work. Can I can I just tell you, one of the greatest refiners of you as an individual is is found in the depth of your relationships. Especially, I should say, in a marital relationship. I mean, you think anyone when you’re single, you sometimes in life you tend to think I, you know, I’ve got this figured out. I remember when I first had kids and and someone came to her house with didn’t have children yet, and they’re giving us parenting advice and no one’s all right. I mean, they came back a couple of years later and repented of their their their their statements. And and, you know, you tend to think you might have it all figured out until until you live with someone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And then you start to learn. I may not be as patient as I thought I was. You know, I may not always be as loving as I think I am. You know, anyone can be patient when there’s no one else around.
You can be loving when everyone is easy to love, It’s difficult to express those kind of characteristics and the tension of relationship day in and day out. But but what you discover in those relationships as people, sometimes we have the tendency that when things don’t go the way we want, rather than take responsibility, we blame. It’s your fault that I acted this way. But the reality is you’re in control of you. And marriage becomes this great refiner. Of who you are as a person. You can’t control what someone else does. In fact, I would encourage you in your relationship today rather than elbow if you’re here with someone else, rather than elbow them to try to fix them. That’s that’s the nagging doesn’t help. The better question is, God, who did you make me to be? And how can I live that out and in my relationships where I’m struggling? What is it I’m learning about myself? In order to better live for your glory to the benefit of others. Why is it I get to anger so quickly? Why is it I don’t always have patience? What about me? Do I feel is more important than that relationship? Or where in that relationship do we need to work on something to better experience the purpose which God has created us rather than blame? It’s good to be introspective, to start there, to take responsibility and ownership. I think this is what Adam’s song and get all this from his bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.
I’ve tried to make sense of this over the years. The only thing I can think of is this must be a rap song because it doesn’t go very well on any other type, of course. But bone of my bone. Flesh of my flesh. You should be called woman because you come from the man. Right? This is Adam. He’s singing this to his wife as an expression of You are a gift to me. And in our weaknesses and strengths here we are to serve one another. But not only that, I’m learning about who I am in this. And God has created this beautiful world for us to express the joy of knowing Him. And and he says and remember in verse 15 of chapter two that we are to to keep it and work the garden that God put Adam and Eve in this garden. He wanted them to, to maintain it, but also expand the beauty of the garden to be fruitful and multiply that wherever they go in this world, it would be a blessing to others that is, God’s design, that experience, the joy of all of that in the intimacy of that relationship. And then he goes on in verse 24 and he talks about that consummation of their marriage. It says, Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh.
And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. I don’t want to get too much into this, but I do want to say I think man probably planned the first wedding. That’s probably what happened here. They come to the moment and they’re like, okay, we got this garden. I got an idea. This is crazy. We don’t have to worry about anyone else sneaking up on us here. Let’s save money on the wedding dress. Right? And and let’s just let’s just go how we are like, to this wedding. This is the first and last wedding that got planned. And verse, verse 24, though it describes to us how this this wedding takes place or the the desire of God in this marriage for for what he wants to have happen. He says leave his father and his mother. This idea of leaving the father and mother, interesting phrase they’re saying here for Adam and Eve, because to this point in history, as far as we know, nobody has a belly button yet, which which means there are no fathers or mothers, at least the way it’s described in in Genesis. Right. So so then all of a sudden start talking about fathers and mothers. When Adam and Eve are turned around, like, where are these people? Right. Is to help us understand that God is not just saying something for Adam and Eve. He’s teaching all of us about the intense of this marital relationship that they would leave mother and father.
Meaning the way the story goes, guys, is, you know, God, right? And then Adam gets a job, and then after he gets a job, he gets a wife. And then once he gets a wife, God’s got a plan for their lives. And that is to to to cut the umbilical cord and go create something new. God’s desire for marriage is that the the couple and coming together would would create something new. That’s why he’s talking about a mother and father. So they’re beginning to teach what the the next generation should be about mother and father. They nurture their children in the home and then they they send them out. Right? Kick them out, go do something. Create something new. Let the beauty of God be expressed in your life as you’ve seen this modeled in the home. Now go live it out and where you go for the Lord from here. And so he’s saying they shall leave mother and father and the two shall become one and they shall become one flesh. He’s joined to his his husband and wife joined together when they’re joined together this idea of one flesh. It’s certainly consummation in the marriage. But more than that, it’s it’s this intimacy in which God has intended for for the marital relationship to experience, that they would become one flesh building something new. And the Hebrew literally says that you can’t tell where one person begins and the other one ends there.
They are glued together. Their pursuit in life is singular, that they understand in this one family God wants them to. To build a singular pursuit in that foundation. And I would encourage you in seeing a passage like this, if you think about who does God want me to marry or do. Does God have someone in my future when it when it comes to to finding someone in your life? You know, you certainly want to marry someone you’re attracted to. But sometimes I think people get very obsessed with trying to find people you’re compatible with. And let me just tell you, no one really is compatible with anyone else because we’re all sinful. We will all rub each other all at one point or another. What’s important in scripture is is not compatibility as much as it is. Is your life surrendered to Christ? Is your life committed to Jesus? In fact, I would say for believers in the New Testament, when you look for the spouse, a spouse, that is our calling. First Corinthians 739, if you marry, marry in the Lord, because if the foundation of your home is built on that rock, then you’re able to walk in unity together. You’re one flesh towards a singular goal. You understand what God has called us to in him. And I’m not saying, Look, go find someone that just simply calls themselves a Christian and someone calls themselves a Christian, does not make them a Christian.
I think I’d like to encourage young ladies sometimes when you try to find a future husband and maybe you’re interested in a young man, like when it comes to that that relationship, just because he calls himself a Christian doesn’t doesn’t make himself a Christian. If you really want to know what he’s about, look how he treats people that he stands to gain nothing from. All right. How he treats the waitress or someone in the grocery store, people within his social circle that he may not be receiving benefit and relationship from in some capacity or even how he treats his mom. Because that’s how it’s going to be treating you. In the beginning, it’s easy to honor, right? You have something I want. You’re fulfilling something in me two, three years later. What drives that relationship? I would say the most important foundation. Is the surrendering of yourself to the Lord. Because you know in relationship that even even when your life is surrendered to the Lord. You don’t always play those things out perfectly. And so learning how to how to find someone that’s dedicated to Christ and and walking in the beauty of that. And he says the two become one flesh and they’re naked and they’re not ashamed, which talks about the idea of vulnerability. Yet they’re satisfied because there’s this mutual trust in one another using their lives to bless one another for what God has called them to.
Now the question is what in the world happened? And the first six verses of the next chapter. And I’ll end with these, these, these verses. I’ll give a little illustration here at the end, but this is where we get the story where everything goes off the rails. You think of the with the Hebrew people, they’re they’re being brought out of slavery. They’re hearing this story of all the beautiful blessing of God’s creation, this world. And they’re thinking, man, if that’s the way God designed it, how did we get to where we are? Like what happened in the first six verses of Genesis, This is where it starts to go off the rails. Now, the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, we we may eat of the fruit of the tree in the garden, but God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden. Neither shall you touch it lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God knowing good and evil.
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise she took of the fruit ate, and she gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate. Let me just give a couple of comments on this very quickly. And we’re going to come back to this next week. Uh, first of all, when you come to this Garden of Eden, I know traditionally people like to think that Adam and Eve ate an apple and an Eve talked to a snake. All right. But the Bible never tells you it’s an apple. And I looked at this again this morning. I couldn’t find a single translation that translated this as a snake. I know in kids storybooks, we get that beautiful picture of a snake, But in the Garden of Eden, I just want you to know, this is this is my personal perspective from studying this passage. If you disagree with me, that’s okay. We can still get along. You’re wrong, but we can still get along okay. And when. When Eve goes in the Garden of Eden, she. She doesn’t talk to a snake. I’m sorry if that dismantles your worldview, but she didn’t talk to a snake. And let me just give you a practical reason. I’ll give you a theological reason. Practical reason is there is not a girl that’s existed in history who thought to herself, you know, today I really want to go to my garden and see a snake.
Right? And not only that, did did a girl walk into the garden and see the snake and then all of a sudden the snake starts talking to her and she’s like, oh, let’s have a conversation, right? Like if you walk into a garden and you see a snake that you’re not going to stick around. And if your snake starts talking, that may be the end of your life. I don’t I don’t know how that but I don’t think this is an actual literal snake in the Garden of Eden, but rather, you’ll note, no matter what translation you look at it, talks about it as being a serpent. And I think for us in the first three chapters of Genesis, this is poetic, but this is describing the downfall of humanity, which, by the way, in your notes is identify the enemy to God’s design. And the enemy we typically think about in this passage is, I know it’s the serpent, it’s not the serpent. The serpent is certain, certainly an adversary and the serpent is certainly a tempter, but the enemy is a little more personal than that. The word serpent here is nahash, the Hebrew word nahash. It comes from it literally means chaos, creature. And throughout the Old Testament and in the New Testament, there is there are plenty of chaos creatures.
In fact, just to give you a picture of one in Isaiah, chapter six, where Isaiah sees the the Throne Room of God. That’s a famous story where Isaiah, God says, Whom will I send and who will go for us? And Isaiah says, Here, my Lord, send me. Before that happens, Isaiah sees hears the God in heaven and the angels singing Holy, holy, Holy. And he sees the throne room of God filled with smoke. And those angels are referred to as Seraphim, which literally translates as fiery serpents. They’re chaos creatures and the Old Testament, New Testament. There’s all sorts of chaos creatures. The Leviathan is a chaos creature from the Book of Job. There’s animals referred to as chaos creatures. And here in the garden, we don’t really have a theology of Satan shaped yet, but rather what he’s saying is in the garden there is a chaos creature and there could be good chaos. Creatures like Isaiah chapter six or Bad chaos, creatures like Genesis chapter three and this word Nahash. It comes from the same Hebrew word of the root word of of an enchanter. It’s actually another word that derives off of Enchanter is the word bronze. If you remember the story of Moses and Numbers, chapter 21, verse nine Moses makes a bronze serpent. That bronze serpent literally comes from the same. The bronze and serpent come from the same Hebrew word. And I think it’s giving identity to this this snake. He’s not really a snake, but rather he’s a he’s a chaos creature.
He’s an enchanting, crafty, bright, light chaos creature. And the reason I want to let you understand that is because our picture of Satan typically is, you know, red snake, pitchfork and a tail. And I’ll tell you, if you’re ever walking through a garden and you see that, you’re probably not going to listen to what he has to say, Right? Or if you do, please don’t. All right. But but rather, in the Garden of Eden, what happens is she runs into a creature, a chaos creature that is enchanting and crafty and attractive and bright light. That’s the way Satan is described in second Corinthians 11 as an angel of light. It’s tempting. And what does Eve do? She gives into it here. Now, Satan didn’t do a whole lot in this story. He only speaks twice. The first time he just asks the question and the second time he gives an alternative belief to Eve. That is not true. And the belief is eat of the fruit. That’s a good thing. And if you eat of the fruit, you can become like God. Eating the fruit was not a good thing and there’s not a person on the plane that’s going to become God. That is that is not God’s design. No one can become God. We talked about that last week. And that’s the that’s the lie that got Satan kicked out of heaven.
Isaiah Chapter 14, Ezekiel 28. But what happens in the story is Satan questions God’s Word. Eve exaggerates the word by saying, not only does God say we can’t eat it, but we can’t touch it, which wasn’t entirely true. It was half true. Then Satan lies and says, I know better. And he attacks the character of God by saying, Look, God really knows if you do this, it’s going to be better for you. And then and then Eve believes it and she partakes of it and then everything falls apart. So Satan fabricates the promise, right? You’re going to become like God. And what we find in the story is while while the serpent is the tempter. The real enemy. It’s pride. Your greatest enemy to your relationship with God. It’s probably. And when you read the story, you see how it unfolds, right? It’s a half truth. It’s not really an outright lie. What Satan offers is a half truth. But a half truth is all you need to destroy your soul. And Eve goes from I want this to I need this. If I don’t have this, I’ll never be happy. And then following down that path leads to destruction. She buys into a lie. But then, Adam, on the other side. What does Adam do? Adam commits. I think one of the greatest sins that men struggle with. Not to say ladies don’t struggle with it either. But guys, if I said to you, What’s the greatest? What’s the greatest struggle men face? Here’s the typical answer Men give lust or anger.
But can I tell you, your greatest struggle in life is not less than anger. Greatest struggle in life is passivity. And this garden, that’s what it says in verse six Where’s Adam when Eve partakes of this fruit? Standing right beside her. Letting her take the fall. The reason men struggle with lust is not because their heart is rooted in lust. Rather, I would argue that passivity is a big problem. That rather than nurture the relationships for intimacy that God desired within marriage and marriage alone. It’s easy just to rip it off and treat women like tools rather than human beings made in the image of God. Passivity reason you get anger rather than work through the relationship struggle that you’re experiencing and learning about yourself in that process. Passivity. You’d rather just bulldoze and get over it. Here in this passage, passivity brings the destruction. And also, I would say selfishness. Adam is watching Eve eat this and he’s like, he’s going to say, okay, if she doesn’t die, then I’ll take of it, right? I’ll let her take the fall first. And if it doesn’t happen to her and then I’ll jump in, right? And so he’s, he’s got this selfish attitude towards where she’s going. And this is what makes it really important, man, is when you look at Genesis chapter two, when God said don’t eat of the fruit of the tree.
God actually said that to Adam. It’s never recorded that he said it to Eve. Now, he may have said it to Eve, but it’s not recorded. And so it gives the idea that God gave to Adam the responsibility of sharing truth. And then from that point on, it should have been shared from generation to generation. And so you see within the story we have two two roads to walk in, Adam and Eve. But it’s the same for us. God created you for a purpose. And when you live your life for that purpose in him, knowing him and let his glory be made known through you. It is a blessing to relationships around you and all of humanity. All of life. But when you refuse to listen to what God says and you decide to live life for your glory. The path is destruction. Destruction not only to your soul, but to the relationships around you. And it’s easy for us sometimes to walk the road of passivity. To buy into the lie and to live selfishly. But God has created you for so much more than that. In fact, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who died in Nazi Germany just before his liberation, he was in a concentration camp just before his liberation. He died. And but Dietrich Bonhoeffer, he took a stand in Nazi Germany. And he and he and he gave this comment. He said, silence in the face of evil is itself evil.
God will not hold us. Guiltless not to speak is to speak, and not to act is to act. God made you for so much more. That your presence would be a blessing in this world. And all of us have a choice of what you’re going to surrender to, where you’re going to find your worth and value. Would it be in Christ who not only created you but also gave his life for you? Or will you live for your glory? You know, one of the things I’m thinking thankful about and celebrating 15 years today for us as a church is a history of a church made of people who continued to give themselves to God and what he desires to do, not only in their life and through their life. And it’s because of that we just celebrate the the blessing of knowing him. I was thinking this morning, this church has given hundreds of thousands away in missions that we’ve seen people go out from us and and lead churches throughout really the United States and some some around the world that we we are supporting. And and even here locally, the way that our church serves, we’ve probably served hundreds of thousands of meals at this point, fed tens of thousands of people giving out clothing and just being a part of our community to bless others. We understand who we are in light of who God is. When you find your confidence in that identity, the beauty of what God has done is incredible.