Trust broken but hope promised - Gen 3

So far in our series we have seen in Genesis 1 and 2 that God presents us with a world that is intentionally created, lovingly ordered, and filled with life, including the crown of His creation, people to pour His love and His presence into. God speaks, creation responds, and humanity finds itself not fighting to find meaning in life or needing to keep the world together, which is such a huge sense of anxiety for many today, but we find ourselves being invited to rest with God as He is at rest in His creation.

That context matters. Genesis 3 begins with a world that has been generously created and given by God and is at rest.

It matters that the command concerning the tree (that we will read about) is not spoken into a harsh or anxious environment, but into a garden overflowing with provision.

From the outset, Scripture makes it clear that sin does not arise because God has failed to give enough, but because trust in God’s goodness begins to come apart.

So let’s work through our passage and I’ll make comments throughout about some questions that I think naturally come up when we read this passage to try serve us well as we go.

READ: Genesis 3:1–5

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. 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 may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is 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 opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

When the serpent enters the story, the most striking thing about his approach is not what he denies, but what he subtly reframes. He does not question the existence of God, and he doesn’t contradict what God had said to Adam and Eve. Instead, he introduces suspicion by re-presenting God’s command in a twisted way.

That question — “Did God actually say…?” — is carefully designed. It casts doubt without confrontation and raises uncertainty without openly denying anything. God’s command, which was originally given as a protective and generous boundary, is now subtly reframed by the serpent as a restriction meant to hold humanity back. What was intended to cultivate trust is presented as an obstacle to freedom.

Culture: Religion is a straight jacket! This passage answers that objection.

We’ve all seen signs that say, “Keep off the grass.” And sometimes, if we’re honest, we imagine God’s command about the tree as something like that — random, petty, and slightly annoying. Really? What difference does it make? It’s a beautiful day. Who cares if we step on the grass?

But God’s command is less like “Keep off the grass” and far closer to a sign that says, “Don’t feed the bears.”

That’s a very different kind of boundary isn't it!

God knows that feeding the bears doesn’t end with a cute moment and a photo; it ends with the bears coming back for more than you ever wanted to give them.

The serpent’s strategy is to make God’s command feel like the wrong kind of sign. He never says God is lying. He simply suggests that God might not be ‘entirely’ good — or at least not entirely generous. It’s as if the serpent is saying, “Why would God put up a ‘keep off the grass’ sign on a beautiful day like this? Surely He’s being unreasonable. Surely He’s just keeping the best grass for himself and doesn’t want to share.”

The issue is not primarily disobedience, but mistrust.

And this is exactly where the tree becomes so dangerous.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is not a trap, and it’s not a error in creation. It’s a boundary of trust. And “knowledge of good and evil” is not mainly about information; it’s about authority. The tree represents the choice between trusting God to define what is good and wise, or taking that authority for ourselves.

Parents in SA are strict. One of the reasons are the power sockets. They’re large enough for little children to stick their fingers into. Sadly every year dozens of children discover that taking the authority for themselves to discover what is good and wise, has deadly consequences.

God’s command is not an attempt to limit human flourishing. Humanity is invited to live within a relationship of trust, where wisdom is received rather than grabbed.

Without such a boundary, obedience might still exist, but trust could not be meaningful. Love without choice is not love, and relationship without trust is not relationship.

The tragedy of Genesis 3 is that what was given as a gift of trust is reinterpreted as a limitation, and once that happens, what once felt safe begins to feel suspicious. Trust erodes quietly, and the boundary meant to protect life is crossed — not because God was unclear, but because God’s goodness was doubted.

WHERE DOES THE SERPENT COME FROM?

At this point in the story, many people naturally ask where the serpent comes from and why Christians identify him with Satan. 

Genesis itself does not provide an origin story for the serpent. It does not describe a fall of angels or explain how evil first entered the spiritual realm.

That absence is intentional. Genesis is not interested in making evil fascinating or central to the story. Instead, it shows us HOW evil operates. 

The serpent is presented as a created being, part of the good world God has made, yet now acting in rebellion through deception. The focus is not on his backstory, but on his strategy.

Later Scripture reflects back on Genesis 3 and provides greater clarity. 

Jesus describes the devil as “a liar and a murderer from the beginning" (John 8:44), and Revelation explicitly identifies “that ancient serpent” as the devil and Satan (Revelation 12:9).

What is important to notice is that the serpent is never presented as God’s equal. Evil is real, but it is not ultimate. Even in Genesis 3, the serpent’s story is already moving toward its end as we shall see.

WERE ADAM AND EVE REAL PEOPLE?

Many people wonder whether Adam and Eve were real historical individuals or symbolic figures, and Godly people differ on this question.

That said, I want to be clear about where I stand. I believe Adam and Eve were real people whose ancestors we can trace all the way to Jesus — flesh and bone like us — uniquely created by God and the first humans into whom God breathed His Spirit. I believe they lived among others, yet were called and commissioned in a representative role on behalf of humanity.

The fact that they are real people matters because representation matters. If the fall is merely symbolic, then sin becomes symbolic and redemption becomes metaphorical. Scripture treats sin as something that entered history, and therefore something that must be addressed in history. One representative failed, and another representative must succeed.

THE MOMENT OF CHOICE — AND THE SILENCE OF ADAM

READ: Genesis 3:6–7

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 its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

When the woman considers the fruit, the text emphasises that nothing about the fruit itself has changed. It was just normal, plain old fruit. It is still good for food, pleasing to the eye, and desirable for wisdom. What has changed is the direction of desire. Wisdom is no longer received as a gift FROM God, but seized and grasped as a possession that was somehow being held back by God.

At this point, the text invites us to ask a crucial question: where is Adam?

Some imagine him elsewhere, perhaps still naming animals — “just finishing up with the Z for Zebra…” 

The image may raise a smile, but no. Adam is with her. He hears the same conversation, witnesses the same moment, and remains silent.

This matters. Eve is deceived and Adam is passive. The serpent isolates the woman, and Adam lays down, his responsibility. His failure is not ignorance, but silence.

There are moments when evil advances, not by violence, but because someone who should speak up chooses not to. 

This is a particularly important word for men today. Biblical masculinity is not domination or control, but presence, responsibility, and protective love. 

Adam’s failure is not that he was too strong, but that he disappeared when he was needed.

NAKEDNESS — WHAT IT MEANS TO BE TRULY SEEN

After they eat, Genesis tells us that their eyes are opened and the first thing isn’t a realisation of sin, or fall, or separation from relationship with God…the first things is they realise they are naked. 

This is not about sexuality. It is about feeling exposed — about being fully known and fully seen for who they now are.

Before sin, Adam and Eve are naked and unashamed because nothing in them needs to be covered or hidden. After sin, nakedness becomes unbearable because being seen now feels dangerous. 

Shame enters the human experience, and with it the instinct to hide.

Every culture on earth covers something. The specifics differ, but the instinct to cover something is universal. We hide our bodies, our failures, our fears, and our motives because we do not want to be fully known. Genesis 3 explains why. Sin does not merely make us guilty; it makes us afraid of being exposed for who we are.

Jesus later names this dynamic directly (John 3:19–21) where he explains that people for fear of being exposed, keep their secrets in the dark.

The good news is that Jesus brings people into the light not to shame them, but to heal them.

GOD WALKS IN — PRESENCE BEFORE JUDGMENT

READ: Genesis 3:8–13

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

God comes looking for the married couple who are hiding from Him. He does not enter the garden with accusation, but with a question: “Where are you?” This is not a request for information, but an invitation back toward Himself, back into relationship.

One of the dangers of reading this passage as if it’s mainly about a law broken, is that we read Gods words and hear: WHAT IS THIS THAT YOU HAVE DONE! 

When we understand that God made us for relationship with Him first, and that this moment has broken his heart, then suddenly we can read this like: “What is this that you have done?!”

A quick application: If you find yourself hiding in shame. You’re a Christian, but you don’t want to read your Bible, don’t want to pray, don’t want to go to a LifeGroup with friends, don’t want to come to church because of shame. Let this moment sink deep into your hearts. God does not come accusing, he comes to invite you closer in love. 

If you are not yet a follower of Jesus, this offer stands for you this morning. Why not consider Jesus as saviour and respond to his invitation?

EDEN AS GOD’S DWELLING PLACE

When Genesis describes God walking in the garden, that language points us to later descriptions of God dwelling with His people in the tabernacle and then temple. Eden is not merely a garden; it is sacred space where God dwells, walks, talks with His people.

Biblical scholar G. K. Beale writes, “Eden was the first temple, the place where God dwelt and where Adam served as a priestly figure.” Adam is not simply a gardener but a protector as priest of this holy ground, and Eve is his partner in that role.

THE OTHER “CURSES” — LIFE EAST OF EDEN

READ: Genesis 3:16–19

To the woman he said,“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

These words are not random punishments but truthful descriptions of life as we know it in a broken world separated from intimate relationship with God. Relationships are strained, work frustrates, and creation resists us. Suffering is not a sign of weak faith; it is a sign that we are living outside of Eden.

THE PROMISE — THE SEED

READ: Genesis 3:14–15; 20-24

The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”… The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

When God speaks in Genesis 3, it’s important to notice who He speaks to first.
Before He addresses Adam. Before He addresses Eve, God speaks to the serpent.

And what He speaks is not merely judgment — it is promise.

“I will put enmity (active opposition) between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

This is the glimpse of hope in a fallen world.

God does not say humanity will figure this out. He does not say progress will undo the damage. Technology will help us. He does not say time will heal the wound.

He promises a seed…

From this moment on, history is shaped by conflict — not random chaos, but purposeful opposition. There will be hostility between evil and humanity, between deception and truth, between the serpent and the seed. And that matters, because it tells us that evil does not get the final word, and sin will not reign uncontrolled.

The language of “offspring” begins broadly, but it does not stay that way. It narrows.

Not THEY will crush the serpent’s head — but HE.

Genesis does not yet tell us who the seed is, but it tells us what the seed will do. He will be wounded, but he will win. Evil will strike, but it will not overcome.

That promise sits quietly underneath everything that follows in the scriptures.

Gospel in Gen 3

As Genesis 3 draws to a close, it would be easy to read the final verses as nothing more than judgment and loss. Humanity is expelled from the garden, and the way back to the tree of life is guarded. At first glance, it feels like rejection. But read carefully, and you’ll see that grace is already at work.

Before God sends Adam and Eve out, He clothes them.

Not with fig leaves.
Not with something they make for themselves.
But with garments God Himself provides.

This is the first act of grace after the fall. God does not leave them exposed in their shame. He covers them. And that covering comes at a cost. Something dies, innocent blood is shed, so that their guilt can be dealt with. From the very beginning, Scripture teaches us that shame cannot simply be ignored — it must be paid for by another.

Then comes the exile. God drives them out and places a guard at the entrance to the garden, not because He has stopped loving them, but precisely because He has not. They are barred from the tree of life so that they will not live forever in a fallen, broken state.

That detail matters enormously.

Living forever sounds like a gift — until you realise what it would mean to live forever in sin, forever hiding, forever separated. The closed gate is not cruelty; it is mercy. God refuses to allow sin and death to become eternal.

Exile is not the end of the story. It is the necessary beginning of God’s redeeming work.

From this moment on, the Bible tells one story: how God will bring humanity back into His presence through this ‘promised seed’.

And that is where the cross stands.

Jesus is the promised seed. He is wounded, but He wins.

He is stripped so that we can be clothed.
He is cut off and forsaken so that we can be welcomed home.

At the cross, God does not merely promise restoration — He completes it. And through the resurrection, eternal life is no longer something to be guarded against, but something to be received as a gift.

That is why Communion matters so deeply.

This Table is not looking back longingly to Eden; it is anticipation of a restored creation. We do not reach out and take life for ourselves. We receive it through Christ.

The tree of life is no longer forbidden. It is promised.

And in Christ, it is ours — now and forever.

Amen.