The Bible was written by about 40 men over 1500 years and contains 66 books (or more), and the whole collection contains one central message. The account of the Fall in Genesis 3 is the entire reason the Bible was written. Without this chapter, the Bible would be nothing more than a collection of wonderful stories and historical accounts. This chapter could be the outline for everything that is to come. Let’s see what it has to say.
The first thing we read is that a serpent talked to Eve, Narnia style. I won’t belabor the point, but this could mean literally (remember, Balaam’s donkey talked to him), or it could simply be Eve’s thought process. Temptation usually doesn’t come with an audible voice, but a desire to do something that is known to be wrong. Take your pick, but since God curses the serpent later in the story, I take it to mean that the serpent audibly talked to Eve.
What’s to be noted from the serpent’s conversation with Eve is that he questioned what God had commanded and got Eve second-guessing God’s torah to them. Most translations have the serpent asking, “Did God really say,….”
You know the outcome. Eve saw that the tree was desirable for fruit and ate from it. What some people miss is that Eve then gave some to her husband WHO WAS WITH HER. That’s right. According to the text, Adam was with Eve when the serpent tempted her with the fruit. Adam neglected to stand up for what God had commanded him. In chapter two, we read that Adam was commanded not to eat from the tree, and then Eve was created. Eve had the torah handed down to her by Adam. Adam was more guilty than Eve in disobeying God. Paul recounts in Romans that sin came into the world through Adam, not Eve. Adam was the one who received the commandment and should have protected his wife.
In verse 7, we read that Adam and Eve felt guilty and sewed fig leaves together to cover their nakedness. God comes looking for them and finds them hiding. Adam blames Eve, Eve blames the serpent, and God dispenses His judgment.
God tells the serpent that he will crawl on the ground all his days, which indicates that the serpent may have had legs before this. The first bit of prophecy is found in this judgment, also. God tells the serpent that the seed of the woman (the Messiah) will crush his head and that the serpent will strike His heel, pointing to the crucifixion and the Messiah’s death.
God tells the woman she will have pain in childbirth and her husband will be master over her. God tells Adam that he will have to work the ground to get food, and that the ground will be cursed and bring forth thorns and thistles. They are also told they will return to the dust when they die.
After this judgment, God made garments of animal skins for them to replace their clothing made from leaves. There seems to be much controversy over whether God just created the skins for them or whether He killed an animal to get the skins. The text doesn’t imply one way or the other, and I’ve been told that saying that God killed an animal for the skins is akin to adding to Scripture, but I’m going to take that liberty anyway because it goes to the nature of why the Bible was written, as I indicated at the beginning of this post. Take it or leave it.
Leviticus 17:11 says that it is the animal’s blood that makes atonement. Hebrews 9:22 puts it this way: “Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.” Adam and Eve had just sinned against God, and the punishment was death. God did not put them to death, so there had to be an atonement for their sins. By killing an animal, blood was shed for their atonement and their guilt was covered by the garments of skin. They tried to cover their guilt with the leaf garments, but God gave them a better covering.
We also see that God banishes them from the Garden because of their sin. If the blood of an animal did not atone for their sin, then God would have kicked them out of the Garden unforgiven, as Hebrews 9 says.
God kicked them out of the Garden because of the Tree of Life. If they ate of that tree, then they would have lived forever in their sinful state even though their sins had been atoned. They would have been separated from God for eternity. But God had prophesied, a Messiah would come and fully atone for sin, and it is when we get to heaven that we will have access to the Tree of Life, to eat of it and live forever with Him. That is the whole message of the Bible. We have sinned, but God would send a Messiah to pay for our atonement so we can live with Him forever.
The whole plan of salvation is laid out in Genesis chapter three.