Eating Desert Sand - February 3 Readings: Genesis 3, Humans Turn from God

The Story of the Bible from Creation to the Cross to Eternal Glory

In 72 daily readings, we will examine the overall story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, seeking to get the big picture of God's work through Jesus Christ in this sinful world.

Today's Reading:  Genesis 3

Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. 3 But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’”

4 “No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Sin’s Consequences

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

10 And he said, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”

11 Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

12 The man replied, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.”

13 So the Lord God asked the woman, “What is this you have done?”

And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

14 So the Lord God said to the serpent:

Because you have done this,you are cursed more than any livestockand more than any wild animal.You will move on your bellyand eat dust all the days of your life.15 I will put hostility between you and the woman,and between your offspring and her offspring.He will strike your head,and you will strike his heel.

16 He said to the woman:

I will intensify your labor pains;you will bear children with painful effort.Your desire will be for your husband,yet he will rule over you.

17 And he said to the man, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’:

The ground is cursed because of you.You will eat from it by means of painful laborall the days of your life.18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,and you will eat the plants of the field.19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your browuntil you return to the ground,since you were taken from it.For you are dust,and you will return to dust.”

20 The man named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living. 21 The Lord God made clothing from skins for the man and his wife, and he clothed them.

22 The Lord God said, “Since the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove the man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.

Through the Bible Reading: Exodus 21–22, Matthew 22:1–14, Psalm 18:40–46, Proverbs4:5-6

 If you wish to read through the Bible in a year, follow these readings.

Context 

In Genesis 3 we see the beginning of human rebellion and sin, as Adam and Eve choose to listen to Satan's lies instead of to God's truth. 

We see several things worth noting in this passage. 

First, we are introduced to the serpent, the embodiment of our enemy the devil. We see his lies, as he tries to cause Adam and Eve to believe that the good God is actually cruel to them. 

We see the root of sin, which is pride and independence, the desire to "be like God" instead of to submit to him and worship him. That was Satan's downfall and it was the inducement he used with the man and woman. 

We see the consequences of sin, as God brings judgment on sin, bringing down the curse on the man, the woman, and on the serpent. 

And finally, in Genesis 3:15, we see what has been called the Protoevangelion - the first gospel. In the curse, God tells the serpent (Satan) that he would strike the heel of the Seed of the woman but that the woman's Seed would then crush his head. That is seen as a prophecy of the coming of Christ would be put to death but would rise again to stand victorious over Satan. 

Devotional: Eating Desert Sand

 Genesis 3 deserves a month of devotionals all on its own. In this chapter, we see the path of temptation that Satan sets before us; we see the ease with which we are duped by his lies; we see the terrible effects of sin and the curse it brings on our lives; and most gloriously, we see the intent of God to redeem (3:16) as he promises to send one who will crush the Serpent's head.  

But the first line strikes me as significant. “The serpent was more crafty than any other…” Of course, we know from the rest of Scripture that this serpent was the rebel Satan. He has an ability to deceive human beings into making bad choices that cost us God's blessings and bring judgment on us.

Consider the irony of the situation. God gave Adam and Eve a paradise – a place beyond our wildest imaginations. Beauty. Joy. Sustenance. Companionship. Pleasure. What more could they ask for? And all God required was that they would honor his Lordship to him by refusing to eat of one tree. One tree out of a thousand? A million? That one tree belonged to God and they were to treat it as holy in obedience to the Father.

Could God have been any better to Adam and Eve?

And yet, Satan was able to convince this first human pair that God was against them, that he was robbing them of the joy of life, that he was holding them back. Look at his question. 

“Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 

With these crafty words, Satan turned the goodness of God into meanness - how could he withhold that wonderful tree from them? Was he that cruel and oppressive?  He made the gift of God seem like a burden. 

Then, Satan made an assertion about God's warning that disobedience would bring death. Not so, he said.

“You will not surely die!” 

The Liar of Liars calls the God of Truth a liar – and Adam and Eve bought it. Satan has been calling the truth of God's words into question ever since. The Bible isn't accurate. You can't trust what it says. Its teachings are outdated and have been replaced by the wisdom of today's experts. You can ignore God's word and cast it aside without concern or consequence. You will not surely die. 

Finally, he said, “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

God is trying to hold you down and keep you back. If you want to reach your potential and get the most out of life, you must cast off the shackles of God's control and do as you please. Obeying God will ruin your life, or limit its potential at the least. No one should be Lord over you! You will only be "all you can be" if you "do your own thing."

It was nothing but a lie, a mirage in the desert. All Satan offered was a single piece of fruit. It would cost them paradise, the blessing of God, intimacy with God, the life that God had created for them. They gave it all up for one bite of fruit. Satan convinced them that one bite of one piece of fruit was better than all that God would give them. 

Adam and Eve fell to the lies of Satan and brought death and destruction into this world. Still today we listen to Satan's lies. We too often fall prey to the belief that God's commands are oppressive, that we can get away with disobedience, that our lives will be better if we walk our own paths instead of God's. And as we listen to those lies we find again that all Satan offers is a mirage. Time and again we drink desert sand instead of the water of life that comes from God when we give our lives to him. 

It is the word that exposes those lies so that we may walk in the truth. Let us no longer drink the sand of Satan's lies, but take in the water of life that comes from Christ. 

Lord, you are Truth. May we listen to your truth and to God’s Word rather than to the lies of the Enemy. May your word expose the works of darkness with the light of truth. May we stop settling for Satan's desert sand and drink deeply from your living water. 

Think and Pray:

Are you drinking the desert sand of Satan by having your values shaped by the world, or are your drinking deeply of the truth and having the living water of Christ refresh your soul?