Page 16 - Pentateuch - Student Textbook

Study Section 3: Pentateuch Part II:
Sin and Salvation: Genesis 3:1-11:26

3.1 Connect

Over and over in Genesis chapter one, we read of God’s good creation. After the creation of
humans, God even viewed his work as “very good” (1:31). At the end of chapter two, we read
of Adam and his wife. They were “both naked, and they felt no shame” (2:25). Our own
experience is quite different. We wonder how life got so bad if it started out so good. We
wonder how male/female relationships became so tangled after such a clean, miraculous
beginning.

As we turn to chapter three, we are reminded of a tree in the Garden of Eden, the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil (2:17). Not much is said of that tree. Knowing good and evil quite well from the
standpoint of evil, we wonder what life might have been like without such dark thoughts and motives as
we regularly possess. We cannot know this might-have-been. The Bible does not say. Yet we can know
how we got from “good” to death.

3.2 Objectives

1. You will be introduced to the concept of conscience, good and bad, along with the
consequences of choosing bad over good.

2. You will understand the depth of the consequences of sin as God restarts the human race
after the flood.

3. You will learn about God’s favor and his emotional response to the human situation.

4. You will survey briefly other references in Genesis and the Old Testament to understand the “role” of
the Son of God from the very first of history.

5. You will also start thinking about the Trinity and the love of the Father for the Son.

3.3 The nature of life with sin and grace.

A serpent appears (3:1-7). He is a creature. He is “crafty,” a characteristic that can be used for
either good or bad (Prov. 12:16, “prudent,” and Exod. 21:14, “schemes.”). We are unsure of
his “serpent” status. In our experience serpents do not talk. We wonder if “serpent” is a
metaphor borrowed from our experience to communicate about a different sort of creature.
Later in the Bible we learn his real identity. He is Satan, God’s opponent already fallen into sin
and rebellion who likes nothing more than to accuse, lie, and condemn (Job 1,2; Rev. 12:9; 20:2).

We do not know why the serpent chooses to talk to Eve. Both Adam and Eve are present (3:6). We can
speculate about the differences between male and female. She was the weaker of the two making an
easier target. Or, she was the stronger of the two making success inevitable if she could be confused. Or,
she received from Adam the instructions God gave to him while Adam received God’s instructions from
God Himself. All of this is speculation. We do not know.

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