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.”
Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
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.”
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.”
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.
How should we read this text?
Well, here we're looking at the next passage, which picks up right after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. Now, this passage shows us that they reacted with their guilt and how the Lord responds to their confession. And it's a scene that's really packed full of judgment and finger-pointing and brokenness.
So Adam and Eve know that they are naked, and they are ashamed, and so they go and hide when they hear the sound of the Lord walking in the garden. And this is the first time we see fear in humans. Before this, they walked freely with the Lord, but now their shame has driven them away to hide from God. They know that they are vulnerable before Him. Their relationship with God is broken—not because God has changed, but because sin has been introduced into their relationship. God is not someone who can be in the presence of sin.
And so when the Lord God calls out, “Where are you?” it's not because God is clueless about where they are. It’s an invitation for them really to step out and say, “We have broken your law, and we want to repent and turn back.” But that's not what happens, is it?
Notice what Adam says. He blames Eve, but is actually blaming God. The woman that you put here with me, she gave me the fruit, and I ate. So he blames Eve, and he blames God for giving Eve to him. Eve, in turn, blames the serpent. She says, It’s the serpent that deceived me, and I ate. And everyone tries to shift blame and responsibility in this passage. And that's what sin does. It divides us, it corrupts us, it drives wedges into our relationships, and ultimately, and most profoundly, it breaks our relationship with God.
And so God then responds to each party, and that's really the heart of the passage. Now, this is really important for us to grapple with, because the curse that God pronounces on each of the three parties has to do with the things that those three parties have authority over.
He addresses the serpent first: Cursed are you above all the livestock. From that moment on, the serpent is to slither on its belly. God then pronounces this future curse on the serpent—that the son of man (really the ultimate person who finds His fulfillment in Jesus) is going to crush or bruise or damage the serpent’s head. We call this the proto-evangelium. It's really the first hint of the gospel. It points us directly to Jesus, who’s going to crush the power of evil, even though He’s going to suffer in the process.
Notice that the serpent’s curse is restricted to the serpent. The serpent has autonomy and authority over only his own decisions and his own choices. And so when God curses him, He curses the serpent and nothing more.
But then God next tells the woman that she will be bearing children with great pain and that her relationship with her husband is going to be marked by this constant power struggle between the two of them. This points us to the fact that Eve was the mother of all other women, and her curse is carried by women right across the entire world. It is in great pain that women give birth even to this day. And the struggle between men and women continues to this day.
We need to wrestle with the fact that even though Eve was the perfect helper for Adam, and there was a good authority relationship between the two of them, now because of Eve’s sin, her desire is for her husband, and he shall rule over her. This is really a way of God saying that she's going to continue to try and usurp the authority that Adam has over her, and that men all throughout the ages are going to abuse the power they have over women—men who will then rule with an iron fist over their wife. So rather than the perfect authority structure of a husband who sacrifices and rules over his wife only in a loving and caring way, now power will be introduced, and abuse will happen as a result. At the same time, Eve is going to try and usurp that power the whole time, and that's what we see play out in the world.
Finally, as God then turns to Adam, He says, Because of your sin, Adam, the very ground is cursed because of you. Work is cursed. Now labor is going to be painful. He’s going to eat only by the sweat of his brow. This text reminds us that Adam was set in place as the ruler over the earth. He was supposed to rule over it and have dominion over it. But instead, what we see is that sin has entered into the world, and that has caused the earth to be broken, work to be broken, and really everything to be touched by Adam's sin. And so the things over which Adam had authority—his wife, the earth, work, all of creation—are now broken because of sin.
And yet, in the middle of all this, we see a surprising thing: God then steps in and says, “I will make garments to cover Adam and Eve.” So He sacrifices an animal even in the midst of this, to cover over their shame and their nakedness. And again, this points us to an even greater covering for sin that will come ultimately through Jesus.
This passage is extremely rich with theological significance, spiritual significance, and it speaks to the way the very world works even to this day.
How should this text read us?
Well, I think like Adam and Eve, we can try and dodge the blame, pass the buck—try and blame other people when we've crossed the line. We want to look good, and we want to shift the weight of our failures onto someone else. But this passage shows us that that's because of sin and brokenness. Our first parents did the same thing. This makes the story deeply familiar.
But then we see God's gentle question to Adam and Eve: Where are you? He’s still pursuing us even when we hide today. Now, I think it's right for us to fear God's judgment. But God is inviting us into a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ.
Yes, Adam and Eve faced severe and serious consequences, but they were ultimately restored. They were looked after by God, and He walked with them. He even sacrificed animals to cover them because He cares for them. He also gives us that great promise that one day the woman’s offspring will crush the serpent’s head.
Now, that's important for us too, because in the serpent’s head being crushed by Jesus, God has banished the curse of sin. It still affects us today, but the initial battle has been won. We may have lost paradise, but we still carry God’s promise of redemption. Even though we still are subject to sin in some ways, we have the promise and the assurance that sin will be undone and that the curse will finally go. And that means that we are not left to despair. We are not left to try and pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps or deal with our sin problem ourselves. No, God has dealt with that in Christ. We've already seen that happen once, and we are promised that it will happen in its fullness when Jesus comes again. And that's a good thing.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank you for chasing after us even when we hide.
Thank you that you've dealt with our sin problem in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Thank you that you've clothed us who believe with His righteousness and that even though we have broken your laws and walked away from you, you nevertheless look after us.
We praise you for these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.