Welcome, and Enjoy.
Friday, November 06, 2009
Monday, November 02, 2009
Genesis Class Week 7
Genesis 6:9-7 – Noah and the flood
Traditions of a catastrophic flood are found in many ancient cultures:
• Egyptian tradition: The gods at one time purified the earth by a great flood, from which only a few shepherds escaped.
• Greek tradition: Deucalion warned that the gods were going to bring a flood upon the earth because of its great wickedness; he built an ark which cam to rest on Mount Parnassus. A dove was sent out twice.
• Hindu tradition: Manu, warned, built a ship in which he alone escaped from the deluge that destroyed all creatures
• Chinese tradition: Fa-He, founder of the Chinese civilization, is represented as having escaped from a flood – with his wife, three sons and three daughters.
• English tradition: The Druids had a legend that the world had been re-peopled by a righteous patriarch who had been saved in a strong ship from a flood send to destroy man from his wickedness
• Polynesian tradition: Stories of a flood from which eight escaped
• Mexican tradition: One man and his wife and children were saved in a ship from a flood which overwhelmed the earth.
• Peruvian tradition: One man and one woman were saved in a box that floated on the flood waters.
• Native American tradition: Various legends, in which one, three, or eight persons were saved in a boat above the waters on a high mountain.
• Greenland tradition: The earth once tilted over, and all men were drowned, except one man and one woman, who re-peopled the earth
Genesis 6:9-22
The account of Noah and the flood starts in 6:9; some may argue that it starts with verse 1 with the corruption of the earth. However, versus 1-8 give us an introduction into what led up to the flood. Noah we know is of the line of Seth, he was credited as being righteous and blameless. Noah had a true love for God, thus he had a right relationship with God. He was blameless, but that does not mean that he was perfect. God knew his heart in comparison to the contemporaries, and chose him to be the path to salvation for the human race and animal kind.
God speaks to Noah and tells him that he is going to destroy the earth and everything in it. He is only going to spare Noah and his family. Noah is to build a boat and fill it with animals. The Ark is to be made of cypress wood (Gopher wood in some other translations. The word in the Hebrew is not a known wood) and coated with pitch. It was to be 450 ft long, 75 ft wide and 45 ft high. It was to have three decks and a door in the side. From the shape and dimensions of the ark it was not meant to be a high sea vessel but a floating barge.
The English word for the ship is ark; however the Hebrew word (tevah/ship) that is used for the Ark is not the same as the Ark of the Covenant. The word for the ark is the same word used for the basket that Moses was placed in and floated down the river. According to the dimensions of the ark, it was the largest ship on record until 1858 when the Great Eastern was built to 669 ft.
Genesis 7:1-5
Noah built the boat and fills it with animals, one pair of ever every kind of animal, male and female, and seven pair of every clean animal. This is to repopulate the earth with all the animals. The point of the seven pairs of clean animals is for sacrifice after the flood. If Noah did not have extra of the clean animals that he would need in sacrifice, then it would be a long while before Noah and his descendants could make sacrifices to God, also to have new cloths. Noah was also to store all kinds of food and vegetation. We will find out that the earth was covered with water for about a year. In that time plant life would have also been destroyed. He was going to need food and seed to replant.
A common question is “how Noah got all those different types of animals on the ark?” Well, today we have hundreds of types of dogs. However most of them have only been around in the last few centuries. It is likely that Noah only took one set of dog, cat, horse, etc. and that they were breed into the species that we know today.
After loading the ark with every kind of animal and the food that was needed, he entered the ark and seven days later God brought the rain.
Genesis 7:6-24
In Chapter 5 we find that Noah was 500 when he became a father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And one hundred years later the earth is destroyed. We have an exact time that the flood was. From here on out the record keeping of the Old Testament helps so we can know when the flood was.
We see that the animals came to Noah and obeyed him on getting on the ark. A return of Gods original plan for man to be over the animals, this was disrupted by the first couple when they obeyed the serpent.
From the above verses we know that the water burst forth from the ground and fell from the sky lifting the ark off the earth. It rained 40 days and 4o nights, talk about depressing. God shut up the ark, Noah could not do it himself, and all that was with Noah was saved.
Traditions of a catastrophic flood are found in many ancient cultures:
• Egyptian tradition: The gods at one time purified the earth by a great flood, from which only a few shepherds escaped.
• Greek tradition: Deucalion warned that the gods were going to bring a flood upon the earth because of its great wickedness; he built an ark which cam to rest on Mount Parnassus. A dove was sent out twice.
• Hindu tradition: Manu, warned, built a ship in which he alone escaped from the deluge that destroyed all creatures
• Chinese tradition: Fa-He, founder of the Chinese civilization, is represented as having escaped from a flood – with his wife, three sons and three daughters.
• English tradition: The Druids had a legend that the world had been re-peopled by a righteous patriarch who had been saved in a strong ship from a flood send to destroy man from his wickedness
• Polynesian tradition: Stories of a flood from which eight escaped
• Mexican tradition: One man and his wife and children were saved in a ship from a flood which overwhelmed the earth.
• Peruvian tradition: One man and one woman were saved in a box that floated on the flood waters.
• Native American tradition: Various legends, in which one, three, or eight persons were saved in a boat above the waters on a high mountain.
• Greenland tradition: The earth once tilted over, and all men were drowned, except one man and one woman, who re-peopled the earth
Genesis 6:9-22
The account of Noah and the flood starts in 6:9; some may argue that it starts with verse 1 with the corruption of the earth. However, versus 1-8 give us an introduction into what led up to the flood. Noah we know is of the line of Seth, he was credited as being righteous and blameless. Noah had a true love for God, thus he had a right relationship with God. He was blameless, but that does not mean that he was perfect. God knew his heart in comparison to the contemporaries, and chose him to be the path to salvation for the human race and animal kind.
God speaks to Noah and tells him that he is going to destroy the earth and everything in it. He is only going to spare Noah and his family. Noah is to build a boat and fill it with animals. The Ark is to be made of cypress wood (Gopher wood in some other translations. The word in the Hebrew is not a known wood) and coated with pitch. It was to be 450 ft long, 75 ft wide and 45 ft high. It was to have three decks and a door in the side. From the shape and dimensions of the ark it was not meant to be a high sea vessel but a floating barge.
The English word for the ship is ark; however the Hebrew word (tevah/ship) that is used for the Ark is not the same as the Ark of the Covenant. The word for the ark is the same word used for the basket that Moses was placed in and floated down the river. According to the dimensions of the ark, it was the largest ship on record until 1858 when the Great Eastern was built to 669 ft.
Genesis 6: 22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
Genesis 7:1-5
Noah built the boat and fills it with animals, one pair of ever every kind of animal, male and female, and seven pair of every clean animal. This is to repopulate the earth with all the animals. The point of the seven pairs of clean animals is for sacrifice after the flood. If Noah did not have extra of the clean animals that he would need in sacrifice, then it would be a long while before Noah and his descendants could make sacrifices to God, also to have new cloths. Noah was also to store all kinds of food and vegetation. We will find out that the earth was covered with water for about a year. In that time plant life would have also been destroyed. He was going to need food and seed to replant.
A common question is “how Noah got all those different types of animals on the ark?” Well, today we have hundreds of types of dogs. However most of them have only been around in the last few centuries. It is likely that Noah only took one set of dog, cat, horse, etc. and that they were breed into the species that we know today.
After loading the ark with every kind of animal and the food that was needed, he entered the ark and seven days later God brought the rain.
Genesis 7:5 And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him.
Genesis 7:6-24
In Chapter 5 we find that Noah was 500 when he became a father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And one hundred years later the earth is destroyed. We have an exact time that the flood was. From here on out the record keeping of the Old Testament helps so we can know when the flood was.
We see that the animals came to Noah and obeyed him on getting on the ark. A return of Gods original plan for man to be over the animals, this was disrupted by the first couple when they obeyed the serpent.
Genesis 7:11-12 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.
From the above verses we know that the water burst forth from the ground and fell from the sky lifting the ark off the earth. It rained 40 days and 4o nights, talk about depressing. God shut up the ark, Noah could not do it himself, and all that was with Noah was saved.
Genesis 8:1 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded
Friday, October 30, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Genesis Class Week 6
Genesis 6 – Starting over
There are three main factors in the text that led up to the flood. 1) Unspiritual marriages 6:2, 2) a deep evil twist of the human character 6:5, 3) Brutal violence 6:11.
Genesis 6:1-4
The population of the Earth was increasing. “The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.” From verse 2 we can figure that they marriages of the two were lustful, they married for beauty and not for spiritual character. Who are these ‘sons of God’? There are 3 theories.
The sons of God
1. The sons of God are Angels. This theory is a popular one and often used because the term is used in other places in the Old Testament in reference to the Angels. It is used to justify the “heroes of old” in verse 4. That there descendents were blessed with divine abilities. This is refuted by Jesus himself in Matthew 22:30
To further support this angelic interpretation the Virgin Mary became pregnant by the Spirit of God. It may be reasonable to conclude that the same may be possible for other heavenly beings.
2. The sons of God are political leaders. This theory was purposed by Jewish scholars in the middle ages, Psalms 82:6-7 is a support to the idea.
It based on the leaders of the time, the representatives of God, may have been corrupt thus escalating the influence of corruption in the human race. It would fit that leaders in the near east would have claimed divine status, such as the Pharaohs did, also setting up harems for themselves, as did Solomon.
3. The sons of God are the descendents of Seth. The righteous descendents of Seth may have started to intermarry with the descendents of Cain. Seeking relationships of lust and not righteousness. This fits with the flow of chapters 4-6 and connecting Cain to the flood.
So which is correct? Not sure, these are the ideas that we have. However the concept of the ‘sons of God’ is foreign to us today with the emphasis of Jesus as the ‘Son of God’. Most likely it made more sense to the audience of the time.
Years of man are 120
Verse 3 is often thought to mean that the human race would not longer have long lives like those of old. However this is mostly unfounded as many of the men in the bible still had long lives after the flood. Such as: Abraham (175), Isaac (180), Jacob (147), Aaron (123), Jehoiada (130), and Job (160+). It is believed that the 120 years was rather time remaining until the purge of the earth and begin anew. Just like God gave the city of Nineveh the chance to repent in the account of Jonah.
The Nephilim
Again it is vague as to who these people were, they are only mentioned in the bible twice, here in Genesis and in Numbers when the spies are scouting out the land of Canaan. There is a notion that they were super humans and giants. However in the first part of the verse 4 it states that they were on the earth then and after the flood. If the flood was a worldwide event then no one would have escaped that God had not set aside. So there is little chance that they serviced the flood. These Nephilim may not have been the supermen that they are thought to be, but the height of sinful men. The Nephilim may gave been seekers of glory and fame, who went out of there way to prove themselves by there deeds. One other thing to consider about these great men, is that if there were the descendants of angels then why is there no record that God punished the heavenly creatures for this corruption.
Genesis 6:5-8
God’s Sorrow
In verse 5 we see that mans wickedness got to the point that he grieved that he had created them, and his heart is filled with pain. Man had escalated in sin to a point that they were twisted from what God had made. That every though and inclination was evil. Man had corrupted the whole earth so that even the animals were to be punished. Gods plan is to start over, to un-create and recreate. Only one man was righteous and found favor in Gods sight, Noah.
Genesis 6:9-22
God had a plan
Once again it stated that Noah was righteous and we find that he has 3 sons. The rest of mankind was corrupt and violent. So God calls to Noah and lays out his plan for the destruction of the world. Noah did all that the Lord told him to do.
There are three main factors in the text that led up to the flood. 1) Unspiritual marriages 6:2, 2) a deep evil twist of the human character 6:5, 3) Brutal violence 6:11.
Genesis 6:1-4
The population of the Earth was increasing. “The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.” From verse 2 we can figure that they marriages of the two were lustful, they married for beauty and not for spiritual character. Who are these ‘sons of God’? There are 3 theories.
The sons of God
1. The sons of God are Angels. This theory is a popular one and often used because the term is used in other places in the Old Testament in reference to the Angels. It is used to justify the “heroes of old” in verse 4. That there descendents were blessed with divine abilities. This is refuted by Jesus himself in Matthew 22:30
At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.
To further support this angelic interpretation the Virgin Mary became pregnant by the Spirit of God. It may be reasonable to conclude that the same may be possible for other heavenly beings.
2. The sons of God are political leaders. This theory was purposed by Jewish scholars in the middle ages, Psalms 82:6-7 is a support to the idea.
"I said, 'You are "gods" you are all sons of the Most High.' But you will die like mere men you will fall like every other ruler."
It based on the leaders of the time, the representatives of God, may have been corrupt thus escalating the influence of corruption in the human race. It would fit that leaders in the near east would have claimed divine status, such as the Pharaohs did, also setting up harems for themselves, as did Solomon.
3. The sons of God are the descendents of Seth. The righteous descendents of Seth may have started to intermarry with the descendents of Cain. Seeking relationships of lust and not righteousness. This fits with the flow of chapters 4-6 and connecting Cain to the flood.
So which is correct? Not sure, these are the ideas that we have. However the concept of the ‘sons of God’ is foreign to us today with the emphasis of Jesus as the ‘Son of God’. Most likely it made more sense to the audience of the time.
Years of man are 120
Verse 3 is often thought to mean that the human race would not longer have long lives like those of old. However this is mostly unfounded as many of the men in the bible still had long lives after the flood. Such as: Abraham (175), Isaac (180), Jacob (147), Aaron (123), Jehoiada (130), and Job (160+). It is believed that the 120 years was rather time remaining until the purge of the earth and begin anew. Just like God gave the city of Nineveh the chance to repent in the account of Jonah.
The Nephilim
Again it is vague as to who these people were, they are only mentioned in the bible twice, here in Genesis and in Numbers when the spies are scouting out the land of Canaan. There is a notion that they were super humans and giants. However in the first part of the verse 4 it states that they were on the earth then and after the flood. If the flood was a worldwide event then no one would have escaped that God had not set aside. So there is little chance that they serviced the flood. These Nephilim may not have been the supermen that they are thought to be, but the height of sinful men. The Nephilim may gave been seekers of glory and fame, who went out of there way to prove themselves by there deeds. One other thing to consider about these great men, is that if there were the descendants of angels then why is there no record that God punished the heavenly creatures for this corruption.
Genesis 6:5-8
God’s Sorrow
In verse 5 we see that mans wickedness got to the point that he grieved that he had created them, and his heart is filled with pain. Man had escalated in sin to a point that they were twisted from what God had made. That every though and inclination was evil. Man had corrupted the whole earth so that even the animals were to be punished. Gods plan is to start over, to un-create and recreate. Only one man was righteous and found favor in Gods sight, Noah.
Genesis 6:9-22
God had a plan
Once again it stated that Noah was righteous and we find that he has 3 sons. The rest of mankind was corrupt and violent. So God calls to Noah and lays out his plan for the destruction of the world. Noah did all that the Lord told him to do.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Through The Desert
i will not be in the office tomorrow, and not having internet at home i posting the friday video a day early.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Bach To Friday
i have a habit of whistling, mostly because i do not have a radio in the car and then i get songs stuck in my head. i like t whistle classical tunes. thurday afternoon my son asked me what songs Bach did. as it is i do not ever know who did what in the classical world. so here is a little video that i found that is really cool to watch.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Genesis Class Week 5
Genesis 4 – Life Outside The Garden
Two Brothers Genesis 4:1-5
God, in his grace, gives humans another chance. He gives family a chance. Assuming that Adam and Eve were created full-grown, Cain, when he killed Abel might have been about 129 years old; for Seth was born soon after (v. 25), at which time Adam is 130 (5:3). Cain and Abel are the most significant children up to this point.
Cain – (Qayin) "With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man." (v. 1); it is credited to Cain as being the first born; he was a farmer like his father; made a sacrifice to God of some of his fruits
Abel – supposed to be the second child; was a herdsman; made a sacrifice of faith to God (Hebrews 11:4)
By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.
The sacrifices – From the end of Chapter 3 it would seem that God Instituted sacrifices when he made the skins of clothing for Adam and Eve. From verse 3 it would seem that Cain decided to bring an offering and Abel joins him. Cain’s sacrifice was produce that he grew. Verse 3 tells us that it was some fruit of the soil, and that he brought it to God as a sacrifice. The implication is that he just grabbed some produce and gave it to God. Verse 4 tells us that Abel brought the firstborn and fat portions, the choicest parts, of his flocks. Though it may have been Cain’s idea to give a sacrifice to God, Abel had the better heart in the matter.
1 John 3 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous.
Crime and Punishment Genesis 4:6-16
Cain is not happy that his little brother is getting the attention. His sacrifice is disregarded by God. Cain did not get the response from God that he wanted, and he becomes angry. It would seem that Cain might be angry with his brother but first and foremost he is angry with God. God then warns him that if he did the right thing then he too would be accepted. Either unwilling or unable to resolve his anger he turns on his brother as a scapegoat. His brother then becomes the innocent recipient of Cain’s faulty relationship with God. He takes advantage of his brother and strikes him down, spilling his blood on the ground. The farmer has now sown the earth with blood.
Cain is the first to whom sin is attributed. God presents it as a choice. Either we choose to sin or not to sin.
After he kill his brother in a field God confronts him by asking the rhetorical question
“Where is your brother Abel?"
"I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?"
God approaches Cain as He did Cain’s parents. Where Adam and Eve tried to become like God, Cain is playing God. Sin is escalated Adam excused his sin, Cain denies his. Adam hid, fearful of God, Cain rejects to take responsibility for his.
Again the punishment is swift and fitting to the crime. Cain is cursed and the already cursed ground will not produce for him. His livelihood is taken from him and his forced to be a wanderer (nad). Cain heads east into the land of wandering (Nod) and builds a city. Cain worried about his own safety from revenge, but from whom? Adam and Eve must have had other children (v 5:4) and they were starting to populate the earth. So he was worried about revenge from the family. God then marks Cain so that no one would try to kill him, but if anyone kills him he would be repaid seven times over.
The renewal – Genesis 4:25-26
Adam and Eve have another child about this time and name him Seth “God has granted me another child in place of Abel,” this is the third and last noted child of the first couple. About this time was when people started calling on the lord.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
First Snow, In Fall
well we have not reached the middle of october yet and we are already getting snow. i awoke this morning and i was making breakfast, my daughter headed out on the patio for her morning cigarette she starts to whine about there being snow. so i poked my head out of the kitchen to see a good amount of snow on the ground. so i finished making breakfast and my coffee and headed out to clean off the car.
i am not ready for winter yet and this snow stuff really sucks. i do not mind the cold, but i really dislike the snow. i guess i will be working this next week on getting somethings done for the oncoming winter. tomorrow my son has a football game and it is suppose to snow then as well. this is going to be a fun weekend all the way around.
i am not ready for winter yet and this snow stuff really sucks. i do not mind the cold, but i really dislike the snow. i guess i will be working this next week on getting somethings done for the oncoming winter. tomorrow my son has a football game and it is suppose to snow then as well. this is going to be a fun weekend all the way around.
Friday, October 09, 2009
Finally The Week Is Over
ok so i was shown this the other day and thought it was great. i hope you all enjoy.
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Genesis Class Week 4
Genesis 3 – The Fall of Mankind
The garden in jeopardy – Genesis 3:1-7
We do not know the time laps from the end of chapter 2 and the beginning of chapter 3. It could have been the next day, or it could have been a hundred years later. However the Stage is set, act one has commenced; our characters are introduced, queue the protagonist.
Chapter 3 we are introduced to the serpent. Verse one tells us that the serpent is the craftiest of all the creatures. The serpent speaks, and has a recorded brief conversation with the couple. He asks a seemingly innocent question. He does not outright call God a liar but he twists his words to imply that He is lying to them. After a reply from the woman he challenges Gods Truthfulness. He attacks the word of God head-on and questions Gods motives of withholding the fruit from them. He plants the seed of doubt in her mind.
After reevaluating the fruit and deciding that it was pleasing to the eye and useful for gaining wisdom she took and ate and gave some to her husband, who was there also. They then obeyed the animal, the opposite of what God had set up, and willfully disobeyed Gods command. The fruit did gain them knowledge, knowledge of the fact that they were naked. They are no longer innocent, they are vulnerable. So then try to cover up what they had done and make clothes out of fig leaves.
The garden lost – Genesis 3:8-19
Act two opens with God on the seen. The man and the woman hear God walking in the garden. And they hide, “Oh No! Dads home!”. God calls out them with a rhetorical question “Where are you?”, as if God did not already know. They come out and ashamed of there nakedness they report that they were afraid and hid. God asked the man out right did you eat and disobey me? The man who was silent in the last scene now tries to sidestep the question and shifts the blame back to the woman. It is telling in his language that he also want s to blame God for giving him this woman.
God then turns to the woman, asking for her side of the story. She answers the question acknowledging that she was tricked by the serpent. Here the oneness of the man and the woman is torn apart. The serpent is not given the chance to defend itself.
Punishment is dealt out swiftly in reverse order. Unlike the serpent, the man and woman were not cursed. The punishments of all three are twofold.
The serpent is cursed to crawl on his belly and eat the dust, and that there will be enmity between the serpent and the offspring of the woman.
The woman is punished with increased pain in childbirth. Not that childbirth is the punishment but that it would be more painful. This does not imply that Eve had already had children but it also does not rule it out either. The second punishment is that she would have desire for her husband and he will rule over her. This is not to imply that women are inferior to men. This punishment is based around the domestic environment. The phrase “rule over” is the same as God is ruler of the universe and we are to rule over the earth and the animals that is described in chapter 1 and 2. We are responsible for there care not to lord it over them.
The Man is addressed in verse 17 and is rebuked for having listened to his wife and not the word of God. Here the earth is cursed. In chapter 2, man is given meaningful work, now he will have to work the whole earth and the ground will not yield it fruits willingly. Work has now become drudgery. He is also faced with mortality, the fact that one day he will die. Likely mortal before, rebellion against the creator of life forced death to become the center of our existence.
Expulsion from the garden – Genesis 3:20-24
The final scene demonstrates Gods love for the couple. Though he is forced to remove them from the garden and the tree of life, also the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he provides for them coverings made from animal skins. Now the animals that were entrusted to the man’s care are now to be there source of clothing. Conflict is the result of human rebellion. Human questioning of the divine intent and motive propels the world into disorder, alienation, and struggle. The human couple tragically alters each of their relationships: 1) there relationship with their creator; 2) their relationship with each other; 3) their relationship with the rest of the created order.
There is hope in chapter 4 of renewal with the first recorded birth.
The garden in jeopardy – Genesis 3:1-7
We do not know the time laps from the end of chapter 2 and the beginning of chapter 3. It could have been the next day, or it could have been a hundred years later. However the Stage is set, act one has commenced; our characters are introduced, queue the protagonist.
Chapter 3 we are introduced to the serpent. Verse one tells us that the serpent is the craftiest of all the creatures. The serpent speaks, and has a recorded brief conversation with the couple. He asks a seemingly innocent question. He does not outright call God a liar but he twists his words to imply that He is lying to them. After a reply from the woman he challenges Gods Truthfulness. He attacks the word of God head-on and questions Gods motives of withholding the fruit from them. He plants the seed of doubt in her mind.
After reevaluating the fruit and deciding that it was pleasing to the eye and useful for gaining wisdom she took and ate and gave some to her husband, who was there also. They then obeyed the animal, the opposite of what God had set up, and willfully disobeyed Gods command. The fruit did gain them knowledge, knowledge of the fact that they were naked. They are no longer innocent, they are vulnerable. So then try to cover up what they had done and make clothes out of fig leaves.
The garden lost – Genesis 3:8-19
Act two opens with God on the seen. The man and the woman hear God walking in the garden. And they hide, “Oh No! Dads home!”. God calls out them with a rhetorical question “Where are you?”, as if God did not already know. They come out and ashamed of there nakedness they report that they were afraid and hid. God asked the man out right did you eat and disobey me? The man who was silent in the last scene now tries to sidestep the question and shifts the blame back to the woman. It is telling in his language that he also want s to blame God for giving him this woman.
God then turns to the woman, asking for her side of the story. She answers the question acknowledging that she was tricked by the serpent. Here the oneness of the man and the woman is torn apart. The serpent is not given the chance to defend itself.
Punishment is dealt out swiftly in reverse order. Unlike the serpent, the man and woman were not cursed. The punishments of all three are twofold.
The serpent is cursed to crawl on his belly and eat the dust, and that there will be enmity between the serpent and the offspring of the woman.
Genesis 3:15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."(This is the first prophetic scripture pointing to Jesus.)
The woman is punished with increased pain in childbirth. Not that childbirth is the punishment but that it would be more painful. This does not imply that Eve had already had children but it also does not rule it out either. The second punishment is that she would have desire for her husband and he will rule over her. This is not to imply that women are inferior to men. This punishment is based around the domestic environment. The phrase “rule over” is the same as God is ruler of the universe and we are to rule over the earth and the animals that is described in chapter 1 and 2. We are responsible for there care not to lord it over them.
The Man is addressed in verse 17 and is rebuked for having listened to his wife and not the word of God. Here the earth is cursed. In chapter 2, man is given meaningful work, now he will have to work the whole earth and the ground will not yield it fruits willingly. Work has now become drudgery. He is also faced with mortality, the fact that one day he will die. Likely mortal before, rebellion against the creator of life forced death to become the center of our existence.
Expulsion from the garden – Genesis 3:20-24
The final scene demonstrates Gods love for the couple. Though he is forced to remove them from the garden and the tree of life, also the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he provides for them coverings made from animal skins. Now the animals that were entrusted to the man’s care are now to be there source of clothing. Conflict is the result of human rebellion. Human questioning of the divine intent and motive propels the world into disorder, alienation, and struggle. The human couple tragically alters each of their relationships: 1) there relationship with their creator; 2) their relationship with each other; 3) their relationship with the rest of the created order.
There is hope in chapter 4 of renewal with the first recorded birth.
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