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Well, here we are — Day 3 of 1,189. Yesterday we saw the close-up: God forming man with His own hands, breathing His breath into him, planting a garden, and bringing the woman to be his wife. Today, the Bible takes us to the saddest chapter in the whole Book — and yet, hidden right inside it, one of the most hopeful verses you’ll ever read. So before we read the chapter, let’s talk about it first — that way, when you read it, you’ll see what God was doing even in the middle of the fall.

Let’s talk about it

The chapter opens with the serpent — “more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.” And the very first words out of his mouth are a question: “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” Friend, that is the devil’s oldest trick, and he still uses it today: get you doubting what God said. Question the Word, and everything else crumbles.

Eve answers — mostly right, but she adds a little to God’s command. God had said don’t eat of it; she says “Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” Adding to God’s word is a dangerous game, and the serpent pounces on the crack: “Ye shall not surely die.” The first lie ever told. Then the bait: “ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Pride. Be like God. Run your own life. He still sells that one every single day.

“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” Now catch that — her husband was WITH her. Adam was standing right there and said nothing. Sometimes sin isn’t what you do; it’s what you let happen while you watch.

Their eyes were opened, and the first thing they knew was shame. They sewed fig leaves together. That’s man’s first try at religion — covering ourselves, fixing ourselves. It never works, then or now.

Then comes my favorite part of this sad chapter: “And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.” God came looking for them! He knew where they were — He called, “Where art thou?” not because He needed directions, but because He wanted Adam to answer. Friend, God still comes walking after runaways. Now isn’t that exciting?

And then the blame game — the world’s first one. Adam said, “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” He’s blaming Eve — and if you listen close, he’s blaming God a little too: the woman YOU gave me. Eve points at the serpent: “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.” Nobody owns it. We still do the same thing.

God pronounces judgment: the serpent cursed to crawl on his belly; sorrow for the woman; a cursed ground, thorns, and sweat for the man — “dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

But right in the middle of the curse, God plants a promise — verse 15, the first prophecy of Jesus in the whole Bible: “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” The seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head. That serpent got his head bruised at the cross, friend — and the bruised heel was Calvary. I’d call that a gift from God: the very day sin entered the world, God announced the Savior who would end it.

Adam names his wife Eve, “because she was the mother of all living” — hope, even in the fall. Then God does something beautiful: He makes them coats of skins and clothes them Himself. Think about it — for there to be coats of skins, something had to die. The first death in the Bible, and it happened so God could cover man’s shame. Every coat since has pointed to the day Jesus would be the covering we couldn’t make for ourselves.

Then they’re driven from the garden, and God places cherubims with a flaming sword to keep the way of the tree of life. That wasn’t cruelty — that was mercy. If they had eaten of the tree of life in their fallen state, they’d have lived forever in sin, and there’d have been no way back.

A question to think about while you read

When you’ve messed up, do you run and hide like Adam — or do you run back to the God who’s already coming to find you?

Now read the chapter — Genesis 3 (KJV)

1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Paradise was lost that day — but right in the middle of the curse, God promised a Savior. The story was just getting started.

Tomorrow: Genesis 4 — two brothers, two offerings, and the first murder. See you there.

— Uncle Ricky

If today’s reading reminds you that God was covering us before we could cover ourselves, take a look at the Uncle Ricky’s Bible mug in the shop — a good reminder for the kitchen table.