Journey Through Genesis- The Fall (Gen. 3:1-19) by: Francis Jackson

      The story of the fall is very important because within defines how our depraved nature came about. Man, in the original state was perfect, but creaturely- meaning they were still inferior to God. In creating mankind, God set up a theocratic form of government in which the chain of command was Man-Woman-Creature (Gen. 1:26; 2:18; 1 Cor. 11:8-9). Knowing this system of government helps us to better understand why Satan came in the form of a serpent. His plan was, and still is to pervert the system in which God set up for Himself. As a result, the woman follows the creature and the man follows the woman, rebelling against God and flipping His system upside down. In bringing this about, Satan came to Eve with the focus on the restriction (Gen.3:1). He also takes the word God uses in reference to all the other trees they could have ,"every," to exaggerate the restriction (2:16). Eve has her own mishandling with words in her response. One, God never said they counldn't touch the forbidden tree but just couldn't eat of it (Gen. 2:17) and two, He said they could eat freely from every other one (v.16). Eve responded leaving out the words "every" and "freely." Satan then brought it home by making the restriction appear as something good God was keeping away from man and twisted the truth to do it (Gen. 3:4-5). They would become like God, knowing good and evil, but they also would die (3:22). Nonetheless, they ate (v.6). Then the most amazing part, God, the wonderful Creator, used their nakedness to expose their sin (2:25; 3:10-11). From there, guilt caused them to blame one another (3:12-13), God issued the punishments (3:14-19), and promised us a Savior (3:15).