Great chapters of the Bible can be great for various reasons. One of the main reasons they are great is the greatness of their content. The content of these great chapters may be great events, insights about God, or tragic stories of human folly. We read in 1 Timothy 3:15 that all Scripture is God-breathed; it’s inspired. That means that all of Scripture is great, and every chapter is great. But those chapters with exceptional content are exceptional chapters. They speak of things so monumental that we take special note of them. There are other reasons that we consider certain chapters in the Bible to stand above the rest. Some chapters in the Bible reveal and chronicle great turning points in the flow of redemptive history and the plan of God. We can easily understand turning points. We’ve all experienced them in our own lives in large and small ways. Most people make sense of their lives in relation to some turning point, whether personal, family, or national. We find these turning points throughout the Bible. One such major turning point in the Bible is Genesis chapter three.
Genesis three marks a most significant turning point in the history of the world. What happened in Genesis three had a profound and catastrophic effect on life in the world for billions of people for many millennia following those events. Genesis three narrates the fall of humankind and the world into sin, corruption, and judgment. It would be hard to measure the magnitude of these bad decisions. The story of Genesis three unfolds in three movements. First, there is temptation (3:1-7). Second, there is judgment and promise (3:8-21). And finally, there is alienation (3:22-24).
Temptation
As the chapter begins, we are introduced to one of the creatures the Lord God made. This creature, the serpent, is said to be more crafty than all the other creatures. This creature is crafty because he talks. He begins to question the woman and place doubts in her mind. He questions the very word of God by asking, “Did God really say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” This is a subtle deception to lead her from the Lord. Then, the serpent goes a step further by denying the consequences of her disobedience. “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The deception is that God is holding something back, that God is deceptive. The woman takes the bait of the serpent, eats the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and gives some to her husband. They sinned against the Lord God, and in doing so, they fell from the favor and blessing of the Lord, taking the world down with them. As a result of their sin against God, they experienced shame for the first time. They realized that they were naked with the dread of exposure. So they went to work to solve their problem by hiding behind fig leaves.
Judgment and Promise
When the Lord approached the man and the woman, they hid from him. They were fearful of the usual warm and intimate fellowship they had heretofore experienced with the Lord. Exposure is too traumatic to take. The Lord questioned them about what they had done, and they blamed one another and the serpent. What happened next is that the Lord passed judgment upon them with a promise tucked in the middle, providing a single glimmer of hope. The Lord dealt with the serpent first, then the woman, and finally with the man. The judgment was devastating and consequential for their lives and for the future history of the world. Things would not be the same. To say that life would be different and difficult would be an understatement. That day, they experienced spiritual death and would, in time, experience physical death, returning to the dust from which the Lord had made them. But in the curse upon the serpent, the Lord gives a promise to the man and the woman. “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he will bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:16). Some male descendant of Eve will reverse the damage done and restore the world.
Alienation
After the judgment of God, he banished them from the garden and his presence. They no longer knew the rich fellowship of the Lord’s presence. Their lives were radically different as a consequence of their sin. Their world was now a hostile place. Danger and death lurked around every corner. Fear and pain were their constant companion. They lived in the fallout of their tragic decision. They were barred from access to the tree of life, living constantly in the shadow of death. They were alienated from the life of God, but they had the promise of the seed of the woman. And they had a pale vestige of their former relationship in the sacrificial worship of the Lord God.
Conclusion
Genesis chapter three is one of the major turning points in the storyline of the Bible. Its significance can not be overestimated. It impacts everything thereafter. It is the reason for everything that follows. Today, we still live in the wreckage and ruin of that chapter. But it does explain our world to us. That first flickering hope of a promise in the seed of the woman grows over time in the progress of the biblical revelation. More is revealed and known of God’s redemptive plan and work in the world. Through the redemptive covenants: the Abrahamic covenant, the Mosaic covenant, the David covenant, and the New covenant, we learn more and more of the one who would come, the Messiah. Then, the revelation of God reaches its fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. The God-man is born into the world, lives a sinless life, is crucified for the sins of the world, and on the third day, is resurrected from the dead. In the work of Christ, all the consequences of the Fall of Adam are reversed and redeemed. Forgiveness is offered. Mankind is now welcomed back into the garden of the new heaven and the new earth, the new Jerusalem, to live eternally with the Lord God. There will be no more pain, suffering, sorrow or death. The old has passed, and the new has come. Though the past may haunt us, the future brings hope.