Genesis 3:6 - Meaning and Application

Here we see what Eve’s talk with the tempter came to at last. Satan finally won the point, and the stronghold was taken by his tricks. God had tested the obedience of our first parents by forbidding them the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and Satan, so to speak, challenged God at that very point. He then worked to lead them into disobedience, and here we see how he succeeded, with God allowing it for wise and holy purposes.

We first see what led them to sin. The woman, deceived by the tempter’s clever handling, was first in the transgression (1 Timothy 2:14). She was the first to go wrong, and it came from careful thought, or rather from a failure to think rightly. She saw no harm in this tree beyond any other tree. The other trees in Eden were all pleasant to look at and good for food (Genesis 2:9), and now this one seemed the same to her. It looked as fit to eat as any of the rest, and she saw nothing in its fruit that warned her of death or danger. Why should this one be forbidden more than the others? When people think forbidden fruit is no worse than permitted fruit, sin is already close at hand, and Satan soon wins. In fact, it may have seemed even better to her for food, more pleasing to the eye, and more nourishing to the body. We are often trapped by an excessive desire to please our senses. Or, if it had nothing special in itself, it may have become more desired simply because it was forbidden. Whether that was true of her or not, we see it clearly in ourselves, in our fallen nature. We want what is forbidden.

She also imagined this tree had more value than the others, because she thought it could make her wise. She saw it, that is, she understood it from what the devil had told her. Some think she even saw the serpent eat from it, and that he said he had gained speech and reason from it. From that, she may have reasoned that it could make her wise too. If it could make a brute animal rational, why could it not make a rational creature like a god? See here how the desire for extra knowledge, under the false idea of wisdom, has ruined many. Our first parents, who knew so much, did not know this, that they already knew enough. Christ is the tree to be desired to make one wise (Colossians 2:3; 1 Corinthians 1:30). Let us feed on him by faith, so that we may become wise for salvation. In the heavenly paradise, the tree of knowledge will not be forbidden, for there we shall know as we are known. So let us long to be there, and in the meantime avoid reaching for things too high or too deep for us, and do not seek to be wiser than what is written.

Now we come to the steps of the sin, steps not upward, but downward toward the pit, steps that lead toward hell. She saw. She should have turned her eyes away from what was vain, but instead she entered temptation by looking with pleasure at the forbidden fruit. Much sin comes in through the eyes. Through these windows Satan throws his fiery darts, which pierce and poison the heart. The eye troubles the heart with guilt as well as grief. So let us, like Job, make a covenant with our eyes not to look at what we may be tempted to desire (Proverbs 23:31; Matthew 5:28). Let the fear of God cover our eyes (Genesis 20:16).

She took. This was her own act. The devil did not force the fruit into her mouth, whether she wanted it or not. She herself took it. Satan may tempt, but he cannot force. He may urge us to throw ourselves down, but he cannot throw us down (Matthew 4:6). Eve’s taking was theft, like Achan taking the devoted thing, taking what she had no right to take. Surely she took it with a trembling hand.

She ate. Perhaps when she looked, she did not mean to take it, and when she took it, she did not mean to eat it. But that is where it led. Sin is downhill. A person cannot stop whenever he wants. The start of sin is like water bursting out, and then it is hard to say, “You may come this far, but no farther.” So it is wisdom to stop the first stirrings of sin and leave it alone before we touch it. Nip trouble in the bud.

She also gave some to her husband with her. It is likely that he was not with her when she was tempted, because if he had been there, he would surely have stepped in to stop the sin. Instead, he came to her after she had eaten, and she persuaded him to eat as well. It is easier to learn what is bad than to teach what is good. She gave it to him with the same arguments the serpent had used with her, adding that she herself had eaten it and found it not deadly, but very pleasant and satisfying. Stolen waters are sweet. She gave it to him under the cover of kindness, as if she did not want to enjoy the delicious fruit alone. But in truth, it was the greatest harm she could do him. Or perhaps she wanted him to share her misery if it turned out badly. That seems very unkind, yet after eating forbidden fruit, such thoughts may easily enter the human heart. Those who have done wrong themselves are often ready to draw others into the same wrong. As the devil was, so Eve became. No sooner was she a sinner than she was a tempter.

He ate, too, overcome by his wife’s urging. It is needless to ask what would have happened if Eve alone had sinned. God’s wisdom would have settled the matter justly. But that was not the case. Adam also ate. “What great harm was there in that?” says corrupt and fleshly reasoning. What harm? This act showed unbelief in God’s word and trust in the devil’s word. It showed discontent with his present state, pride in his own worth, ambition for honor that does not come from God, envy of God’s greatness, and surrender to bodily appetite. By neglecting the tree of life, from which he was allowed to eat, and by eating from the tree that was forbidden, he plainly showed contempt for the gifts God had given him and preference for what God had not seen fit to give. He wanted to decide for himself, rule himself, and have his own way. In one word, his sin was disobedience (Romans 5:19), disobedience to a clear, easy, and direct command, which he likely knew was a command given as a test.

He sinned with full knowledge, against many acts of mercy, and against the clearest light and love. No sinful nature within him was pulling him down, and nothing had weakened his will. He turned aside quickly. Some think he fell on the very day he was made, but that is hard to fit with God’s saying everything was very good at the end of that day. Others think he fell on the Sabbath day, which would make it, in a sense, the worse deed on the better day.

Still, it is certain that he kept his uprightness for only a very short time. “Being in honor, he did not remain” (Psalm 49:12). The greatest part of his guilt was that he brought all his descendants into sin and ruin with him. Since God had told him that his race would fill the earth, he must have known that he stood as a representative for the whole human family. His disobedience would be deadly for all his children, and if so, it was the greatest betrayal and cruelty ever known. Because human nature was first placed wholly in our first parents, it had to be passed on from them afterward under a sentence of guilt, a stain of shame, and a family disease of sin and corruption. So can we really say that Adam’s sin did little harm?

The final results of this sin were shame and fear, and they came with the sin itself. They still go with sin today. Shame seized them first, without anyone seeing it, in Genesis 3:7. Their own hearts were strongly convicted. “The eyes of both of them were opened.” This does not mean their physical eyes were opened, because those were open already, since the sin came in through them. It also does not mean they gained true wisdom. Instead, their consciences were opened, and their hearts struck them for what they had done.

Too late, they saw how foolish it was to eat the forbidden fruit. They saw what happiness they had lost and what misery they had entered. They saw that they had offended a loving God, lost his grace and favor, and forfeited his likeness. They saw that their rule over the creatures was gone. They saw their nature corrupted and twisted, and they felt disorder in their own souls, something they had never known before. They saw a law in their bodies fighting against the law of their minds and dragging them toward sin and judgment. They saw, like Balaam when his eyes were opened (Numbers 22:31), the angel of the Lord standing in the way with a drawn sword in his hand. Perhaps they even saw the serpent who had deceived them now mocking them.

The text says they saw that they were naked. This means, first, that they were stripped of the honors and joys of their life in paradise, and exposed to all the misery that could rightly come from an angry God. They were left defenseless. It also means they were shamed, and shamed forever, before God and angels. They saw that they had lost their robes of honor, were stripped of dignity, and were exposed to the contempt of heaven, earth, and their own consciences.

Here we see how dishonorable and troubling sin is. It brings harm wherever it enters. It turns people against themselves, destroys their peace, and takes away their comfort. In the end, it always brings shame, either the shame of true repentance, which leads to glory, or the shame and everlasting contempt that will come on the wicked at the last day. Sin is a disgrace to any people.

We also see how much of a deceiver Satan is. He told our first parents, when tempting them, that their eyes would be opened. They were opened, but not in the way he meant. They were opened to shame and grief, not to honor or advantage. So when Satan speaks kindly, do not trust him. The most harmful liars often try to defend themselves by saying they only used a double meaning, but God will not accept that excuse.

Then came their weak attempt to cover what they had done and shield themselves from conviction. They sewed or wove fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves, at least to hide part of their shame from each other. This is a common picture of sinners. They care more about keeping up appearances before people than about seeking pardon from God. They are slow to confess sin and eager to hide it as much as they can. “I have sinned, yet honor me.” The excuses people make to hide or soften their sins are empty and useless. Like fig-leaf aprons, they do not improve the matter at all. They only make the shame worse. Yet we are all inclined to cover our transgressions like Adam (Job 31:33).

Fear seized them right after they ate the forbidden fruit, in Genesis 3:8. The cause of their fear was that they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. It was the Judge’s approach that frightened them, though his coming was only terrifying to guilty consciences. It is likely he came in human form, and the one judging the world then is the same who will judge the world at the end, the man God has appointed.

He appeared to them, it seems, in the same form they had seen when he placed them in paradise. He came to convict and humble them, not to overwhelm them with terror. He came into the garden, not coming straight down from heaven in a way they could see, as he later did on Mount Sinai, but in a manner that still allowed for nearness. He came walking, not rushing, teaching us that even when we are provoked, we should not be hot-tempered or hasty. We should think carefully before we speak or act.

He came in the cool of the day, not in the night, when fears are stronger, and not in the heat of the day, for he did not come in the heat of anger. “Fury is not in him” (Isaiah 27:4). He did not come suddenly upon them. They heard his voice from a distance, which gave them notice of his coming. It was likely a quiet voice, like the one in which he later came to question Elijah. Some think they heard him speaking to himself about Adam’s sin and the judgment to follow, as he did concerning Israel (Hosea 11:8-9). But it is more likely that they heard him calling for them and coming toward them.

They hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God, and this was a sad change. Before they sinned, if they had heard the Lord God coming toward them, they would have run to meet him. They would have welcomed his kind visits with humble joy. Now it was different. God had become a terror to them, and so it is no surprise that they were a terror to themselves and full of confusion.

Their own consciences accused them and showed their sin in its true colors. Their fig leaves could not help them anymore. God had come against them as an enemy, and all creation seemed to be at war with them. At this point they did not know of any mediator, that is, someone who stands between sinners and an angry God. So nothing seemed left but a fearful waiting for judgment.

In their fear they hid among the bushes. They had offended God, and now they fled for the same reason. Since they knew they were guilty, they did not dare face a trial. They ran from justice instead.

Here we can see the falsehood of the tempter and the deceit in his promises. He told them they would be safe, but now they could not even feel safe. He said they would not die, yet now they were forced to run for their lives. He promised they would be lifted up, but they found themselves humbled and brought low. They had never seemed so small as now. He promised them knowledge, but they did not even know where to hide. He promised they would be like gods, great and bold, but they were like exposed criminals, trembling, pale, and eager to escape. They would not be subjects, and now they were prisoners.

We also see the folly of sinners who think they can hide from God. Can they hide from the Father of lights (Psalm 139:7; Jeremiah 23:24)? Can they turn away from the fountain of life, the only one who can give help and happiness (Jonah 2:8)? Sin brings this kind of fear. The fear of God’s presence, the accusations of conscience, the approach of trouble, the attacks of lesser creatures, and the fear of death, which is so common among people, all grow out of sin.

Adam and Eve shared the sin, and they also shared the shame and fear that came with it. Though they had just been joined together in marriage, they could not comfort or strengthen each other now. They had become miserable comforters to one another.