Eve

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring[a] and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:14 ESV)

This is the protoevangelium, the first good news. It is the first announcement of the gospel and the coming of Christ. I actually like the NIV translation, as it reads, “ he will crush your head” instead of a bruise. The head being crushed is Satan, and one crushing it is Christ.

Genesis 3 reveals the tragedy of humanity.

First, we see Satan's first work in creation. He led Eve away from God and told the very first lie. Hence, Jesus told us he is the father of lies (John 8:44). Second, Satan began humanities questioning God's words and deciding whether to believe and obey them. It was the first time Satan instigated a human decision to challenge the morality and applicability of God's word to human life.

Throughout Genesis 2, we read the words the “Lord God,” 2:15,16,18, 19, 21, and so on. In chapter 3, Satan calls the Lord God, God. Not Yahweh but Elohim. By eliminating Lord, his demeaning referral to God by Satan is done because Satan does not want to recognize the authority of God, His sovereignty, the very sovereignty that got Satan kicked out of heaven.

Satan did this by using and twisting God’s words. “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?” You can almost hear the inflection change from “you can eat fruit in the garden but this one”, to you cannot eat every fruit in the garden. In this way, the inflection went from one of bounty to one of restriction. In this way, Satan casts doubt on the word of God.

The next is that Satan quotes scripture. He quotes Genesis 2:16-17, “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Satan uses this scripture to challenge Eve with the idea that God is unjust; God is covetous in that God does not want Adam or Eve to be like Him. The first series of sins included the desire to be like God. This is perpetuated today in the prosperity gospel.

Using this scripture, the first lie was told: “You will not surely die.” Satan was attempting to make it seem to Eve that he had her best interest in mind. This led to the first human following Satan instead of God. They did die, as did all of us. It was a spiritual death, not a physical death. It was a death Satan needed to occur in his attempt to thwart God further. Satan succeeded in his mission. The same mission Satan undertakes today is to take as many people as possible from God into darkness.

Sometimes, people will say that Eve did not know what she was doing. Eve did not realize it was evil she was speaking with. Eve was innocent. I would argue that Eve knew God. She knew God as her Creator, her provider, and her Father. Eve knew better, and her response to Satan was weak at best. She also had a direct command from God which she disobeyed.

Both Adam and Eve sinned against God, and as the Head of the human race, Adam bears the responsibility. But Eve committed the first sin, and as Adam followed, it was through Him that the essence of sin was passed on to humanity. Satan still does this today. We know better because we know God, but there are others who, unlike Eve, do not know God or know a false God.

Leupold wrote, “Over against such misconceptions, we strongly maintain that the taking of the fruit was not the fall into sin; that fall had occurred before this act; the taking of the fruit was an incidental bit of evidence of the fact that man had fallen. However, the Fall as such was nothing less in character than an entirely inexcusable piece of rebellion against a very gracious Father who not only had withheld nothing good from man but had even bestowed such an overwhelming wealth of good things that revolt against such a one must in the very nature of the case be a sin of the deepest hue, yes, even the one great sin in the history of the human race.”1 The first sin was not in eating; it was when she believed God was not good and that God had restricted her from that which was worthwhile.

Nothing has changed. All sin comes from distrusting God, questioning, not obeying, deciding to do as we please, and openly rebelling against God. Just look around you; all sin comes from distrusting God.

In Genesis 3:15, immediately after the Fall, God announced that plan to Satan. God cursed the man, and the woman, and Satan. On that day, Satan heard his end was coming and that all the evil in Satan would be crushed by the Messiah.

Despite this sin, despite the disobeying, despite the outrageous rebellion against a good God, God sent His Son to bear our sin so that we may be made righteous before God. Our sins are forgiven, and we are able to have a relationship with God again. Praise God for His Grace and Mercy.

Grace and Peace!

1 H.C. Leupold D.D., Exposition of Genesis, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1950, 1.147