Step by Step through the Old Testament

Carlton L. Arnold, Teacher

Week 5

9/8/02 : Genesis 2 & 3 - The Role of Husbands & Wives; Sin and the Fall

From Thru the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee, Volume 1: Genesis - Deuteronomy
©1997- 2001 Thru the Bible Radio Network , P.O. Box 7100, Pasadena, CA 91109

One of the things that really helps me in my Bible study is to know where I am and what's going on with what I'm studying. You see from Genesis 1 to Genesis 11, God does not spend a lot of time on Creation and early events. When we get to Genesis 12, we're getting into Abraham. That's the story of the founding of the Hebrew Nation. During this time, I want you to see the world events. In Genesis 1-11, we have Creation, the Fall, the Flood, and the Tower of Babel. We're going to hit those this week and next week before we get into Genesis 12. I want you to see that the rest of Genesis (chapters 12-50) is only 350 years. It's not a long time period in which we're going to be spending most of our time in Genesis. From Genesis 12 to the New Testament is 2,000 years. Four hundred years of that is a silent period between the Old and New Testaments. I hope that gives you an idea about the time that we're looking at when we're studying. The period of Judges, I mentioned that, is 300 years of the OT. It takes up a huge chunk of time. I will keep referring to this as we go through the OT, but I hope that helps you see that we'll be concentrating on, really, 350 years in Genesis and then we'll get to Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, etc.

Last week, we introduced the Creation. I wanted to pick up with chapter 2 of the book of Genesis. We talked about "rest" at the end of class last week. I gave you a challenge to try to "rest." The spiritual rest that God told us about. It was on my mind all week to say, "All right. Can I get five minutes of spiritual rest?" And there were two or three times where I felt that rest. It was the rest that I was telling you about. It's not sleep. It's not napping. It's not necessarily meditating in terms of a forced meditation. It's where you get to a point where you say, "You know, there's really nothing to be worried or concerned about. God is in control. God loves me. God has done everything for me. I have everything I need." And you're at "rest." That's what God did on the seventh day and that's what He has for us. We read about that, actually, throughout the Bible, but particularly in Hebrews in the NT.

So, we talked about "rest" at the beginning of chapter 2. I want to pick up with verse 7 of chapter 2. This is a repeat of the creation of man but gives us a little more detail. We'll see that God does that a lot. He'll give us something and then he'll repeat it and explain a little bit more throughout the Bible.

Genesis 2:7

the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

The word "formed" there (and back in Genesis 1:1 with "God created...") is an interesting Hebrew word "bara." The reason it is interesting is that the only time it is used is with God and it means "something out of nothing." That's the concept behind the Hebrew word "bara." God created something out of nothing. That's goes against some of the belief that you always have matter or energy or something. But here, God created. He spoke it into existence. It didn't exist before. He spoke it, and now it exists.

We could spend a lot of time on that phrase "living being." We've already talked about how God created man in His own image or in the image of God, the Father, God, the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit when He said, "Let's create man in our own image." "Living being" there means that there is more to this creation called "man" than there is to the other animals and all of the other Creation. God chose to create man with a personality, with a soul, with the abilities to reason and make moral judgments. God gave that to man and not to the other animals. That's obvious when you look at the animal world.

Genesis 2:8-9

Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground--trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

How many trees were in the Garden of Eden? There were a lot of trees in there of different types and different fruits, but there were two that were mentioned. One is called the Tree of Life and the other is called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. We'll read about the Tree of Life almost throughout the Bible, but especially when we get to Revelation because that's what we're going to see in Heaven. When we go to be with God, we'll see the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life is something that, when you think about it, "Is that something that if I eat the fruit of, I'd have life? And as long as I eat the fruit of it, I'd have life?" Maybe. Hold onto that concept. Now we have the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. What was that tree? Bad tree. It's the tree that you say, "Well, if I eat the fruit of it," what does that imply? That I'll know the difference between good and evil. In other words, all of a sudden, I'll have a choice here so that I can say, "This is good and that's evil. This is right and that's wrong." Skip down to verse 15.

Genesis 2:15-17

The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

You've got to work with me a little on this one. How old was Adam when God created him? Has anybody ever thought about that? 30? 18? 24? I want you to think about your answer. Think about that God created a man and he was already 24 years old or 30 years old or 80 years old. Think about that for a moment. God created something that in our minds, we usually say, "Things age. There is a start, then it ages, and then there is an end." We say it's 24 years old. God said, for example, "Let there be a man who is 30 years old." Can God do that? Sure. Now keep that in mind. Let's just pick thirty-I'm not saying that he was. Let's suppose that six years go by in the Garden of Eden. How old is Adam? 36? 6? Can Adam age in the Garden of Eden with the Tree of Life and no sin? No. So how old is he? 30? It doesn't matter. You could have him 180 or 1,080 or a million years old. Does he know it? No, because he has a oneness with God, a one relationship with God, the Tree of Life, and he's living in the Garden. God doesn't tell us how old Adam was when He created him. He doesn't tell us how long Adam was in the Garden. But those lengths of time could be any amount of time.

There wasn't anything called, "time." When did time come in? It is implied here that when you eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, you will surely "die." Do you think we'd care about time if we never died? Think about that. You women who don't want to share your ages, is time important to you? What if you lived forever? Do care about telling somebody, "Oh, I'm 180 years old."? Or, "Oh, I'm 1,060 years old."? Is that possible? There exists day and night, but would you keep up with it? Would you care? From God's perspective, does He look at and care that, "Well, I've got to finish this at 11:45 or it's going to be in trouble."? Does God care about that? No. Who cares about time? We do. We're the ones. We're the ones who keep count of it because, when I hit 29, what do I fear? 30. When I hit 39, what do I fear? 40. What are we doing? We're the ones concerned about time. When we die and go to be with God, what is your concept of time or what do you care about time then? What is it? It's eternity. It's only here, on this world, right now, that we've got this problem with time.

When we talk about time, we have to use this word, die, as in "you shall surely die." If you're like me when I first read that word, die, what did you think of? What's the first thing that comes to your mind? Physical death. When you eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, you're going to die. So the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil must be poisonous, so Adam eats it and he's going to fall down and die. But he doesn't do that. Does he? How long does he live after he eats of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? Let's say, 700 years. Did Adam die when he ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? No? Yes, he did! Did he die physically? No. He died spiritually! He separated himself in his relationship (that I told you about and always keep coming back to) with God because he disobeyed God. God said, "Don't eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. You can eat of the other thousands and millions of trees that will give you everything you need. You can eat of all of those, but don't eat of this one tree called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil."

Here is a question: Would Adam have ever died had he not eaten of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? No. Read it. This is where death enters. I think God meant two things: spiritually die, immediately, and physically die, later on. This is a merciful God. This is a gracious God. I want you to look on death this way. God said, "You're going to die, physically, because I don't want you to live forever in the state of sin. I want for you to be with me." If we lived forever in a sinful state, we could never be with God. So we have a physical death. There's a physical and spiritual death. You need to look at it that way. He didn't die, physically, as soon as he ate of it. He died later on. The clock started ticking, and he died.

Genesis 2:18

The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."

Now, here is woman (helper). We have to use that word, helper, there. That's all you women are-helpers. I tell you, I'm going to challenge you, women, today. You all may never show up for class again. I'm going to challenge you with the spiritual versus worldly. Here's the Spirit World versus the Earthly World concept of the role of a woman. I'm going to challenge you with the spiritual concept. I'm going to show you what God intended. Not what the world has come out with, but what God intended.

Genesis 2:20b-21

But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh.

He could have picked anything, but He picked a rib. He could have picked a head, a foot, a kidney, anything, but He picked a rib. Why? Any significance to picking a rib? Where's your rib? On your side. I think that means something. I don't think He just arbitrarily said, "I like ribs, so I'm going to do ribs today." No. I think He said, "I want something alongside." Hold that thought. I'm trying to give you God's perspective on this. I don't think it was arbitrary. I think God said, "I'm going to take a rib." So He takes a rib and closes the place up with flesh.

Genesis 2:22-23

Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called `woman,' for she was taken out of man."

Who brought the woman to man? God. Did you know He was the first father of the bride? How about that? God was father of the bride-He brought the woman to the man. When you got married, who brought you? Your father usually does that. It's customary in a wedding.

Genesis 2:24-25

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

We're going to get into this. Over in Ephesians, chapter 5, it says, "Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands." Does it not? How many have heard that? Everybody's heard that. Do you know what the verse says before it? Before it says, "Everyone should submit to one another." That's what it says. And then it says, "Wives, submit to your husbands." Wives, hold onto this. I am talking about married couples here. Did you know that it doesn't say, "Wives, love your husbands."? It doesn't say that. This doesn't mean that you can't love them. But it says, "Wives, respect your husbands." The word, helper, here, is the word for agreeing, answering to, or responding to. Before anybody gets real upset about what I said, wives, the spiritual concept is a helper-agreeing with, following, and responding to your husband. I want for you to hold that spiritual thought for this is what a woman does.

But man, over in Ephesians 5, is told to love his wife as Christ loved the Church. The man has the responsibility to love his wife. Read verse 24 again. Have you ever thought about the fact that it doesn't say for the woman to leave her parents? What does it say? The man. Why? I think this is a spiritual concept that says, "I want men to understand because they're going to have all other kinds of things that they want to do." But I want men to understand the spiritual concept here that they are the leaders. They are going to be the spiritual leaders of the home and their spiritual leadership means loving their wives. Loving their wives. Forgiving. What does Christ do with the Church? When the Church has all kinds of problems, what does Christ do? He loves it. When you go off the beaten path, what does Christ do? He loves you. He forgives you. What are husbands supposed to do from a spiritual point of view? They're supposed to so love their wives that they sacrifice themselves. They never have anything lacking. If the husband is doing that, what is the wife supposed to do? Respond to that love. Agree with that love. Follow that love. Do you understand? That's what I read in here.

To clinch this, go over to Psalm 30:10. One of the things that's very, very good to do (for those who really want to get into this) is get a book on word study--Strong's Concordance is one. It is an exhaustive concordance of every word in the Bible and it tells you the original Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek meanings behind the words. It also tells you where the word appears other places in the Bible. If you have a word that you have a problem with, you can go to Strong's Concordance, find the word in question (like "helper" in Genesis 2:18), and go other places in the Bible to find the same Hebrew word. Where is it used? If you go to the other places that the word is used, what will it help you do? It may help you understand the context. In Psalms 30:10, we will find the word "helper." And it is the same Hebrew word. I want for you to tell me who the helper is.

Psalms 30:10

Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me; O LORD, be my help."

Guess what the Hebrew word for help there is? It's the same Hebrew word that we just read for the woman to be the helper. Who is going to be the helper here? The Lord. I want for you to think about that for a moment. Think of the worldly definition of submission--what we have been trained and brain-washed with as far as what women are to do by women's organizations and everything. If we go to that definition, what have we just done to God? Do you see what I'm driving at? You've got to look at the spiritual definition--what God is telling you a helper is. God said that in Psalms 30:10. Go to chapter 54, verse 4, and tell me who the helper is.

Psalms 54:4

Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me.

God. If God intended for the woman to have a certain role, a certain way of looking at things with her husband and be called "helper," what did that mean? Does that help you understand what God is as your helper? What is the wife supposed to be? The helper. The one there when you need her there. The one that when things aren't going so right and the man gets down on himself--what's the woman supposed to be? There for help, just like you want God there when you're down and things aren't going right and there are trials and tribulations. What is the husband supposed to do? Leave the mother and father and cling to his wife.

There's so much in this Genesis story here. What about the "one flesh?" The husband has one spiritual role in life: Take care of the helper. Love the helper. Be united with the helper. This afternoon, when you're in front of the TV, watching the Falcons play the Packers, and your wife needs something, what are you supposed to do? Men, as serious as I can be, you turn off that TV and you love your wife. You help her. You love her. You take care of her ahead of what you think you want. Don't say, "Well, I've worked all week. I think I've earned it." This is God, way back in Genesis. Question: Didn't they have a lot of arranged marriages back then? Yes, but I want for you to understand. This is back in Creation and here's God talking about marriage before man started "redefining" marriage to fit something that man wanted and not God. You say, "Wait a minute. It's just Adam and Eve. What's all of this about leaving fathers and mothers?" Who's the father of Adam?" God. Who's the father of Eve? God. So God's saying, "This is going to be important for the rest of the Bible." This thing. Do you understand why marriage is so important throughout the rest of the Bible? Because God said, up front, "This is what's going to happen." And then God uses the concept of marriage to tell us about how Christ loves us, the Church. That's what is so sacred and precious to God about the marriage of a man and a woman. God says, "I'm going to give this to men and women. This is my concept of marriage." Now we've taken it and just turned it all upside down and made a mess of it. But that is God's concept. Is everybody with me?

From the class: The fundamental essence of man is to love the woman. The fundamental essence of woman came from man. So, some people teach that woman is, by definition, more human than man. Emerging from that is an understanding of the woman being all of the wonderful, more humane, more genteel, etc., and the man being more crude, more elemental. The fundamental essence of man and woman are different.

Can everybody see what he's saying? Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus. We're all different.

From the class: Or, Men are from Dirt, therefore they are dirty. Women are clean.

Ha, ha, ha.

All right, Genesis, chapter three. I would like for you, sometime during this week, to read chapter two and then read chapter four and skip chapter three. You'll find creation goes from "good" to "evil" (murder). We're going to go through three right now. Chapter 3 is one of those key, important--almost unbelievably important--to the Bible in terms of understanding what chapter three contains. Chapter 3 has all of this stuff in it:

Chapter 3:

• Divine explanation of the present fallen and ruined condition of our race.
• Learn of the subtle devices of our enemy, the devil.
• See the utter powerlessness of man to walk in the path of righteousness.
• Discover the spiritual effects of sin; man seeking to flee from God.
• Discern the attitude of God toward the guilty sinner.
• Mark the universal tendency of human nature to cover its own moral shame by man's work.
• Teaches the gracious provision which God has made to meet our great need.
• Begins the marvelous stream of prophecy which runs all through the Holy Scriptures.
• Learn that man cannot approach God except through a mediator.

I'm not going to go through all of this because this is a lot. But we're going to talk about every one of them. I will show you all of this in chapter 3. It's the Fall. We've gotten through Creation and now it's the Fall. That's what's in chapter 3. I'm going to read it and comment on it. There are some humorous things in there, but also some insightful things about why we have the things we have today--the fallen condition of man and the depravity of man. When you read chapter three, this is where every person gets to a point where he has to admit, before they come to terms with what God has for them, "I am a depraved, sinful creature. I am. That's tacked on from Adam and I am that way." You can't blame Adam. You've got to blame yourself because you're going to see that it's your decision. It's what you do with your life. You are sinful. You cannot maintain righteousness. You're going to give it up. You're going to be in a situation where you're going to compromise your beliefs. That's us. We're depraved, without any hope. That's what we're going to see. Why we have this today is in chapter 3.

Genesis 3:1-6

Genesis 3:7

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Back in 2:25, "The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame." Now they realize they are naked. What happened between "naked and not ashamed" and now "naked and ashamed"? Innocence lost. They became aware of evil. Adam had a different look at Eve and Eve had a different look at Adam. There are some other things that happened, and this is one that I really like. When you go back over to 2:25, some people believe that they had the Glory of God around them. Because of the Glory of God, they were naked but didn't realize it because God was with them. But when they ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, God's Glory left them and so now they have none. They are exposed. I like that because it kind of fits how we are today. A child grows up with a kind of innocence about them.

Question: If He didn't want them to fail, why did He have the tree there to begin with? Let me ask you: what kind of creature or creation would there be if there was no temptation? Would everything not be robot-like or predictive? It is our will. God says, "We're going to make you in our image and you've got to have a choice." If you don't have a choice, what are you? You're just worshipping and praising me because you don't have a choice. You don't have anything else to choose from.

If there wasn't the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, there would have been the Car of Knowledge of Good and Evil. There had to be something that God said, "I want you to be able to choose." Out of all of the other animals, if an animal had eaten of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, what would have happened? Nothing. They were not created in the image of God to have that will-power or decision-making or choice. Satan used the one thing. In your life, think about your temptations. What happens? Satan will use your Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil to get at you. That's what Satan will do.

God came in and said, "I'm going to create man to worship me in the worst of all places. I'm going to make the Garden of Eden. I'm going to make the Tree of Life. I'm also going to make all of these other trees, but I'm going to make it such that he can fall. He can choose not me." Just like us, today.

Who has dominion on the Earth at this point? God. He hasn't given it up yet. We're about to give it up. I want for you to see that. God kicked Satan to Earth. Then God created Eden, created all the animals, created Adam and Eve, and everything else right in Satan's backyard.

We have this decision point where Eve and Adam said, "We will disobey God and we're going to eat of this Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil." This is exactly what you do with every sin that you commit. You know better, but you say, "I choose this even though I know God said that." You have to admit this. You have to look yourself in the mirror. You have to look at God and say, "God, I did that. Of my own, personal accountability, I did it myself. I chose this even though I knew that's what you wanted for me. That is sin. It's disobedience. That is spiritual death. It is dying spiritually and physically. That's why we need Jesus Christ. That's why we can't do it ourselves.

Now, look at this. What did they do to hide their nakedness? They sewed fig leaves together. Who is trying to make themselves look righteous? Hold onto this. Who? Man. Man is trying to make themselves look righteous. Man is trying to cover up their sins. What do we do when we choose the wrong thing? "Let me cover up for it. Let me get rid of this. Let me get rid of that. Let me get rid of the evidence. Let me do this and that so that I can feel good about myself." We can't do it.

Genesis 3:8

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

Why did they hide? And guess what you do when you sin? You hide, and the last thing God wants for you to do is hide. God wants for you to run to Him and confess to Him your sins and God says, "I'll clean you up."

Next week, we're going to see the curse that God placed on the serpent, on woman, and on man. There's one thing that I want for you to study about. In verse 16, the Bible says, "and your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you." That is the very key passage on why we have the conflict between men and women today.

Prayer:

Father, we thank you for this morning for your Word and how exciting it is, Father, to delve into your Word and, God, to have our own mindset but approaching it, hopefully with an open mind, saying, "Let's look at it from your point, God. What did you mean when you created women as helper? What did you mean when you said, 'Men, leave your father and mother and be united with your wife'?" Father, teach us these things. Let us learn the spiritual context of things, and, God, you say that we can live, and we are living today, with all of the power and all of the spiritual blessings that you have already given us here on this earth. We don't have to wait for Heaven. We already have it. We can have rest here in this world, right now, today. God, continue to be patient with us. Thank you for forgiving us of our sins. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

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Teacher's Email: carltonlcv@gmail.com

Web page / Transcriptioning email: agapeeric@aim.com

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®.
Copyright©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.
Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.