Genesis 4

Study Guide 3: Genesis 3-4 DEATH REIGNS Overview With Genesis 3:1-24 there comes a shattering of the idyllic picture of man in Eden. With a sudden jolt the harmony of original Creation is torn with discord; a wild cacophony of sounds among which we can hear notes of anger, jealousy, pride, disobedience, murder, and the accompanying inner agonies of pain and shame and guilt. God’ s creation of man as a person stands as the source of good in us; now we face the source of evil. Genesis 3:1-24 describes the Fall; Genesis 4:1-26 is included to help us realize the consequences of the Fall and the implications of the spiritual death that grips humanity. Yet even this dark message is brightened by the promise contained in God’ s continued love, and in history’ s first sacrifice. SIN. There are three primary words for “ sin” in the Hebrew language. Each of them implies the existence of a standard of righteousness established by God. One of the three, hata’, means to “ miss the mark,” or to “ fall short of the divine standard.” Pesa’ is usually rendered by “ rebellion” or “ transgression,” and indicates revolt against the standard. ‘ Awon, translated by “ iniquity” or “ guilt,” is a “ twisting of the standard or deviation from it.” Psalms 51:1-19 is the Old Testament’ s greatest statement on the nature of sin, and uses all three of these Hebrew words to express David’ s great prayer of confession of his own failures.

Commentary We meet the specter early, in Genesis 2:1-25. In order to give man freedom to be a responsible moral being, God placed a certain tree in the center of the Garden and commanded man not to eat. With the command came warning of the consequences: “ When you eat of it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17). This opportunity to eat was no trap, or even a test. Given the intention of God that man should be in His own image, that tree was a necessity! There is no moral dimension to the existence of a robot; it can only respond to the program imposed by its maker. Robots have no capacity to value, no ability to choose between good and bad, or good and better. To be truly like God, man must have the freedom to make moral choices and the opportunity to choose, however great the risk such freedom may involve. Daily Adam and Eve may have passed that tree, gladly obeying a God they knew and trusted. Until finally a third being stepped in.

Satan Scripture portrays a host of living, intelligent beings with individuality and personality called angels: “ messengers.” Some of these rebelled against God, and it is from this cosmic rebellion that evil has its origin, and from this source that the demons we read of in both Testaments have come. At the top of the hierarchy of the rebellious angels is Satan. One interpretation equates Satan with the Lucifer of Isaiah 14:12 (KJV), whose rebellion is so graphically portrayed: I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly. . . . I will make myself like the Most High. Isaiah 14:13-14This rebellion against established order brought divine judgment and Lucifer, with a great number of angelic beings who followed him, was judged in a titanic fall. Lucifer’ s name was changed to Satan, and from his arrogance was born an unending hatred of God. It was this being, this great adversary of God and His people, who came in the dawning of the world in the guise of a serpent, to tempt Eve. The temptation (Genesis 3:1-7). It is fascinating to note the strategies of the tempter. First he isolated Eve from Adam. He gave the pair no opportunity to strengthen each other in a resolve to choose the good (cf. Hebrews 10:24-25). Then he cast doubt on God’ s motives. Did God possibly have a selfish motive for the restriction? (Genesis 3:4) Satan went on to contradict God. God had warned of death; Satan cried, “ That’ s a lie!” Now two opposing views stood in sharp contrast, and a choice had to be made. Satan also focused Eve’ s attention on desirable ends, a common device of what has been called “ situation ethics.” Never mind the fact that the means to an end involves disobedience to God. Act only on examination of the supposed results. Satan also proposed a mixed good as the end: “ You will become like Him, for your eyes will be opened — you will be able to distinguish good from evil!” (Genesis 3:5, TLB) How could becoming more like God be wrong? Finally, Satan relied on the appeal of the senses. The fruit was “ lovely and fresh looking” (Genesis 3:6, TLB). How could anything that looked and smelled so pleasant be bad? Led along by the tempter, Eve made her choice. She rejected trust in God and confidence in His wisdom and, as Satan himself had before her, Eve determined to follow her own will and reject God’ s. Then she offered the fruit to Adam, and he too ate. LINK TO LIFE: YOUTH / ADULT Ask your group members to think of a time when they felt tempted. Get the incident clearly in mind, and then answer these questions about it: Was I alone, or with other Christians? Did what I was tempted by seem desirable? Did what I was tempted by seem to lead to something good? Did what I was tempted by not seem so bad, even though I knew it was not God’ s will? Talk about these issues linked with personal temptations. After sharing experiences, work together as a group to develop Five Principles for Overcoming Temptation. After Adam and Eve had made their choice and had eaten the forbidden fruit, they suddenly realized what they had done. They did know good and evil! But, unlike God, their knowledge came from a personal experience of the wrong. With wide open eyes they looked at each other and, for the first time, looked away in shame. Death. When God set that single tree to stand as a testimony to man’ s freedom, He warned, “ When you eat of it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17). That day had now come. Now death began its reign. It is important to realize that much more than the end of physical life is involved in the biblical concept of death. Death in Scripture involves not only a return of the body to dust, but also a terrible distortion of the divine order. Death involves a warping of the human personality, a twisting of relationships, and alienation from God and from God’ s ways. Ephesians describes men’ s state apart from Christ as “ dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit [Satan] who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts” (Ephesians 2:1-3). Romans portrays the universal reign of death and sin, and insists, “ There is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10, cf. Romans 3:9-18). The implications of the first man’ s sin are traced in Bible passages like Romans 5:12-21. Adam had been created in God’ s image. Then came the choice and, with it, death. The human personality was warped and marred. The image of God, dimmed and twisted now, did remain. But man was ruled by death and all that death implies. What heritage had Adam to pass on to humanity? Only what he was. He fathered a son in his image: a son who, like Adam, had worth and value because of his correspondence to the Divine, but who, like Adam, lived in chains. “ Therefore just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). The history of humankind is the dark record of the rule of death, and stands as a grim testimony to the truth of God. What God warned Adam would happen, did happen. And what God says to us today, in warning or in invitation, will just as certainly prove true. LINK TO LIFE: YOUTH / ADULT Bring several newspapers to your group’ s meeting. Suggest that a friend has asked you to prove that the Bible’ s view of sin as spiritual death is true. Give your members papers, and give teams of two or three about five minutes to locate in today’ s news evidence of the impact of sin on human beings. After teams have shared, have one member read aloud Romans 5:12-21, and another read aloud Ephesians 2:1-3. Then let them suggest how a Christian might defend and explain a biblical view of sin to a skeptic. Demonstration of death. In looking at the message of Genesis 3:1-24 and Genesis 4:1-26 it is important to see that each detail is purposefully included. The principle of selection in these chapters seems clear: God is concerned that you and I understand the seriousness of sin and the reality of spiritual death. The series of events included provides an unmistakable demonstration of the death principle operating in human experience. *We see death in the sudden flush of shame that spread as Adam and Eve recognized their nakedness (Genesis 3:7). Today the more “ mature” defend public nakedness as morally neutral. “ Evil is in the eye of the beholder,” is the phrase they often use to attack anyone who objects, never realizing how condemning that excuse is. Evil is in the eye of the beholder, not in the creation of God. But since the Fall, the eye is evil! *We see death demonstrated in the first pair’ s flight from God. They had known His love, yet awareness of guilt alienated them from Him, and they tried to hide (Genesis 3:8-9). *We see death in Adam’ s refusal to accept responsibility for his choice. He tried to shift the blame, first to Eve, and then ultimately to God Himself. “ It was the woman You gave me who brought me some” (Genesis 3:12, TLB). *We see death in the judgment on earth for man’ s sake (Genesis 3:17-19). *Most of all, we see death in the anger of Cain, whose bitterness led him to murder his own brother, Abel (Genesis 4:8). How deeply that tragedy must have driven home to Adam and Eve the implications of their choice. Father and mother must have stood in tears, gazing at the fallen body of one son, knowing only too well that the hand of their older boy was crimson with his blood. *We see death in the civilization that sprang up as the family of man multiplied. Lamech broke the pattern of man/woman relationship which God had ordained: “ The two shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). Not only did Lamech commit bigamy, but he boldly justified the murder of another man who had in some way injured him. Actually, we hardly need repeated proofs. Each day’ s headlines bring us new testimony. The wrong we choose, the guilt and shame we bear, the way we strike out to hurt and to harm, are ever-present internal witnesses to Eden’ s loss. Yes, how well man knows good and evil now! With that first choice the power to experience the truly good was lost. We know the good, but only as an ideal, a yearning desire. We know the meaning of evil far more intimately. And we join with Paul in the lament, “ What I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (Romans 7:15). The longer we live, the stronger the realization grows: Paradise is lost.

The Recovery of Hope While Genesis 3:1-24 and Genesis 4:1-26 are among the most poignant chapters in the Bible, they do not leave us without hope. We find hope in God’ s action as He clothes the naked pair in animal skins, the first intimation that for redemption, blood must be shed. That first blood speaks of sacrifice, and sacrifice speaks of Christ. We find hope in God’ s action in seeking out the sinning pair. Sin will distort our idea of God, erecting a grim barrier that we are unwilling to approach. But God came into the Garden seeking Adam, just as later Jesus came into the world to seek and to save those who were lost. We find hope in the promise of God that an Offspring of the woman would destroy the serpent. Here too we see a glimmering prospect of the Incarnation, and the Saviour’ s victory over death. We also find hope as we trace through Scripture some of the theological concepts introduced in Genesis 3:1-24 and Genesis 4:1-26. In fact, these chapters stand almost unmatched as seedbeds for basic truths about ourselves in God’ s universe — a universe we too have shaped, through sin. Sin. One of the themes introduced here is human sin. The concept will continue to be developed through the revelation of the Old Testament and the New. Many different words will be used to describe the perverse twist that sin has introduced into human experience. One set of Bible words portrays sin as missing the mark, as “ falling short.” Another set of Bible words portrays sin as willful action, the conscious choosing of known wrongs. Here we find words like transgress, trespass, go astray, and rebellion. Both ideas are seen here in Genesis 3:1-24. Adam and Eve fell short of God’ s requirements. They did so by obeying rationalized desire rather than obeying the command of God. And so Genesis 3:1-24 and Genesis 4:1-26 sum up the human predicament. And with it, they sum up mankind’ s dilemma. Sin not only blinds us and leaves the good beyond our grasp, but sin also twists our will, moving us to desire and to choose what we know is wrong. Lost in impotence, men do not even desire to be truly free! LINK TO LIFE: CHILDREN Use a simple chalkboard visual to help boys and girls sense both aspects of sin. Draw a straight line that intersects the top of a hill. This represents what God tells us to do. Draw some stick figures trying to get up the hill, but short of the top. Draw others running down the hill. Explain that sometimes we try to do what’ s right, but aren’ t quite able to. Other times we don’ t want to do what is right, and purposefully go the wrong way. Let the children suggest times they try to do right (“ I was going to pick up my room, but forgot.” ) and times they consciously choose wrong (“ Dad told me to come home, but I was having too much fun.” ). Disobedience is sin, whether the reason we disobey is that we just fell short or whether the reason is that we rebel. How is this revelation of sin a word of hope? In this: by sketching for us how complete our ruin is, God calls us to look away from ourselves, to Him. Have you ever thought how striking the portrait of Cainitic culture is? (Genesis 4:19-22) This is no subsistence-level economy, struggling in primitive poverty to scratch a meager living from the earth. The text portrays division of labor and the taming of animals to man’ s use. We see culture. There is time for leisure, music, and the arts. There is a technical competence that involves the smelting of ores and the development of metallurgy in bronze and iron. There is no suggestion here that the Fall limited the ability of man to function effectively in his world. Instead, what we see is that no matter what progress man makes technologically, the underlying moral fault is unrepaired! Men can master the environment. But men cannot master themselves. We are competent to deal with our physical needs, but not to deal with the deepest needs of the human heart. Sin has warped the moral fabric of our universe, and only by looking to God to cover and transform can man be saved. Ultimate salvation. It’ s good to trace the story of sin through Scripture because in so doing we find the ultimate solution. For acts of willful sin, Christ’ s blood has won forgiveness. For our impotence, the Holy Spirit’ s presence brings wisdom and new power. For our final destiny, resurrection promises removal of the last vestiges of sin. Even the earth, which shares the curse (Genesis 3:17), will know renewal. In a poetic passage the New Testament reveals that the very “ creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Romans 8:19-21). The groaning world itself will know a liberation day when you and I are at last freed by God’ s great sacrifice from all that death and sin involve. This is our destiny, and this is our hope. One day the fullness of the image of God will be restored.

Avenues to Explore So far we’ ve looked only at the central message of Genesis 3:1-24 and Genesis 4:1-26. Sin is real; death is the common experience of the human race; only God’ s intervention offers hope. But there are many additional riches in these chapters. Just a few of the areas of interest are: The forbidden tree (Genesis 2:9). The importance of the tree was not in the nature of its fruit, but in the choice of man to listen to God’ s word or to disobey. Paul asserts, “ Nothing is intrinsically unholy” (Romans 14:14, PH). What was important was allegiance to God and to His will. The serpent (Genesis 3:1). Satan used the snake. It seems there was correspondence between its shrewd (“ crafty” ) character and his. Certainly the continued identification of Satan as “ that old serpent” is significant (cf. John 8:44; Romans 16:20; 2 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Timothy 2:14; Revelation 12:9; Revelation 20:2), as is the fact that the serpent who was used suffered judgment, apparently for his cooperation in the confrontation between Satan and Eve. If there is a deeper meaning in the scene, it is obscure. Authority (Genesis 3:16). Along with added difficulty in childbirth, the woman was told that her husband “ shall rule over you.” Here the theme of authority and subjection is introduced, but only after the Fall. As long as Adam and Eve lived in harmony with God, harmony with one another was assured. But with sin the harmony of the natural order was shattered. Each of us now must live under the rule of others. Only when patterns of authority exist can societies or families lead healthy lives. Work (Genesis 3:17-19). The added curse of toil placed on Adam was not the introduction of work, to replace an early state of blissful idleness. Meaningful work is one of God’ s good gifts (cf. Genesis 2:15). What is spoken of here is work as toil: work as a never-ending struggle to make a living from resisting soil. Toil replaced the creative and joyous labors in fruit-filled Eden. The tree of life (Genesis 3:22-24). The first pair’ s expulsion from the Garden is best seen as a good gift. Only tragedy could be in store for those who now knew the living death sin brought. How awful if Adam and Eve had been doomed to live on, forever to witness death’ s despairing impact on each new generation of their descendants. For Adam and for Eve — and for us as well — death comes as gain, a welcome pause before resurrection launches us into the full experience of eternal life in a world at last set right. Cain’ s offering (Genesis 4:2-5). Hebrews 11:4 points out that “ by faith” Abel’ s sacrifice was “ better.” In the Scripture, faith involves response to God’ s revelation. Certainly the principle of sacrifice had been demonstrated to Adam and Eve in their clothing made of skins. It’ s likely the boys were so instructed by their parents or by God. Yet only Abel brought lambs. Cain brought farm produce. It may have been the best he had, but redemption knows no acceptable sacrifice except blood. Cain’ s underlying attitude toward God is shown by his reaction. He was very angry. Even God’ s gentle urgings (Genesis 4:6-7) left Cain untouched. Cain’ s wife (Genesis 4:17). The question is mocking and ages old. Where did Cain get his wife? A little reading gives the answer: Adam and Eve had many sons and many daughters (Genesis 5:4). Marked for life (Genesis 4:15). Cain’ s punishment involved expulsion from his agricultural life and from God’ s own society (apparently the boys had known God and been instructed by Him, Genesis 4:14). A mark identified Cain, and his continued existence served as a vivid reminder to that generation of the result of rejecting God. And so the brief report concludes with an onward glance toward future generations (Genesis 4:18-26). The seed of sin planted by Adam and Eve had sprouted in their sons, and each succeeding generation would bear bitter fruit. As well we know. For you and I recognize the taste of that fruit in our mouths to this very day.

Teaching Guide Prepare Read and meditate on Psalms 51:1-19. Make David’ s prayer your own, as you seek to become sensitive to sin and to God’ s great remedy in Christ.

Explore

1. The Greek philosopher Plato argued that if only human beings knew “ the Good,” they would do it. Ask your group to discuss this idea. Then ask them to review their own personal experiences. Have their own moral struggles been over knowing what is right? What other issues are involved in moral choice? You want to help them realize that our problem is not usually in knowing what is right, but in choosing what is right!
2. Or, ask the group to think of a recent time when they felt tempted to make a choice they felt was wrong. Without telling what the choice was, have them work together to list what made them want to do wrong. What made the wrong so attractive or seem so desirable?

Expand

1. Have teams of three study the temptation of Eve (Genesis 3:1-7). Each team is to (1) list strategies that Satan used in trying to get Eve to disobey God, and (2) come up with at least one illustration of how that strategy is still used in our personal temptations. When this direct Bible study is completed, use the “ link-to-life” idea above to guide your group to develop their own Five Principles for Overcoming Temptation.
2. Or, cover the temptation and Fall in a minilecture. Then focus your group’ s attention on the impact of sin in human experience. Use two teaching approaches, the first to see sin in general (in society), and then to personalize the impact of sin. Bring in and distribute daily newspapers as described above. When your group has found and listed evidences of sin in society, return to the biblical text. You can use three study teams, each to look at one of these three passages: Sin in Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:7-17), sin in Cain (Genesis 4:1-12), and sin in Lamech (Genesis 4:19-24). Each team is to find evidence of the way sin is expressed in human experience in its passage. Be sure the teams see the blaming, the shame, the guilt, the anger, the pride, and the self-justification as sin as well as see the sinful actions. As each group reports, list its findings on the chalkboard in parallel columns. Then add a fourth column: “ Us.” Have your group talk about ways sin shows up in their own personal experiences and inner lives, even when it may not be expressed in the acts of a Cain or Lamech.

Apply

1. Conclude with a minilecture on Romans 5:12-21. Sin came into the world through Adam. But God has brought redemption to us through Christ. How much we, and others, need the gift Jesus brings us to counteract the terrible heritage that all men have received from Adam’ s Fall.
2. Conclude with a brief minilecture on “ death.” For a complete discussion see the author’ s Expository Dictionary of Bible Words. Or simply read Ephesians 2:1-2, then move on to emphasize the gift of life that God’ s grace has brought to us despite our deaths in trespasses and sins.