Genesis 3:13-24

Ge 3:13

And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

Then the LORD says to the woman “What is this that thou hast done?”  God knew she was the one who took the fruit from the forbidden tree but like her husband she tried blame shifting on to the serpent that it was his fault that she disobeyed.  No person in the world will stand at the judgment seat of Christ and be tried for someone else’s sin, all will stand for their own sins and blame shifting will not be accepted.  The word “beguiled” carries with the meaning of “deceive or seduce.”  They both went into this with full knowledge of the consequences of their actions.

Ge 3:14

And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

Then the LORD said to the serpent that he was now cursed, literally above every single living animal and instead of walking on legs, the serpent would now slither on its belly and would be subject to eating dust all their living days.  Snakes have something called a Jacobson organ in the roof of their mouth which allows the snake to smell by their forked tongue while they are constantly tasting the dust.  In the Bible being in the dust was a sign of humiliation.  They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust. (Psalm 72:9) 

Ge 3:15

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Now God goes beyond the cursing of the serpent and now pronounces a death sentence upon Satan.  Here God is setting up a great separation.  First, there will be enmity between Satan and the woman which points to the fact that the Messiah will be coming through a woman.  Then there will be great enmity between Satan’s seed which are the unbelievers and the woman’s seed which will be Christ and his Elect.  Then the third promise points to the sacrifice Christ will make upon Calvary.  The sacrifice of Christ will spell the doom of Satan which is his head but he will only bruise the heel of Christ who will be resurrected from the dead on the third day.  In other words even though Satan will come against Christ with everything he has, it will not amount to anything more than a bruised heel.

Ge 3:16

Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

Now the LORD focuses on the woman.  First, when she is to deliver a child, she will be in great pain which is the word behind sorrow in the Hebrew.  In sorrow or grief she shall bring forth children and not only the deliverance of the children but also the raising of them which will have many sorrows as the children get sick or get hurt or be involved with something wicked.  Then she shall be in subjection to her husband who will rule over her, not as a despot but as head of the family.  Since Eve had not taken counsel with her husband concerning the fruit and did it all on her own, she must now be subject to whatever her husband decrees.

Ge 3:17

And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

Then God turns to Adam and chides him by telling him that because he listened to the voice of his wife and ate of the tree which he was strictly forbidden to do, God cursed the ground for his sake.  Notice though that even here we see the mercy of God because he could have cursed Adam but instead he cursed the ground since he had intended to bring many to salvation throughout the history of the human race.  If God would have cursed Adam, then no one in the human race could have become saved.  Now Adam was to face the fact of a cursed ground which means that everything he grows for food would be subject to weeds, insects, attacks by birds and land animals, inclement weather which could destroy crops and these things will not end until the last day.  The sorrow here is labor and toil all the days of his life.

Ge 3:18

Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

Here God tells him plainly what he can expect from the cursing that the ground will not be like it was in the garden of Eden before the fall which was free from anything which could destroy a crop.  Thorns are like sharp spikes which are both long and short.  Thistles were prickly plants.  Then they were to eat the herbs of the field and not the delicious fruits which were so abundant in the garden of Eden.  The herbs would be the common herbs which would most likely be shared with the land animals and birds.

Ge 3:19

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Before the fall, Adam tilled the ground in the garden of Eden but not for survival for the work there was easy, now things have changed.  Adam will have to put in a hard day’s work and eat the simple foods such as bread which represents all the foods available to him and that will be done until the time he physically dies and is buried.  We return to the dust of the ground because God created man out of the dust of the earth.  Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. (Ecclesiastes 12:7) 

Ge 3:20

And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

Then Adam gave the name Eve to his wife.  The name “Eve” means “life giver or living.”  Eve was now the first woman who would begin the human race when she begins to have children.

Ge 3:21

Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

Then we have the first deaths in the Bible and they were the animals which God used to clothe Adam and Eve.  These were a foreshadow of the animals that would be killed as sacrifices under the Mosaic law which was looking forward to the last sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ge 3:22

And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

Now the Lord God and the Lord Jesus Christ reveal something that would benefit man in his sinful state even though it does not look like a benefit on the surface.  Man had now become as knowledgeable as God in the area of knowing good and evil and a frightening dilemma could have taken place which could have affected all people for eternity.  Adam and Eve were still in the garden of Eden at this time.  Two trees were mentioned, one as the tree of life and the other was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Suppose they would have eaten from the tree of life and then disobeyed God by eating from the forbidden tree.  This would mean that man would live eternally under the curse of sin.  Can you imagine a cancer patient living with the disease for eternity?  What about a person with Alzheimer’s living in that condition for eternity?  Can you see the dilemma that arose?  What sickness or disability do you have, would you want to live in that state for eternity?  What a dilemma and while Adam and Eve were still in the garden, they still had access to the tree of life which means if they would have eaten from it, man would be in a perpetual state of sin and suffering for eternity.  The same situation exists even if they would have eaten from the tree of life after they sinned.  Man would be doomed to live in sin forever.

Ge 3:23

Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

Since this was a very serious situation, the LORD had no choice but to remove them from the garden of Eden so they could not access the tree of life and eat from it.  So he was removed from the garden and began to live life outside of the garden and to care and till the ground from which he was taken.  Now Adam had to till the land for survival not for pleasure.  He had to provide for Eve.

Ge 3:24

So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.