Preaching Christ from the Narrative of the Fall

By Sidney Greidanus

[Sidney Greidanus is Professor of Preaching, Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

This is the third article in a four-part series “Preaching Christ from the Genesis Narratives,” delivered by the author as the W. H. Griffith Thomas Lectures at Dallas Theological Seminary, February 18-21, 2003.]

Some interesting differences exist between Genesis 1 and Genesis 2–3. Genesis 1:1 begins, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” that is, the entire universe. Then with verse 2 the focus narrows to the earth: “The earth was formless and empty.”

Genesis 2 narrows the focus even more; it zeroes in on a garden and the first man and woman. Whereas Genesis 1 refers to God as אַוֹּהִים, the almighty King of the universe, Genesis 2–3 uses the name יהוה ַאַוֹּהִים, “the Lord God,” the God who made covenant with His people Israel. And whereas in Genesis 1 God speaks as almighty King and the universe comes into existence, in Genesis 2 He is seen in more human terms as an artist, a potter, who stoops down and fashions a delicate object.

Narrative Features

The Narrator

The narrator reveals that he is writing from a later perspective when he comments, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother, and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh” (2:24).[1] But he also knows about a time when there were no plants on the earth (2:5), he knows Eve’s mind when she contemplates the tree (3:6), and he knows the thoughts of God as God considers what to do about these rebellious creatures, Adam and Eve, who still have access to the tree of life (v. 22).

In Genesis 2 the narrator does not intend to give a precise chronological account of what happened in the beginning. This is most evident from the order in which he sketches the creation of various creatures. Genesis 1 records the ascending order of complexity: vegetation, animals, and, as the climax, human beings. But in Genesis 2 the order seems to be the man Adam, trees, animals, and the woman. Rather than chronological, the arrangement is topical, a form of literary art.

The Historical Background

This narrative was intended as a sermon for Israel. The author begins in 2:4, “This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.” He seeks to answer the question, What happened to God’s good creation? Israel did not experience the creation as “very good.” Israel had experienced slavery in Egypt: hard labor from dawn to dusk, no freedom to worship God, their baby boys drowned in the river Nile.

Then came the terrible journey through the desert: every day a burning sun, agonizing thirst, murderous snakes. Moses later described this desert as a “vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions” (Deut. 8:15). In this desert every adult Israelite who had left Egypt died, except for Joshua and Caleb. It was a forty-year journey marked with graves. Within forty years an entire generation died!

What happened to God’s good creation? Why is life so hard? Why is there so much suffering and pain? Why do we all die? The author seeks to respond to these fundamental questions.

Literary Art

Genesis 2–3 clearly presents a narrative with a single overall plot. The narrative begins with the Lord forming a man and placing him in a garden, and it ends with the Lord expelling the man from the garden.

The literary artistry is evident in that the seven scenes are arranged in a chiastic order, with the climax coming at the center with the fall into sin.[2]

A. Narrative: God, man (2:4b–17)

From אֲדָמָה (ground) to garden

B. Narrative: God, man, woman, animals (vv. 18–25)

Relationship among creatures

God’s goodness in making a partner for man

C. Dialogue: Serpent, woman (3:1–5)

About eating from the tree

Three statements

D. Narrative: Woman, man (vv. 6–8)

They eat from the tree

Rebellion in God’s kingdom

C´. Dialogue: God, man, woman (vv. 9–13)

About eating from the tree

Three questions and answers

B´. Monologue: God, man, woman, serpent (vv. 14–19)

Relationships among the creatures

God’s judgment and grace

 A´. Narrative: God, man (vv. 20–24)

From garden to אֲדָמָה (ground)

Textual Theme and Goal

A major theme in this narrative is God’s judgment and grace. The textual theme could be stated this way: God responds to human rebellion with judgment and grace. But this theme is rather general and does not capture the plot of this narrative, which includes man being placed in the Garden, disobeying, and being expelled from the Garden. So it would be better to formulate the theme as follows: In banishing His rebellious creatures from His presence in paradise, God still extends His grace.

Ascertaining the author’s goal or aim depends on the historical situation he is addressing. There are several possibilities. His goal could simply have been to teach Israel that God responds to disobedience with judgment and grace. But, as stated, that is a general goal. More specifically related to this narrative his goal might have been to teach Israel about the origin of the brokenness of life. Perhaps that is all the author intended to do. But given Israel’s painful circumstances after the desert journey (and again later during the Exile), he may well have had a deeper goal in mind. We can get at this deeper goal by asking the question: Why did the author wish to teach suffering Israel that God, in banishing His rebellious creatures from His presence in paradise, still extends His grace? This historical question suggests a deeper goal such as this: To give suffering Israel hope that evil will be overcome eventually through the seed of the woman. Or the goal could be stated in a way that more closely matches the theme: To instill hope in suffering Israel that the perfect paradise that once was on earth will return again.

Ways to Preach Christ

In preaching Christ from this foundational narrative six of the seven Christocentric options[3] offer possibilities. Although we shall briefly discuss all six options, for a sermon one should select no more than the three best ones by which to build a strong bridge to Christ in the New Testament.

Redemptive-Historical Progression

One could preach Christ from this narrative by tracing the trail of redemptive-historical progression. This narrative contains in a nutshell the first three of the four basic components of redemptive history: Creation, Fall, Redemption, New Creation. The narrative begins with God creating a perfect world, and then records the human fall into sin. Redemptive history starts right after the Fall with God cursing the serpent, declaring enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, and holding out defeat for the serpent (cursed, eating dust) and by implication victory for the seed of the woman. Genesis traces the seed of the woman from Abel to Seth to Noah to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah (Gen. 49:9). Other writers pick up the trail and trace it to King David and his “seed” or offspring (2 Sam. 7:12–13; Ps. 89:4). Matthew retraces the trail starting with Abraham, moving to King David, and ending with Jesus the Messiah (Matt. 1:1–17). Luke traces Jesus’ lineage all the way back to “Seth, the son of Adam” (Luke 3:38). Jesus is the Seed of the woman.

Promise-Fulfillment

Redemptive-historical progression dovetails with the way of promise-fulfillment. The church has always interpreted God’s curse of the serpent in Genesis 3:15 as a promise of the ultimate victory of the seed of the woman. In fact the church fathers called this verse the protevangelium, the “first gospel.” Jesus’ resurrection from death is proof that He is the Seed of the woman who has gained victory over Satan. Christ shared our humanity, “so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14).

Typology

From this narrative one can also preach Christ by way of typology, for, as the New Testament demonstrates, Adam is a type of Jesus Christ. As Adam was tempted by Satan, so Jesus would be tempted by Satan. But whereas Adam disobeyed God and followed Satan, Jesus obeyed God and sent Satan away (Matt. 4:1–11). Because of this contrast between Adam and Christ, it would be more proper to speak here of antithetic typology. Paul calls Adam “a pattern [τύπος] of the one to come” (Rom. 5:14) and draws many analogies between Adam and Christ, showing escalation and highlighting several antitheses: Adam’s trespass made “the many” sinners, Christ’s obedience makes “the many” righteous; Adam’s trespass brought condemnation, Christ’s obedience brings justification; Adam’s trespass brought death, Christ’s obedience brings life.

Analogy

Analogy can also be used to preach Christ from this narrative: As God gave Israel hope that the perfect paradise that once was on earth will return again, so Jesus gives hope for the restoration of paradise on earth with His second coming. This analogy would have to be supported by New Testament references.

Longitudinal Themes

One can also trace longitudinal themes that move from the heart of this narrative through the Old Testament to Jesus Christ in the New Testament. For example one can trace the theme of God’s presence with His people from the Garden where the Lord walked with His people, to Adam and Eve driven out of the Garden and kept from returning by cherubim, to the tabernacle and temple, where God dwelt in the midst of His people as represented by the cloud and yet could not be approached by sinners—the way being blocked by curtains embroidered with images of cherubim (Exod. 26:1, 31; 2 Chron. 3:14). This theme of God’s presence can be traced further in the New Testament to Jesus who is called Immanuel, that is, “God with us” (Matt. 1:23), who calls His body “this temple” (John 2:19), whose death tears “from top to bottom” the curtain with the cherubim in the temple (Matt. 27:51), thus reopening the way into the presence of God, and on to Pentecost when Jesus pours out God’s Spirit to dwell in His people, to the new earth where “the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them” (Rev. 21:3).

New Testament References

In addition to the passages already mentioned a few other possibilities include 1 Corinthians 15:25, “He [Christ] must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet”; 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone; the new has come”; 1 John 3:8, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work”; and Revelation 2:7, where the risen Jesus said, “To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.”

Contrast

There are many contrasts between Adam and Christ, as listed under typology, but there is no contrast between this message of the Old Testament and that of the New.

Sermon Theme, Goal, and Form

Understanding the textual theme and goal in the broader contexts of the biblical canon and of redemptive history has not changed the original message or its goal. Therefore we can carry this message forward to today without much change. The sermon theme can be formulated as follows: In banishing His rebellious creatures from His presence in paradise, God still extends His grace. The sermon goal can be: To instill hope in God’s suffering people that the perfect paradise that once was on earth will return again.

Since the text is a narrative, the sermon can best be presented in narrative form, that is, following the plot line but suspending the story now and then for explanation, application, and moving to Christ.

Sermon Exposition

In the setting for the narrative the author points the reader back to the beginning: “When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens” (Gen. 2:4). He sketches a barren earth, without plants, without rain, without a person to till the ground (v. 5).

The action begins in verse 7. “The Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” The point of this verse is not precisely how God made the man but that he was made from the ground (3:19). Human beings are not gods, as some ancient people believed their kings to be. The man, הָאָדָם, was made from הָאֲדָמָה, the ground. The earthling was made from earth. Humans are mere earthlings, frail, made from the dust of the ground.

Still they are God’s special creatures. For God Himself carefully, lovingly formed the first man and shaped him into an elegant vessel. And in another personal touch God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” The breath of God that gives life is the breath (or Spirit) of God that keeps us breathing and living.[4]

Next the narrator writes about a lush garden. “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” (2:8–9). This garden is presented as a lush, secure Eastern garden, possibly with a wall all around it except for a gate on the east side (3:24). Elsewhere in the Old Testament the Garden of Eden is referred to as “the garden of the Lord” (13:10; Isa. 51:3) and “the garden of God” (Ezek. 28:13; 31:9). Just like the later tabernacle and temple, this Garden was the special dwelling place of God on earth.[5]

The Garden, however, is more than a symbol. The narrator spent a large amount of narrative time (Gen. 2:10–14) stating the location of the Garden with respect to four rivers and three countries. Paradise was on this earth. Two of the rivers are not known today, but mention of the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers in verse 14 indicates that the location of the Garden was in Mesopotamia, perhaps present-day Turkey or Iraq.

In any event the Garden is pictured as a beautiful, peaceful place where the man could commune with God and enjoy His good gifts: “trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food” (v. 9). And in the middle of the Garden stood “the tree of life,” apparently a tree whose fruit could keep the man alive forever. In addition to these gifts the Lord gives him meaningful work. “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (v. 15). Work, even in paradise, gives meaning and purpose to human life.

The narrative develops somewhat along the lines of the ancient Hittite covenant treaties. The great King is identified as Yahweh Elohim, followed by an enumeration of all the good things the King has done for the man.[6] Then follow the covenant stipulations. At Sinai Israel heard ten commands, beginning with, “You shall have no other gods before me.” But in Genesis 2 there is only one command. “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’ ” (vv. 16–17). God is good in giving this commandment, for they are free to eat from any tree in the Garden, including the tree of life, with one exception. This one prohibition is also good because God treats the man as a free moral agent.

Even though this commandment is good, in the narrative it is this prohibition that raises the conflict and sets the tension. God places before the man a clear choice: Freely obey Me by not eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or disobey Me. But disobedience will result in the penalty of death: “You will surely die.” The choice is an obedient life with God in paradise or disobedience and death. The stakes are high. What will happen?

The narrator, however, keeps us in suspense. Amazingly God discovers something that is not good in paradise. “The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him’ ” (v. 18). So God goes to work again, this time fashioning a woman from one of Adam’s ribs. When Adam sees the woman, he is ecstatic and says, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman’ [אִשָּׁה], for she was taken out of man [אִישׁ]” (v. 23). The parallelism in the poetry shows how closely men and women are related: the same flesh, the same bones, but the opposite sex. The man (אִישׁ) and woman (אִשָּׁה) complement each other perfectly.

Verse 25 reads, “The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.” This statement must have been astonishing for Israel, for they had a strong sense of shame, covering most of their bodies with long robes and scarves. But here are Adam and Eve, unclothed and feeling no embarrassment. They are innocent like little children at play. It is a perfect marriage in a perfect home: paradise, the Garden of the Lord.

The author emphasizes how good God made everything in the beginning for human beings. God Himself fashioned the man, giving him life with His divine breath, placing him in a safe garden where he had plenty of food and meaningful work, and forming a perfect partner for him. At the end of chapter 2 God could have looked back as He did in chapter 1 and said, “It is very good.” But that is about to change. A new character enters this idyllic setting.

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made” (3:1). The serpent is a rather sinister animal. In the ancient world the serpent was often worshiped as a god of healing. Even today medical doctors identify themselves as healers with the figure of a serpent. But the biblical author makes sure that we do not think of this serpent as a god. The serpent, he said, like all the other animals, had been made by the Lord God. It was good.

Hebrew narrators seldom use character description, but when they do, it is often a key for understanding the narrative. Here the serpent is described as “more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made” (3:1). That sounds ominous. Remember also that Israel considered serpents their archenemies. In the desert the plague of fiery serpents had killed many Israelites (Num. 21). They always had to be careful where they walked. A serpent could be lying in wait behind a rock and with its deadly fangs strike a passerby in the heel. Serpents were deadly enemies.

But there is something special about this serpent. Not only is it “more crafty than any of the wild animals.” This serpent speaks! But since serpents do not speak, not even in paradise, the author conveys the point that some other being has taken possession of the serpent and speaks through it. And this is an evil being because it questions God’s command and even calls God a liar. Jesus said the devil is “a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). And in Revelation 12:9 John wrote about “that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray.” So it is Satan who speaks through the serpent.

The serpent, alias Satan, says to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (Gen. 3:1). Satan craftily twists God’s words. God had said, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden” except for that one tree. Satan ignores God’s good gifts of plenty of food and makes God’s command sound unreasonable.

The woman is quickly drawn into the conversation. She responds, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die’ ” (v. 3). She has it almost right. But the suggestion that God’s command is unreasonable has entered her mind. God had said, “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” The woman quotes God as saying, “You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.” That does sound rather unreasonable. Touch that tree and die?

Satan sees his opening. He calls God a liar. He says to the woman, “You will not surely die…. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (vv. 4–5). Satan suggests that human beings can be much better than what God made them. He implies that God created them blind. But eat of that tree and “your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Imagine! They can be like God! With that Satan leaves, and we are left with Adam and Eve and how they will deal with the temptation to be like God. This central scene (scene 4) is the climax of the story. The narrator retards the pace by sketching every detail as the woman contemplates eating from the forbidden tree. “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food [like all the other trees] and pleasing to the eye [again like all the other trees], and also desirable for gaining wisdom [they could be wise like God], she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it” (v. 6).

Her husband, who had received the command directly from God, should have stopped her: “Don’t do this! God told us not to eat of this tree!” But her husband keeps silent. He allows his wife to transgress God’s command and then he transgresses it himself. “She took … and ate…. She gave … and he ate.” Rebellion in God’s kingdom! Sin enters God’s perfect paradise.

The results of the fall into sin show up immediately. “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” (v. 7). The first result of sin is the loss of childlike innocence. Ashamed of their own bodies, they make coverings for themselves to hide themselves from each other. Their perfect marriage is breaking down.

A second result of sin is fear of God. “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” (v. 8). Innocence is replaced by guilt and fear. Communion with the Lord of life is broken. Adam and Eve are spiritually dead.

But the Lord does not give up on His disobedient creatures. In scene five He seeks the lost. “The Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’ He answered, ‘I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.’ And he said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” (vv. 9–11). Adam tries to defend himself. “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it” (v. 12). Talk about marriage breakdown. Now Adam blames his wife for his transgression. And he even dares to blame the Judge himself: “The woman you put here with me.”

“Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate’ ” (v. 13). Both Adam and Eve pass the blame to others. They fail to take responsibility for their own sin.

The heavenly Judge does not need much time to render a verdict. In the sixth scene the Lord passes judgment in reverse order. He begins with the serpent, then the woman, and finally the man. The verdict is written in poetic form.

“So the Lord God said to the serpent,
‘Because you have done this,
Cursed are you above all the livestock
and all the wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
And I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring [lit., “seed”] and hers;
he will crush [lit., “strike”] your head,
and you will strike his heel’ ” (vv. 14–15).

This is the first time the Bible mentions God’s curse. Three times in Genesis 1 God blessed. He blessed the animals, He blessed human beings, and He blessed the seventh day. Then after the Fall three times God cursed, that is, took away His blessing. He cursed the serpent, He cursed the ground, and in the next narrative God will curse the murderer Cain. Here God’s curse falls on the serpent.

Next God turns to the woman. He does not curse her but punishes her in her role as mother and wife:

“I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;
with pain you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you” (v. 16).

Whereas she should have been fulfilled as a mother, she will experience great pain in becoming a mother. And whereas she should have been fulfilled in ruling in partnership with her husband, now she will desire to rule over her husband[7] and she will find that “he will rule over you.” The woman’s punishment is pain in becoming a mother and stress in the struggle for dominance in marriage.

Finally God turns to Adam and punishes him in his role as provider and as head of the human race.

“Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return” (vv. 17–19).

This is the most painful judgment of all. Instead of living in a paradise with plenty of food, people will live on an earth that God has cursed. It will produce thorns and thistles. Meaningful work becomes toil: “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food.” And then comes the ultimate punishment: “until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” Every human being is made from the ground and will return to the ground. The ultimate punishment for sin is death.

Yet there is hope, for the narrative focuses on God’s curse of the serpent. Scenes 5 and 6 form a chiasm.

A. God interrogates the man; the man blames the woman (3:9–12).

B. God interrogates the woman; she blames the serpent (v. 13).

C. God curses the serpent (vv. 14–15).

B´. God punishes the woman (v. 16).

A´. God punishes the man (vv. 17–19).

At the heart of this chiasm God curses the serpent and sets enmity between the serpent and its seed and the woman and her seed. It will be a drawn out, deadly battle. It looks like a draw: “He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”[8] But there is hope that the woman’s seed will win out in the end. For God has cursed the serpent and its crawling in the dust is a sign of its ultimate defeat. It will bite the dust![9]

But meanwhile the punishment for sin must be borne. “And the Lord God said, ‘The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil’ ” (v. 22), that is, human beings have become independent, autonomous, determining for themselves what is good and what is evil. The Lord continues, “He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” Imagine what a disaster it would be if sinful human beings, like the ancient murderer Lamech or the modern murderer Hitler, would live forever? No matter how great the reign of terror of evil people, we know that they will all die and their evil reign will come to an end.

Verse 23 concludes, “So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.” Banished from the Garden. Banished from paradise. Banished from the presence of God. That is the worst punishment of all. And there is no way back into paradise. “After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life” (v. 24). The story that began with God placing human beings in His beautiful paradise ends with their expulsion from paradise.

God’s judgment of human rebellion is a reversal of the blessings of paradise. God’s judgment of sin means banishment from the presence of the holy God. It introduces pain in childbearing, strife for dominance in marriages, thorns and thistles in fields and gardens, work that becomes toil to eke out a living, and then death. “Dust you are and to dust you will return.” It is a tragic picture. It is a picture of paradise lost. And it seems that we cannot get back to the peace and harmony of paradise, for mighty cherubim guard the way back.

And yet we see hints of hope in this sad narrative. “Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living” (v. 20). In spite of pain in childbirth, God’s blessing of procreation would remain. The birth pangs themselves are a reminder of God’s punishment, but they are also a sign of His grace. Human life on earth will continue. In spite of the penalty of death, the generations of human beings will continue. Eve will become “the mother of all the living.”

In verse 21 we see God’s grace in that He “made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” God equips them to face the hostile environment outside the garden.

We see God’s grace especially in verses 14 and 15. In cursing the serpent God says, “You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust.” The way the serpent moves on its belly is a sign that Satan will bite the dust; he will be defeated. God also puts enmity between the serpent and the woman.

In this judgment of the serpent, God breaks up the unholy alliance between Satan and the woman. Instead of Satan and humanity being pitted against God, God says He will draw the battle lines differently. He will put enmity between Satan and the woman and between Satan’s seed and her seed. Human history will consist of a long struggle between evil and good. But in the end, God says, a descendant of the woman will strike the serpent’s head and the serpent will strike his heel.

This prediction, called the protevangelium, the “first gospel,” offers the good news that evil will not rule forever but that the seed of the woman will fatally strike the serpent’s head. Genesis traces this seed of the woman from Adam to Seth to Noah to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah. And then the rest of the Bible follows this trail to David and to Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the Seed of the woman, another Adam. He too was tempted by Satan. But Jesus was much more vulnerable. Unlike Adam in paradise, Jesus was in the wilderness, and, “after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry” (Matt. 4:2). When Jesus was starving, Satan came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” But Jesus resisted the temptation. Satan tempted Jesus a second time, and then the third time he offered Jesus “all the kingdoms of the world.” Jesus could become King of the universe—like God. But Jesus said, “Away from me, Satan. For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only” (vv. 3–10).

Unlike Adam, Jesus withstood Satan’s temptations. But Satan still had that poisonous bite that could strike the heel of the Seed of the woman. At Satan’s instigation the people killed Jesus. It looked like a defeat for the woman’s Seed, for the Seed of the woman died.

But an amazing thing happened. When Jesus breathed His last, “at that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (Matt. 27:51). This curtain barred people from the presence of God and was embroidered with cherubim as a reminder that sinful people cannot come into the presence of a holy God. But when Jesus died, this curtain was torn in two, and the cherubim no longer blocked the way to God’s presence.

Satan’s victory turned into his defeat. On the third day Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to the right hand of God the Father; from there He shall come to “judge the living and the dead” (2 Tim. 4:1). And as John wrote, Satan will be judged: “The Devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur” (Rev. 20:10). John adds, “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him…. Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city” (22:1–3, 14, italics added).

Paradise is not lost after all. Through Jesus Christ it will come again. That is the hope and comfort for all those who suffer in this in-between time. Paradise will one day be restored on earth, through the work of the Second Adam, Jesus Christ.

Notes

1. Unless noted otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from the New International Version.
2. The chiastic chart on the following page is adapted from Yehuda T. Radday, “Chiasmus in Hebrew Biblical Narrative,” in Chiasmus in Antiquity, ed. John W. Welch (Hildesheim: Gerstenberg, 1981), 98–99.
3. For a discussion of these options see Sidney Greidanus, “The Christocentric Method of Preaching Christ from the Old Testament,” Bibliotheca Sacra 161 (January-March, 2004): 3-13.
4. “Man is more that a God-shaped piece of earth. He has within him the gift of life that was given by God himself” (Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 1–15, Word Biblical Commentary [Waco, TX: Word, 1987], 60).
5. In some respects the narrator sketches the Garden as an early tabernacle or temple. “(1) The Lord God walks in Eden as he later does in the tabernacle (3:8; cf. Lev. 26:12). (2) Eden and the later sanctuaries are entered from the east (Ezek. 41:1) and guarded by cherubim (3:24; Exod. 25:18–22; 26:31; 1 Kings 6:23–29).. .. (4) The pair of Hebrew verbs in God’s command to the man ‘to work it (the garden) and take care of it’ (2:15) are only used in combination elsewhere in the Pentateuch of the duties of the Levites in the sanctuary (cf. Num. 3:7–8; 8:26; 18:5–6)” (T. Desmond Alexander, From Paradise to the Promised Land [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998], 20). See also Gordon J. Wenham, “Sanctuary Symbolism in the Garden of Eden Story,” Proceedings of the World Congress of Jewish Studies 9 (1986): 19-25.
6. The usual elements in these treaties were a preamble identifying the great king, the historical prologue recounting what the king had done for his people, covenant stipulations, the place where the treaty must be kept, witnesses, and curses and blessings (see Exod. 20:1–17).
7. The same Hebrew construction is in Genesis 4:7: “Its [sin’s] desire is for you but you must master it.” On the parallel between Genesis 3:16 and 4:7b see Bruce K. Waltke, “The Relationship of the Sexes in the Bible,” Crux 19 (September 1983): 16; and Susan Foh, Women and the Word of God (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981), 67–69.
8. Since the same verb שׁוּ is used for what each will do, it seems better not to follow the New International Version with, “He will crush your head and you will strike his heal,” but to use “strike” in both instances, as in the New International Version note and most other versions.
9. See Psalm 72:9; Isaiah 49:23; 65:25; and Micah 7:17.