2. How did we get here? Great question! Makes for a great story
Makes for a great testimony
Provides insight, clarity, and understanding
It is part of our Headwaters…

3. Genesis 3:1-7 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”

4. The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’ ”

5. The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die
The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6. When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

7. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.
New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995

8. Some preliminaries… Snakes talk?! Where was Adam?
‘Sup, Eve? (weird flex, answer’s trippin’…)
Legitmate questions for sure!
But not now
Don’t be distracted.

9. The Questioner Serpent Crafty…wise or insightful
Simply presented as a serpent
Later revelation illuminates
Crafty…wise or insightful
Presents itself the paragon of wisdom

10. The Question Only one, but the key question “Did God say…”
Simple and seemingly innocent
Designed to introduce doubt
Doubt clarity
Doubt our ability

11. Two Declarations “You will not die!” “God knows…you will be like Him”
God cannot be trusted
God is a liar
“God knows…you will be like Him”
God withholds what is good for you
God is not good

12. Two Declarations The serpent was wise indeed
Questions can disarm and distract
Questions can make the indigestible, palatable
Twisted truth is no longer truth

13. The Displacement Eve “saw…the tree…was good”
Her desire was for more than God gave her
Doubt gave way to prideful desire
The original “original sin” – pride, wanting to be God (Isaiah 14:13-14)

14. The Displacement The creation displaced the image of God
Eve displaced the Creator
The image of God displaced God
Satan became like God, re-creating man in his image

15. The Disaster “…the eyes of both…were opened…”
They got what they wanted
They didn’t know what they were getting
Shame
Separation

16. “Here is one of the saddest anticlimaxes of history: they eat, they expect marvelous results, they wait…

17. …and there grows on them the sense of shame” (Leupold, pp. 154)

18. The Disaster Sin achieved its goal Autonomy from God Separation
As Satan experienced, so did the image of God

19. Where do the waters flow?
The goal of Satan (and sin) is separation.
The key of doubt opens and unlocks the door to sin and death
Wrongful elevation results in disastrous descent.