2019.01.19 Hopewell @Home ▫ Genesis 3:20-24

Read Genesis 3:20-24

Questions for Littles: What does Adam call his wife (v20)? Why? Of whom is she the mother? Who made tunics for Adam and his wife (v21)? Of what did He make them? What else did He do? Whom did Yahweh say the man had become like (v22)? In what way? What might the man put out his hand to take? To do what with it? Why? Where did Yahweh send the man (v23)? To do what? What did God place at the east of the garden of Eden (v24)? What else did He place? What did it do? To guard what?

In the Scripture for tomorrow’s sermon, we have the first big act of faith, the first display of redemption, and the first protective act of discipline.

You might not think a husband’s new nickname for his wife would be a big moment in redemptive history, but here is a big one. Adam has just heard that there is going to be a Redeemer who crushes the serpent. He has just heard that there is an entire line of those who will live, and that they will come from his wife.

Suddenly, “Mrs. Man” isn’t a good enough name for her. Now, she’s “Eve”—“Life”! He’s heard about all his misery, but his primary response is to trust in the promise about Jesus. Hallelujah!

This passage also describes the first display of redemption—a substitutionary sacrifice. Scripture tells us that death entered the world through sin, but the first one isn’t Adam or Eve. It’s the animal that died so that they could be covered. Notice also that the Lord Himself personally clothes them.

What a glorious picture of what God did with His Son—not just providing a sacrifice, but personally clothing sinners with His Son’s righteousness.

Finally, this passage displays God’s protective discipline. The tree of life belonged to the covenant of the garden. It signified the everlasting life that Adam would have earned had he kept that covenant. He had no right to what it represented, so he had no right to it. Not now.

But we do see that tree again—on either side of the river in Revelation 22. The paradise of God still exists (Rev 2:7); it’s just reserved for glory in the New Heavens and Earth (Rev 22:2).  When the Scripture says that the flaming sword “guards the way,” it is not so that we may never get to it; rather, it is so that we would do so only through Christ!

How have you responded to the good news about life in Jesus? How are you covered—by whose sacrifice? Who has done this? Will you one day eat from the tree of life?

Suggested Songs: ARP32A-B “What Blessedness” or TPH265 “In Christ Alone”