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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
G E N E S I S
CHAP. III.
The story of this chapter is perhaps as sad a story (all things
considered) as any we have in all the Bible. In the foregoing
chapters we have had the pleasant view of the holiness and happiness
of our first parents, the grace and favour of God, and
the peace and beauty of the whole creation, all good, very good;
but here the scene is altered. We have here an account of the
sin and misery of our first parents, the wrath and curse of God
against them, the peace of the creation disturbed, and its
beauty stained and sullied, all bad, very bad. “How has the
gold become dim, and the most fine gold changed!” O that our
hearts were deeply affected with this record! For we are all
nearly concerned in it; let it not be to us as a tale that is told.
The general contents of this chapter we have
(Rom. v. 12),
“By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so
death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” More
particularly, we have here,
I. The innocent tempted,
II. The tempted transgressing,
III. The transgressors arraigned,
IV. Upon their arraignment, convicted,
V. Upon their conviction, sentenced,
VI. After sentence, reprieved,
VII. Notwithstanding their reprieve, execution in part done,
And, were it not for the gracious intimations here given of redemption
by the promised seed, they, and all their degenerate guilty
race, would have been left to endless despair.
| The Tempter’s Subtlety; The Tempter’s Importunity | B. C. 4004. |
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1 Now the serpent was more subtle
than any beast of the field which
the LORD God had made. And he
said unto the woman, Yea, hath God
said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of
the garden?
2 And the woman said
unto the serpent, We may eat of the
fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 But of the fruit of the tree which is
in the midst of the garden, God hath
said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither
shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 And
the serpent said unto the woman, Ye
shall not surely die:
5 For God
doth know that in the day ye eat
thereof, then your eyes shall be
opened, and ye shall be as gods,
knowing good and evil.
We have here an account of the temptation
with which Satan assaulted our first
parents, to draw them into sin, and which
proved fatal to them. Here observe,
I. The tempter, and that was the devil, in
the shape and likeness of a serpent.
1. It is certain it was the devil that beguiled
Eve. The devil and Satan is the old
serpent
(Rev. xii. 9),
a malignant spirit, by
creation an angel of light and an immediate
attendant upon God’s throne, but by sin become
an apostate from his first state and a
rebel against God’s crown and dignity.
Multitudes of the angels fell; but this that
attacked our first parents was surely the
prince of the devils, the ring-leader in the
rebellion: no sooner was he a sinner than
he was a Satan, no sooner a traitor than a
tempter, as one enraged against God and his
glory and envious of man and his happiness.
He knew he could not destroy man but by
debauching him. Balaam could not curse
Israel, but he could tempt Israel,
The game therefore which Satan had to play
was to draw our first parents to sin, and so
to separate between them and their God.
Thus the devil was, from the beginning, a
murderer, and the great mischief-maker.
The whole race of mankind had here, as
it were, but one neck, and at that Satan
struck. The adversary and enemy is that
wicked one.
2. It was the devil in the likeness of a
serpent. Whether it was only the visible
shape and appearance of a serpent (as some
think those were of which we read,
or whether it was a real living serpent,
actuated and possessed by the devil, is not
certain: by God’s permission it might be
either. The devil chose to act his part in a
serpent,
(1.) Because it is a specious creature,
has a spotted dappled skin, and then
went erect. Perhaps it was a flying serpent,
which seemed to come from on high as a
messenger from the upper world, one of the
seraphim; for the fiery serpents were flying,
Many a dangerous temptation
comes to us in gay fine colours that are but
skin-deep, and seems to come from above;
for Satan can seem an angel of light. And,
(2.) Because it is a subtle creature; this is
here taken notice of. Many instances are
given of the subtlety of the serpent, both to
do mischief and to secure himself in it when
it is done. We are directed to be wise as
serpents. But this serpent, as actuated by
the devil, was no doubt more subtle than
any other; for the devil, though he has lost
the sanctity, retains the sagacity of an angel,
and is wise to do evil. He knew of more
advantage by making use of the serpent than
we are aware of. Observe, There is not any
thing by which the devil serves himself and
his own interest more than by unsanctified
subtlety. What Eve thought of this serpent
speaking to her we are not likely to
tell, when I believe she herself did not know
what to think of it. At first, perhaps, she
supposed it might be a good angel, and yet,
afterwards, she might suspect something
amiss. It is remarkable that the Gentile
idolaters did many of them worship the devil
in the shape and form of a serpent, thereby
avowing their adherence to that apostate
spirit, and wearing his colours.
II. The person tempted was the woman,
now alone, and at a distance from her husband,
but near the forbidden tree. It was
the devil’s subtlety,
1. To assault the weaker
vessel with his temptations. Though perfect
in her kind, yet we may suppose her
inferior to Adam in knowledge, and strength,
and presence of mind. Some think Eve
received the command, not immediately from
God, but at second hand by her husband, and
therefore might the more easily be persuaded
to discredit it.
2. It was his policy to enter
into discourse with her when she was alone.
Had she kept close to the side out of which she
was lately taken, she would not have been so
much exposed. There are many temptations,
to which solitude gives great advantage;
but the communion of saints contributes
much to their strength and safety.
3. He
took advantage by finding her near the forbidden
tree, and probably gazing upon the
fruit of it, only to satisfy her curiosity. Those
that would not eat the forbidden fruit must
not come near the forbidden tree. Avoid it,
pass not by it,
Prov. iv. 15.
4. Satan tempted
Eve, that by her he might tempt Adam; so
he tempted Job by his wife, and Christ by
Peter. It is his policy to send temptations
by unsuspected hands, and theirs that have
most interest in us and influence upon us.
III. The temptation itself, and the artificial
management of it. We are often, in scripture,
told of our danger by the temptations
of Satan, his devices
his depths
(Rev. ii. 24),
his wiles,
Eph. vi. 11.
The greatest instances we have of them are in
his tempting of the two Adams, here, and
In this he prevailed, but in that
he was baffled. What he spoke to them, of
whom he had no hold by any corruption in
them, he speaks in us by our own deceitful
hearts and their carnal reasonings; this
makes his assaults on us less discernible, but
not less dangerous. That which the devil
aimed at was to persuade Eve to cut forbidden
fruit; and, to do this, he took the same method
that he does still. He questioned whether
it was a sin or no,
v. 1.
He denied that
there was any danger in it,
v. 4.
He suggested
much advantage by it,
v. 5.
And these
are his common topics.
1. He questioned whether it was a sin or
no to eat of this tree, and whether really the
fruit of it was forbidden. Observe,
(1.) He said to the woman, Yea, hath God
said, You shall not eat? The first word intimated
something said before, introducing
this, and with which it is connected, perhaps
some discourse Eve had with herself, which
Satan took hold of, and grafted this question
upon. In the chain of thoughts one thing
strangely brings in another, and perhaps
something bad at last. Observe here,
[1.] He does not discover his design at first, but
puts a question which seemed innocent: “I
hear a piece of news, pray is it true? has
God forbidden you to eat of this tree?”
Thus he would begin a discourse, and draw
her into a parley. Those that would be safe
have need to be suspicious, and shy of talking
with the tempter.
[2.] He quotes the command
fallaciously, as if it were a prohibition,
not only of that tree, but of all. God had
said, Of every tree you may eat, except one.
He, by aggravating the exception, endeavours
to invalidate the concession: Hath God said,
You shall not eat of every tree? The divine
law cannot be reproached unless it be first
misrepresented.
[3.] He seems to speak it
tauntingly, upbraiding the woman with her
shyness of meddling with that tree; as if he
had said, “You are so nice and cautious, and
so very precise, because God has said, You
shall not eat.” The devil, as he is a liar, so
he is a scoffer, from the beginning: and the
scoffers of the last days are his children.
[4.] That which he aimed at in the first onset was
to take off her sense of the obligation of the
command. “Surely you are mistaken, it
cannot be that God should tie you out from
this tree; he would not do so unreasonable
a thing.” See here, That it is the subtlety
of Satan to blemish the reputation of the
divine law as uncertain or unreasonable, and
so to draw people to sin; and that it is therefore
our wisdom to keep up a a firm belief of,
and a high respect for, the command of God.
Has God said, “You shall not lie, nor take
his name in vain, nor be drunk,” &c.? “Yes,
I am sure he has, and it is well said, and by
his grace I will abide by it, whatever the
tempter suggests to the contrary.”
(2.) In answer to this question the woman
gives him a plain and full account of the law
they were under,
Here observe,
[1.] It was her weakness to enter into discourse
with the serpent. She might have
perceived by his question that he had no
good design, and should therefore have started
back with a Get thee behind me, Satan, thou
art an offence to me. But her curiosity, and
perhaps her surprise, to hear a serpent speak,
led her into further talk with him. Note, It
is a dangerous thing to treat with a temptation,
which ought at first to be rejected with
disdain and abhorrence. The garrison that
sounds a parley is not far from being surrendered.
Those that would be kept from harm
must keep out of harm’s way. See
[2.] It was her wisdom to
take notice of the liberty God had granted
them, in answer to his sly insinuation, as if
God has put them into paradise only to tantalize
them with the sight of fair but forbidden
fruits. “Yea,” says she, “we may eat of the
fruit of the trees, thanks to our Maker, we
have plenty and variety enough allowed us.”
Note, To prevent our being uneasy at the restraints
of religion, it is good often to take a
view of the liberties and comforts of it.
[3.] It was an instance of her resolution that she
adhered to the command, and faithfully repeated
it, as of unquestionable certainty:
“God hath said, I am confident he hath said
it, You shall not eat of the fruit of this tree;”
and that which she adds, Neither shall you
touch it, seems to have been with a good intention,
not (as some think) tacitly to reflect
upon the command as too strict (Touch not,
taste not and handle not), but to make a fence
about it: “We must not eat, therefore we
will not touch. It is forbidden in the highest
degree, and the authority of the prohibition
is sacred to us.”
[4.] She seems a little to
waver about the threatening, and is not so
particular and faithful in the repetition of
that as of the precept. God has said, In the
day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die;
all she makes of that is, Lest you die. Note,
Wavering faith and wavering resolutions
give great advantage to the tempter.
2. He denies that there was any danger in
it, insisting that, though it might be the
transgressing of a precept, yet it would not
be the incurring of a penalty: You shall not
surely die,
v. 4.
“You shall not dying die,”
so the word is, in direct contradiction to what
God had said. Either,
(1.) “It is not certain
that you shall die,” so some. “It is not so
sure as you are made to believe it is.” Thus
Satan endeavours to shake that which he cannot
overthrow, and invalidates the force of
divine threatenings by questioning the certainty
of them; and, when once it is supposed
possible that there may be falsehood
or fallacy in any word of God, a door is then
opened to downright infidelity. Satan teaches
men first to doubt and then to deny; he makes
them sceptics first, and so by degrees makes
them atheists. Or,
(2.) “It is certain you
shall not die,” so others. He avers his contradiction
with the same phrase of assurance
that God had used in ratifying the threatening.
He began to call the precept in question
(v. 1),
but, finding that the woman adhered
to that, he quitted that battery, and made his
second onset upon the threatening, where he
perceived her to waver; for he is quick to
spy all advantages, and to attack the wall
where it is weakest: You shall not surely die.
This was a lie, a downright lie; for,
[1.] It
was contrary to the word of God, which we
are sure is true. See
It was such a lie as gave the lie to God himself.
[2.] It was contrary to his own knowledge.
When he told them there was no danger in
disobedience and rebellion he said that which
he knew, by woeful experience, to be false.
He had broken the law of his creation, and
had found, to his cost, that he could not prosper
in it; and yet he tells our first parents
they shall not die. He concealed his own
misery, that he might draw them into the
like: thus he still deceives sinners into their
own ruin. He tells them that, though they
sin, they shall not die; and gains credit
rather than God, who tells them, The wages
of sin is death. Note, Hope of impunity is
a great support to all iniquity, and impenitency
in it. I shall have peace, though I walk
in the imagination of my heart,
Deut. xxix. 19.
3. He promises them advantage by it,
v. 5.
Here he follows his blow, and it was a blow
at the root, a fatal blow to the tree we are
branches of. He not only would undertake
that they should be no losers by it, thus
binding himself to save them from harm;
but (if they would be such fools as to venture
upon the security of one that had himself become
a bankrupt) he undertakes they shall
be gainers by it, unspeakable gainers. He
could not have persuaded them to run the
hazard of ruining themselves if he had not
suggested to them a great probability of bettering
themselves.
(1.) He insinuates to them the great improvements
they would make by eating of
this fruit. And he suits the temptation to
the pure state they were now in, proposing
to them, not any carnal pleasures or gratifications,
but intellectual delights and satisfactions.
These were the baits with which
he covered his hook.
[1.] “Your eyes shall
be opened; you shall have much more of the
power and pleasure of contemplation than
now you have; you shall fetch a larger compass
in your intellectual views, and see further
into things than now you do.” He
speaks as if now they were but dim-sighted,
and short-sighted, in comparison of what
they would be then.
[2.] “You shall be as
gods, as Elohim, mighty gods; not only
omniscient, but omnipotent too;” or, “You
shall be as God himself, equal to him, rivals
with him; you shall be sovereigns and no
longer subjects, self-sufficient and no longer
dependent.” A most absurd suggestion! As
if it were possible for creatures of yesterday
to be like their Creator that was from eternity.
[3.] “You shall know good and evil, that is,
every thing that is desirable to be known.”
To support this part of the temptation, he
abuses the name given to this tree: it was intended
to teach the practical knowledge of
good and evil, that is, of duty and disobedience;
and it would prove the experimental
knowledge of good and evil, that is, of happiness
and misery. In these senses, the
name of the tree was a warning to them not
to eat of it; but he perverts the sense of it,
and wrests it to their destruction, as if this
tree would give them a speculative notional
knowledge of the natures, kinds, and originals,
of good and evil. And,
[4.] All this
presently: “In the day you eat thereof you
will find a sudden and immediate change for
the better.” Now in all these insinuations
he aims to beget in them, First, Discontent
with their present state, as if it were not so
good as it might be, and should be. Note,
No condition will of itself bring contentment,
unless the mind be brought to it. Adam was
not easy, no, not in paradise, nor the angels
in their first state,
Secondly, Ambition
of preferment, as if they were fit to be
gods. Satan had ruined himself by desiring
to be like the Most High
(Isa. xiv. 14),
and therefore seeks to infect our first parents with
the same desire, that he might ruin them too.
(2.) He insinuates to them that God had
no good design upon them, in forbidding
them this fruit: “For God doth know how
much it will advance you; and therefore, in
envy and ill-will to you, he hath forbidden
it:” as if he durst not let them eat of that
tree because then they would know their own
strength, and would not continue in an inferior
state, but be able to cope with him; or
as if he grudged them the honour and happiness
to which their eating of that tree
would prefer them. Now,
[1.] This was a
great affront to God, and the highest indignity
that could be done him, a reproach to
his power, as if he feared his creatures, and
much more a reproach to his goodness, as if
he hated the work of his own hands and
would not have those whom he has made to
be made happy. Shall the best of men think
it strange to be misrepresented and evil
spoken of, when God himself is so? Satan, as
he is the accuser of the brethren before God, so
he accuses God before the brethren; thus he
sows discord, and is the father of those that
do so.
[2.] It was a most dangerous snare
to our first parents, as it tended to alienate
their affections from God, and so to withdraw
them from their allegiance to him.
Thus still the devil draws people into his interest
by suggesting to them hard thoughts
of God, and false hopes of benefit and advantage
by sin. Let us therefore, in opposition
to him, always think well of God as the best
good, and think ill of sin as the worst of
evils: thus let us resist the devil, and he will
flee from us.
| The Fall of Man. | B. C. 4004. |
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6 And when the woman saw that
the tree was good for food, and that
it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree
to be desired to make one wise, she
took of the fruit thereof, and did eat,
and gave also unto her husband with
her; and he did eat.
7 And the eyes
of them both were opened, and they
knew that they were naked; and
they sewed fig leaves together, and
made themselves aprons.
8 And
they heard the voice of the LORD God
walking in the garden in the cool of
the day: and Adam and his wife
hid themselves from the presence
of the LORD God amongst the trees
of the garden.
Here we see what Eve’s parley with the
tempter ended in. Satan, at length, gains
his point, and the strong-hold is taken by his
wiles. God tried the obedience of our first
parents by forbidding them the tree of knowledge,
and Satan does, as it were, join issue
with God, and in that very thing undertakes
to seduce them into a transgression; and
here we find how he prevailed, God permitting
it for wise and holy ends.
I. We have here the inducements that
moved them to transgress. The woman, being
deceived by the tempter’s artful management,
was ringleader in the transgression,
She was first in the fault; and it
was the result of her consideration, or rather
her inconsideration.
1. She saw no harm in
this tree, more than in any of the rest. It
was said of all the rest of the fruit-trees with
which the garden of Eden was planted that
they were pleasant to the sight, and good for
food,
ch. ii. 9.
Now, in her eye, this was
like all the rest. It seemed as good for food
as any of them, and she saw nothing in the
colour of its fruit that threatened death or
danger; it was as pleasant to the sight as
any of them, and therefore, “What hurt could
it do them? Why should this be forbidden
them rather than any of the rest?”
Note, When there is thought to be no
more harm in forbidden fruit than in other
fruit sin lies at the door, and Satan soon
carries the day. Nay, perhaps it seemed to
her to be better for food, more grateful to
the taste, and more nourishing to the body,
than any of the rest, and to her eye it was
more pleasant than any. We are often betrayed
into snares by an inordinate desire to
have our senses gratified. Or, if it had nothing
in it more inviting than the rest, yet it
was the more coveted because it was prohibited.
Whether it was so in her or not, we
find that in us (that is, in our flesh, in our
corrupt nature) there dwells a strange spirit
of contradiction. Nitimur in vetitum–We
desire what is prohibited.
2. She imagined
more virtue in this tree than in any of the rest,
that it was a tree not only not to be dreaded,
but to be desired to make one wise, and therein
excelling all the rest of the trees. This she
saw, that is, she perceived and understood
it by what the devil had said to her; and
some think that she saw the serpent eat
of that tree, and that he told her he thereby
had gained the faculties of speech and reason,
whence she inferred its power to make one wise,
and was persuaded to think, “If it
made a brute creature rational, why might
it not make a rational creature divine?”
See here how the desire of unnecessary
knowledge, under the mistaken notion of
wisdom, proves hurtful and destructive to
many. Our first parents, who knew so
much, did not know this–that they knew
enough. Christ is a tree to be desired to
make one wise,
Let us, by faith, feed upon him, that we may be
wise to salvation. In the heavenly paradise,
the tree of knowledge will not be a forbidden
tree; for there we shall know as we are
known. Let us therefore long to be there,
and, in the mean time, not exercise ourselves
in things too high or too deep for us, nor
covet to be wise above what is written.
II. The steps of the transgression, not steps
upward, but downward towards the pit–steps
that take hold on hell.
1. She saw.
She should have turned away her eyes from
beholding vanity; but she enters into
temptation, by looking with pleasure on the
forbidden fruit. Observe, A great deal of
sin comes in at the eyes. At these windows
Satan throws in those fiery darts which
pierce and poison the heart. The eye affects
the heart with guilt as well as grief. Let us
therefore, with holy Job, make a covenant
with our eyes, not to look on that which we
are in danger of lusting after,
Let the fear of God be
always to us for a covering of the eyes,
2. She took. It was her own act
and deed. The devil did not take it, and put
it into her mouth, whether she would or no;
but she herself took it. Satan may tempt,
but he cannot force; may persuade us to
cast ourselves down, but he cannot cast us
down,
Eve’s taking was stealing,
like Achan’s taking the accursed thing,
taking that to which she had no right. Surely
she took it with a trembling hand.
3. She did eat. Perhaps she did not intend, when
she looked, to take, nor, when she took, to
eat; but this was the result. Note, The
way of sin is downhill; a man cannot stop
himself when he will. The beginning of it
is as the breaking forth of water, to which it
is hard to say, “Hitherto thou shalt come
and no further.” Therefore it is our wisdom
to suppress the first emotions of sin,
and to leave it off before it be meddled with.
Obsta principiis–Nip mischief in the bud.
4. She gave also to her husband with her. It is
probable that he was not with her when she was
tempted (surely, if he had, he would have interposed
to prevent the sin), but came to her
when she had eaten, and was prevailed upon
by her to eat likewise; for it is easier to learn
that which is bad than to teach that which is
good. She gave it to him, persuading him
with the same arguments that the serpent
had used with her, adding this to all the rest,
that she herself had eaten of it, and found it
so far from being deadly that it was extremely
pleasant and grateful. Stolen waters are
sweet. She gave it to him, under colour of
kindness–she would not eat these delicious
morsels alone; but really it was the greatest
unkindness she could do him. Or perhaps
she gave it to him that, if it should prove
hurtful, he might share with her in the
misery, which indeed looks strangely unkind,
and yet may, without difficulty, be
supposed to enter into the heart of one that
had eaten forbidden fruit. Note, Those
that have themselves done ill are commonly
willing to draw in others to do the same.
As was the devil, so was Eve, no sooner a
sinner than a tempter.
5. He did eat, overcome
by his wife’s importunity. It is needless
to ask, “What would have been the
consequence if Eve only had transgressed?”
The wisdom of God, we are sure, would have
decided the difficulty, according to equity;
but, alas! the case was not so; Adam also
did eat. “And what great harm if he did?”
say the corrupt and carnal reasonings of a
vain mind. What harm! Why, this act
involved disbelief of God’s word, together
with confidence in the devil’s, discontent
with his present state, pride in his own
merits, and ambition of the honour which
comes not from God, envy at God’s perfections,
and indulgence of the appetites of the
body. In neglecting the tree of life of which
he was allowed to eat, and eating of the tree
of knowledge which was forbidden, he plainly
showed a contempt of the favours God had
bestowed on him, and a preference given to
those God did not see fit for him. He would
be both his own carver and his own master,
would have what he pleased and do what
he pleased: his sin was, in one word, disobedience
(Rom. v. 19),
disobedience to a
plain, easy, and express command, which
probably he knew to be a command of trial.
He sinned against great knowledge, against
many mercies, against light and love, the
clearest light and the dearest love that ever
sinner sinned against. He had no corrupt
nature within him to betray him; but had a
freedom of will, not enslaved, and was in his
full strength, not weakened or impaired.
He turned aside quickly. Some think he
fell the very day on which he was made;
but I see not how to reconcile this with God’s
pronouncing all very good in the close of the
day. Others suppose he fell on the sabbath
day: the better day the worse deed. However,
it is certain that he kept his integrity
but a very little while: being in honour, he
continued not. But the greatest aggravation
of his sin was that he involved all his posterity
in sin and ruin by it. God having
told him that his race should replenish the
earth, surely he could not but know that he
stood as a public person, and that his disobedience
would be fatal to all his seed;
and, if so, it was certainly both the greatest
treachery and the greatest cruelty that ever
was. The human nature being lodged entirely
in our first parents, henceforward it could
not but be transmitted from them under an
attainder of guilt, a stain of dishonour, and
an hereditary disease of sin and corruption.
And can we say, then, that Adam’s sin had
but little harm in it?
III. The ultimate consequences of the
transgression. Shame and fear seized the
criminals, ipso facto–in the fact itself; these
came into the world along with sin, and still
attend it.
1. Shame seized them unseen,
v. 7,
where observe,
(1.) The strong convictions they fell under,
in their own bosoms: The eyes of them both
were opened. It is not meant of the eyes of
the body; these were open before, as appears
by this, that the sin came in at them. Jonathan’s
eyes were enlightened by eating forbidden
fruit
that is, he was
refreshed and revived by it; but theirs were
not so. Nor is it meant of any advances
made hereby in true knowledge; but the eyes
of their consciences were opened, their hearts
smote them for what they had done. Now,
when it was too late, they saw the folly of
eating forbidden fruit. They saw the happiness
they had fallen from, and the misery
they had fallen into. They saw a loving God
provoked, his grace and favour forfeited, his
likeness and image lost, dominion over the
creatures gone. They saw their natures corrupted
and depraved, and felt a disorder in
their own spirits of which they had never
before been conscious. They saw a law in
their members warring against the law of
their minds, and captivating them both to
sin and wrath. They saw, as Balaam, when
his eyes were opened
the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and
his sword drawn in his hand; and perhaps
they saw the serpent that had abused them
insulting over them. The text tells us that
they saw that they were naked, that is,
[1.] That they were stripped, deprived of all the
honours and joys of their paradise-state, and
exposed to all the miseries that might justly
be expected from an angry God. They were
disarmed; their defence had departed from
them.
[2.] That they were shamed, for ever
shamed, before God and angels. They saw
themselves disrobed of all their ornaments
and ensigns of honour, degraded from their
dignity and disgraced in the highest degree,
laid open to the contempt and reproach of
heaven, and earth, and their own consciences.
Now see here, First, What a dishonour and
disquietment sin is; it makes mischief wherever
it is admitted, sets men against themselves
disturbs their peace, and destroys all
their comforts. Sooner or later, it will have
shame, either the shame of true repentance,
which ends in glory, or that shame and everlasting
contempt to which the wicked shall
rise at the great day. Sin is a reproach to
any people. Secondly, What deceiver Satan
is. He told our first parents, when he
tempted them, that their eyes should be
opened; and so they were, but not as they
understood it; they were opened to their
shame and grief, not to their honour nor advantage.
Therefore, when he speaks fair,
believe him not. The most malicious mischievous
liars often excuse themselves with
this, that they only equivocate; but God
will not so excuse them.
(2.) The sorry shift they made to palliate
these convictions, and to arm themselves
against them: They sewed, or platted, fig-leaves
together; and to cover, at least, part of their
shame from one another, they made themselves
aprons. See here what is commonly
the folly of those that have sinned.
[1.] That they are more solicitous to save their
credit before men than to obtain their pardon
from God; they are backward to confess their
sin, and very desirous to conceal it, as much
as may be. I have sinned, yet honour me.
[2.] That the excuses men make, to cover
and extenuate their sins, are vain and frivolous.
Like the aprons of fig-leaves, they
make the matter never the better, but the
worse; the shame, thus hidden, becomes the
more shameful. Yet thus we are all apt to
cover our transgressions as Adam,
Job xxxi. 33.
2. Fear seized them immediately upon their
eating the forbidden fruit,
v. 8.
Observe here,
(1.) What was the cause and occasion
of their fear: They heard the voice of the Lord
God walking in the garden in the cool of the
day. It was the approach of the Judge that
put them into a fright; and yet he came in
such a manner as made it formidable only to
guilty consciences. It is supposed that he
came in a human shape, and that he who
judged the world now was the same that
shall judge the world at the last day, even
that man whom God has ordained. He appeared
to them now (it should seem) in no
other similitude than that in which they had
seen him when he put them into paradise;
for he came to convince and humble them,
not to amaze and terrify them. He came
into the garden, not descending immediately
from heaven in their view, as afterwards on
mount Sinai (making either thick darkness
his pavilion or the flaming fire his chariot),
but he came into the garden, as one that was
still willing to be familiar with them. He
came walking, not running, not riding upon
the wings of the wind, but walking deliberately,
as one slow to anger, teaching us,
when we are ever so much provoked, not to
be hot nor hasty, but to speak and act considerately
and not rashly. He came in the
cool of the day, not in the night, when all
fears are doubly fearful, nor in the heat of
day, for he came not in the heat of his anger.
Fury is not in him,
Isa. xxvii. 4.
Nor did
he come suddenly upon them; but they
heard his voice at some distance, giving
them notice of his coming, and probably it
was a still small voice, like that in which he
came to enquire after Elijah. Some think
they heard him discoursing with himself concerning
the sin of Adam, and the judgment
now to be passed upon him, perhaps as he
did concerning Israel,
How shall I give thee up? Or, rather, they heard
him calling for them, and coming towards
them.
(2.) What was the effect and evidence
of their fear: They hid themselves from the
presence of the Lord God–a sad change!
Before they had sinned, if they had heard
the voice of the Lord God coming towards
them, they would have run to meet him, and
with a humble joy welcomed his gracious
visits. But, now that it was otherwise, God
had become a terror to them, and then no
marvel that they had become a terror to themselves,
and were full of confusion. Their
own consciences accused them, and set their
sin before them in its proper colours. Their
fig-leaves failed them, and would do them
no service. God had come forth against
them as an enemy, and the whole creation
was at war with them; and as yet they knew
not of any mediator between them and an
angry God, so that nothing remained but a
certain fearful looking for of judgment. In
this fright they hid themselves among the
bushes; having offended, they fled for the
same. Knowing themselves guilty, they
durst not stand a trial, but absconded, and
fled from justice. See here,
[1.] The falsehood
of the tempter, and the frauds and fallacies
of his temptations. He promised them
they should be safe, but now they cannot so
much as think themselves so; he said they
should not die, and yet now they are forced
to fly for their lives; he promised them they
should be advanced, but they see themselves
a based–never did they seem so little as now;
he promised them they should be knowing,
but they see themselves at a loss, and know
not so much as where to hide themselves;
he promised them they should be as gods,
great, and bold, and daring, but they are as
criminals discovered, trembling, pale, and
anxious to escape: they would not be subjects,
and so they are prisoners.
[2.] The folly
of sinners, to think it either possible or desirable
to hide themselves from God: can
they conceal themselves from the Father of
lights?
&c.
Will they withdraw themselves from the fountain
of life, who alone can give help and
happiness?
[3.] The fear that
attends sin. All that amazing fear of God’s
appearances, the accusations of conscience,
the approaches of trouble, the assaults of inferior
creatures, and the arrests of death,
which is common among men, is the effect
of sin. Adam and Eve, who were partners
in the sin, were sharers in the shame and fear
that attended it; and though hand joined in
hand (hands so lately joined in marriage), yet
could they not animate nor fortify one another:
miserable comforters they had become
to each other!
9 And the LORD God called unto
Adam, and said unto him, Where art
thou?
10 And he said, I heard thy
voice in the garden, and I was afraid,
because I was naked; and I hid
myself.
We have here the arraignment of these
deserters before the righteous Judge of
heaven and earth, who, though he is not tied
to observe formalities, yet proceeds against
them with all possible fairness, that he may
be justified when he speaks. Observe here,
I. The startling question with which God
pursued Adam and arrested him: Where art
thou? Not as if God did not know where
he was; but thus he would enter the process
against him. “Come, where is this foolish
man?” Some make it a bemoaning question:
“Poor Adam, what has become of thee?”
“Alas for thee!” (so some read it) “How
art thou fallen, Lucifer, son of the morning!
Thou that wast my friend and favourite,
whom I had done so much for, and would
have done so much more for; hast thou now
forsaken me, and ruined thyself? Has it
come to this?” It is rather an upbraiding
question, in order to his conviction and
humiliation: Where art thou? Not, In what
place? but, In what condition? “Is this all
thou hast gotten by eating forbidden fruit?
Thou that wouldest vie with me, dost thou
now fly from me?” Note,
1. Those who by
sin have gone astray from God should seriously
consider where they are; they are afar
off from all good, in the midst of their
enemies, in bondage to Satan, and in the high
road to utter ruin. This enquiry after Adam
may be looked upon as a gracious pursuit, in
kindness to him, and in order to his recovery.
If God had not called to him, to reclaim him,
his condition would have been as desperate
as that of fallen angels; this lost sheep would
have wandered endlessly, if the good Shepherd
had not sought after him, to bring him
back, and, in order to that, reminded him
where he was, where he should not be, and
where he could not be either happy or easy.
Note,
2. If sinners will but consider where
they are, they will not rest till they return to
God.
II. The trembling answer which Adam
gave to this question: I heard thy voice in
the garden, and I was afraid,
v. 10.
He does
not own his guilt, and yet in effect confesses
it by owning his shame and fear; but it is
the common fault and folly of those that have
done an ill thing, when they are questioned
about it, to acknowledge no more than what
is so manifest that they cannot deny it.
Adam was afraid, because he was naked;
not only unarmed, and therefore afraid to
contend with God, but unclothed, and therefore
afraid so much as to appear before him.
We have reason to be afraid of approaching
to God if we be not clothed and fenced with
the righteousness of Christ, for nothing but
this will be armour of proof and cover the
shame of our nakedness. Let us therefore
put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and then draw
near with humble boldness.
11 And he said, Who told thee that
thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten
of the tree, whereof I commanded thee
that thou shouldest not eat?
12 And
the man said, The woman whom thou
gavest to be with me, she gave me of
the tree, and I did eat.
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.
We have here the offenders found guilty
by their own confession, and yet endeavouring
to excuse and extenuate their fault. They
could not confess and justify what they had
done, but they confess and palliate it. Observe,
I. How their confession was extorted from
them. God put it to the man: Who told
thee that thou wast naked?
v. 11.
“How camest thou to be sensible of thy nakedness
as thy shame?” Hast thou eaten of the forbidden
tree? Note, Though God knows all
our sins, yet he will know them from us,
and requires from us an ingenuous confession
of them; not that he may be informed,
but that we may be humbled. In this examination,
God reminds him of the command
he had given him: “I commanded thee not
to eat of it, I thy Maker, I thy Master, I thy
benefactor; I commanded thee to the contrary.”
Sin appears most plain and most
sinful in the glass of the commandment,
therefore God here sets it before Adam; and
in it we should see our faces. The question
put to the woman was, What is this that thou
hast done?
v. 13.
“Wilt thou also own thy
fault, and make confession of it? And wilt
thou see what an evil thing it was?” Note,
It concerns those who have eaten forbidden
fruit themselves, and especially those who
have enticed others to eat it likewise, seriously
to consider what they have done. In eating
forbidden fruit, we have offended a great and
gracious God, broken a just and righteous
law, violated a sacred and most solemn covenant,
and wronged our own precious souls
by forfeiting God’s favour and exposing ourselves
to his wrath and curse: in enticing
others to eat of it, we do the devil’s work,
make ourselves guilty of other men’s sins,
and accessory to their ruin. What is this
that we have done?
II. How their crime was extenuated by
them in their confession. It was to no
purpose to plead not guilty. The show of
their countenances testified against them;
therefore they become their own accusers:
“I did eat,” says the man, “And so did I,”
says the woman; for when God judges he
will overcome. But these do not look like
penitent confessions; for instead of aggravating
the sin, and taking shame to themselves,
they excuse the sin, and lay the shame
and blame on others.
1. Adam lays all the
blame upon his wife. “She gave me of the
tree, and pressed me to eat of it, which I did,
only to oblige her”–a frivolous excuse. He
ought to have taught her, not to have been
taught by her; and it was no hard matter to
determine which of the two he must be ruled
by, his God or his wife. Learn, hence, never
to be brought to sin by that which will not
bring us off in the judgment; let not that
bear us up in the commission which will not
bear us out in the trial; let us therefore
never be overcome by importunity to act
against our consciences, nor ever displease
God, to please the best friend we have in the
world. But this is not the worst of it. He
not only lays the blame upon his wife, but
expresses it so as tacitly to reflect on God
himself: “It is the woman whom thou gavest
me, and gavest to be with me as my companion,
my guide, and my acquaintance; she
gave me of the tree, else I had not eaten of
it.” Thus he insinuates that God was accessory
to his sin: he gave him the woman,
and she gave him the fruit; so that he seemed
to have it at but one remove from God’s own
hand. Note, There is a strange proneness
in those that are tempted to say that they
are tempted of God, as if our abusing God’s
gifts would excuse our violation of God’s
laws. God gives us riches, honours, and
relations, that we may serve him cheerfully
in the enjoyment of them; but, if we
take occasion from them to sin against him,
instead of blaming Providence for putting us
into such a condition, we must blame ourselves
for perverting the gracious designs of
Providence therein.
2. Eve lays all the blame
upon the serpent: The serpent beguiled me.
Sin is a brat that nobody is willing to own,
a sign that it is a scandalous thing. Those
that are willing enough to take the pleasure
and profit of sin are backward enough to
take the blame and shame of it. “The
serpent, that subtle creature of thy making,
which thou didst permit to come into paradise
to us, he beguiled me,” or made me to
err; for our sins are our errors. Learn
hence,
(1.) That Satan’s temptations are all
beguilings, his arguments are all fallacies, his
allurements are all cheats; when he speaks
fair, believe him not. Sin deceives us, and,
by deceiving, cheats us. It is by the deceitfulness
of sin that the heart is hardened. See
(2.) That
though Satan’s subtlety drew us into sin, yet
it will not justify us in sin: though he is the
tempter, we are the sinners; and indeed it
is our own lust that draws us aside and
entices us,
Let it not therefore
lessen our sorrow and humiliation for sin
that we are beguiled into it; but rather let
it increase our self-indignation that we should
suffer ourselves to be beguiled by a known
cheat and a sworn enemy. Well, this is all
the prisoners at the bar have to say why
sentence should not be passed and execution
awarded, according to law; and this all is
next to nothing, in some respects worse than
nothing.
| Sentence Passed on the Serpent; Intimation of Messiah. | B. C. 4004. |
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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:
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.
The prisoners being found guilty by their
own confession, besides the personal and infallible
knowledge of the Judge, and nothing
material being offered in arrest of judgment,
God immediately proceeds to pass sentence;
and, in these verses, he begins (where the sin
began) with the serpent. God did not examine
the serpent, nor ask him what he had
done nor why he did it; but immediately
sentenced him,
1. Because he was already
convicted of rebellion against God, and his
malice and wickedness were notorious, not
found by secret search, but openly avowed
and declared as Sodom’s.
2. Because he
was to be for ever excluded from all hope of
pardon; and why should any thing be said
to convince and humble him who was to find
no place for repentance? His wound was
not searched, because it was not to be cured.
Some think the condition of the fallen angels
was not declared desperate and helpless,
until now that they had seduced man into
the rebellion.
I. The sentence passed upon the tempter
may be considered as lighting upon the serpent,
the brute-creature which Satan made
use of which was, as the rest, made for the
service of man, but was now abused to his
hurt. Therefore, to testify a displeasure
against sin, and a jealousy for the injured
honour of Adam and Eve, God fastens a
curse and reproach upon the serpent, and
makes it to groan, being burdened. See
The devil’s instruments must share
in the devil’s punishments. Thus the bodies
of the wicked, though only instruments of
unrighteousness, shall partake of everlasting
torments with the soul, the principal agent.
Even the ox that killed a man must be
stoned,
See here how
God hates sin, and especially how much displeased
he is with those who entice others
into sin. It is a perpetual brand upon Jeroboam’s
name that he made Israel to sin.
Now,
1. The serpent is here laid under the
curse of God: Thou art cursed above all
cattle. Even the creeping things, when God
made them, were blessed of him
(ch. i. 22),
but sin turned the blessing into a curse.
The serpent was more subtle than any beast of the
field
(v. 1),
and here, cursed above every
beast of the field. Unsanctified subtlety
often proves a great curse to a man; and the
more crafty men are to do evil the more
mischief they do, and, consequently, they
shall receive the greater damnation. Subtle
tempters are the most accursed creatures
under the sun. 2. He is here laid under
man’s reproach and enmity.
(1.) He is to
be for ever looked upon as a vile and despicable
creature, and a proper object of scorn
and contempt: “Upon thy belly thou shalt
go, no longer upon feet, or half erect, but
thou shalt crawl along, thy belly cleaving to
the earth,” an expression of a very abject
miserable condition,
“and thou
shalt not avoid eating dust with thy meat.”
His crime was that he tempted Eve to eat
that which she should not; his punishment
was that he was necessitated to eat that which
he would not: Dust thou shalt eat. This
denotes not only a base and despicable condition,
but a mean and pitiful spirit; it is
said of those whose courage has departed
from them that they lick the dust like a serpent,
Mic. vii. 17.
How sad it is that the
serpent’s curse should be the covetous worldling’s
choice, whose character it is that he
pants after the dust of the earth!
Amos ii. 7.
These choose their own delusions, and so
shall their doom be.
(2.) He is to be for ever
looked upon as a venomous noxious creature,
and a proper object of hatred and detestation:
I will put enmity between thee and the
woman. The inferior creatures being made
for man, it was a curse upon any of them to
be turned against man and man against
them; and this is part of the serpent’s curse.
The serpent is hurtful to man, and often
bruises his heel, because it can reach no
higher; nay, notice is taken of his biting the
horses’ heels,
But man is victorious
over the serpent, and bruises his
head, that is, gives him a mortal wound,
aiming to destroy the whole generation of
vipers. It is the effect of this curse upon
the serpent that, though that creature is
subtle and very dangerous, yet it prevails not
(as it would if God gave it commission) to
the destruction of mankind. This sentence
pronounced upon the serpent is much fortified
by that promise of God to his people,
Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder
(Ps. xci. 13),
and that of Christ to his disciples,
They shall take up serpents
(Mark xvi. 18),
witness Paul, who was unhurt by the
viper that fastened upon his hand. Observe
here, The serpent and the woman had just
now been very familiar and friendly in discourse
about the forbidden fruit, and a wonderful
agreement there was between them;
but here they are irreconcilably set at variance.
Note, Sinful friendships justly end in
mortal feuds: those that unite in wickedness
will not unite long.
II. This sentence may be considered as
levelled at the devil, who only made use of
the serpent as his vehicle in this appearance,
but was himself the principal agent. He
that spoke through the serpent’s mouth is
here struck at through the serpent’s side, and
is principally intended in the sentence, which,
like the pillar of cloud and fire, has a dark
side towards the devil and a bright side
towards our first parents and their seed.
Great things are contained in these words.
1. A perpetual reproach is here fastened
upon that great enemy both to God and
man. Under the cover of the serpent, he is
here sentenced to be,
(1.) Degraded and
accursed of God. It is supposed that the sin
which turned angels into devils was pride,
which is here justly punished by a great
variety of mortifications couched under the
mean circumstances of a serpent crawling
on his belly and licking the dust. How art
thou fallen, O Lucifer! He that would be
above God, and would head a rebellion
against him, is justly exposed here to contempt
and lies to be trodden on; a man’s
pride will bring him low, and God will
humble those that will not humble themselves.
(2.) Detested and abhorred of all
mankind. Even those that are really seduced
into his interest yet profess a hatred
and abhorrence of him; and all that are
born of God make it their constant care to
keep themselves, that this wicked one touch
them not,
He is here condemned
to a state of war and irreconcilable
enmity.
(3.) Destroyed and ruined at last
by the great Redeemer, signified by the
breaking of his head. His subtle politics
shall all be baffled, his usurped power shall
be entirely crushed, and he shall be for ever
a captive to the injured honour of divine
sovereignty. By being told of this now he
was tormented before the time.
2. A perpetual quarrel is here commenced
between the kingdom of God and the kingdom
of the devil among men; war is proclaimed
between the seed of the woman and
the seed of the serpent. That war in heaven
between Michael and the dragon began now,
It is the fruit of this enmity,
(1.) That there is a continual conflict between
grace and corruption in the hearts of God’s
people. Satan, by their corruptions, assaults
them, buffets them, sifts them, and seeks to
devour them; they, by the exercise of their
graces, resist him, wrestle with him, quench
his fiery darts, force him to flee from them.
Heaven and hell can never be reconciled,
nor light and darkness; no more can Satan
and a sanctified soul, for these are contrary
the one to the other.
(2.) That there is
likewise a continual struggle between the
wicked and the godly in this world. Those
that love God account those their enemies
that hate him,
And all
the rage and malice of persecutors against
the people of God are the fruit of this
enmity, which will continue while there is a
godly man on this side heaven, and a wicked
man on this side hell. Marvel not therefore
if the world hate you,
1 John iii. 13.
3. A gracious promise is here made of
Christ, as the deliverer of fallen man from
the power of Satan. Though what was said
was addressed to the serpent, yet it was said
in the hearing of our first parents, who,
doubtless, took the hints of grace here given
them, and saw a door of hope opened to
them, else the following sentence upon
themselves would have overwhelmed them.
Here was the dawning of the gospel day.
No sooner was the wound given than the
remedy was provided and revealed. Here,
in the head of the book, as the word is
(Heb. x. 7),
in the beginning of the Bible, it is
written of Christ, that he should do the will
of God. By faith in this promise, we have
reason to think, our first parents, and the
patriarchs before the flood, were justified
and saved and to this promise, and the
benefit of it, instantly serving God day and
night, they hoped to come. Notice is here
given them of three things concerning Christ:–
(1.) His incarnation, that he should
be the seed of the woman, the seed of that
woman; therefore his genealogy
goes so high as to show him to be the son
of Adam, but God does the woman the
honour to call him rather her seed, because
she it was whom the devil had beguiled,
and on whom Adam had laid the blame;
herein God magnifies his grace, in that,
though the woman was first in the transgression,
yet she shall be saved by child-bearing
(as some read it), that is, by the
promised seed who shall descend from her,
He was likewise to be the
seed of a woman only, of a virgin, that he
might not be tainted with the corruption of
our nature; he was sent forth, made of a
woman
(Gal. iv. 4),
that this promise might
be fulfilled. It is a great encouragement to
sinners that their Saviour is the seed of the
woman, bone of our bone,
Heb. ii. 11, 14.
Man is therefore sinful and unclean, because
he is born of a woman
(Job xxv. 4),
and therefore his days are full of trouble,
Job xiv. 1.
But the seed of the woman was
made sin and a curse for us, so saving us
from both.
(2.) His sufferings and death,
pointed at in Satan’s bruising his heel, that
is, his human nature. Satan tempted Christ
in the wilderness, to draw him into sin; and
some think it was Satan that terrified Christ
in his agony, to drive him to despair. It
was the devil that put it into the heart of
Judas to betray Christ, of Peter to deny him,
of the chief priests to prosecute him, of the
false witnesses to accuse him, and of Pilate
to condemn him, aiming in all this, by destroying
the Saviour, to ruin the salvation;
but, on the contrary, it was by death that
Christ destroyed him that had the power of
death,
Heb. ii. 14.
Christ’s heel was bruised
when his feet were pierced and nailed to the
cross, and Christ’s sufferings are continued
in the sufferings of the saints for his name.
The devil tempts them, casts them into
prison, persecutes and slays them, and so
bruises the heel of Christ, who is afflicted in
their afflictions. But, while the heel is
bruised on earth, it is well that the head is
safe in heaven.
(3.) His victory over
Satan thereby. Satan had now trampled
upon the woman, and insulted over her; but
the seed of the woman should be raised up
in the fulness of time to avenge her quarrel,
and to trample upon him, to spoil him, to
lead him captive, and to triumph over him,
Col. ii. 15.
He shall bruise his head, that is,
he shall destroy all his politics and all his
powers, and give a total overthrow to his
kingdom and interest. Christ baffled Satan’s
temptations, rescued souls out of his hands,
cast him out of the bodies of people, dispossessed
the strong man armed, and divided
his spoil: by his death, he gave a fatal and
incurable blow to the devil’s kingdom, a
wound to the head of this beast, that can
never be healed. As his gospel gets ground,
Satan falls
and is bound,
Rev. xx. 2.
By his grace, he treads Satan under
his people’s feet
and will
shortly cast him into the lake of fire,
And the devil’s perpetual overthrow
will be the complete and everlasting joy and
glory of the chosen remnant.
| Sentence Passed on Eve. | B. C. 4004. |
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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.
We have here the sentence passed upon
the woman for her sin. Two things she is
condemned to: a state of sorrow, and a state
of subjection, proper punishments of a sin in
which she had gratified her pleasure and her
pride.
I. She is here put into a state of sorrow,
one particular of which only is specified, that
in bringing forth children; but it includes
all those impressions of grief and fear which
the mind of that tender sex is most apt to
receive, and all the common calamities
which they are liable to. Note, Sin brought
sorrow into the world; it was this that made
the world a vale of tears, brought showers
of trouble upon our heads, and opened
springs of sorrows in our hearts, and so
deluged the world: had we known no guilt,
we should have known no grief. The pains
of child-bearing, which are great to a proverb,
a scripture proverb, are the effect of
sin; every pang and every groan of the travailing
woman speak aloud the fatal consequences
of sin: this comes of eating forbidden
fruit. Observe,
1. The sorrows are
here said to be multiplied, greatly multiplied.
All the sorrows of this present time are so;
many are the calamities which human life is
liable to, of various kinds, and often repeated,
the clouds returning after the rain,
and no marvel that our sorrows are multiplied
when our sins are: both are innumerable
evils. The sorrows of child-bearing
are multiplied; for they include, not only the
travailing throes, but the indispositions
before (it is sorrow from the conception),
and the nursing toils and vexations after;
and after all, if the children prove wicked
and foolish, they are, more than ever, the
heaviness of her that bore them. Thus are
the sorrows multiplied; as one grief is over,
another succeeds in this world.
2. It is God
that multiplies our sorrows: I will do it.
God, as a righteous Judge, does it, which
ought to silence us under all our sorrows; as
many as they are, we have deserved them all,
and more: nay, God, as a tender Father,
does it for our necessary correction, that we
may be humbled for sin, and weaned from
the world by all our sorrows; and the good
we get by them, with the comfort we have
under them, will abundantly balance our sorrows,
how greatly soever they are multiplied.
II. She is here put into a state of subjection.
The whole sex, which by creation was
equal with man, is, for sin, made inferior,
and forbidden to usurp authority,
1 Tim. ii. 11, 12.
The wife particularly is hereby put
under the dominion of her husband, and is
not sui juris–at her own disposal, of which see
an instance in that law,
where the husband is empowered, if he
please, to disannul the vows made by the
wife. This sentence amounts only to that
command, Wives, be in subjection to your
own husbands; but the entrance of sin has
made that duty a punishment, which otherwise
it would not have been. If man had
not sinned, he would always have ruled with
wisdom and love; and, if the woman had not
sinned, she would always have obeyed with
humility and meekness; and then the dominion
would have been no grievance: but
our own sin and folly make our yoke heavy.
If Eve had not eaten forbidden fruit herself,
and tempted her husband to eat it, she
would never have complained of her subjection;
therefore it ought never to be complained
of, though harsh; but sin must be
complained of, that made it so. Those wives
who not only despise and disobey their husbands,
but domineer over them, do not consider
that they not only violate a divine law,
but thwart a divine sentence.
III. Observe here how mercy is mixed
with wrath in this sentence. The woman
shall have sorrow, but it shall be in bringing
forth children, and the sorrow shall be forgotten
for joy that a child is born,
John xvi. 21.
She shall be subject, but it shall be to
her own husband that loves her, not to a
stranger, or an enemy: the sentence was not
a curse, to bring her to ruin, but a chastisement,
to bring her to repentance. It was well
that enmity was not put between the man
and the woman, as there was between the
serpent and the woman.
| Sentence Passed on Adam; Consequences of the Fall. | B. C. 4004. |
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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;
18 Thorns also and
thistles shall it bring forth to thee;
and thou shalt eat the herb of the
field;
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.
We have here the sentence passed upon
Adam, which is prefaced with a recital of his
crime: Because thou hast hearkened to the
voice of thy wife,
v. 17.
He excused the
fault, by laying it on his wife: She gave it
me. But God does not admit the excuse.
She could but tempt him, she could not
force him; though it was her fault to persuade
him to eat, it was his fault to hearken
to her. Thus men’s frivolous pleas will, in
the day of God’s judgment, not only be
overruled, but turned against them, and
made the grounds of their sentence. Out of
thine own mouth will I judge thee. Observe,
I. God put marks of his displeasure on
Adam in three instances:–
1. His habitation is, by this sentence,
cursed: Cursed is the ground for thy sake;
and the effect of that curse is, Thorns and
thistles shall it bring forth unto thee. It is
here intimated that his habitation should be
changed; he should no longer dwell in a
distinguished, blessed, paradise, but should
be removed to common ground, and that
cursed. The ground, or earth, is here put
for the whole visible creation, which, by the
sin of man, is made subject to vanity, the
several parts of it being not so serviceable to
man’s comfort and happiness as they were
designed to be when they were made, and
would have been if he had not sinned. God
gave the earth to the children of men, designing
it to be a comfortable dwelling to
them. But sin has altered the property of it.
It is now cursed for man’s sin; that is, it is
a dishonourable habitation, it bespeaks man
mean, that his foundation is in the dust; it
is a dry and barren habitation, its spontaneous
productions are now weeds and briers, something
nauseous or noxious; what good fruits
it produces must be extorted from it by the
ingenuity and industry of man. Fruitfulness
was its blessing, for man’s service
and now barrenness was its curse,
for man’s punishment. It is not what it
was in the day it was created. Sin turned a
fruitful land into barrenness; and man,
having become as the wild ass’s colt, has the
wild ass’s lot, the wilderness for his habitation,
and the barren land his dwelling,
Job xxxix. 6; Ps. lxviii. 6.
Had not this curse been in part
removed, for aught I know, the earth would
have been for ever barren, and never produced
any thing but thorns and thistles. The
ground is cursed, that is, doomed to destruction
at the end of time, when the earth, and
all the works that are therein, shall be burnt up
for the sin of man, the measure of whose
iniquity will then be full,
But observe a mixture of mercy in this sentence.
(1.) Adam himself is not cursed, as
the serpent was
(v. 14),
but only the ground
for his sake. God had blessings in him, even
the holy seed: Destroy it not, for that blessing
is in it,
Isa. lxv. 8.
And he had blessings
in store for him; therefore he is not directly
and immediately cursed, but, as it were, at
second hand.
(2.) He is yet above ground.
The earth does not open and swallow him
up; only it is not what it was: as he continues
alive, notwithstanding his degeneracy
from his primitive purity and rectitude, so
the earth continues to be his habitation, notwithstanding
its degeneracy from its primitive
beauty and fruitfulness.
(3.) This curse upon
the earth, which cut off all expectations of a
happiness in things below, might direct and
quicken him to look for bliss and satisfaction
only in things above.
2. His employments and enjoyments are
all embittered to him.
(1.) His business shall henceforth become
a toil to him, and he shall go on with it in the
sweat of his face,
v. 19.
His business, before
he sinned, was a constant pleasure to him,
the garden was then dressed without any uneasy
labour, and kept without any uneasy
care; but now his labour shall be a weariness
and shall waste his body; his care shall be a
torment and shall afflict his mind. The curse
upon the ground which made it barren, and
produced thorns and thistles, made his employment
about it much more difficult and
toilsome. If Adam had not sinned, he had
not sweated. Observe here,
[1.] That labour
is our duty, which we must faithfully perform;
we are bound to work, not as creatures only,
but as criminals; it is part of our sentence,
which idleness daringly defies.
[2.] That
uneasiness and weariness with labour are our
just punishment, which we must patiently
submit to, and not complain of, since they
are less than our iniquity deserves. Let not
us, by inordinate care and labour, make our
punishment heavier than God has made it;
but rather study to lighten our burden, and
wipe off our sweat, by eyeing Providence in
all and expecting rest shortly.
(2.) His food shall henceforth become (in
comparison with what it had been) unpleasant
to him.
[1.] The matter of his food is
changed; he must now eat the herb of the
field, and must no longer be feasted with the
delicacies of the garden of Eden. Having by
sin made himself like the beasts that perish,
he is justly turned to be a fellow-commoner
with them, and to eat grass as oxen, till he
know that the heavens do rule.
[2.] There is
a change in the manner of his eating it: In
sorrow
(v. 17).
and in the sweat of his face
(v. 19)
he must eat of it. Adam could not
but eat in sorrow all the days of his life, remembering
the forbidden fruit he had eaten,
and the guilt and shame he had contracted
by it. Observe, First, That human life is
exposed to many miseries and calamities,
which very much embitter the poor remains
of its pleasures and delights. Some never
eat with pleasure
(Job xxi. 25),
through sickness
or melancholy; all, even the best, have
cause to eat with sorrow for sin; and all,
even the happiest in this world, have some
allays to their joy: troops of diseases, disasters,
and deaths, in various shapes, entered
the world with sin, and still ravage it. Secondly,
That the righteousness of God is to
be acknowledged in all the sad consequences
of sin. Wherefore then should a living man
complain? Yet, in this part of the sentence,
there is also a mixture of mercy. He shall
sweat, but his toil shall make his rest the
more welcome when he returns to his earth,
as to his bed; he shall grieve, but he shall
not starve; he shall have sorrow, but in that
sorrow he shall eat bread, which shall
strengthen his heart under his sorrows. He
is not sentenced to eat dust as the serpent,
only to eat the herb of the field.
3. His life also is but short. Considering
how full of trouble his days are, it is in
favour to him that they are few; yet death
being dreadful to nature (yea, even though
life be unpleasant) that concludes the sentence.
“Thou shalt return to the ground out
of which thou wast taken; thy body, that part
of thee which was taken out of the ground,
shall return to it again; for dust thou art.”
This points either to the first original of his
body; it was made of the dust, nay it was
made dust, and was still so; so that there
needed no more than to recall the grant of
immortality, and to withdraw the power
which was put forth to support it, and then
he would, of course, return to dust. Or to
the present corruption and degeneracy of his
mind: Dust thou art, that is, “Thy precious
soul is now lost and buried in the dust of the
body and the mire of the flesh; it was made
spiritual and heavenly, but it has become
carnal and earthly.” His doom is therefore
read: “To dust thou shalt return. Thy body
shall be forsaken by thy soul, and become
itself a lump of dust; and then it shall be
lodged in the grave, the proper place for it,
and mingle itself with the dust of the earth,”
our dust,
Ps. civ. 29.
Earth to earth, dust to
dust. Observe here,
(1.) That man is a mean
frail creature, little as dust, the small dust of
the balance–light as dust, altogether lighter
than vanity–weak as dust, and of no consistency.
Our strength is not the strength
of stones; he that made us considers it, and
remembers that we are dust,
Ps. ciii. 14.
Man is indeed the chief part of the dust of the
world
but still he is dust.
(2.) That he is a mortal dying creature, and
hastening to the grave. Dust may be raised,
for a time, into a little cloud, and may seem
considerable while it is held up by the wind
that raised it; but, when the force of that is
spent, it falls again, and returns to the earth
out of which it was raised. Such a thing is
man; a great man is but a great mass of
dust, and must return to his earth.
(3.) That
sin brought death into the world. If Adam
had not sinned, he would not have died,
God entrusted Adam with a
spark of immortality, which he, by a patient
continuance in well-doing, might have
blown up into an everlasting flame; but he
foolishly blew it out by wilful sin: and now
death is the wages of sin, and sin is the sting of
death.
II. We must not go off from this sentence
upon our first parents, which we are all so
nearly concerned in, and feel from, to this
day, till we have considered two things:–
1. How fitly the sad consequences of sin
upon the soul of Adam and his sinful race
were represented and figured out by this sentence,
and perhaps were more intended in it
than we are aware of. Though that misery
only is mentioned which affected the body,
yet that was a pattern of spiritual miseries,
the curse that entered into the soul.
(1.) The
pains of a woman in travail represent the
terrors and pangs of a guilty conscience,
awakened to a sense of sin; from the conception
of lust, these sorrows are greatly multiplied,
and, sooner or later, will come upon
the sinner like pain upon a woman in travail,
which cannot be avoided.
(2.) The state of
subjection to which the woman was reduced
represents that loss of spiritual liberty and
freedom of will which is the effect of sin. The
dominion of sin in the soul is compared to
that of a husband
the sinner’s
desire is towards it, for he is fond of his
slavery, and it rules over him.
(3.) The curse
of barrenness which was brought upon the
earth, and its produce of briars and thorns,
are a fit representation of the barrenness of a
corrupt and sinful soul in that which is good
and its fruitfulness in evil. It is all overgrown
with thorns, and nettles cover the face
of it; and therefore it is nigh unto cursing,
Heb. vi. 8.
(4.) The toil and sweat bespeak
the difficulty which, through the infirmity of
the flesh, man labours under, in the service
of God and the work of religion, so hard has
it now become to enter into the kingdom of
heaven. Blessed be God, it is not impossible.
(5.) The embittering of his food to him bespeaks
the soul’s want of the comfort of God’s
favour, which is life, and the bread of life.
(6.) The soul, like the body, returns to the
dust of this world; its tendency is that way;
it has an earthy taint,
2. How admirably the satisfaction our Lord
Jesus made by his death and sufferings answered
to the sentence here passed upon our
first parents.
(1.) Did travailing pains come
in with sin? We read of the travail of
Christ’s soul
and the pains of
death he was held by are called odinai
(Acts ii. 24),
the pains of a woman in travail.
(2.) Did subjection come in with sin? Christ
was made under the law,
(3.) Did
the curse come in with sin? Christ was made
a curse for us, died a cursed death,
(4.) Did thorns come in with sin? He
was crowned with thorns for us.
(5.) Did sweat come in with sin? He for us did sweat
as it were great drops of blood.
(6.) Did sorrow come in with sin? He was a man of
sorrows, his soul was, in his agony, exceedingly
sorrowful.
(7.) Did death come in with
sin? He became obedient unto death. Thus
is the plaster as wide as the wound. Blessed
be God for Jesus Christ!
20 And Adam called his wife’s
name Eve; because she was the mother
of all living.
God having named the man, and called him
Adam, which signifies red earth, Adam, in
further token of dominion, named the woman,
and called her Eve, that is, life. Adam bears
the name of the dying body, Eve that of the
living soul. The reason of the name is here
given (some think, by Moses the historian,
others, by Adam himself): Because she was
(that is, was to be) the mother of all living.
He had before called her Ishah–woman, as a
wife; here he calls her Evah–life, as a
mother. Now,
1. If this was done by divine
direction, it was an instance of God’s favour,
and, like the new naming of Abraham and
Sarah, it was a seal of the covenant, and an
assurance to them that, notwithstanding their
sin and his displeasure against them for it,
he had not reversed that blessing wherewith
he had blessed them: Be fruitful and multiply.
It was likewise a confirmation of the promise
now made, that the seed of the woman, of
this woman, should break the serpent’s head.
2. If Adam did it of himself, it was an instance
of his faith in the word of God. Doubtless
it was not done, as some have suspected,
in contempt or defiance of the curse, but
rather in a humble confidence and dependence
upon the blessing.
(1.) The blessing
of a reprieve, admiring the patience of God,
that he should spare such sinners to be the
parents of all living, and that he did not immediately
shut up those fountains of the
human life and nature, because they could
send forth no other than polluted, poisoned,
streams.
(2.) The blessing of a Redeemer,
the promised seed, to whom Adam had an
eye, in calling his wife Eve–life; for he
should be the life of all the living, and in
him all the families of the earth should be
blessed, in hope of which he thus triumphs.
21 Unto Adam also and to his wife
did the LORD God make coats of
skins, and clothed them.
We have here a further instance of God’s
care concerning our first parents, notwithstanding
their sin. Though he corrects his
disobedient children, and put them under
the marks of his displeasure, yet he does not
disinherit them, but, like a tender father, provides
the herb of the field for their food and
coats of skins for their clothing. Thus the
father provided for the returning prodigal,
If the Lord had been
pleased to kill them, he would not have done
this for them. Observe,
1. That clothes
came in with sin. We should have had no
occasion for them, either for defence or decency,
if sin had not made us naked, to our
shame. Little reason therefore we have to
be proud of our clothes, which are but the
badges of our poverty and infamy.
2. That
when God made clothes for our first parents
he made them warm and strong, but coarse
and very plain: not robes of scarlet, but coats
of skin. Their clothes were made, not of
silk and satin, but plain skins; not trimmed,
nor embroidered, none of the ornaments
which the daughters of Sion afterwards invented,
and prided themselves in. Let the
poor, that are meanly clad, learn hence not to
complain: having food and a covering, let
them be content; they are as well done to
as Adam and Eve were. And let the rich,
that are finely clad, learn hence not to make
the putting on of apparel their adorning,
3. That God is to be acknowledged
with thankfulness, not only in giving
us food, but in giving us clothes also,
The wool and the flax are his, as
well as the corn and the wine,
Hos. ii. 9.
4. These coats of skin had a significancy. The
beasts whose skins they were must be slain,
slain before their eyes, to show them what
death is, and (as it is
that they
may see that they themselves were beasts,
mortal and dying. It is supposed that they
were slain, not for food, but for sacrifice, to
typify the great sacrifice, which, in the latter
end of the world, should be offered once for
all. Thus the first thing that died was a
sacrifice, or Christ in a figure, who is therefore
said to be the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. These sacrifices were
divided between God and man, in token of
reconciliation: the flesh was offered to God, a
whole burnt-offering; the skins were given
to man for clothing, signifying that, Jesus
Christ having offered himself to God a sacrifice
of a sweet-smelling savour, we are to
clothe ourselves with his righteousness as
with a garment, that the shame of our nakedness
may not appear. Adam and Eve made
for themselves aprons of fig-leaves, a covering
too narrow for them to wrap themselves in,
Isa. xxviii. 20.
Such are all the rags of
our own righteousness. But God made
them coats of skins; large, and strong, and
durable, and fit for them; such is the righteousness
of Christ. Therefore put on the
Lord Jesus Christ.
| Adam and Eve Expelled from Eden. | B. C. 4004. |
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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:
23 Therefore the LORD God sent
him forth from the garden of Eden,
to till the ground from whence he
was taken.
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.
Sentence being passed upon the offenders,
we have here execution, in part, done upon
them immediately. Observe here,
I. How they were justly disgraced and
shamed before God and the holy angels, by
the ironical upbraiding of them with the issue
of their enterprise: “Behold, the man has become
as one of us, to know good and evil! A
goodly god he makes! Does he not? See
what he has got, what preferments, what advantages,
by eating forbidden fruit!” This
was said to awaken and humble them, and to
bring them to a sense of their sin and folly,
and to repentance for it, that, seeing themselves
thus wretchedly deceived by following
the devil’s counsel, they might henceforth
pursue the happiness God should offer in
the way he should prescribe. God thus fills
their faces with shame, that they may seek his
name,
Ps. lxxxiii. 16.
He puts them to this
confusion, in order to their conversion. True
penitents will thus upbraid themselves:
“What fruit have I now by sin?
Have I gained what I foolishly promised myself
in a sinful way? No, no, it never proved
what it pretended to, but the contrary.”
II. How they were justly discarded, and
shut out of paradise, which was a part of the
sentence implied in that, Thou shalt eat the
herb of the field. Here we have,
1. The reason God gave why he shut man
out of paradise; not only because he had put
forth his hand, and taken of the tree of knowledge,
which was his sin, but lest he should
again put forth his hand, and take also of the
tree of life (now forbidden him by the divine
sentence, as before the tree of knowledge was
forbidden by the law), and should dare to
eat of that tree, and so profane a divine sacrament
and defy a divine sentence, and yet
flatter himself with a conceit that thereby he
should live forever. Observe,
(1.) There is
a foolish proneness in those that have rendered
themselves unworthy of the substance
of Christian privileges to catch at the signs
and shadows of them. Many that like not
the terms of the covenant, yet, for their reputation’s
sake, are fond of the seals of it.
(2.) It is not only justice, but kindness, to such,
to be denied them; for, by usurping that to
which they have no title, they affront God
and make their sin the more heinous, and by
building their hopes upon a wrong foundation
they render their conversion the more
difficult and their ruin the more deplorable.
2. The method God took, in giving him
this bill of divorce, and expelling and excluding
him from this garden of pleasure.
He turned him out, and kept him out.
(1.) He turned him out, from the garden
to the common. This is twice mentioned:
He sent him forth
v. 23),
and then he drove
him out,
v. 24.
God bade him go out, told
him that that was no place for him, he should
no longer occupy and enjoy that garden; but
he liked the place too well to be willing to
part with it, and therefore God drove him out,
made him go out, whether he would or no.
This signified the exclusion of him, and all
his guilty race, from that communion with
God which was the bliss and glory of paradise.
The tokens of God’s favour to him
and his delight in the sons of men, which he
had in his innocent estate, were now suspended;
the communications of his grace
were withheld, and Adam became weak, and
like other men, as Samson when the Spirit of
the Lord had departed from him. His acquaintance
with God was lessened and lost,
and that correspondence which had been
settled between man and his Maker was interrupted
and broken off. He was driven
out, as one unworthy of this honour and incapable
of this service. Thus he and all
mankind, by the fall, forfeited and lost communion
with God. But whither did he send
him when he turned him out of Eden? He
might justly have chased him out of the
world
but he only chased him
out of the garden. He might justly have
cast him down to hell, as he did the angels
that sinned when he shut them out from the
heavenly paradise,
But man
was only sent to till the ground out of which
he was taken. He was sent to a place of
toil, not to a place of torment. He was sent
to the ground, not to the grave,–to the
work-house, not to the dungeon, not to the
prison-house,–to hold the plough, not to
drag the chain. His tilling the ground
would be recompensed by his eating of its
fruits; and his converse with the earth
whence he was taken was improvable to good
purposes, to keep him humble, and to remind
him of his latter end. Observe, then,
that though our first parents were excluded
from the privileges of their state of innocency,
yet they were not abandoned to despair, God’s
thoughts of love designing them for a second
state of probation upon new terms.
(2.) He kept him out, and forbade him all
hopes of a re-entry; for he placed at the east
of the garden of Eden a detachment of cherubim,
God’s hosts, armed with a dreadful and
irresistible power, represented by flaming
swords which turned every way, on that side
the garden which lay next to the place whither
Adam was sent, to keep the way that led to
the tree of life, so that he could neither steal
nor force an entry; for who can make a pass
against an angel on his guard or gain a pass
made good by such force? Now this intimated
to Adam,
[1.] That God was displeased
with him. Though he had mercy in
store for him, yet at present he was angry
with him, was turned to be his enemy and
fought against him, for here was a sword
drawn
and he was to him a
consuming fire, for it was a flaming sword.
[2.] That the angels were at war with him;
no peace with the heavenly hosts, while he
was in rebellion against their Lord and ours.
[3.] That the way to the tree of life was shut
up, namely, that way which, at first, he was
put into, the way of spotless innocency. It
is not said that the cherubim were set to keep
him and his for ever from the tree of life
(thanks be to God, there is a paradise set
before us, and a tree of life in the midst of
it, which we rejoice in the hopes of); but
they were set to keep that way of the tree of
life which hitherto they had been in; that is,
it was henceforward in vain for him and his
to expect righteousness, life, and happiness,
by virtue of the first covenant, for it was irreparably
broken, and could never be pleaded,
nor any benefit taken by it. The command
of that covenant being broken, the curse of
it is in full force; it leaves no room for repentance,
but we are all undone if we be
judged by that covenant. God revealed this
to Adam, not to drive him to despair, but to
oblige and quicken him to look for life and
happiness in the promised seed, by whom
the flaming sword is removed. God and his
angels are reconciled to us, and a new and
living way into the holiest is consecrated and
laid open for us.
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