Genesis 3:7-13
In Genesis 3:7-13, we now turn to the effects of Adam and Eve’s sin after disobeying God’s direct command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. How did their decision affect their lives? How does sin affect our lives today? Was God correct in all that He declared would happen? We will also look at God’s response to Adam and Eve’s decision, which is quite a revelation of God’s heart toward all men. Let’s look at the entire text in its context. “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Has God indeed said, “You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’? And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’” Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. 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 coverings. And they heard the sound 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 among the trees of the garden. Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” And the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate” (Gen. 3:1-13).
What were the effects of Adam and Eve’s sin, and how does this affect us today?
Adam and Eve’s eyes were opened to Satan’s lie.
Verse 7 begins with this revelation, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened.” But what does it mean that their eyes were opened? Opened to see what? I believe that this is a very important phrase, because it reveals a vital truth about what really happened when they sinned.
1. Their eyes were opened to the fact that Satan’s promise did not come true.
They didn’t get to know as God knew all things. They only got to know the worst part of what God knows. They got to know evil. They didn’t get this great benefit that Satan told them they were going to receive. In fact, they got just the opposite. One of the greatest benefits we could ever experience is if we never knew anything about evil. You must remember that Satan’s promises are never true. So now their eyes were opened to this lie.
Satan’s desire is always to rob, kill, and destroy your life. Jesus warned His disciples of this when He said, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). God wants to bless you and bring you into His abundance, just as He wanted to do for Adam and Eve in the garden. Satan wants to do the exact opposite. His plan is never for your benefit; it will never be for your good.
Yet people believe Satan’s lies every day. Over the years as I have counseled scores of believers who have fallen into sin, I hear them tell me their horror stories of destruction in their lives. This is what it sounds like. People say, “I thought that this adulterous relationship would be different, and would be better than the rotten marriage that I had. But what happened is that I just added more trouble to my life.” Or, others tell me, “I thought if I just got high, I could find some rest from my anxiety, but now I’m strung out and caught in the bondage of these drugs.” Or a college student told me once, “I rejected my faith after listening to my professors, because they sounded like they really knew what they were talking about. But all I found was humanistic philosophy that only confused me more.” In each of these examples, there is a promise hidden in the temptation to compromise their faith and obedience to God. Yet the promise is never fulfilled. Why? Because, “There is no wisdom or understanding or counsel against the LORD” (Prov. 21:30). Eve sought for a tree that, “Was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise” (Gen. 3:6). But true wisdom never comes with disobedience to your heavenly Father. Real life, and real satisfaction in life will always be found in obeying and following the Lord. Yet people believe Satan’s lies every day. They think, I can do what I please, and I can find happiness and peace in life. I can find wisdom and understanding on my own. But they never find what they are looking for. This is the plight of so many; just make sure that you don’t believe Satan’s lies!
2. Their eyes were opened to the reality that Satan is a very crafty liar.
The Scripture is very clear that Satan is not just a liar, but the master of crafty lies. He can craft a lie that sounds so good and so right many can’t discern it as a lie. Paul warned, “I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3). But what makes him so crafty and deceitful is that he mixes truth with lies. This is Satan’s favorite methodology. He tells you, truth, truth, lie, truth, and then another lie. For Adam and Eve, the truth was, their eyes were going to be opened if they disobeyed God, but the lie was that the effect would not be good. They would see, know, and experience evil so personally that this would ultimately lead them to do evil.
Let me explain how the mixture of truth and lies work: Satan will tell you a truth in your mind, “You are really unhappy and unsatisfied.” Then he tells you the lie; “This is how you can find that happiness and peace,” by some disobedience to God or His Word. When a person believes the lie along with the truth, they yield and disobey the Lord. Then their eyes are opened to the deception. Jesus said in John 8:44 concerning the Pharisees, “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” What was Jesus referring to here when He said that the devil was a murderer from the beginning? Jesus was referring to Satan in the garden, when he led Adam and Eve to sin and their inevitable spiritual death. Peter said to Ananias in Acts 5:3, “Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?” Satan also fills the hearts of men to do exactly what he does. Satan fills people’s hearts with lies, and he persuades them to lie, and to disobey God’s commands. But Jesus will do the exact opposite of what the devil does. Jesus said that He will fill your heart with the Spirit of truth, because He is the God of truth (John 16:13). Which one do you want filling your heart today?
Understanding Satan’s devices is critical to recognizing them. If you don’t recognize these devices then you will succumb to them. This has happened many times in my own life. I can remember times where I have listened to very crafty lies for hours, days, or even weeks, believing that these thoughts were true. Listening to these lies only got me depressed, angry, and upset. I had very little peace in my heart, wondering what was wrong with me. The fruit in your own life should awaken you to the reality of who you are listening to. Truth will set you free, bring joy and rejoicing to your heart, simply because it is the truth. But when your mind is being corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ, everything becomes complicated, stressful, and creates anxiety inside. The fruit of the Spirit, and the fruit of God’s truth, will always bring that love, peace and joy to your heart (Gal. 5:22-23). Don’t miss the simplicity of this truth! If the Lord is filling you with the Spirit of truth, then that truth is going to lift you up and build you up, not tear you down. Never forget this simple reality.
3. Their eyes were opened to the knowledge of evil.
When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they gained a knowledge of evil. Up to this point they never had to discern between good and evil, because they only knew the goodness of God. Now they knew all the works of the sinful nature of man (Gal. 5:19-21). They began to think in selfish ways, jealous ways, and the ways of lewdness and immorality. Their eyes were opened to evil, and they began to see all things from an evil and selfish perspective. The ramifications of this change would have devastating effects upon everything that would happen from this point forward in their lives and ours.
For us today, this is why we must always check our motives for why we do the things we do. What do I mean? Think of times when you want to help or give to someone. You can give or help someone in two totally different ways. You can choose to give or serve with a pure motive, thinking, How can I help this person? Or, you can choose to be selfish and think about what you can get out of helping this person, or how can you excuse yourself from helping this person. You can view this act of giving from a selfish perspective or a loving one. God always intended in His original creation to have Adam and Eve, and all of us, only see life from a good and loving perspective. But today we must learn to discern between good and evil. This is why the apostle to the Hebrews explained what a truly mature believer should do when he said, “But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Heb. 5:14).
4. Their eyes were opened to their own consciousness of sin.
The proof of Adam and Eve’s consciousness of their own sinfulness was an immediate sense of guilt, which then created an uncomfortableness with their nakedness, which then resulted in becoming afraid of God. This is why we read in Genesis 3:7, “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 coverings.” Up until this time they didn’t see anything wrong with being naked, but now they were ill at ease about this fact. They could not behold their nakedness without a sense that something was wrong. But, let me balance this truth before we go any further. There is nothing inherently wrong with a husband and wife being naked together in the privacy of their home, but you must remember that Adam and Eve went naked everywhere in the garden, not just in private. Once they had sinned, they realized that walking around naked in public, so to speak, could not continue anymore.
Second, they immediately sought to cover their nakedness by their own effort and work, by sewing fig leaves together to make coverings. This of course, would be insufficient before God to cover their sin of disobeying Him. No work of man can ever adequately resolve the sin of our hearts before our heavenly Father. Paul declared concerning our self-effort and salvation that it was, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:5-7). From this passage it is clear that we can never do enough good works to ever outweigh or remove the sins that we have committed. Nothing I can do could ever balance the scales before God. It is only by God pouring out His grace and mercy through a Savior, Jesus Christ, that we can be forgiven. Then God imputes His righteousness to our individual accounts before Him (Rom. 3:21-22). Notice that God Himself then clothed their nakedness by His own work by killing an animal to cover their sin. Genesis records, “For Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them” (Gen. 3:21). This act was God foreshadowing His work of putting away the sins of the world by the sacrifice of, “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
Another proof of Adam and Eve’s consciousness of sin, was the fact that when God came into the garden, they ran and hid themselves from Him. They had a personal consciousness that they were alienated from the One who had created them (Eph. 4:18). Scripture records, “And they heard the sound 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 among the trees of the garden” (Gen. 3:8). This hiding of themselves from God was clearly one of the effects of their sin. There was an immediate sense of dread at being in the presence of a holy God. This is why they wanted to get as far away from Him as they could. When God calls out to Adam he responds, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself” (Gen. 3:10). The word afraid in this verse means to be frightened or to experience dread. This is always the result of man’s sinfulness when it is exposed to the holiness of God. Anyone who has not been forgiven by God would surely want to run and hide from His presence. When God spoke to Moses at the burning bush, Scripture declares, “Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God” (Exodus 3:6). You might ask, “Should we all still have this sense when we come to the Lord in prayer?” No! Why? Because of the forgiveness and acceptance, we can all experience in Christ. We are commanded, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). Paul rejoiced when he declared that we have been redeemed, “To the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:6-7). Think of it; if you have received the forgiveness of your sins, you are accepted in Christ Jesus! You don’t have to dread or be frightened by the thought of coming into the presence of a holy God, because God has redeemed you and given you the righteousness of Christ. That righteousness is all that you need to come to Him with boldness and confidence (Heb. 10:19; Eph. 3:12). Although I’m sure that when we all see Him face to face, everyone will fall upon their knees and reverence Him for all that He has done (Rev. 4:9-11). This won’t be with fear and dread, but in respect for who He is, the Holy One. We will all just be so thankful that we made it.
5. Their eyes were opened to the fact that their children would now be made in their image.
If we move forward a short distance to Genesis chapter 5, we see another result of Adam and Eve’s sin. There we read, “This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created. And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth” (Gen. 5:1-3). This result of their sin is one that affects all of us today. Every parent produces children in their own sinful image just as Adam did. Just as God made man in His own spiritual and moral likeness, so does all of mankind. Sinful parents beget sinful children, and this process has gone on throughout the ages. This is why we are sinners by nature, and each of us are in need of a Savior. Ephesians 2:1-3 declares what happened to each one who believed; “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.” We are by nature children of wrath because we have the same sinful nature passed down to us from Adam. Paul explained this truth when he wrote to the Roman church and declared, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Rom. 5:12).
Having a sinful nature is why we don’t have to teach our children to be selfish and prideful, because they are that way naturally. Our job is to teach them to follow the Lord and to walk in the teachings of Scripture (Ps. 78:1-8). Each of us must understand that good and evil is something in our very nature. However, we are also made in the image of God, which is why each of us has a conscience, which is proof that God’s Word has been written on our hearts (Rom. 2:15). But also, being made in Adam’s image we naturally have a tendency to sin and do evil things.
Romans 5:12 quoted above defines for us why we have a tendency to sinful behavior. But Scripture also reveals that when children are very young, they don’t have a knowledge of good and evil. Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 1:39, recounting to the people exactly what God said to their fathers when He would not allow them to go into the promised land. He declared, “Moreover your little ones and your children, who you say will be victims, who today have no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it.” Moses is teaching them that they were not going in to possess the promised land, but their children would inherit the land. But, notice the statement Moses makes that their children, “who today have no knowledge of good and evil.” This is how the Scripture describes the age of accountability. Children are accountable to God when they can discern between good and evil. This means that they have a moral consciousness of good and evil to the point they can discern between the two. Isaiah makes a similar comment when prophesying about when a specific prediction would come to pass. He predicted, “For before the Child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you dread will be forsaken by both her kings” (Is. 7:16). Again, you have this truth mentioned that before this child “shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good,” the prediction will be fulfilled. So, there is clearly a time when children do not know how to refuse evil and choose what is good. Therefore, sin and evil and that which is good, are both within our nature, and is something we must teach and instruct. As we do, this will cause each of us to be conformed more and more into the image of Him who created us (Rom. 8:29; Phil. 3:10; Rom. 12:2). May each of us take on the essential responsibility to teach our children moral and spiritual truth, so that they may become more like Him, and learn to choose what is good.
How does God respond to Adam and Eve after they sinned?
1. God came seeking fellowship with them.
How God responds after the fall is an incredible revelation of who God is, and the love He has toward all sinful men. Isn’t it amazing that God came seeking fellowship with them? Think about how remarkable this was. Adam and Eve had rejected God and done the very thing He has told them not to do. Yet, He is the one who came seeking them out. They had not repented; they had not cried out for His help; they had not asked for His forgiveness; they had not tried to do anything to restore their relationship with Him. But He pursued them! This is God’s grace, mercy, and love on full display reaching out to them. This reveals the heart of the Father! In Genisis 3:9 Scripture declares, “The Lord God called to Adam and said to him, ‘Where are you?’” He called out to Adam, just like He called out to you, and to me. He was the pursuer of Adam and Eve, and of each and every one of us. This is God’s love in action. Once we receive God’s forgiveness, He then turns around and uses our voice to call out to others that they might be reconciled to God. What an awesome privilege!
This is the God that we serve! He sought fellowship with us before we ever tried to know Him. In fact, Paul taught that, “There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10-12). No one seeks after God. Men only seek after relief from the misery of their sin, or they seek self-justification of themselves as they pursue other religions or philosophies. But it is God who is seeking to restore relationship with men. When Jesus addressed the church of Laodicea who had no relationship with Him, He told them, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Rev. 3:20). Notice that Jesus is the one pursuing fellowship with these people who are only playing church. This is the Jesus we serve! He declared His mission when He said, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). In Luke 5:32 Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” This is why God came to Adam and Eve in the garden. He knew that they had sinned, and He wanted to call them to repentance.
In Genesis 3:11, God confronts the reality of what Adam and Eve had done when He asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” Why is the Father seeking fellowship with Adam and Eve after they have disobeyed Him? He wanted to deal with their sin in a direct manner, and draw them back into fellowship with Himself. When He calls out to them, did they listen or did they run away and hide? Their response was to run away. Our response to God’s call to us is always the key issue in our relationship with Him. Note what God declared in Isaiah 50:2. The Lord says, “Why, when I came, was there no man? Why, when I called, was there none to answer? Is My hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Indeed with My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; their fish stink because there is no water, and die of thirst.” In other words, God is saying, “This is what I can do. I am the Lord God of heaven and earth. I can dry up the oceans. I can make rivers in the wilderness if I so choose. This is what I can do.” These rhetorical questions are to convict His people, because they are not asking Him for help, and they were not responsive to His call to them. These are great questions to ponder. Why are we not crying out to Him in prayer? He is the One who can do anything. Prayer must be our response when trouble comes our way, or when we fall. In Isaiah 55:6 the Lord commands, “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.” This is what the Lord wants each of us to do. He wants us to call upon Him, because He has the power to deliver. He is the only one who has the power to answer. The reason we believe that He is willing and able to help us in our time of need, is because He is the One who has pursued us in His love. This love and care for sinful men and women is what is demonstrated in Genesis 3. God’s love is seeking fellowship with these two sinners, just like He has sought fellowship with you and me. Respond to His call and come to Him in prayer! Surrender yourself before Him, and you will find the answers you are looking for!
2. God questions Adam and Eve about what they have done.
Why does God ask Adam and Eve, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat” (Gen. 3:11)? Was it because God didn’t know what they had done? Was He unclear about what had just happened? Absolutely not! God is omniscient and knows all things, so He knew exactly what they had done. So why then ask these questions? Because this is one of God’s favorite methods of ministering to people, and how He helps people see the solution to their troubles. We see this methodology used by God all through the Scripture. As we study further in Genesis, we will see in chapter 4:10 after Cain kills his brother Abel, that God asked Cain, “What have you done?” Did He not know what Cain had done? Of course, He knew that Cain had just killed his brother. Jesus did the same thing in the New Testament when He asked Peter, “Why did you doubt” (Matt. 14:31)? Did Jesus not know why Peter had doubted? He knew exactly why Peter had sunk into the water. But the question is, did Peter know why he had doubted? Did Cain really understand what he had done? God asks questions to help people see what they have done so they will question themselves about why they have behaved this way. This personal realization is how each of us grows in our faith and obedience to God. I would encourage you not to wait for God to ask you the why question; I believe you should ask yourself why you have behaved in the way you have. This is exactly what David did many times. He records in the Psalms several times his questioning himself when he wrote, “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me” (Ps. 42:5; 42:11; 43:5)? This is a great method of self-counseling. Ask yourself, “Why am I so depressed right now? Why am I so angry today? Why am I holding this resentment in my heart?” As you do, God will reveal to you why you do what you do. He will also then reveal what action you should take to resolve this problem.
I want to encourage you, if you are a parent, when your children are struggling with some issue, ask them the why question. Help them to reason through their thoughts and behaviors. But, let me warn you that children don’t like you doing this. My children hated it when I asked them these questions. They would disobey and do something I told them not to do, and they would come ask for general forgiveness, and I would say, “What are you asking forgiveness for?” They would tell me what they did. Then I would ask them, “Why did you do this?” They would respond, “I don’t know.” I would say, “Think about it for a moment and reason through your motives.” This is when they would get upset with me and ask me, “Why do you want to know this?” I would tell them, “I want to know that you know why you did what you did.” Finally, they would say, “Because I was being selfish, or I was rebellious, or I was angry.” Then I would ask them to reason through how they were going to deal with this attitude in their heart. Remember, the why question is a very powerful learning tool to disciple your children. It’s a great method to help your children grow and mature in their faith and obedience to God. If God uses this tool with people, you should too.
How did Adam and Eve respond to God’s questioning?
1. Adam and Eve did not make any confession of sin.
As you listen to the exchange that takes place between God and Adam and Eve, you will notice that there was no confession of sin. Read their interaction again. “Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ So he said, ‘I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.’ And He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?’ Then the man said, ‘The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.’ And the LORD God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate’ (Gen. 3:9-13). What was their response to being confronted with their sin? All they can do is blame-shift, and point the finger at someone else. Did Adam and Eve ever get their relationship right with God? I believe there is one great clue given to us in Genesis 4:25 that might answer this question. There we are told that a child is born to Adam and Eve, and they choose to name him Seth. The name Seth means appointed for God. In those days children were always named for a hope or aspiration of the parents for the child, or because of something dramatic that occurred at their birth. I believe that naming their child Seth revealed that Adam and Eve wanted their child to be appointed for the God that they served.
2. Blame-shifting.
What is blame-shifting? Blame-shifting is simply what a person does when they refuse to take personal responsibility for their own actions, and they blame someone or something else. Adam blamed God and his wife when he said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I ate.” Eve shifted the blame off of herself and onto the devil. Neither took personal responsibility for what they had done. This is what sinners do so easily. I hear this from people in counseling over and over again. “If he hadn’t done ______, then I would not have done ______.” “If God wanted me to do ______, then He should have done ______.” Blame-shifting is simply rationalizing away your own personal responsibility, so as to excuse your own behavior. In reality blame-shifting is self-deception, because a person doesn’t want to consider their own sin or be accountable for it. In counseling I always tell people, do the first thing that Jesus said to do when a conflict arises. He said, “Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matt. 7:5). Notice that Jesus said to do this first. If we would just first do an honest self-evaluation of our own faults, we would be able to resolve any conflict quickly with God and with others. Therefore, if you are in a troubled marriage, ask yourself what are your faults in this marriage. If you are having trouble at work because your boss is not happy with your performance, ask yourself what could you do better. Once you see your own faults, then you can see clearly what someone else needs to do.
One thing to never do is to blame God! Why? Because He is never the problem. He is always going to be your solution. When you blame God, you have several planks in your eye which are blinding you completely. Why? Because He is always for you, and never against you (Ps. 118:6-7). James also said, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death” (James 1:13-15). God doesn’t tempt any one to do evil, ever! God will test you, but He doesn’t ever tempt you to do evil. Neither does God want to destroy you. He always wants to enable and help you to change and grow. He wants to build you up and strengthen you. Our own lusts, and the temptation and enticement of the devil are the real problems. So don’t blame God! If you have, confess your sin to Him, and He will forgive you. Solomon said in Proverbs 28:13, “He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.” If you ask for mercy and forgiveness, He will grant it.
In the next few verses this principle of mercy will be seen even in the judgments that God hands down to Adam and Eve. God first deals with Satan, because he is the source of the problem. To him there was no mercy. Then God deals with Adam and Eve. With them He doesn’t mete out mercy with no judgment, nor does He judge without mercy. In our next study we will consider the balance of mercy and justice.