Devil Not Today

East of Eden

A guided reading of Genesis 3.

Session: Session 3 · Chapter 2
Key Passages: Genesis 3 · Matthew 13:24–30
Program: Dartboard
Slides

Welcome

Last Session Review

The picture the names painted: adam (human), Havah (Eve; sounds like “life”), and eden (delight)—human and life, flourishing together in delight.
Work as worship: Adam was placed in the garden “to work it and watch over it” (Genesis 2:15)—gardener and priest.
Made to belong: “Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame” (Genesis 2:25). Fully known and fully loved.

Opening Question

When you read Genesis 3 this week as though for the first time, what seemed strange?

Opening story

Another Sower

Matthew 13:24–30

He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while people were sleeping, his enemy came, sowed weeds among the wheat, and left. When the plants sprouted and produced grain, then the weeds also appeared. The landowner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Master, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?’ “‘An enemy did this,’ he told them. “‘So, do you want us to go and pull them up?’ the servants asked him. “‘No,’ he said. ‘When you pull up the weeds, you might also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At harvest time I’ll tell the reapers: Gather the weeds first and tie them in bundles to burn them, but collect the wheat in my barn.’”

Read Matthew 13:24–30 (CSB) on YouVersion ↗

Program

Dartboard Program & discussion

Purpose

Feel the weight of the question before answering it: “Master, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?” (Matthew 13:27).

Materials and Setup

Magnetic dartboard + darts; blindfolds
Two tape lines: Near (Rounds 1 & 3) and Far (Round 2)

Instructions

Round 1 — Near: 3 shots from the Near line.
Round 2 — Far: 3 shots from the Far line.
Round 3 — Blindfold: 3 shots from the Near line, blindfolded (volunteers only).

One thrower at a time. Observing counts too. Don’t rush past what you feel as the conditions change.

Discussion

What did you feel in each round? What changed with distance? With the blindfold?
In archery games, what does the referee say when a player misses the mark?
What might the bullseye, the distance, and the blindfold represent?

Missing the Mark

It is often said that ancient archery referees called out “Sin” for a miss. The Greek word for sin, hamartia, literally means “missing the mark.” If the bullseye represents the standard of God, sin is the rest of the dartboard.
The diagnosis: Romans 3:23; Ecclesiastes 7:20; 1 John 1:8; James 1:15
The grace: Psalm 34:18; John 3:17; “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

You don’t have to be a Christian to come to the realization that we are broken people living in a broken world, and everyone is broken in different ways. How did brokenness become part of human nature? God’s original creation was good and beautiful, so where did sin come from? What are the consequences of sin? Is there any way out? With grace and truth, we will step into the discovery process together.

The full Dartboard program guide → (opens in a new tab)

Transition

If brokenness is universal, the next question is not “Who is the worst?” but “Where did this fracture come from?” But beware the lullaby effect: familiarity can make a story so normal that we stop noticing what it says (think “Rock-a-bye Baby”). Let’s read Genesis 3 as though for the first time.

Scripture

Key Passages

Primary passage

Genesis 3

Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’”
“No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Continue to read Genesis 3

The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
And he said, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”
Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
The man replied, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.”
So the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”
And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
So the Lord God said to the serpent:
Because you have done this,
you are cursed more than any livestock
and more than any wild animal.
You will move on your belly
and eat dust all the days of your life.
I will put hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.
He said to the woman:
I will intensify your labor pains;
you will bear children with painful effort.
Your desire will be for your husband,
yet he will rule over you.
And he said to the man, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’:
The ground is cursed because of you.
You will eat from it by means of painful labor
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow
until you return to the ground,
since you were taken from it.
For you are dust,
and you will return to dust.”
The man named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living. The Lord God made clothing from skins for the man and his wife, and he clothed them.
The Lord God said, “Since the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove the man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.

Read Genesis 3 (CSB) on YouVersion ↗

Supporting Passages

Key Verse

So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9 (opens in a new tab))

Explore

Observation What does the text say?

Read Genesis 3 slowly. Capture what you notice before deciding what it means.

The conversation (3:1–5): Why is the serpent called “crafty”? Does the serpent quote God accurately? Does the woman?
The choice (3:6–7): Who has been declaring what is “good” throughout Genesis 1? Where is Adam? What happens after they eat?
The questions (3:8–13): Why do they hide? Why does God ask, “Where are you?” Do they confess, explain, or blame?
The consequences (3:14–24): Who is cursed, and who is not? Why the garments? Why guard the tree of life? Why does the story end east of Eden?

Teaching

Dive Deeper What does it mean?

Context

The narrator links Genesis 2:25 and 3:1 with wordplay:

Naked and crafty: wordplay between Genesis 2:25 and 3:1
English	Strong’s number	Hebrew	What to notice
Naked	H6174 (opens in a new tab)	arom	Innocent, unashamed, nothing to hide (Genesis 2:25)
Crafty	H6175 (opens in a new tab)	arum	Shrewd, cunning; sounds like “naked” (Genesis 3:1)

The couple who had nothing to hide is about to become the couple who hides.

1. Noble Lies Genesis 3:1–5

What God, the serpent and the woman say
Speaker	What is said	What to notice
God (2:16–17)	“You are free to eat from any tree… but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”	Generosity first, one boundary
Serpent (3:1)	“Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree’?”	Generosity turned into restriction
Woman (3:3)	“You must not eat it or touch it.”	She adds “touch”
Serpent (3:4–5)	“You will certainly not die… you will be like God.”	“God didn’t give you the best.”

2. Autonomy Genesis 3:6

Autonomy (“self” + “law”) is different from free will: it uses God’s gift of choice to declare independence from the Giver. It always comes with self-justification and leads to alienation.
Reversed creation order: a creature speaks, the image-bearers listen, and the Creator is ignored.
Adam was “with her.” Eve was deceived, Adam was passive—neither stood guard.

3. Eyes Opened Genesis 3:7–13

They didn’t gain more knowledge, they gained more confusion: shame (covering), guilt (hiding), and fear (“I was afraid”)—echoed in the world’s honor-shame, guilt-innocence, and fear-power cultures.
“Where are you?” is not a search for a location, but an invitation to a relationship. They answer with blame.

The relationships that break in Genesis 3
Relationship	What breaks
Self ↔ God	“Where are you?”
Self ↔ Others	“The woman you gave me…”
Self ↔ Creation	“The ground is cursed because of you”

4. Curse, or Consequence? Genesis 3:14–20

Only the serpent and the ground are cursed. The man’s relationship with the ground and the woman’s relationship with life are affected.
In the middle of judgment, a promise: “He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel” (3:15).

5. Mercy and Exile Genesis 3:21–24

God clothes them (3:21) and sets a boundary before the tree of life—a tremendous act of mercy, so that their spiritual brokenness does not become permanent.
East of Eden began the journey of human exile. Genesis 3–11 is a downward spiral: from sinning against God to sinning against others (Genesis 4).

Back to the dartboard: the bullseye is God’s standard; distance is how close we are to God; the blindfold is “walking in darkness” (1 John 1:6)—we cannot hit the mark by willpower.

Discuss

Where do you hear the whisper “God didn’t give you the best”?
Which shows up most in your life: shame, guilt, or fear?
Where do you see mercy in God’s response?

Biblical Connections

The seed: Genesis 3:15 → Genesis 12:1–3 → Isaiah 53:2
The enemy: “An enemy did this” (Matthew 13:28)
The tree of life: Genesis 3:22–24 → Revelation 22:1–5

Behold Jesus

The promised seed has a name—Jesus. How He turns the curse around is where our story is heading.

Locate the story

Inhabit the Story How does this connect to the whole Bible?

Salvation has a context. If sin doesn’t make sense, salvation won’t make sense.

From Genesis 3 to 11, humanity moved further and further from God. But in Genesis 12, Abraham began to return to the way of God, and God promised that the nations would be blessed through his seed. The seed of the woman and the seed of Abraham had been planted and grown: “He grew up before Him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground” (Isaiah 53:2).

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away. (Revelation 21:4)

Respond

Worship & Prayer

Song: Eden (Isn’t It Just Like You?) — Benjamin William Hastings

Watch Eden (Isn’t It Just Like You?) on YouTube ↗ (opens in a new tab)

“Eden (Isn’t It Just Like You?)” words and music by Benjamin Hastings, Aodhan King, Brandon Lake, Dylan Thomas, Hank Bentley, Joel Houston, and Michael Fatkin. © 2022 Capitol CMG Publishing. CCLI Song # 7207334.

Prayer Prompts

Praise: the God who seeks us and clothes the ashamed.
Confession: where we’ve believed “God didn’t give you the best,” and hidden or blamed.
Petition: eyes to see God clearly.
Intercession: for those who feel far from God.
Commission: courage to move toward others instead of hiding.

Closing blessing

May the God who came looking for Adam and Eve find you where you are. “There is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

Carry it forward

Homework & Book Club

Homework

The Bible records two temptation encounters—the first in a garden, the second in a wilderness. Read Matthew 4:1–11 and consider how Jesus responded to temptation differently.

Reflection

See: Sin fractures every relationship God made good—and God comes looking: “Where are you?”
Feel: What “fig leaves” do you use to cover shame, guilt, or fear?
Practice: When you notice yourself hiding or blaming, answer honestly: “Here I am, Lord.”
Share: Who is one trusted person you can be honest with this week?

Weekly Practice

Each evening, take two minutes to journal your answer to God’s question, “Where are you?” Then pray Romans 8:1.