Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
back to:
Genesis
Book: Genesis
Chapter: 3
Overview:
The
Serpent deceives
Eve.
(1-5) Adam and
Eve transgress the
Divine command, and fall into
Sin and misery.
(6-8) God calls
upon
Adam and
Eve to answer.
(9-13) The
Serpent cursed, The
promised Seed.
(14,15) The
Punishment of mankind.
(16-19) The
first clothing of mankind.
(20,21) Adam and
Eve are driven out
from
Paradise.
(22-24)
1-5 Satan assaulted our first parents, to draw them to
Sin, and
the
Temptation proved fatal to them. The tempter was the
Devil,
in the shape and likeness of a
Serpent.
Satan's plan 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 person tempted was the
Woman: it
was
Satan's policy to enter into talk with her when she was
alone. There are many temptations to which being alone gives
great advantage; but the
Communion of saints tends very much to
their strength and safety.
Satan took advantage
By finding her
near the forbidden tree. They that would not eat the forbidden
Fruit, must not come near the forbidden tree.
Satan tempted
Eve,
that
By her he might tempt
Adam. It is his policy to send
temptations
By hands we do not suspect, and
By those that have
most influence upon us.
Satan questioned whether it were a
Sin
or not, to eat of this tree. He did not disclose his design at
first, but he
Put a question which seemed innocent. Those who
would be safe, need to be shy of talking with the tempter. He
quoted the command wrong. He spoke in a taunting way. The
Devil,
as he is a liar,
So he is a scoffer from the beginning; and
scoffers are his children. It is the craft of
Satan to speak of
the Divine
Law as uncertain or unreasonable, and
So to draw
people to
Sin; it is our
Wisdom to keep up a firm belief of
God's command, and a high respect for it. Has
God said, Ye 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. It was
Eve's weakness to enter into this talk with the
Serpent: she might have perceived
By his question, that he had
No good design, and should therefore have started back.
Satan
teaches men first to doubt, and then to deny. He promises
advantage from their
Eating this
Fruit. He aims to make them
discontented with their present state, as if it were not
So good
as it might be, and should be.
No condition will of itself bring
content, unless the mind be brought to it. He tempts them to
seek preferment, as if they were fit to be gods.
Satan ruined
himself
By desiring to be like the Most High, therefore he
sought to infect our first parents with the same desire, that he
might ruin them too. And still the
Devil draws people into his
interest,
By suggesting to them hard thoughts of
God, and false
hopes of advantage
By Sin. Let us, therefore, always think
Well
of
God as the best good, and think ill of
Sin as the worst evil:
thus let us resist the
Devil, and he will flee from us.
6-8 Observe the steps of the transgression: not steps upward,
but downward toward the
Pit. 1. She saw. A great
Deal of
Sin
comes in at the
Eye. Let us not look
On that which we are in
danger of lusting after, Mt 5:28. 2. She took. It was her own
act and deed.
Satan may tempt, but he cannot force; may persuade
us to cast ourselves down, but he cannot cast us down, Mt 4:6.
3. She did eat. When she looked perhaps she did not intend to
take; or when she took, not to eat: but it ended in that. It is
Wisdom to stop the first motions of
Sin, and to leave it off
before it be meddled with. 4. She gave it also to her
Husband
with her. Those that have done ill, are willing to draw in
others to do the same. 5. He did eat. In neglecting the tree of
Life, of which he was allowed to eat, and
Eating of the tree of
knowledge, which was forbidden,
Adam plainly showed a contempt
of what
God had bestowed
On him, and a desire for what
God did
not see fit to give him. He would have what he pleased, and do
what he pleased. His
Sin was, in one
Word, disobedience, Ro
5:19; disobedience to a
Plain, easy, and express command. He
had
No corrupt nature within, to betray him; but had a
Freedom
of will, in full strength, not weakened or impaired. He turned
aside quickly. He drew all his posterity into
Sin and ruin. Who
then can say that
Adam's
Sin had but little harm in it? When too
late,
Adam and
Eve saw the folly of
Eating forbidden
Fruit. They
saw the happiness they fell from, and the misery they were
fallen into. They saw a loving
God provoked, his
Grace and
favour forfeited. See here what dishonour and trouble
Sin is; it
makes mischief wherever it gets in, and destroys all comfort.
Sooner or later it will bring 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. See
here what is commonly the folly of those that have sinned. They
have more care to save their credit before men, than to obtain
their
Pardon from
God. The excuses men make to cover and lessen
their sins, are vain and frivolous; like the aprons of
Fig-leaves, they make the matter never the better: yet we are
all apt to cover our transgressions as
Adam. Before they sinned,
they would have welcomed
God's gracious visits with humble joy;
but now he was become a terror to them.
No marvel that they
became a terror to themselves, and full of confusion. This shows
the falsehood of the tempter, and the frauds of his temptations.
Satan promised they should be safe, but they cannot
So much as
think themselves
So!
Adam and
Eve were now miserable comforters
to each other!
9-13 Observe the startling question,
Adam, where art thou?
Those who
By Sin go 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 lost
Sheep had wandered without
End, if the
good
Shepherd had not sought after him, and told him, that where
he was straying he could not be either happy or easy. If sinners
will but consider where they are, they will not
Rest till they
return to
God. It is the common fault and folly of those that
have done ill, when questioned about it, to acknowledge only
that which is
So manifest that they cannot deny it. Like
Adam,
we have reason to be afraid of approaching to
God, if we are not
covered and clothed with the
Righteousness of
Christ.
Sin
appears most plainly in the
Glass of the commandment, therefore
God set it before
Adam; and in it we should see our faces. But
instead of acknowledging the
Sin in its full extent, and taking
shame to themselves,
Adam and
Eve excuse the
Sin, and lay the
shame and blame
On others. There is a strange proneness in those
that are tempted, to say, they are tempted of
God; as if our
abuse of
God's
Gifts would excuse our breaking
God's laws. Those
who are willing to take the pleasure and profit of
Sin, are
backward to take the blame and shame of it. Learn hence, that
Satan's temptations are all beguilings; his arguments are all
deceits; his allurements are all cheats; when he speaks fair,
believe him not. It is
By the deceitfulness of
Sin the
Heart is
hardened. See Ro 7:11; Heb 3:13. But though
Satan's subtlety
may draw us into
Sin, yet it will not justify us in
Sin. Though
he is the tempter, we are the sinners. Let it not lessen our
sorrow for
Sin, that we were beguiled into it; but let it
increase our self-indignation, that we should suffer ourselves
to be deceived
By a known cheat, and a sworn enemy, who would
destroy our souls.
14,15 God passes sentence; and he begins where the
Sin began,
with the
Serpent. The
Devil's instruments must share in the
Devil's punishments. Under the cover of the
Serpent, the
Devil
is sentenced to be degraded and accursed of
God; detested and
abhorred of all mankind: also to be destroyed and ruined at last
By the great
Redeemer, signified
By the breaking of his head.
War is proclaimed between the Seed of the
Woman and the seed of
the
Serpent. It is the
Fruit of this
Enmity, that there is a
continual warfare between
Grace and corruption, in the hearts of
God's people.
Satan,
By their corruptions, buffets them, sifts
them, and seeks to devour them.
Heaven and
Hell can never be
reconciled, nor
Light and
Darkness;
No more can
Satan and a
sanctified soul. Also, there is a continual struggle between the
wicked and the godly in this world. A gracious promise is here
made of
Christ, as the Deliverer of fallen
Man from the power of
Satan. Here was the drawn of the
Gospel Day:
No sooner was the
wound given, than the remedy was provided and revealed. This
gracious
Revelation of a
Saviour came unasked, and unlooked for.
Without a
Revelation of
Mercy, giving some
Hope of forgiveness,
the convinced sinner would sink into despair, and be hardened.
By Faith in this promise, our first parents, and the patriarchs
before the
Flood, were justified and saved. Notice is given
concerning
Christ. 1. His
Incarnation, or coming in the
Flesh.
It speaks great encouragement to sinners, that their
Saviour is
the Seed of the
Woman, bone of our bone, Heb 2:11,14. 2. His
sufferings and
Death; pointed at in
Satan's bruising his heel,
that is, his human nature. And
Christ's sufferings are continued
in the sufferings of the saints for his name. The
Devil tempts
them, 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, the Head is in
Heaven. 3. His victory
over
Satan thereby.
Christ baffled
Satan's temptations, rescued
souls out of his hands.
By his
Death he gave a fatal blow to the
Devil's kingdom, a wound to the head of this
Serpent that cannot
be healed. As the
Gospel gains ground,
Satan falls.
16-19 The
Woman, for her
Sin, is condemned to a state of
sorrow, and of subjection; proper punishments of that
Sin, in
which she had sought to gratify the desire of her
Eye, and of
the
Flesh, and her pride.
Sin brought sorrow into the world;
that made the world a vale of tears.
No wonder our sorrows are
multiplied, when our sins are
So. He shall rule over thee, is
but
God's command, Wives, be subject to your own husbands. If
Man had not sinned, he would always have ruled with
Wisdom and
Love; if the
Woman had not sinned, she would always have obeyed
with
Humility and
Meekness.
Adam laid the blame
On his
Wife; but
though it was her fault to persuade him to eat the forbidden
Fruit, it was his fault to hearken to her. Thus men's frivolous
pleas will, in the
Day of
God's
Judgment, be turned against
them.
God Put marks of displeasure
On Adam. 1. His
Habitation is
cursed.
God gave the
Earth to the children of men, to be a
comfortable dwelling; but it is now cursed for
Man's
Sin. Yet
Adam is not himself cursed, as the
Serpent was, but only the
ground for his sake. 2. His employments and enjoyments are
embittered to him. Labour is our duty, which we must faithfully
perform; it is part of
Man's sentence, which idleness daringly
defies. Uneasiness and weariness with labour are our just
Punishment, which we must patiently submit to, since they are
less than our iniquity deserves.
Man's
Food shall become
unpleasant to him. Yet
Man 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, even when
Life is unpleasant, that concludes the
Punishment.
Sin brought
Death into the world: if
Adam had not
sinned, he had not died. He gave way to
Temptation, but the
Saviour withstood it. And how admirably the satisfaction of our
Lord Jesus,
By his
Death and sufferings, answered the sentence
passed
On our first parents! Did travailing pains come with
Sin?
We read of the travail of
Christ's soul, Isa 53:11; and the
pains of
Death he was held
By, are
So called, Ac 2:24. Did
subjection came in with
Sin?
Christ was made under the
Law, Ga
4:4. Did the
Curse come in with
Sin?
Christ was made a
Curse
for us, he died a cursed
Death, Ga 3:13. Did thorns come in
with
Sin? He was crowned with thorns for us. Did sweat come in
with
Sin? He sweat for us, as it had been great drops of
Blood.
Did sorrow come in with
Sin? He was a
Man of sorrows; his soul
was, in his
Agony, exceeding sorrowful. Did
Death come in with
Sin? He became obedient unto
Death. Thus is the plaster as wide
as the wound. Blessed be
God for his Son our
Lord Jesus Christ.
20,21 God named the
Man, and called him
Adam, which signifies
red
Earth;
Adam named the
Woman, and called her
Eve, that is,
Life.
Adam bears the name of the dying body,
Eve of the living
soul.
Adam probably had regard to the blessing of a
Redeemer,
the promised Seed, in
Calling his
Wife Eve, or
Life; for He
should be the
Life of all believers, and in Him all the families
of the
Earth should be blessed. See also
God's care for our
first parents, notwithstanding their
Sin. Clothes came in with
Sin. Little reason have we to be proud of our clothes, which are
but the badges of our shame. 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. Let those that
are meanly clad, learn from hence not to complain. Having
Food
and a covering, let them be content; they are as
Well off as
Adam and
Eve. And let those that are finely clad, learn not to
make the putting
On of
Apparel their adorning. The beasts, from
whose skins they were clothed, it is supposed were slain, not
for
Man's
Food, but for
Sacrifice, to typify
Christ, the great
Sacrifice.
Adam and
Eve made for themselves aprons of
Fig-leaves, a covering too narrow for them to wrap themselves
in, Isa 28:20. Such are all the rags of our own
Righteousness.
But
God made them coats of
Skin, large, strong, durable, and fit
for them: such is the
Righteousness of
Christ; therefore
Put ye
On the
Lord Jesus Christ.
22-24 God bid
Man go out; told him he should
No longer occupy
and enjoy that garden: but
Man liked the place, and was
unwilling to leave it, therefore
God made him go out. This
signified the shutting out of him, and all his guilty race, from
that
Communion with
God, which was the bliss and
Glory of
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. Our first parents were shut out from the privileges of
their state of innocency, yet they were not left to despair. The
way to the
Tree of Life was shut. It was henceforward in vain
for him and his to expect
Righteousness,
Life, and happiness,
By
the
Covenant of
Works; for the command of that
Covenant being
broken, the
Curse of it is in full force: we are all undone, if
we are judged
By that
Covenant.
God revealed this to
Adam, not
to drive him to despair, but to quicken him to look for
Life and
happiness in the promised Seed,
By whom a new and living way
into the holiest is laid open for us.