Pastor Chris Plekenpol and his guests explore the Bible together one chapter at a time. They offer practical insights, theological depth, and real-life applications. Dive in for engaging discussions that bring God’s Word to life, one chapter at a time!
Genesis 3 is one of the most quoted chapters in the Bible, but it’s also one of the most misunderstood. We slow down and read the Fall as a story about trust before it’s a story about rules: the serpent’s first move is to paint God as unreliable, and once that lie lands, everything else unravels fast. Along the way, we talk about the Garden of Eden as a distinct, cultivated place and why “they were eating” doesn’t contradict the idea of life changing after sin, it actually highlights what was lost.
We dig into the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and ask the honest question: how can “evil” be named before Adam and Eve rebel? That leads to a helpful framework of innocence shifting into conscience, where humans gain moral awareness and feel the sting of consequence. We also tackle Genesis 3:22 and the line “like one of us,” exploring two classic readings: the Trinity and the divine council. If you’ve ever wondered why that verse is worded that way, you’ll leave with clearer categories and better questions.
Then we land on one of the most practical and hope-filled details in the chapter: fig leaves. We connect Adam and Eve’s attempt to cover shame with the bigger biblical theme of atonement, including why God replaces fig leaves with skin and what that suggests about sacrifice, grace, and the blood of Jesus. We close by calling out blame shifting, passivity, and the temptation to hide from God when we should confess and return.
If this helped you see Genesis chapter 3 with fresh eyes, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What part of Genesis 3 hits you the hardest right now?
And welcome back to a chapter a day. Keeps the devil away. And I'm your host, Pastor Pleck. And joining me is Cody Sparks from the Cody Sparks fan and Jordan Smith. And we're looking at Genesis chapter three. Jordan, what observations did you make about this chapter?
Well, I'm I'm interested because I noticed uh, you know, and Cody said in chapter two that uh we might we weren't eating, but I see here or we didn't need to eat until we needed it for sustenance after the fall. But in here it says they're eating before that. So I was I didn't really understand that.
Pastor Plek
Yeah, that's a great point. So in in the Garden of Eden is a specific place. Now, what we looked at is that before in in Genesis 2, uh Adam was made before the the bush or the plant had sprouted up. So all in in day three, God had planted the earth with uh vegetation and um and but it hadn't there it hadn't rained yet, so there wasn't a growth. And so he takes the he forms Adam out of the dirt and then places him in a garden that is actually producing plants. So uh apparently the rest of the earth does not have uh plants springing up yet, but the garden of Eden does, and he places him inside the garden to work and to keep it, which was a unique place, heaven on earth, if you will.
Uh another observation I had is you know, it says that or the tree, the fruit God tells him not to eat is from the tree of uh knowledge and knowledge of good and evil. So, like this is before the fall, but I guess conceptually, evil is already a thing.
Pastor Plek
Yeah, that's a great point. The the the what old remember, it's not evil in the sense of there is no law. The only evil you can do at this point is to disobey God because you don't know to do anything. So this is becomes uh before the fall is the age of innocence, where there is no good and evil. After the fall, when Adam and Eve eat uh the forbidden fruit, now it's the age of conscience, and so now they have the ability to discern good and evil and make choices therein, and knowing that there's repercussions that they could take, and that is all a part of not following God. So this is the goes from the age of innocence, uh, where they're completely innocent, where all they know is good, and then they make a choice of eating the fruit, and that brings them the age of conscience.
Yep. And then, like on verse 22, where then the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. And who is the us here? And I think this is the great question that people ask all the time. Well, if it was like God, Adam and Eve, because God obviously, like he's the one speaking, so like us, as in Ooh. I assume it means Trinity.
Pastor Plek
Uh it could mean Trinity, also could mean divine counsel. So sometimes when we think of divine counsel, remember there's angels, angelic hosts, rulers, principalities. You know, uh in Job, you see uh Satan becomes before God and the whole divine council and uh he reports. And so this is the angelic host of where there are different levels of divine beings, but only one God who is over it all and created all. But he loves to rule in community, and so he has given them ability and authority and power, and he's made you know when he made humans, he brought them in on it and made them like us, knowing good from evil. So uh that's the divine counsel view. Uh then what else did you notice in
Well, um, I thought it was it's crazy that Satan calls God a liar. Yeah, yeah.
Pastor Plek
Did did God really say, like, you can't trust God, you won't die?
SPEAKER_01
It's like you're good. And then so and then that part, and then the interesting part about the figs, yeah, where they covered with figs, fig trees, fig leaves, fig fig leaves, and then uh that's kind of representation for condemnation and guilt. Yeah, but also this here's what's wild.
Pastor Plek
Uh you brought this up earlier. In Mark 11, a fig tree is cursed because it had leaves but no fruit, even though the fig tree was out of season. And what that means is that the that the nation of Israel was to provide uh atonement or a covering over sin for the nation. But because the nation was no longer bearing fruit, Jesus cursed the fig tree and removed it uh in Mark 11, because the season of Israel being a covering for sin was over. And watch this. In Genesis chapter three, there's a season where Adam and Eve cover themselves with fig leaves for a covering of their sin. And what God does, he removes the fig leaves.
SPEAKER_01
Genesis 21. Uh 321. He removes and makes them clothing. He makes them clothing from skin, animal skin.
Pastor Plek
So without the shedding of blood, there is no covering or forgiveness of sin. And ultimately, this points to Jesus and his removal of the fig tree leaves of Israel, that they could no longer cover over sin, that Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice on that cross, which is sort of why the case is.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah. And that's us with uh well, let's see what I wrote down. Uh the difference between the law, which is man's best effort to cover his shame and grace, something that God made for them. Right, that's right. So what ended up working for them was what God made for them.
Pastor Plek
Yeah, God made the covering, which I It's still interest so interesting. I love that. Okay.
What was your sort of observation to application here, Jordan? You know, the thing that stands out to me is they play this uh blame shift game where it goes from Adam blaming Eve to Eve blaming the serpent. Right. And I think just application-wise, for today, uh it's important to take responsibility for your shortcomings. Yeah, you can't just be a victim and try to say, Oh, there were these uh, you know, contributing factors, but you know, this because if you don't take responsibility for that, you're not gonna grow and you're just gonna play the victim and suck. Yeah.
Pastor Plek
So watch this. It goes, um, God gave uh leadership to Adam, who had leadership over the woman, who had leadership and power and authority to rule and subdue the earth, including all the beasts of the field, and it flipped. The beast uh uh led the woman, the woman led the man, and the man gave up his rule. And that led to all of creation being wrecked by that. Uh I agree. I think it were really for me, it stuck out as verse 17. To Adam he said, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife. Like that really hit me of just as a husband, like I have to listen to the voice of my wife, not to obey. It clearly is me because you obeyed. That's really what he's saying. Because you obeyed. And I think as men, sometimes we, in our, in our desire to make our wives happy, we've not obeyed God and ultimately brought great joy to our family because we've been become passive. That's a huge struggle of initiating leadership. In fact, that becomes the curse or part of the uh the struggle. Remember, in To the Woman, he said, I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing, and in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you. In other words, your your desire shall be to control your husband. And there might this might be a better way, but and is sometimes the same word, but he shall rule over you. There will be this um conflicting organizational structure that he's ultimately gonna rule because that's his role, but you're gonna constantly want control over him, which I thought was wild. And then the thing that happened with Adam, his his own passivity is what led him to a place of not
leading his wife away from sin and towards God's glory. Um, so yeah, I think that really for me really uh encourages me to lead my family in a way that bring honors God and loves my wife and loves my family.
SPEAKER_01
Any other thoughts on this? Nope. I mean, I'm thankful for the blood of Jesus because we think that like the fig, the fig tree, the fig leaf, yeah, that's our best effort. Like we sometimes think our best effort is what's best. Nice, but we aren't able to do anything without him and without the blood.
Pastor Plek
Yeah, and there you you cannot um save yourself. Right. You cannot cover your own shame.
SPEAKER_01
You've always needed him from that moment.
Pastor Plek
Right. And and I do think what I love about that they're hiding from God.
SPEAKER_01
I think that's so cool that they were so upset and ashamed, and God was still like, Let me make these for you. And he did that when he didn't have to. Even then he didn't have to do that.
Pastor Plek
Yeah, and I love that there's just this, even from day one or day one of sin, there is this desire to hide from God, to hide from and to blame shift and to get out of whatever we can because we feel like it it is under my control. It's my own thing to handle. That's the huge struggle. And giving that all to God and saying, confessing sin and letting God deal with it. And he takes re he has given us authority over uh our lives, but then he's ultimately responsible and he takes care of us even when we mess it up. And that's still true today. Even when we sin and we go toward the darkness, God's constantly pursuing us and bringing us back toward the light.
