If Genesis 1 begins with a triumphant trumpet blast, then Genesis 3 begins with a more ominous overture. “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden”’?”
(Genesis 3:1).
Hang on, who is this fast-talking, lie-spitting snake?! Aren’t Adam and Eve supposed to have dominion of the beasts of the field? Aren’t they supposed to “work and keep” this garden by protecting it from harmful enemies like this?
We trust God’s wisdom in revealing precisely what he reveals and withholding precisely what he withholds. There’s so much we don’t know about the “how” and the “why” of Genesis 3. But there’s absolutely zero ambiguity about the “what.” The seed of doubt that the serpent plants in Eve’s mind blooms into a blasphemous weed that chokes out the bliss of human experience. In short, Adam and Eve sinned.
Sin. That’s one of those words that different people use in wildly different ways. When Person A talks about “sin,” they’re talking about a bug in the system, a snag in the fabric, something regrettable and unavoidable in an otherwise worthy whole. When Person B talks about sin, they’re talking about a terminal diagnosis, a bone-deep rebellion, a carried-on constitution that forever pits humanity against themselves and their Creator. Sin isn’t merely a defect that makes us imperfect; it’s a rebellion that dooms us—that breaks the fabric of who we are.
When the serpent urges Eve (and Adam) to sin, he’s not merely urging them to break their divinely mandated diet. He’s urging them to turn on their Lord, to try to take authority into their own hands and be gods. He’s urging them to upend God’s design for creation. Instead of having dominion over the animals, instead of working and keep the garden, Adam and Eve buy into the lie that they know better than God and that God doesn’t have their best interests at heart. This is cosmic rebellion.
Curses for Rebels
Once we understand what sin really is, the way God responds begins to make a bit more sense. He curses all the guilty parties. Let’s look at what he says, first to the serpent:
The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”(Genesis 3:14–15)
That last verse reverberates throughout the entire Bible. Basically, it says, “One day your head’s gonna get crushed by a son of Eve.” But for now, let’s move on to God’s curses to Adam and Eve:
To the woman he said,
“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be contrary to your husband,
but he shall rule over you.”And to Adam he said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”(Genesis 3:16–19)
The Crime, the Verdict, and the Sentencing
There’s a lot we could say here, but for now let’s observe three things: first the crime, then verdict, and then the sentencing. The crime is disobeying God’s Word (Genesis 3:17).
The verdict, of course, is guilty.
But what about the sentencing? Hopefully you noticed that God’s curses aren’t random or haphazard. God’s initial blessings now have an element of curse attached to them. Called to be fruitful and multiply, the woman is now sentenced to have her pain multiplied alongside her fruitfulness (3:16). Called to subdue the earth, the man is now sentenced to subdue an earth that fights back with thorns and thistles (3:18).
Is that it? No. Moses keeps going, and ends Genesis 3 with key information. The Lord’s sentencing concludes, “Therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life” (3:23–24).
Once blessed, now banished. That’s the conflict at the center of this book—and it will take the rest of the Bible to fully and finally resolve it. We once dwelled in God’s presence naked and without shame. (Notice that in Genesis 3:21, God covers their shame with clothing. He didn’t have to do that. What mercy. He blesses the blasphemers.) We were safe at home with the Creator of the universe, so long as we continued to trust him and listen to his word.
And then our rebellion wrecked the world. It ruined our relationship with the Lord. It cut us off and he drove us out—rightly so! More than that, he placed a sword-wielding sentinel to guard the entrance to his presence. We cannot get back through our own efforts, and if we try—we’ll die. The wages of sin has always been death.
We were made to live alongside our Creator, to hear his footsteps as he walked beside us in the cool of the day, recognize his voice as he spoke to us. But Adam and Eve’s rebellion has changed everything. Their sin paved the way for our own. No matter how big or small they feel, our sins are the same crime as Adam and Eve’s in the garden. They are rebellion.
As a result, whatever sinlessness Adam and Eve enjoyed has never been ours. They once lived at home with God. Not us. We were born “alienated” from God (Colossians 1:21).
In other words, since Genesis 3, we’re all nomads—uprooted, trying to recapture the sense of home, seeking the fellowship and belonging we lost. Everything has changed.
Questions for Reflection
- How do you see your sin in light of God’s holiness?
- At what points of your life have you felt most separated from God? How was close fellowship with him restored?
Excerpted from Nomad: A Short Story of Our Long Journey Home © 2025 by Alex Duke. Used with permission of New Growth Press. May not be reproduced without prior written permission.