The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 148

Vera. 9-24.-.The word of God in tlie moral cliaos. These verses bring before us very distinctly the elements of man's sinful state, and of the redemptive dispensa, tion of God which came out of it by the action of bis brooding Spirit of life upon the chaos. • I. THE WOUD OF Goo ADDRESSED TO THE PERSONAL CONSCIOUSNESS IS THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW WORLD. "The Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Wl1ert art thou?" Before that direct intercoarse between the Spirit of God and the spirit of man there is no distinct recognition of the evil of sin, and no separation of· its moral and physical consequences. The " Where a1·t, thou 1" begins the spiritu11l work. I!. THE PROCESS OF THE WORK OF GoD IN THE CONSCIENCE IS ONE THAT LEADS US FROM THE OUTSIDE CIRCLE OF BESPONSlBILITY TO THE INNERMOST CENTRE Oil' CONVICTlON AND CONFESSION. "I was naked," "I was afraid," "I hid myself," "The woman gave me of the tree," "I did eat;" so at last we get to the central fact-I broke the com- mandment, I nm guilty towards God. Each lays the blame on another-the man on the woman, the woman on the serpent. But the main fact is this, that when once the voice of God deals with us, when once the Spirit of light and life broods over the chaos, there will be truth brought out, nnd the beginning of all new creation is confession of sin. After all, both the transgressors admitted the fact: "I did eat." Nor do they dare to state what is untrue, although they attempt to excuse tl1emselves; for there may be a true confession of sin before there is a sense of its greatness and inexcusableness. IIL The transgression being clearly revealed, next comes THE DIVINE CONDEMNA· TION. It is upon the background of judgrnent that redemption must be placed, that it may be clearly seen to be of God's free grace. The judgment upon tlie serpent must be viewed as a fact in the sphere of man's world, not in the forger sphere of the superkuman suggested by the later use of the term "serpent." God's condel"!lna- tion of Satan is only shadowed fortli here, not actually described. The cursed animal simply represents the cursed agent or instrument, and therefore was intended to embody the curse of sin to tlie eyes of man. At the same time, the fifteenth verse must not be shorn of its spiritual appfication by a merely naturalistic interpretation Man's inborn detestation of the serpent brood, and the serpent's lurking enmity ao-ainst roan, as it waits at his heel, is rightly taken as symbolically representing ( 1) tl~e antagonism between good and evil introduced into the world by man's foll ; (2) the necessity that tliat antagonism should be maintained; and (3) the purpose of God that it should be brought to an end by the destruction of the serpent, the removing out of tho way both of the evil principle and of the besetments of man's life which liave a1isen out of it. This ".first promise," as it is called, was not given in the form of a promise, but of a sentence. Are we not reminded of the cross, which itself wnl! tl-e carrying out of a sentence, but in which wae included the redeeming mercy of Uod? Life in dP.atli i.> "J1e myatery of Christ's sacrifice. "It pleased the Lord t~  Vil. Ill. 8-19.] TIIE BOOK OF GENESIS. 71