PRH-02 Paradise Lost and Found

I suppose that at one time or another everybody loses something. Maybe it’s a book. Maybe it’s the key to your home. I don’t know about you, but when I lose something like that the first thing I do is retrace my steps. At least in my mind, I go backwards in time step-by-step to remember where I put the thing I lost. Then, once I retrace my steps, I carefully reverse what I did wrong. I put the keys on the table where they are supposed to be, and the book goes back on the shelf. Retracing and reversing what I did is one of the best ways I know to find something I’ve lost.

Now, we have entitled this lesson, “Paradise Lost and Found,” and we will focus our attention on Genesis 2:4–3:24, the story of Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden. We will see that Moses wrote about Adam and Eve losing paradise to encourage Israel to retrace and reverse the steps Adam and Eve took in that Garden of Eden. Only as Israel learned from this story could they hope to find paradise again, and we will see that the encouragement Moses gave to Israel is also God’s message for us today. By going back to the steps of Adam and Eve, Christians today can find paradise too.

Our examination of Genesis 2 and 3 will divide into three parts: First, we will examine the literary structure of this passage. Second, we will focus on the original meaning of these chapters to discern why Moses wrote them as he did for the children of Israel. And third, we will draw attention to modern application by asking how the New Testament guides us toward the proper use of this passage in our lives. Let’s begin with the literary structure of our passage.

Although Genesis 2–3 is a rather long passage and touches many topics, it actually forms a unified narrative. To understand this passage properly, we need to focus on these two chapters as one literary unit. Our examination of the literary structure in Genesis 2–3 will have two main concerns: first, we will gain an overview of the major sections of the passage; and second, we will comment on some of the significant symmetries among these various sections so that we may grasp the heart of what Moses was saying to Israel. Let’s begin with an overview of the literary structure of Genesis 2–3.