For the next few weeks Wednesday in the Word will be lead by my best friend and ministry partner, Tricia Russell. Tricia and I have partnered to teaching a bible study class and lead our church's women's ministry for the last several years.
This week we continue our study in Genesis by covering 3:14-19
This week we continue our study in Genesis by covering 3:14-19
Genesis 3:14-15
Then the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are
cursed more than all animals, domestic and wild. You will crawl on your belly, groveling in
the dust as long as you live. And I will
cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her
offspring. He will strike your head, and
you will strike his heel.”
- Cursed… the opposite of blessed, showing a breaking of the serpent’s powers. The serpent is to be forever looked at as an evil and wicked creature. The serpent would no longer have feet but crawl on his belly cleaving to the earth. Dust is the symbol of miserable humiliation. This disgrace would last forever. A strike on man’s heel is not deadly, but a blow to the head is. The serpent would ultimately be defeated. God was giving a little insight to his coming defeat. Satan’s final defeat under the heel of the Messiah was delayed so that God’s plan of redemption through the promised seed of woman could be accomplished.
- Enmity = Hatred God hates sin. He is especially displeased with those who entice others to sin.
- Your offspring and her offspring… Humanity is now divided into 2 communities; the redeemed, who love God and the reprobate (a person rejected by God and beyond hope of salvation), who love self.
- John 8:33-34 “But we are descendants of Abraham,” they said “We have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean, “You will be set free?” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin.
- John 8:44 For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies.
- 1 John 3:8 But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.
- We see these divisions surface immediately in the hostility of Cain against Abel. We will see the ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy when the second Adam, Jesus, and his followers triumph over Satan, sin and death when He returns.
- Romans 5:12 – 21 When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. But it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break. Still, everyone died—from the time of Adam to the time of Moses—even those who did not disobey an explicit commandment of God, as Adam did. Now Adam is a symbol, a representation of Christ, who was yet to come. But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ. And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to out being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many.
But even
greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who
receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus
Christ. Yes, Adam’s one sin brings
condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right
relationship with God and new life for everyone. Because one person disobeyed God, many became
sinners. But because one other person
obeyed God, many will be made righteous.
God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they
were. But as people sinned more and
more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. So just as sin ruled over all people and
brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right
standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord.
- Bruise before His glorious victory the woman’s offspring must suffer to win the new community from the serpent’s dominion.
- Isaiah 53:12 I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier, because he exposed himself to death. He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.
- Luke 24:26 “Wasn’t it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?”
Genesis 3:16-19 Then
he said to the woman, “I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain
you will give birth. And you will desire
to control your husband, but he will rule over you.” And to the man he said, “Since you listened
to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the
ground is cursed because of you. All
your life will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you,
though you will eat of its grains. By
the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground
from which you were made. For you were
made from dust and to dust you will return.”
- Pain in childbirth The woman would experience pain during one of the greatest fulfillments of her life. The woman was privileged to participate in God’s plan to create a people for himself.
- 1 Tim. 2:15 But women will be saved through childbearing, assuming they continue to live in faith, love, holiness, and modesty.
Here
are several things to consider: (1) Adam was condemned to hard labor. Eve sinned so her punishment was painful
childbirth. Both men and women can be
saved through trusting Christ and obeying him.
(2) Women who fulfill their God-given roles are showing their commitment
and obedience to Christ. (3)
Childbearing refers to the birth of Jesus Christ. Both women and men are saved because of
Jesus’ birth. (4) Women can learn
lessons through the trials of childbearing like developing qualities that teach
them about love, trust, submission, and service.
- Rule over you: Adam and Eve lost the harmony and intimacy they had experienced in their pre-fall relationship due to their sin. The restoration of relationships takes place through new life in Christ. Eve is put into a state of subjection. She was created equal with man but because of her sin, she is made inferior and forbidden to usurp authority.
Look at
how mercy is mixed with wrath. The woman
will have sorrow, but it will bring forth children, and the sorrow will be forgotten
with the joy a child brings.
- John 16:21 It will be like a woman suffering the pains of labor. When her child is born, her anguish gives way to joy because she has brought a new baby into the world.
Genesis 3:17-19 And
to the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree
whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of
you. All your life you will struggle to
scratch a living from it. It will grow
thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. By the sweat of your brow will you have food
to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust and to dust you
will return,”
- God shows his disapproval/anger on Adam in 3 ways:
(1) His environment—Barrenness is
the curse. Fruitful was the
blessing. His employment and enjoyment
are all poisoned to him. Toil and sweat
will be his lot in life now. The garden
was easy, with no labor, but now he will struggle, be tired and tormented. All of these things will affect his mind.
(2) His diet will change. He will no longer enjoy the feast of the
garden. He will eat only what he
grows. There is a mixture of mercy in
his punishment. He work will tire him
but his rest will be sweeter. He will
grieve but not starve. He will mourn but
in his mourning he will eat bread.
(3) His life will be short. Man is a frail creature made from dust. Dust can be picked up or raised in the air to
form a cloud, but eventually the dust will fall back to the ground. Our life is like the cloud of dust. We are raised for a little while, but
eventually we will return to the ground as dust.
Adam’s
sin brought death into the world. If
Adam had not sinned he would not have died.
- Romans 6:23a For the wages of sin is death…Their sentences represent the consequences of our sins.
(1) The woman’s pain in childbirth
symbolizes the pain of guilt or guilty conscience our sins cause that cannot be
avoided.
(2) The sentence of submission to
her husband stands for our loss of spiritual freedom due to sin. The dominion of sin in the soul is compared
to that of a husband.
- Romans 7:1-5 Now, dear brothers and sisters – you who are familiar with the law-don’t you know that the law applies only while a person is living? For example, when a woman marries, the law binds her to her husband as long as he is alive. But if he dies, the laws of marriage no longer apply to her. So while her husband is alive, she would be committing adultery if she married another man. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law and does not commit adultery when she remarries. So dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God. When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death.
(3) The curse of barrenness is a
representation of a sinner’s soul. It is
corrupt and full of evil. It is
overgrown with thorns and hardened.
(4) The toil and sweat speak of the
difficulties of man’s labor in service to God.
It has become hard to enter into the kingdom of God
(5) The bitterness of laboring for
food speaks of the soul’s desire for the comfort of God’s favor—which is life
and the bread of life.
(6) The body returns to the dust of
the world. We are made from the dust and
will return to dust.
*After some discuss and more research around the question as to why sin did not enter when Eve ate but did when Adam ate. We came to the conclusion that it was because Eve was truly deceived but Adam willingly sinned. Yes, Eve sinned but she was deceived.
1Tim. 2:12-15 I
do not let women teach men or have authority over them. Let them listen quietly. For God made Adam first, and afterward he
made Eve. And it was not Adam who was
deceived by Satan. The woman was
deceived, and sin was the result. But
women will be saved through childbearing, assuming they continue to live in
faith, love, holiness, and modesty.
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