Genesis 3:14-19 | The Fall Pt. 3

INTRO:

Today we are continuing our study through Genesis

We are in the middle of the Fall.

God’s Creation was Good - Adam and Eve we’re deceived - Sin brought destruction.

Fracturing Humanities relationship to God & Eachother.

Tonight we are going sin directly impacts each of the beings involved in the story. How it effects the Man, The Woman, & The serpent.

TEXT:

Genesis 3:14–19 “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.” 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 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.””

The Man:

The Cursed Ground:

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.””

What was once easy will now be difficult.

Remember, The man and the woman had an abundance of food availabe to them in the Garden. But now they will have to work and toil for their food.

The very ground itself is going to be cursed. The plants will now grow thorns and thistles.

We see man is at odd with creation itself. And harvisting and growing food will be hard labor.

And this hard labor will last untill death

Genesis 3:19 “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.””

Next, let’s see how the woman will struggle because of Sin

The Woman

Pain in Child bearing

Genesis 3:16 “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.””

This has two implication we should understand.

The First is that the physical act of giving birth will be painful and difficult.

The Second, is that there will be difficulty in raising and parenting a child.

The Hebrew word for “pain” is not just physiacl hurt, but also emotional toil, sorrow, and hardship. This pain extends byond the physical act of childbirth to the emotional challenges of rasing children in a sin cursed world.

Because of sin, Parents experience deep aches from seeing their children struggle, fall behind, and make difficult choices.

Desire for Control

Genesis 3:16 “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.””

Agian, we see that there will be tension between humanity because of sin. Here it is specifically speaking of the hardship that will come about in marraige between a husband and a wife.

Beacuse of sin, every marraige will now experince relational conflicts and struggles. What was fist a harmoneous relationship will now be prone to conflict.

So we see that Sin will impact the relatioship between a man and womand in marriage and their parenal relationship with their children.

One of the biggest consequences of sin is a breakdown of the family unit.

Because of all of these consquences that humans will experience God delivers his harshest punishment to the serpent.

The Serpent

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 to Crawl in the dust

This image of the serpent crawling in the dust not only speaks to a physical punishment, but also a symbolic one.

In ANE cultures creatures that crawled along the ground or lived in the dirt we’re associated with death and the underworld.

This gives us a hint there is some greater evil to this serpent than is explicity on disply here.

Hostility with woman’s offspring

Genesis 3:15 “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.””

There will be a descendent of the woman who will be at odds with the serpent.

And this will lead to a conflict in which the offspring of the woman will crush the head of the snake, but during the process his heel will be bitten.

Many biblical scholars consider this the first passage in the Bible to hint at Jesus.

That one off spring of humanity will come, (son of man) who will defeat the evil serpent once and for all, but during the process he will receive a fatal blow.

Let’s see how his connects to Christ. Christ will defeat Satan once and for all? How? Through his crucifixion, his death. But he would not stay dead. He would rise again.

Conclusion:

There are very real consequences because of Sin. And these consequences will effect our relationship with others and with the world around us.

But this curse of sin, will be undone by an offspring of the woman.

The Serpents curses will be broken by a Son of Man.

Christ, who would overcome sin and death, and raise from the dead.

Meaning that though his death, we can find life.

And where we can find redemption today, all of creation will be redeemed on day.

Revelation 12:8–9 “And the dragon lost the battle, and he and his angels were forced out of heaven. This great dragon—the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was thrown down to the earth with all his angels.”