02 | GOD REVEALED | Genesis 3:8–21 | Eve — a woman meets her Maker

Jeremiah Fyffe

CrossPointe Coast

God Revealed • Sermon • Submitted 20 days ago • Presented 23 days ago

Genesis 3:8–21

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INTRODUCTION

This morning we continue our brief series in January entitled:

God Revealed

Series Purpose:

To consider a variety of encounters God has with individuals in the Bible and ask what God is revealing about himself in that encounter.

It is not a character study on the individual, but a character study on God as he reveals himself to mankind.

This morning, we consider Eve — a woman meets her Maker.

God reveals himself as the righteous Creator.

He maintains his order in creation by his Word.

And when sin fractures fellowship and distorts that order, he brings his righteous judgement through a curse.

Curse is the new normal.

No longer peace and comfort …

… but hardship and strife.

Yet even in judgement the Lord injects a promise.

The curse will be undone by the offspring of the woman.

PRAY

4:00

Genesis 3 reveals and situates us to understand the reality of the world we live in.

Genesis 3 reveals God’s work in the world through his righteous judgement on sin: the curse.

Today we look more closely at the reality of the curse and ask ourselves if we have a proper understanding of the world that we are living in—this side of the Fall.

1) THE CURSE IS SUFFERING

The first effect of sin is the breach of fellowship with God.

The Lord placed his new creation—Adam and Eve—in a garden that he had made for them.

He gave Adam a command—that the Lord had generously provided all the trees of the garden for his joy—but that he was not to eat of the fruit of the tree that was in the middle of the garden—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

A serpent confronts Eve, at the beginning of Genesis 3, twisting God’s words, and tempting her to eat of the tree.

Central to the serpent’s deception is the notion that the Lord had not been generous in provision.

That she could have some greater good if she would deviate from the Word of the Lord.

The woman was deceived.

And the essence of the deception was that she could become like God apart from faith-filled obedience to his word.

Eve thought she could understand and interact with reality in a way that ran counter to what God himself had said.

Yes, the fruit of the tree was good for food, a delight to the eyes and desirable to make one wise …

… but it also had one other attribute

… not as observable to the eye or the appetite

… but discernable only by the ear and by faith.

It was prohibited by the Word of the Lord.

Do you see this?

God is revealing himself to Eve so that she ought to understand that she cannot know or interact with reality by her five senses alone.

Neither are her appetites a sufficient guide, if they are not submitted to the Lord by faith.

To rightly understand the world that she was living in, Eve needed to submit to God’s own Word.

APPLY: This remains true for us today.

What is required for us now, even on this side of the Fall, is to listen to the Word of the Lord …

… and conform our minds and lives to reality as he reveals it to us.

9:30

Let’s look particularly at the curse as God reveals it to Eve.

Let us understand that what God is doing here is describing to Eve the new normal.

Where the previous order of creation was blessing: abundant provision and peace …

… the new order, the new normal is curse.

Read Genesis 3:16 — The woman’s curse is a two fold relational suffering.

Let us remember what God did when he made humanity:

A man is the male human, designed and made by God, bearing his own image, in the fashion of Adam, our first father.

A woman is the female human, designed and made by God, bearing his own image, in the fashion of Eve, our mother.

Man and woman, male and female created in the image of God is what we are.

As men and women, as the Lord provides opportunity, we step in faith into the roles of husband and father or wife and mother.

Yet, it is these very roles that are not the circumstance in which the Lord will work out his curse upon Eve.

13:00

childbearing —

Surely, this pain is more than the hours or even days of labor and delivery.

Any woman with children will tell you that there is no deeper heart suffering than the trials of not only bearing, but rearing a child.

The heartstrings are not only pulled, but strain and suffer greatly.

Consider what Eve suffered!

At the birth of Cain she exclaims, “I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD.” And, then, again she rejoices at the birth of Abel.

But her first son will soon murder her second-born.

This is pain in childbearing.

Surely, it was not only Abel’s blood cried from the ground, but so too did the grief of a bereaved mother.

This is reality in light of the curse.

your husband —

The Lord has already established an order of covenant relationship.

Adam is the covenant head of humanity.

Eve, and all humanity that would come after him, are in covenant with the Lord through the Lord’s covenant with Adam.

Now, with Eve deceived by the serpent and out of alignment with the Word of the Lord, she will also suffer misalignment with the headship of her husband.

Again, there will be suffering and strife in the woman’s relationships.

16:00

APPLY

Just from the righteous curse revealed upon Eve we see that the new order of creation is relational strife.

Then, in the curse upon Adam, we see that his role as cultivator of the earth is cursed with pain and exhaustion in his toil.

17:00

Now, consider, is this how you understand the reality that we are living in?

Do you have a clear headed understanding of God’s revelation …

… that relational strife and hardship are the normal reality of life?

How does the reality of the curse play itself out in our imaginations?

2) THE CURSE IN OUR IMAGINATION

Let me suggest that, because of our modern prosperity we can presume and imagine the world as a place of basic peace.

Make no mistake, as a person who was raised in a household that, especially in my teen years experienced significant poverty and household disruption …

… the point is not that none of us have experienced suffering.

But even for many of the least affluent among us, we can begin to think that …

… when something disrupts our peace, that something has gone wrong with normal.

Even if we aren’t experiencing peace and comfort ourselves, in our present circumstance…

… we can think, by watching the veneer of prosperity that surrounds us

… embedded in so much of our social media and advertising

… that a general comfort and rest ought to be normative for our lives.

But, the Lord reveals clearly that in light of Adam and Eve’s sin …

… his righteous curse is that the new normal of creation is not peace nor comfort, but strife and hardship.

21:00

APPLY

Especially in our contemporary moment there is a rise of what we often call anxiety.

I propose that anxiety is often just fear that our sense of comfort and peace will be disrupted.

But let me suggest that this anxiety can be relieved …

… not by assurance that everything will be alright

… but with a right imagination of reality this side of the curse.

You do not need to wonder if things will go wrong, and so be anxious in fear.

Things are already wrong.

And, in light of God’s righteous curse …

… you will surely have strife in all your relationships

… and you will surely suffer many hardships in as you try to make your way in this world.

23:00

We have a veneer of peace through technology and affluence.

We can begin to imagine that we have undone the curse of the Fall.

But this is just a veneer.

Even if suffering breaks through at any particular moment, we presume that …

… there is some pill, some therapy, some habit or behavior, some vitamin or supplement that can quickly make the hardship go away

… if we can afford it or if we can find the right expert to teach it to us.

It seems fitting to me that the weight of anxiety has risen in corresponding relationship to the myth that we can outspend, out technology or out therapy the curse.

The righteousness of God’s curse on mankind will not be undone by the pride of our prosperity.

If there is anything we can learn from our time in the minor prophets …

… both in our Advent series and in our study of the Book of Twelve in recent years

… it is that the Lord is sure to bring low our pride and presumption.

27:00

While I think that a clear-headed understanding of reality is essential for life …

… if what we come to understand is that we live in a world filled with curse as God’s righteous judgement upon our sin

… this clear-headed understand of reality is necessarily good news!

3) THE GOSPEL IN THE CURSE

In v15, within the curse of the serpent, the Lord injects a promise. That the curse itself will be undone.

Ultimately, the curse will be filled up by the offspring of the woman.

Even in this, the woman’s offspring will suffer.

Even though he will crush the head of the enemy …

… the enemy will bruise his heel.

Consider the grief this cause to Mary, the mother of Jesus.

What suffering the woman endures at the death of her son, even as the Lord fulfills his promise to bring and end to the curse through his cross.

29:00

What this means is that Jesus, the one who is struck by the enemy …

… will crush his head and put an end to that ancient enemy of humanity.

More than that, Jesus will take the judgement of the curse upon himself on the cross.

Therefore, there is no judgement in the curse that remains for the redeemed …

… even as we continue to suffer the ongoing reality of life in a world that is cursed.

This is what is meant by Paul’s exclamation:

1 Corinthians 15:54–55 ESV

“Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

We suffer in this world, but we will not suffer the final death.

We may die, but there is not wrath that remains for the believer in death.

We do not suffer on account of wrath.

Our ancient enemies, sin, death and the devil have been destroyed.

Death has no victory!

31:00

APPLY

So, what effect does suffering have for the believer.

It reminds us of the righteousness of God.

And the severity of sin.

In other words, suffering has the effect of sanctification.

It also has the effect of compelling us to preach the gospel so that others also will become recipients of grace through faith.

32:00

4) WHAT DO WE DO WITH SUFFERING?

1) We recognize that suffering is the natural course of life in light of the Fall.

Suffering, strife, hardship is normative in light of the curse.

We do not allow ourselves to be deceived by the vain imagination that we can peace and comfort are normative for life.

Though, by common grace, humanity has many balms to soothe, or even avoid much suffering …

… the curse has not been removed.

In this world you will have tribulation! (John 16:33)