Lord Oh Lord when will the Fighting End

Genesis 3:1–16 CSB

1 Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. 3 But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’ ” 4 “No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” 11 Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” 12 The man replied, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.” 13 So the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” 14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than any livestock and more than any wild animal. You will move on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life. 15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel. 16 He said to the woman: I will intensify your labor pains; you will bear children with painful effort. Your desire will be for your husband, yet he will rule over you.

Intro:

My intent is not to breakdown and explain this whole passage.

My intent is to look at certain portion of this narrative to give some information as to the root cause of Conflict

Always:

I. Salvific Hostility between Satan and the Woman’s Baby

Genesis 3:14–16 CSB

14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than any livestock and more than any wild animal. You will move on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life. 15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel. 16 He said to the woman: I will intensify your labor pains; you will bear children with painful effort. Your desire will be for your husband, yet he will rule over you.

(Exe-v.14) “14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than any livestock and more than any wild animal. You will move on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life.”

Back in (v.13) Eve told God it was because of the deception of the Serpent she ate.

God then moves the conversation to the serpent

God physically curses the Serpent. This is purely symbolic because there was nothing inherently evil about the Snake. He is part of the creation which God said was good. The Serpent’s body was taken over by Satan. When you see a snake now it should remind you of the sin of the garden and of lowliness of the snake crawling around on the ground.

Genesis 3:15 CSB

15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

(EXE-v.15) “I will put hostility between you and the woman”

Hostility-hatred or animosity between two parties.

This is significant because it introduces something that was previously unheard of and never experienced.

Take moment to mediate and imagine a world without any conflict. No US vs Russia, No black vs white, No Republican vs Democrat, No Men vs Women, No Young vs Old.......These were the condition prior the fall of mankind

God in this text tells the serpent I am going to do something that will cause continual conflict between you and your offspring and the woman and offspring.

Who are the offspring of the Serpent?

The Serpent is the physical embodiment of Satan. He is no longer talking to the animal but to the spirit behind the animal. Clearly the Offspring of Satan are those Angels that followed him in Heaven during his insurrection.

The Women- “Between your offspring and her offspring” This prophecy is an announcement of an ongoing spiritual battle that will be fought in the natural world. You will notice “offspring” is in the singular. That is because it is one particular offspring that will be the source of the hostility.

Satan and his offspring will spend the next several centuries trying to destroy the “offspring” of the woman through “eugenics, genocide, and extinction of the children of Israel.

II. Marital Hostility between Adam and Eve

Genesis 3:16 CSB

16 He said to the woman: I will intensify your labor pains; you will bear children with painful effort. Your desire will be for your husband, yet he will rule over you.

(Exe-v.16a) “16 He said to the woman: I will intensify your labor pains; you will bear children with painful effort.”

God introduces excruciating pain to the birthing process. As a part of her consequences to help her remember her fall. God introduces intense pain. This is a part of her physical consequence now let’s take a look at her spiritual consequence

(Exe-v.16b) “your desire will be for your husband yet he will rule over you”

Now that is a very interesting word usage in this text. God tells the woman your “desire” will be for your husband.

What does he mean by this term? is he talking about sexual desire? is he talking about roles in marriage?

When you come to tough scriptures particularly that hang on the interpretation of one word. The first place to start is to see if that word has been used in by this writer in other places and if other writers used the same word. This exact Hebrew word is used 2x other times in the OT. Gen 4:7 and Song of Solomon 7:10:

Song of Solomon 7:8–10 CSB

8 I said, “I will climb the palm tree and take hold of its fruit.” May your breasts be like clusters of grapes, and the fragrance of your breath like apricots. 9 Your mouth is like fine wine— flowing smoothly for my love, gliding past my lips and teeth! 10 I am my love’s, and his desire is for me.

(v.9) This woman begins to describe her love for her husband. She says your mouth is like fine wine then she moves to (v.10):

(v.10) “I am my love’s and his desire is for me” The woman says her Husband “desire” is for her. That word “desire” is the same word in Genesis 3:16 In this case the word is clearly referring to sexual desire within the context of marriage.

Genesis 4:7 CSB

7 If you do what is right, won’t you be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

(v.7) “Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

For context this the Lord talking to Cain after his offering was not accepted. The Lord is basically giving him another chance to bring a acceptable offering to the Lord.

Notice in the text how God describes sin:

Sin is crouching at your door(Sin is always looking to come in and take over)

It’s desire is for you(Same Hebrew word)

Sin has not changed since the beginning of time in its intent. Sin intent is control.

But you must rule over it. God tells Cain he is not to let SIn(control) him.

Summary:

We looked at two scriptures using this Hebrew word for “desire” One clearly referred to sex and the other usage describe this internal lust to control.

Who do we determine which defintion fits Genesis 3:16?

1st context of the verse in Genesis 3:16:

Genesis 3:16 CSB

16 He said to the woman: I will intensify your labor pains; you will bear children with painful effort. Your desire will be for your husband, yet he will rule over you.

(v.16) The context of these verse are to go over the consequences of each individual involved in the Fall of Mankind.

Desire(Meaning Sexual)-Sexual desire for one’s spouse does not fit the context of this verse because God is giving them consequences. Having a robust Sexual desire for one’s spouse is a gift not a consequence.

Desire(Control)- When you look at this text it seems as if the second defintion fits the context well. God tells the woman your desire with be to control your Husband but he has been given constitutional leadership in the home.

Sidenote: When doing word studies when the same writer uses the same word it is more reliable than when another writer uses that word. In this case Moses used responsible for the word usage in Gen 3:16 & Gen 4:7 the text from Song of Solomon was written by Solomon.

You see from this text that a part of the woman’s new sin nature that she did not have before is this natural proclivity to control or rule over her husband.

Now her Husband was the leader of the home prior to the fall what change is that now Eve with her new nature would naturally detest his leadership and fight against it either passively or aggressively.

Warning: Men this text is not giving you permission to overrule your spouse. She is not your child or servant. God has his eye on you!!! If you want to know how to treat your spouse rightly just watch how the Lord led! He didn’t over-rule or under-rule. He super-ruled under the supernatural guidance of his Father.

Dear Married Folks this right gives us an airtight understanding of the back & forth in Marriage. There is this constant struggle between two sinners to exert their rule in the home. This is where a large majority of the conflicts in the home come from.

Dear Saints once you know where the problem comes from then you can attack it together.

transition Statement: Lets check on Adam now

III. Creational Hostility between Adam and Cosmos

Genesis 3:17–19 CSB

17 And he said to the man, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’: The ground is cursed because of you. You will eat from it by means of painful labor all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground, since you were taken from it. For you are dust, and you will return to dust.”

(Exe-v.17) “The ground is cursed because of you” God cursed the ground because Adam made an idol out of his wife and put her in front of God. This was not the woman’s fault it was Adam’s fault. Therefore God took his job of taking dominion and inserted hostility in to the creation. Weeds, Famine, Droughts, Floods, Disease, Exhaustion and Death into everyday daily life. Notice what the word says in (v.18-19)

(v.18-19) The ground will produce hostility the creation itself will work against you instead of for you. God promises the Adam would eat bread but that it will come with great exertion. Ultimately this work the mental, emotional, stress of hard work would result in his eventual death.

Let me show you one more thing:

Genesis 3:23 CSB

23 So the Lord God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.

(v.23) Adam lost intimate fellowship with God which effected him and his Family. Because now there is hostility with He and God.

There will be conflict with Adam & Eve seed and Satan

There will be conflict between Adam & Eve over who will lead the Marriage

The creation is in conflict with Mankind. Mankind must deal with conflict in his daily life

There was no conflict with the creator(God)

There is conflict on all levels of society for mankind to navigate.

Conclusion

Is there any hope?

Saints my objective today was just too introduce to you the cause of Relational Conflict, but let me give you a nugget.

Genesis 3:15 CSB

15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

(v.15) There is a seed the came through a woman 2000 years ago who was temporally wounded by the Serpent(bruise is heel) but this seed also gave the serpent a permanent wound(strike your head)

Our Lord came to reverse the curse! He started with the most important one

He restored fellowship between Us and His Father

He Promises to us a restored/renewed creation

He made it possible for our Marriages to function in Harmony under the power of the HS

He destroyed the deceiver!!!

When folks get divorced nowadays the most common reasoning is “irreconcilable differences” I understand why the world would use this reasoning because they don’t have this knowledge of the spiritual cause of conflict, but to the saints of God who uses “irreconcilable differences” is a travesty because we know that in Christ we know the power to overcome any differences with the power of the Gospel.

End