Trouble in a Garden Part 2

Opened Eyes, Broken Relationship.

I was afraid .

a. God’s relationship with Adam and Eve has been compromised. Adam and Eve hide themselves from the presence of God. v.8-10

ILLUST: The divide has become so great that now when children sin against their parents or God they aren’t afraid they actually blame God or the parent for their misery. They say “I hate you and don’t want to live here anymore.”

Adam and Eve Separated themselves from God but In His love and Mercy He cam looking for Them.

2. Because I was Naked

a. Adam and Eve’s relationship has now been compromised with evil. It is the first thing that is perverted. v.7,12

ILLUST: Today we are undressing at an alarming rate with no desire to cover ourselves or be ashamed with our perversions. The elites along with other depraved minds have created a pedophilia and sex trafficking ring that for some reason has only been pinned on one guy who committed suicide in his jail cell. We are now asking children to decide where they were their fig leaves. Men and women continue to promote difference of genes in the brain to justify their choice to sin against God.

But it was not just their sexuality that was perverted it was their entire identity.

Who will love me and make me whole (That was God’s role)

What must I do to feel successful (that was God’s Job)

Sin (evil) satisfies the flesh for a time and we keep going their hoping that it will satisfy the soul and yet (That was God’s role)

So in these next verses God will simply explain what they have already experienced in a moment of dependence on self instead of depending on God.

Opened Eyes, Living with a Curse. v.13-19

A. “Cursed are you more than all cattle. . . “

1. This curse pronounced on the serpent appears to be one of “disgrace.”

a. “on your belly you will go and dust you will eat all the days of your life.” v.15b

NOTE: Logically to curse snakes for being possessed by a spiritual being seems a bit odd. The language can’t be literal because snakes to not eat dust. So what or who is being cursed?

If we look at Ezekiel 28:8, 17 “they will bring you down to the pit. . . I cast you to the ground, I put you before kings that they may see you.” Isaiah 14:11-12 “. . . brought down to sheol . . . You have been cut down to the earth.” The word for earth or ground is “erets” which literally means “to the dirt and metaphorically to the underworld.” (Heiser 91)

ILLUST: “The point being made by the curse is that the Nachash, who wanted to be ‘most high’, will be ‘most low’, instead -cast away from God and the council to the earth, and even under the earth.” (Heiser 91)

B. “I will put enmity (ay-baw) “hatred or hostility” v.15a between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed.”

NOTE: Snakes do not seem to have a hatred or hostility towards women and vice versa. So what is going on?

ILLUST: John 8:31-59 Jesus is explaining to Jews who had believed Him that if they were going to be true disciples of His they had to continue in His word and they would know the truth and the truth would make them free. v.31-32 These Jews said we are Abrahams descendants and have never been enslaved so why do we need to be set free?

Jesus explains “everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.” v.34 “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants; yet you seek to kill Me.” v.37 Jesus explains that if you are children of Abraham act like it. Instead you are trying to kill me which means you are “doing the deeds of your Father.” v.41

They get upset that he would suggest they were born of fornication and Jesus drives the nail in the coffin v.44 “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

NOTE: The hatred between the offspring of Eve and the offspring of Satan would be a spiritual hatred that would fight to deceive men and women to believe they were not created to depend on God. Those who do not depend on God and His way make themselves an enemy of God and the Devil their Father.

1. Notice the curse of hatred between the serpent and the woman is on the serpent not Eve. What is this curse? Because of the serpents deception to lure God’s human creation to disobey, would the serpent face a consequence of hatred towards humans because he will now be even lower than them?

ILLUST: Matthew 8:6 in the context of a question asked by one of the disciples “who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” “And he called a child to himself and set him before them, and said, ‘Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; but whoever cause one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”

ILLUST: Romans 1:32 After Paul explains the consequences of exchanging the truth for a lie and worshiping the creature rather than the creator. v.25 God gives them over to do what they want and they receive the penalty disease, broken relationships, perverted sexuality, greed, murder, strife, untrustworthy, unloving, . . . v.26-31. In v.32 it states “and although they know the ordinances of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”

The spirit of this curse is alive and well! Anytime any of us sin and drag other people into our sin we are proving to be the seed of Satan.

Open Your Eyes For Your Redemption is Coming. V.15b

It has, therefore, traditionally been seen by Jews and Christians, as the first hint of a saviour for mankind, and 3:15 is often called the ‘protevangelion’ the ‘first gospel’. Allusions to it in the NT include Rom. 16:20; Heb. 2:14; Rev. 12.

Wenham, G. J. (1994). Genesis. In D. A. Carson, ; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press.

CLOSE: Let me ask you a Question, “Are your eyes opened and have you seen your need to be saved from death?” Are your eyes opened to the fact that every perverted and broken part of life is because we have bought into the lie that depending on ourselves and serving our own flesh makes us a seed of the evil one? There is a spiritual enemy that works just as hard today as he did in the garden to deceive you with great hatred because God wants to save you!

Don’t fool yourself, this spiritual war i snot over and you are being deceived everyday to depend on yourself instead of Him. Would you let God open your eyes today and would you surrender your entire life to His control so that you might be free from sin and death to truly live in His glory and freedom?