Thistletown Baptist Church

Genesis 3:17-20

17And to Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
18thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
19By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”

20The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.

Finally, God turns to Adam. He begins by saying that the curse on him is due to the fact that he listened to his wife. This does not mean that Adam, or any husband should ignore what his wife says. Part of the reason she was created was to offer valuable counsel. The reason he shouldn’t have listened to her was because she encouraged him to disobey God. What Adam should have done, especially as the leader in this relationship, was grab her hand and high tail it away from the tree, the fruit, the serpent. But he didn’t. He listened.

The Bible is abundantly clear that the fall and its horrifying consequences is Adam’s responsibility. Romans 5:12 is the most plain:

12Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because(W) all sinned … death reigned from Adam to Moses …

This is part of what it means to be the leader. It was Adam’s responsibility to ensure that God’s commandment was obeyed and his responsibility to ensure that Eve be protected from the tempter, instructed in exactly what God had said, and assisted in fleeing from the temptation to evil.

Today, pray that Christian husbands and fathers everywhere will be the godly leaders and evangelists in the home that God calls them to be. Pray that they take their responsibility seriously, growing in their knowledge of God and passing on the faith to those God has entrusted to their care.

Genesis 3:16

16 To the woman he said,

“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be for your husband,
and he shall rule over you.”

After God pronounces the ultimate demise of Satan, He turns to Adam and Eve to let them know the consequences of their actions.

There are two areas of her life where she will experience the results of the fall- childbearing and her relationship with her husband. Pain in childbirth is a reminder that we are sinners. If we can glean from this that if the fall had not happened then there would be no pain in childbirth, then it seems that the fall brought some major physiological changes. It is interesting to speculate, but we cannot say anything with certainty. We simply know that childbirth in sinless creatures would be absent of pain.

The words regarding her relationship with her husband are more clear. It cannot mean that because of sin, Eve will now desire her husband. She desired him in her sinless state. The husband was created to be the head of his home. Perfect, loving, beneficial leadership in the home. The fall brings Eve to want to take that leadership from him. She will desire to take the headship that is Adam’s. Adam’s response will be to turn the perfect, loving, beneficial headship into something that is distorted, sinful, sometimes cruel, and quite often anything but beneficial. Loving leadership becomes thinking that “I am the boss around here” or a complete neglect of any attempt to lead in the home at all. Both are equally wrong and they both are a curse upon wives everywhere.

This is what we see in marriages all the time. Wives who want to do what God has given husbands to do and husbands who are not willing to do what they are called to do. Marriages cannot prosper where God’s original design is ignored. Happy marriages will be what God has designed them to be. The husband will love and lead as Christ does the church (Ephesians 5:25) and wives will be the complement that her husband cannot live without and be the “helper fit for him”.

Nothing is effected by the fall as much as marriage and family life. Today, recommit yourself to have a home life that reflects the original intention that God had for it when He made the first marriage. The key to marriage success? Love God, in Christ, supremely, and love your spouse more than anyone else on the planet.

Genesis 3:14-15

14The LORD God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
15I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”

Sin has consequences. As soon as God gets answers from Adam and Eve about their sin He tells them the bad news about the consequences of their actions. This is where the Gospel begins. There is no proper explanation of the coming of the Son of God into the world to die for sinners without the understanding that sin must be punished. The Gospel cannot properly be understood without a proper understanding of the fall and its consequences.

God first of all talks to the snake and the key to what God says to him is not the physical punishment on the snake. It is the prophecy that God makes to Satan regarding the triumph of the offspring of the woman over him.

The upshot of what God says to the serpent is that the woman’s offspring – Christ, will triumph over the offspring of the serpent – Satan. Jesus Christ will crush the head of the serpent.

The rest of the Bible is the unfolding of the plan of God to send this offspring of the woman into the world. Christ has come and He has done the work of crushing Satan’s head. Satan is a defeated foe and the defeat happened at the cross. While evil still is very real and very effective in the world, it is guaranteed to be destroyed once for all and that guarantee took place at Calvary.

Today, live as one who has been purchased by Christ to triumph over sin. Demonstrate the truth that the cross does a powerful work in the lives of those who have come to Him who has defeated sin and death.

Genesis 3:8-13
8And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said,”The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

We see just how like our first parents we are when we see how they reacted after they sinned.

1) They try to fix it up themselves (the fig leaves). There are only two religions in the world – grace and works. Grace comes through Jesus Christ and all other religions will have some sort of system whereby they teach that people work their way to a right standing with God. This is the natural human response to wrong doing. “We can overcome this ourselves”.

2) They hide from God. All our lives we are hiding from God and that is demonstrated in a host of things from creating gods like us to denying that He exists at all.

3) They tried to justify themselves. “We had to hide. We were naked”. And God is supposed to fall for that? But it is what we do. We try to make our sin look like it is OK in our case. God does not fall for it.

4) They blamed others. Adam blamed God for making the woman in the first place and thereby blamed her too. Eve blamed the snake. Whenever we sin we can always make it sound like it was someone else’s fault. We even believe our own lies sometimes.

Of course the solution for sin is found in this account as well. God Himself covers Adam and Eve with skins from animals (verse 21). The covering this gives them is far better than the fig leaves they had made, just as the work of Christ is far better than all our attempts to cover over our sins. This is a picture of the work of Christ. A death must occur for us to be covered and our sin atoned for. And there is only one death that will do it. The Son of God Himself. All the rest of the Bible points us to this work of Christ.

Today, rejoice that God has done all that can be done to make you right with Him. Contemplate what you would say to God if He should ask you why you should spend eternity with Him. If the answer you come up with is anything other than trusting in Christ and all that He has done for you, you may be trusting in fig leaves that you have sewn for yourself.

Genesis 3:8-13

8And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Why didn’t Adam and Eve die when they ate the fruit? Didn’t God say that they would? This is an old question and the answer is a simple one. They did. We are all born in sin and the Scriptures are clear that that sinful nature is death. We are born into the world dead in trespasses and sins and Adam and Eve were the first to experience it and they passed it on to all who have ever been born. Many claim this is unfair. But this is just the way things are. Just as our parents pass on skin, hair, and eye colour, so too they pass on a sinful nature.

The fact is, we are born with a propensity to sin. We are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners. It’s our nature. This needs to be accepted if we are to understand the Gospel at all. Adam and Eve had a freedom to choose sin in a way that we do not. They did not have a sinful nature. They had complete free will. While we are free to choose good or evil, we are not a blank slate that is unaffected by our hearts desires. We are prone to do the wrong thing, the thing that satisfies the selfish desires of our hearts.

The Gospel is God breaking in upon our lives to save us even before we wanted saving. Scriptures such as Ezekiel 37, John 3:1-19, Ephesians 2:1-10, Romans 5:1-12 and many others, are very clear about this. Salvation is God initiated because we would never seek after God and be able to find Him at all. And this is what we see in Adam and Eve’s case. God comes looking for them. They were not looking for God. They were running away from Him. (Need another example? Think about what the Apostle Paul was on his way to do when God staved him on the road to Damascus.)

What a glory the Gospel is!! He has come to us when we could not and would not go to Him. He has done what we would not and could not do, because we love sin. He set out to rescue us before we even knew we needed rescuing.

Today, as you continue to celebrate Christmas, reflect upon the fact that the Son of God coming into the world is not what any human being would ever have come up with. It is a plan devised in the eternal councils of heaven to rescue a sinful people who were by nature evil and who loved their sins more than they loved God. And He came to those dead ones and redeemed them. What a wonder !!

Just a few verses reminding us about why Jesus came.

Have a very Merry Christmas and may the purpose for His coming be realized in you.

Galatians 4:4

4But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

Hebrews 2:14

14Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,

2 Corinthians 8:9

9For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

Mark 10:45
45For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Luke 19:10

10For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Genesis 3:8-13

8And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

God says to Eve “What is this that you have done?” What a question!! In the immediate context the answer was “I ate the fruit and gave some to my husband…” But it is hard to avoid the larger context of the question.

What is it that Adam and Eve had done? Romans 8:18-22 gives some indication.

18For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

And then Romans 5:18 says

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men…

The whole creation was sent onto the road to decay. Animals became carnivorous. Spiritual death became the birthright for all humanity for all time. And the Gospel was put into action.

The fall is a horrible event and we would err greatly to follow the teaching of some in maintaining that the fall was a good thing. It was not. But God uses the fall to show the immensity of His grace, the mind warping plan of salvation, the absolute defeat of Satan and all evil and evil things and evil people.

The only thing the Bible indicates that we will remember in glory from this side of the second coming is the cross. In answer to the question that God put to the woman: she did what only the incarnation of the eternal Son of God could undo. She did what only a plan formulated in the counsels of the eternal trinity could come up with. When Adam and Eve fell they also became lost and in need of salvation. And they were saved – by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God. And, in keeping with the season, this is what makes Christmas a time of great joy for all the people, for at exactly the right time Jesus was born to save His people from their sins.

Today, no matter how hectic your Christmas Eve is, remember and rejoice in the manger of Bethlehem that points to the cross of Calvary – the only thing that could reverse the effects of Adam and Eve’s disobedience.

Genesis 3:6-7

6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

They knew they were naked. The presence of sin brought Adam and Eve a sense of shame. They now know that they are completely exposed, both physically and spiritually. They realize that they have something to hide and they know that they can no longer stand in the presence of God and enjoy fellowship with Him. Adam and Eve have a conviction of sin, a guilty conscience. In this way they are light years ahead of many today. Sin, if it is believed to exist at all, is not seen as something that ought to make us hide from God. This is what is so desperately needed today. Before lost people will seek out Christ for forgiveness they must come to realize that their sin is great, has separated them from God and that there is nothing they can do to remedy the situation.

But Adam and Eve only got it half right. They knew they were naked but they also thought they could cover themselves. This is precisely where so many in the world are today. Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together for a covering. This will become their full time job, for every three days they will need new fig leaves. The world is full of people who try to cover up sin with coverings of their own choosing. Whether it is penance, appeasing a variety of gods, doing good to others, being a respectable person, or simply avoiding the really big sins, people think they are good enough because of their vain attempts at covering themselves up.

How people need the Gospel. They need to hear that their attempts to look good cannot but fail. And they need to know that Jesus has done all that can be done and it is done better. He brings people into a right relationship with God, marked by joy unspeakable.

Today, if you are a believer, rejoice in the complete work of Christ for you. Rejoice that He has done all when you could do nothing. If you do not know Christ, leave off all the vain attempts to look acceptable. They are failing. You need something far better than what you can provide. Only God can do it. And He has.

Genesis 3:6 – 7

6So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

“When the woman saw that the tree was good for food” – Did she previously think that the reason God said don’t eat of it was because it was not fit to eat? How often do we demand from God that we understand His prohibitions on us before we will abide by them. Eve will agree not to eat the fruit as long as she understands the reason she shouldn’t? But when the reason she thought it was prohibited proves not to be the case, she is willing to disobey. We do not obey God because the commandments make sense to us. We obey because we trust Him and know that whatever He tells us is for our good.

“And that it was a delight to the eyes” There we go. How can it be bad when it looks so good? How often do people disobey because of the convoluted logic that “it can’t be wrong if it feels so good”. This is the reasoning so often, for divorce, adultery, theft, unbiblical church practices. It is why we are not in our Bible more than we are. We don’t need to be there – we know what is right. Our spirit, so it is thought, confirms it to us. But our spirits lie to us because we have evil hearts. Back to the Scriptures. It is the only sure word.

“And the tree was to be desired to make one wise…”. Never mind the Word of God. Never mind that God said “no”. Despite the fact that it disagrees with the Word of God it will do me good. This is the human condition – every one doing what is right in their own eyes. We think we are the exception to the rule. “I know the God says not to do this but …” and we concoct reasons why in this case it is right. “It will make me wise. I had no choice. If I did what the Bible said I would have gotten into worse trouble …” This is pride gone amok. “I know better than God…”.

Living by faith to please God means trusting Him even when we do not know all the reasons behind commandments, saying no to ourselves even when something wrong pleases us and even when we are sure that something God says “no” to seems better for us.

Today, keep your spiritual eyes on Him and know the great peace that walking with God with a clear conscience brings.