Distraught,
the father immediately went to the school, entered the head teacher’s office
and sat down next to the boy. He slowly shook his head and sighed.
After a
couple more minutes of shaking his head slowly and sighing, he quietly said
under his breath, “I am so very sad!”
The boy,
already nervous, looked up to his father, expecting some physical punishment,
but none came.
The father
sighed again and said, “Your mum and I are very sad that you’ll have to go to
prison. We will miss you very much.”
The boy
squealed and started shaking.
Standing,
the father took the boy’s hand and gently led him out the office to the car as
if this would be his very last chance to walk with his son and then strapped
him into the car seat giving him a hug as he did so to show that he still loved
the child. He drove to the police station and took his son to the front desk,
asking to speak to an available police office. When the officer at the front
desk asked, why they were there, the father replied, “My son here has stolen an
apple and bit into it.”
The officer
behind the desk nodded immediately, sucked in a long, deep breath and turned to
the boy, “Why did you do that?”
The boy
shrank behind his dad’s legs to hide from the officer, “Because I wanted it, it
looked so good.” To this the policeman slowly nodded but did not take his eyes
off the boy.
“Mmmm! They
are nice shoes you are wearing, would it be right for me to have them just
because they look so good?”
The boy
grabbed his father’s leg tighter and shakily replied, “Nooooo!”
A charming little story, but one that is not
so far from today’s passage. If you recall, the way to know whether Satan is spinning us a yarn or not is to compare
it to what the Scriptures say.
I find it a
great privilege to speak this morning on this passage. It was only a few months
ago I was fortunate to preach about the forgiveness of woman toward the end of
Mark’s Gospel, since it was woman who sinned first before Adam, it was
important for the Son of God to show that
forgiveness specifically to woman following his resurrection. The whole history
of sin that started here in Genesis 3 was forgiven at the cross. And so over
the past few weeks we have been looking at the beginning again, to help us
become familiar with the reason behind Christ’s death and his resurrection. The
reason for the way our lives are, the way the world is, why perfection is so
far from our grasp and why Mark 13 verse 8 says Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There
will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of
birth pains.
Just to put
this whole passage into context, the woman who was created and put into the
Garden to help Adam work it listened to the Serpent, saw the fruit of the tree
and desired it, took it and ate it and then gave some to her husband who also
just ate it. Immediately, we were told last week, their eyes were opened and
they realised they were naked. The serpent, who we know from Revelation 12 was
the instrument of Satan cast reasonable doubt into the minds of Adam and the
woman, doubt about the Lord God and His Word. He twisted the truth of what the
Lord God intended and succeeded in capturing the first man and woman into his
army to fight against the Almighty God, to dethrone him once and for all.
Between v9 and v19,
we have a chiastic structure, a structure that funnels the story down toward an
incredibly important section:
Vv9-12 the
Lord God questions the man
V13 – The
Lord God questions the woman
V14-15 – the
Serpent and Satan are cursed
V16 – the
woman is cursed
Vv17-19 –
the man’s work is cursed.
There are
four characters in this story: The Man, the Woman, the Serpent and Satan. We’re
going to explore each of these briefly as the story unfolds.
The Man –
Adam
V9-12
The LORD God
decides to go for a walk and Adam and his wife respond in the way we have come
to expect as normality – they hide. Like the boy in our illustration, Adam
fears for his future. He knows what he has done is wrong and is ashamed. Not
only do they hide in v8, but they fashion coverings for themselves in v7. They
are trying to take control of their shame, trying to hide it from God, trying
to hide from their guilt.
The LORD God
asks the man, “Who told you that you were
naked?” (v11), of course he knows the answer otherwise he would not have
asked, “Have you eaten from the tree that
I commanded you not to eat from?” Notice here, the LORD God is giving Adam
a chance to explain himself. An opportunity to confess his sin, but what does
he do instead?
V12 - The woman YOU put here with me – she gave some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
He creates the first ever ‘where there’s a blame, there’s a claim’ scenario. He
not only blames the woman for giving him the fruit, but he blames the LORD God for putting the woman with him!
The nerve! The sheer audacity of the man! If that were to me, I would have
exploded at the man for even suggesting I
was to blame for his choice of
behaviour.
But this is
not me – this audacious response was to the LORD God who had given them
everything. A caring father who loves his children, but knows he must punish
them for their wrong-doing. Like the father in the illustration, the LORD God decides
to give a punishment that fits the crime.
V17 reminds
us of the sin that Adam committed, ‘Because
you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you,
“You must not eat from it”’. God
goes on to pronounce judgement upon the man. The wonderful work God had
originally given to man in the garden will become a hard slog, a toil, a chore.
He will have to work for his food, he will have to fight through the perennial
thorns and thistles that rise up against him time and time again. He will be
faced with worries from every angle, concerns that cloud his judgement,
too-busy schedules, priorities that have deadlines, deceitfulness of wealth and
prosperity, the onslaught of unfair claims and blames, in short his life will
be desolate and all his toil will be for what … v19 says, for nothing for dust you are and to dust you will return.
The battle man will fight to get food will be meaningless in the grand scheme
of things. The blessèd task of tending to the garden and all the wildlife
within the garden has become a meaningless task of hard work and struggle all
the days of man’s life! Exactly what Solomon concluded in Ecclesiastes.
The Woman
The LORD God
then turns to the woman in v13 and like he did with Adam, he gives her a chance
to confess her sins, “What is this you
have done?” And again, how does she respond? “The serpent deceived me, and
I ate.”
Notice, the
woman does several things here in that one sentence.
1: She does
not retaliate against her husband for blaming her, she knows she has done
wrong.
2: Unlike
her husband she does not blame the LORD God.
3: Like her
husband she takes no responsibility for her actions.
4: Clearly,
she does not know who is in control of the serpent!
We may think
we know when we are being tempted, but usually we don’t see the great liar
behind the lies. We see something desirable, we believe the desire is right, we
grab and we eat! This is exactly what the woman did – she listened to the
reasoning of the serpent, desired the beautiful fruit of the tree, grabbed it
and ate it. Look at the aftermath and consequences of that simple choice – a broken
world.
If you can’t
see it immediately, let’s take a look – it’s important we all see the signs and
not be drawn into a false sense of security instigated by Satan, himself.
V7
V10
V11 &
v13
V16
And again
v16
V17
V23
7 signs of a
broken world. No longer the perfect creation that God originally intended. Yes
it is perfectly designed, but it is
no longer perfect and that is the result of listening to the serpent in the
garden who twisted the word of God for his own selfish ambitions.
And so the
LORD God curses the woman for her part in this downfall but this is no ordinary
curse, this is a curse that will bring about the total destruction of Satan. It
is in the woman’s child-bearing that sin and Satan will be destroyed once and for
all. Therefore, it is through her child-bearing that she feels the pain of sin,
quite literally.
Because she
led her husband to sin, the relationship between wife and husband is no longer
complementary but subordinate. If you recall, in chapter 2 v18, God says, “I will make him a helper, fit for him”,
not a subordinate for him to govern, an equal partner to help work the garden.
Now, through the sin of the woman, this partnership is corrupted. “Your desire will be for your husband, and
he will rule over you”.
Please do
not think I am saying that the man is always in charge! I am not saying this is
a divine command. Rather, I am saying this is a symptom of our broken world.
What God created perfectly is corrupted imperfectly as a result of sin.
It is interesting
to note, that God factored into his ultimate plan of redemption the very instrument
that caused the first sin in our world. The fruit that led the woman to allow
Satan gain control of her and her husband was used by the Son of God himself
during the last supper. Mt 26:26-29 not only shows us that the fruit of the vine was used as a
participation of the blood of Christ shed for many for the forgiveness of sins,
but that the action the woman did in Genesis 3 is commanded by Christ to his
disciples, “Take, eat…”. The very
thing the woman did to bring about the brokenness of creation is used by Christ
to bring about the atonement and forgiveness of sin within creation.
The
Serpent and Satan
And now, if you are following the chiastic structure we are
left with 2 verses, 14 and 15 and I believe this is the most important section
of our passage today – not surprisingly the curse of the serpent and of Satan.
According to Revelation 12, Satan is a fallen angel, whose
rebellion in Heaven failed and was banished with a third of angels to Earth,
where he no doubt thought he had a kingdom. But Earth is not enough for Satan,
he wants God’s throne. He approached the woman and her husband, so called
guardians of the garden and raised himself above them. He put himself as their
king and gained control of them through deceit and lies.
But, as we read vv14 and 15, God is sovereign over ALL creation, including Satan and his
serpent! Satan has nothing to say. Even he is subject to God’s judgement. God
doesn’t even give him a chance to confess and repent, he immediately passes
judgement upon him and his instrument, the serpent.
V14, to the serpent, for being the instrument of Satan, God curses
(a turnaround from chapter 1:22 where God blessed all the animals). This animal
is now cursed, it now carries, forever the mark of this curse to crawl and eat
dust. And to Satan, God says, “you will
crawl on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life.” As well as the
physical appearance of the serpent becoming one that crawls on its belly, God
is telling Satan he is being cast down even further for putting himself above
the Man and Woman. His life forever is to be a degrading and abhorrent one. A
shameful life, the lowest of the low.
In V15, to Satan alone, to end the control over humans, to
put a stop to Satan’s plans of raising an army, the LORD God puts enmity
between him and the woman and between their offspring. No longer will they work
together, no longer will he have control over her.
God then paints a picture of Satan’s ultimate destruction.
He pronounces the seed of the woman will crush
your head and you will strike his heel. Is this not the Gospel spelled out
for us? Is this not the plan that God is putting into motion to bring us back
to himself? What a glorious promise, that one day the offspring of the woman
will one day bring about the total destruction of Satan despite him striking
the heel of the offspring.
Some may think, God has shown mercy to Satan here and I will
hold my hand up and admit, my initial thoughts were along these lines. Why
would God not destroy Satan there and then? He certainly has the power and
authority to do so. Why not destroy the instigator of sin before he has been
able to get a firmer grip on creation?
Of course, I do not even dare to question the almighty as
Satan did in the garden. I do not dare question his authority and integrity. If
God did not destroy Satan there and then he must have a very good reason. And I
believe he did. He still had a plan for Satan. V15 – you will strike his heel! What better way to shame, to affirm who
is in control of the universe and to ultimately destroy Satan than to use Satan,
himself?
God knew the only way to restore his creation to the
perfection it was intended as, is blood. Is there a more powerful and fitting
punishment for Satan than to use him in his own destruction? He brings about
the death of the Son of God and in turn the death of the Son of God brings
about Satan’s destruction!
We still live in an imperfect world. We still have the
perennial thorns and thistles rise up against us. We still struggle against the
curse of the ground, where everything seems to happen all at once. But we have
an eternal hope from the LORD God, it will not always be like this. There will
come a time when this world is renewed, our bodies are restored to perfection
through Christ Jesus.
So, as James tells us in James 1:2-4 – Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various
kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And
let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be PERFECT and COMPLETE, lacking in nothing.
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