The Fallout of Human Failure

Genesis 3:14-19

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Well, welcome back to it. This is the Bible in me podcast. My name is Devin Birdsong, and with me today is Brother Brett Coxrell and Brother Brad Coxrell. We've been right in the middle of the book of Genesis. Well, at the beginning of the book of Genesis. Oh man, it's been an awesome study. We've uh spent a lot of hours already in these first three chapters of the Bible. Um in chapter three, we encountered a talking snake. Um, it's kind of interesting to me that the ancient Near Eastern cultures, in their cultures, snakes became symbols of chaos. And that's what they made synonymous with with chaotic creatures, unpredictable. Um they're unlike any other uh any other creature now. They're symbols of death, they're symbols of the underworld because they descend into the earth, they hide in the earth. They're symbols of death because they can strike at you and and really poison you. And it's like they're constantly being rebirthed because they shed their skin and and so they became symbols of like chaos creatures. And so what we found was the snake talks to Eve and begins to ask her questions, which ultimately causes her fall. We talked last about how God responded to the fall of Adam and his wife, and I think it's interesting to note that in verse number nine through verse number um 14, God talks to Adam first and talks to the woman second, and then he talks to the serpent. But then when it comes to the things that fall out from their judgment, it's the serpent. He's talking to the serpent, and then he moves to talk to the woman, and then he talks to Adam. At the center of those is this conversation with the serpent. And notice how that God had questions for the man and questions for the woman. But verse number 14 is where I'm going to begin reading, and he does not start with any questions with him. I'm going to go through verse number 19. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, above every beast of the field, upon thy belly shalt thou go, and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy life, and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception, in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam, he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake, in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat of the herb of the field, in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out of it thou wast taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. As I said, his question about sin started with Adam and then goes to the woman and then goes to the serpent. She blames the serpent. God does not have a question for the serpent. Why? He comes to humanity with questions, and even the next generation after their sin, he comes to them with questions. But why wouldn't he question this creature? My thought is this is not a redeemable creature. Redeemable creatures he's willing to reason with, but not this one. Look what he says. But that's not what the Bible said. The first two things in this block of reading that we did that are cursed, first the serpent's cursed, the ground is cursed. So the serpent gets cursed because of this, because of Adam's sin, and the ground gets cursed because of Adam's sin. But the humans didn't get cursed. Not at this point.

SPEAKER_03 5:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

So that in itself is an act of God's mercy, right? For sure. So God comes to him and says, Cursed art thou above all cattle. Look what verse number one says. Cursed art thou above all cattle, above every beast of the field. So remember when we talked about that gift of subtlety, or that gift of it could either be crafty or prudent. That divine gift that God gave, that he could have either used to the the snake could have used to the bad or to the good. Because he used it to the bad, God elevated his judgment. Now you're cursed above. You were gifted above, but now you're cursed above. Um maybe it's okay to talk about right here, but how does God work with divine justice? God, God's if you study God's justice in the Old Testament, especially toward humanity, it is a turning back on itself of something that you desired. In other words, if this is what you say you want, I'm gonna give it to you, but it's gonna be without measure. I'm just gonna give a little example of this, and maybe this is maybe it's relevant to the conversation, maybe not. In the deliverance story of Israel from Egypt, Pharaoh says to the midwives, use your hands that you normally do to deliver these children, use those hands to take the children of the Hebrews. Use those same hands that are supposed to deliver a child to kill a child. The last plague before Israel gets brought out as God's firstborn, birthed out of this nation, is the Passover lamb is slaughtered. But the the last plague is the plague of the killing of all of Pharaoh's firstborn, from their beast to the firstborn in their houses. And it's it's as if God is doing exactly what the Pharaoh in Moses' day was requiring his midwives to do. This is what you wanted done, this is what you did to other people, then I'm gonna turn it back on you, but you're not gonna be able to handle it. So great was the cry in Egypt, yeah, that that they could not handle. That was what thrust Israel out of Egypt, and that's really it was God's hand behind it all the time. But the same hand that was birthing a nation was also taking the life of another generation that wouldn't trust in God. So that's how God's divine justice works. And with with this, I gave you a gift. The serpent was an irredeemable creature. He gave him a gift above all, but since he misused that gift, he's cursed above all. Your thoughts?

SPEAKER_03 8:11

Yeah, I just couldn't help but think of the and I don't know the context of it. To whom much is to whom much is given required. Is that yeah, is that the same context or the same idea there? Although it in Luke it's talking to man, and we're talking about a a cr a beast.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

Yeah, the idea of divine justice works the same with humanity. Right. Uh classic example of this is the rich man in Lazarus. Sure. The rich man ignored the guy at his gate. In eternity, he got ignored. And there's all sorts of awesome parallels there, and I don't want to get sidetracked in that. I just think it's it's amazing that God gifted this serpent with with something that could be either be used to the good or the bad, he used it to the bad, and as like, okay, God turns it over on him. Here's something else to kind of contemplate. What was the serpent? If we find out later that it was part of the angelic body, and Satan is supposed to be at the base level, angels were messengers to men, and he wanted the position of God in man's life. He wanted to be the one that's above, not the not the messenger just giving, conveying God's message. Was he saying this is beneath me to do what I'm asked to do for humanity? Like this is lower than what I want to be. I don't, I don't want to be just a messenger. And so a pushback at the position and the relationship between God and man, I know all these are questions that you know are not really answerable. I just think it's nest, it's it's good to think about those things. Like, what really caused all this to go wrong for him? We have no reason to believe that anything was wrong in the position where he's at, but I mean, Jesus says that he chose not to abide in the truth. Right. That wasn't good enough.

SPEAKER_03 10:14

So do you think it was a coincidence that he chose the form of a serpent to reveal himself to Eve? Maybe not. Didn't even really know what he was doing as far as the animal of which that would be in its stature for the rest of as low as you can go. Yeah. Yeah. To what he thought was elevating himself over humans, and the form he took in which to deliver that message.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

Actually, God's judgment is you thought that was low. Right.

unknown 10:47

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Never thought about that.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

Now you're gonna crawl underneath everything.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

Yeah, so this is the judgment. Cursed art thou above all cattle, every beast of the field upon thou thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life, and I will put enmity, that's an unsatisfiable anger, between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, thou shalt bruise his heel. This is another one of these odd things. Like, what's really being talked about here? You know what I'm saying? Yes. Is it her seed? Yes. So now we find in verse number 15 it's two seed lines are being introduced. There's gonna be the seed line of the woman and the seed line of the snake. And God says the seed of the woman is going to crush his head, but you are going to strike at the seed of the woman's heel. So those two things become patterns throughout the rest of the storyline of the Bible, where there's a heel striker and there's also a head crusher.

SPEAKER_03 12:01

I see the seed of a woman. I can't help but picture Jesus. Yeah, me too. Completely.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Yeah. And that's ultimately what happens. Somehow, this woman is going to give birth to a seed that is going to conquer you. Yeah. And going to crush your head. Yeah. But in the process, you're going to strike at his heel. But he's still going to be victorious because his foot is on your head.

SPEAKER_03 12:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

Yeah. You're supposed to think about that. Bible readers go forward to that. That's this is the first messianic prophecy, is what they say in the in the Old Testament. This is uh the first prophecy about Christ. God's anointed is going to be born of a woman and is going to crush the head of the serpent.

SPEAKER_02 12:43

I hate to admit in you know, in years past of reading this, I just simply you read that as because snakes slither across the ground, they're gonna they'll bite your heel and you crush them with your head. Didn't see Jesus in that at all. Yeah, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

No, I I get it, and that's the reason why we're doing this study is to to think about what's really going on. That seems like a really odd thing to even have here. Yeah, it does. So there's something bigger going on, and you'll find out that seed lines are extremely important in the the old testament. It's quite a foreshadowing. It is, yeah, completely. All right, so he deals with the serpent and tells him he's cursed, he doesn't, he's not a redeemable creature, and his it almost seems like the that what God's judgment is against the snake is greater than anything else that carries any form of judgment, even at this point. Now he says to the woman, and unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. So what's he saying here? He says, First, your sorrow is going to be multiplied, your pain. Pain. Your pain is going to be multiplied, but also your conception is going to be multiplied. And that's not that's not just talking about your ability to conceive, because later on in the storyline of the Bible, how many, how many things are conflicted in the seed of the woman, the righteous seed that's going to carry God's son in Israel's lineage? How many times are there stories about women not being able to conceive? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:43

Many.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

But then it seems like in other areas, like there's more children being born than someone could ask for. So God says, I'm going to greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. This is one of the results of their sin, was that the relationship between man and wife became complicated right here. It's like all you're going to desire is just to have a relationship that is stable and committed, and just you and I. And that's what your desire is going to be. It's going to be to have a husband. Is there any stories in the Bible where men decide, I don't want just one wife?

SPEAKER_03 15:35

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

Or conflict between two wives, two women. One's able to conceive, one's not. And then the last part of that, he's going to be a ruler to you. He's going to be an oppressor. He's going to put you down. This is the result of sin. This is not God's design. This is not God's ideal. That's the reason why I take such issue in the New Testament for a New Testament believer in Christ to think that we're rulers over our wives. That's not biblical. That was the fallout of sin. The relationship, I think I referred to it in one of the previous episodes that we see in Ephesians chapter number five, when Christ comes into a life, the relationship between man and wife is a relationship of mutual submission to each other. It's not you're down here. It's your right here. You're my you're my mirrored counterpart. And it's going to take both of us to fulfill the will of God. Your thoughts?

SPEAKER_03 16:36

Do you think this verse is where we really see the creation of the differences of man and woman of emotion versus you know, uh maybe aggression almost from a man, or that's kind of how we would be perceived? Harshness, hardness as a ruler.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

Yes. Yeah. That's all a result of sin. Let's go to Adam's judgment. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. So there's something about listening to the voice of your wife. You've listened to the one when you should have been the one conveying the command, you're listening to the one that that doesn't know the command, hearkening unto the voice of your wife. Um go back to the Abraham account where him and Sarah are scheming. Sarah's scheming about Hagar. Right. You've listened to the voice of your wife concerning Hagar. Is that going to turn out good for Abraham? No. That is not God's divine will. Yeah. Now, did God abandon Abraham over that? No, because he had tied himself in covenant to him. But there's real consequences to pay. Your relationship with Hagar, Sarah's relationship with Hagar is going to be very complicated. She is going to feel like she's being oppressed, and she was. They became rulers over her. Here again, I mean, a lot of people don't even consider what Hagar was. She was an Egyptian slave that was given to Abraham in a trade between him and Pharaoh when him and Pharaoh, when he was out of the will of God in Pharaoh's land and lying about who Sarah was. Yeah. And God puts a stop to it, and Abraham gets all this these flocks and quite a bit of wealth. And oh, by the way, we're going to throw in these slaves. Hagar had no choice in the matter. She was the slave all of her life. And then she gets put in the home of someone who puts together this scheme and he says, Oh, well, you'll be my wife. Finally, I get someone that's committed to me. And he wasn't committed to her. No, no. He became this oppressive ruler. And certainly her her mistress did. Sarah and the and her relationship became extremely complicated to the point where she fled. And Abraham said, It's probably good that you do that. I mean, these these passages, here again, have implications for the rest of the Bible.

SPEAKER_03 19:27

I think it's it's not ironic, I guess, in verse 17 that God reminds Adam, um, I gave you the commandment.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

Yeah. Eaten of the tree.

SPEAKER_03 19:38

Yeah, he didn't say anything about that to Eve.

SPEAKER_00 19:41

Right. Yeah, he was reminded of what the commandment was. Yeah. Then because you've eaten of the tree that you shouldn't, now your food supply is going to be changed. It's not that it's going to be non-existent, but it's going to be harder now for the ground to bring forth the fruit.

SPEAKER_03 19:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

Now he said, cursed is the ground for your sake. You're going to realize that this gift of fruitfulness was such a great gift. Yeah. That you took for granted.

SPEAKER_02 20:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:14

You could have walked in that garden at any time and ate freely, but because you didn't follow my word, now that's not going to be near as accessible to you. And cursed as the ground, you're going to be able to eat fruit, but it's going to cut you on the way there. It's going to be thorns and thistles. As a matter of fact, those are going to grow easier than what the fruit does. Yeah. What you've been working to cultivate, the things that you don't want to grow is going to grow.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:44

And the things that you need to grow to sustain your life is going to come, but it's going to be difficult.

SPEAKER_02 20:51

Yeah, that perfect creation gets has been affected now because of man's obesity.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

The earth itself is affected. The place where God was kneeling down and forming man out of now has been affected by man's sin. Man's a part of what he came out of. Everything was affected by this decision. This bringing forth in verse number 18, thorns and thistles just bring forth it. Seems like that's given the idea. Those are just going to come without you. You don't have to plant them. You don't have to work. They're going to show up in places you don't want them to. You're going to have to work to keep them out.

SPEAKER_02 21:32

You don't have to tend those for those to grow.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

They just grow. And thou shalt eat of the herb of the field. I have a question here. This is just in real time. I've not thought about this until I just read this just a second ago. But is now the life sustaining food for Adam the herb of the field? And that of the field has already had the connotation of outside the garden. So now you're going to be eating outside. I would say that the not that there's not fruit, but the main source of your meal is not going to be the sweet stuff that looks desirable. It's going to be it's going to be life sustaining, but you're going to you're going to be living outside the realm of the garden now. Yeah. No more meeting face to face with God.

SPEAKER_02 22:25

Yeah. Because the the curse of the ground would not have been inside the garden. Right.

SPEAKER_00 22:31

It would have just been outside the walls. Right. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground, for out of it thou wast taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. You're one of these days going to go back to that dirt. Which what else is down there? What else is eating dust? You're pulled back in the direction of the serpent. It's amazing, huh?

SPEAKER_03 23:01

Also, and ultimately that is speaking of what God warned them of. When you eat of the tree, you'll die.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

Yes. They didn't know what that all entailed. It wasn't talking about the actual day.

SPEAKER_03 23:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

In the day can mean in the time period. Now there's going to be a sunset. Right. It's pretty amazing. There's huge ramifications for sin. You've got you've got big consequences to just go around one command. I want to turn here and we'll end the uh in the study. I want to go to Romans chapter number five. This has become over the last several weeks one of my favorite passages of scripture. Paul sets up this idea of what happens when Adam sinned. Verse number twelve, he goes back to Adam. Wherefore, as by one man sinnered sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. So by one man's sin, he had one command to follow. That one sin caused his sinfulness to be passed or imputed to the rest of humanity after him. From then uh for until the law, sin was in the world, but sin was not imputed where there's no law. So it it really didn't get heightened in man's imagination until the law came. The law was God's expectation of how men and God meet together on a regular basis and maintain a relationship in holy space. And so when the law entered, sin became exceeding sinful because it's like everything we do seems to be wrong. How do we maintain a relationship with God? Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. It wasn't those that committed the exact sin that Adam did that that death reigned. It was everybody. We didn't have to commit Adam's sin to be offensive toward God. And so he's talking about how how guilty we were from one sin. And then you fast forward to what happens when the law comes, there's 613 commands in the law to follow. So one man fails to keep one command. How good is it going to work out when a whole nation has to keep 613 of them? If one guy couldn't keep one, a whole nation's not going to be able to keep 613. No. But the law was given so that the offense might abound, like the things that were offensive toward God just keeps growing. It's like we're not going the right direction, God. We got the law now, and this was supposed to make us holy. It didn't make us holy. As a matter of fact, sin just exploded. But this is what I love. It says, For as what by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. So, in other words, God is saying that just like Adam by one man's sin, sinfulness was imputed to the rest of the human race. Now, by one man's righteousness, it has the same effect in reverse. The righteousness of Christ, if we believe in him, we don't have to do the exact same thing Christ did in order to obtain that righteousness. We just have to believe on him, and that righteousness is imputed to us. Just like they didn't have to commit the same sin that Adam did to be guilty toward God. We don't have to do the same exact same that same thing that Christ did to be considered righteous before God. We just have to believe on him. And where sin was growing and abounding, God's grace went beyond all of that. It's awesome, isn't it? It is. I love this passage here. God commendeth his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath through him. And it's so awesome. It is. It is so awesome. Well, it's been a good study.

SPEAKER_01 27:47

Um this narrow road I've been traveling, and it gives me a purpose for my life. Jesus is my treasure, he's the reason that I'm still living. He's gonna be my reason when I die. He's gonna be my reason when I die.