Consequences Of The Fall | Genesis 3:1-4:12

INTRODUCTION

As we open the book of Genesis, we encounter a pivotal moment in human history: The account of creation and the account and the consequences of the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. This narrative, recorded in Genesis chapter 3, unravels a profound truth about the nature of humanity and the consequences of our choices.

We are still in the Garden of Eden. The serpent came and deceived Eve into eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil. Eve gave the fruit to her husband and he ate it.

Genesis 3:7-20

⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized 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 as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

¹⁰He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” ¹¹ And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” ¹² The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” ¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Consequence

¹⁴ So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. ¹⁵ And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” ¹⁶ To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

¹⁷ To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it 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 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” ²⁰Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.

Are there consequences of human actions?

What makes a difference between the choice of a 9-year-old boy and a 25-year-old man?

A 9-year-old boy or girl thinks they can do things in life and there will be no consequences. At 9 people think there are no consequences.

In the Bible there is act-consequence. Actions are connected to consequences. This connection between act and consequence is really big in scripture. The book of Proverbs is actually telling the young person in proverbs actions and character are connected with consequences.

Adam and Eve sinned and there are consequences to them. There is a cursing against the serpent (3:14) and there is a cursing against the ground (3:17).

Oracles of Judgement

HF: In these 3 oracles of judgment pronounced by God; there is hope, a glimmer of life, the victory over the serpent, the woman has children with the intended blessing, it will be trouble for the man against his environment of work, but there will be productivity, there will be food.

Consequences between God and man.

Man goes into hiding. Where does he hide? He hides in the bushes.

Genesis 3:8-9

⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” ¹⁰He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” ¹¹ And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” ¹² The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” ¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Man’s response is one of fear. Remember the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.

He became naked.

He lost his communion with God. What you have now is a separation between God and his people. From presence (Immanuel/God with us) – Absconditus (There is a Hidden God now)

Rather than the God who is with you in the garden, walking with you and talking with you, now God is hidden. Man hid from him. What does the rest of scripture do? The rest of the scripture from Genesis to Revelation is telling us how God comes back to be with his people.

Humans and all nature groans.

Romans 8:22-23

²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³ Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.

All of creation groans waiting for the coming day of redemption. How does the creation groan? You have famines, tsunamis, earthquakes, avalanches, plagues, diseases, cancer, etc. The whole of creation is waiting for the coming day when things will be made right.

Have you ever felt in your own life how messed up life is? Have there ever been a groaning in you waiting and wanting for things to be made right? Someday at the coming of Jesus, all the things that are wrong are going to be made right and you long for that, you groan for that.

People & Self – Body goes back to dust

Genesis 3:19

…dust you are and to dust you will return.

When Jesus was raised from the dead, did just the spirit of Jesus rise from the grave? Or did Jesus raise a body? Jesus raised a body.

John 20:27 

Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

Man & Woman: Conflict, blaming and consequences

What does God do?

Adam says, “It is the woman.”

The woman says, “It is the serpent.”

So God starts with the serpent, moves to the woman and ultimately moves to the man.

Consequence On The Serpent; Gen. 3:14

Genesis 3:14

So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.

Cursed.

Eat dust

There is a play on the word dust. What is Adam’s name. Adama. He is called Adam because he is taken from the dust (Adama). What does the serpent eat? Dust. So Adam is dusty, he is going back to the dust. The serpent is going to eat dust.

What you have in the curse them is what some people call the proto-evangelium

2 seeds: Protoevangelium; Genesis 3:15

Genesis 3:15

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head,  and you will strike his heel.” Who is ‘he; in the context? Don’t go to Jesus yet. It is the offspring of the woman.

Protoevangelium

Proto means first. Evangelium means gospel. This is the first message of the gospel.  So in the curse to the serpent, God says, “It is going to be enmity, conflict between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. But the seed of the woman, one of her descendants will crush the head of the serpent.”

Who is the one who has come to crush the serpent’s head? It is Jesus.

So through this woman’s seed, the hope is that the serpent will be defeated.

APPLICATION

That means that there is hope. Right from the curse to the serpent there is hope that Satan and evil is not going to triumph, that death will not triumph but that the woman’s seed will crush his head. We find hope right there.

Consequence On The Woman; Gen. 3:16

Genesis 3:16

To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

Enmity to serpent, 3:15

Pain in childbearing, 3:16

The area of procreation it is now frustrating for the woman. In helping to multiply and fill the earth, there is pain. Pain in childbearing. There is pain of infertility, miscarriage, and premature birth. He also uses a different phrase there, “with painful labor you will give birth to children.’ There is pain in giving birth to children. Then there is pain with birth defects, pain with learning disabilities, pain in childhood diseases, pain in rebellious children, pain in sibling rivalry, pain in the rejection of children toward their parents.

Bringing forth children is a painful process. I don’t know this by personal experience but I was there in the hospital when Glory delivered both our children.

Is there pain in childbearing? Yes.

The Bible says, “She shall have pain in childbearing.” Now some people says, “This woman is a Christian and she shall have no anaesthesia because the Bible says she should suffer pain in childbearing.”

Question: Do we give her anaesthesia during pregnancy?

Counter question: What did God say to man? You are going to die. Do we say, “The consequence of sin is death, so we are just going to die. I am giving up on life. I will not fight to live.” You are fighting against the consequence of sin. That is my point.

Woman shall have pain during childbirth? It is okay for you to give anaesthesia.

Relationship to husband – Desire

Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

What does it mean by the word ‘desire’ and ‘rule?’

What is the woman’s desire?

Sexual desire? No.

Desire to be subservient (obey) to her husband and he will rule over her. No

I am married to one of the nicest woman on the planet. She is kind, caring, gentle, wise, quiet and stuff. Question: Her desire for the whole day would be to subservient or obey me? No.

Gen. 4:7 parallel

Now, to understand this passage we need to look at another passage where the same phrase is used. We have the exact same literary structure, the exact same literary phrase was used in Genesis 4:7. This is the Cain and Abel story were two words ‘desire & rule’ are found again.

Genesis 4:7

⁶Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? ⁷If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

Genesis 3:16 Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

ILLUSTRATION

There is an image here of how sin is at the doorway of a residence and there is an animal that is crouching. Sin is crouching like an animal at the door, but you must rule over it. If you stir up the animal by doing what is wrong, then the animal will attack.

Sin desires to have you, in other words, to control you. But you must rule it or master it or control it, in order to avoid the consequences of the anger in Cain’s case that will lead to the murder of your brother.

As sin desires to overpower Cain, so the woman will desire to overpower her husband. The husband then must rule over her.

Conflict/power struggle in marriage. You fight against it.

• Part of the consequence of the fall is conflict and power struggle in marriage.
• What is described is the future struggle of the sexes.
• There will be a conflict between husbands and wives in their homes, that is one of the effects of being sinners.
• There will not be order but control, there will not be a submissive spirit of love and mutual affection and unity of purpose in achieving the blessing that God has envisioned for man and woman.
• There must be a loving relationship but it is replaced by a struggle by each one’s desire (wife and husband) to overwhelm, overcome, or control his/her spouse.

Do we argue in marriage? Is there any argument among the husbands and wives here?

ILLUSTRATION

The man and woman come back from work. They both are stressed from work and then work at home is just going to begin. Children’s homework, laundry, cleaning, cooking, and bills, and then suddenly one of them gets frustrated and says something and the other spouse answers back. Both of them do not want to lose the argument. The man comes up with a logical argument and the wife does not want to lose the argument. Pretty soon this ends up in a full-blown fight and argument.

During the engagement time, we say, “I just love her or love him, I adore her.” After about a month of marriage, it is all gone and we get to deal with the realities of life. Learning how to manage a conflict in a marriage is one of the most important things one needs to learn. There are certain things you can do and there are certain things you shouldn’t use. There are certain words that you can use and there are certain words that you don’t want to use, they are ugly and dirty. You need to learn how to resolve conflict, you need to learn how to deal with the situation. You need to know when to back off and when to charge forward.

Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you.

Don’t mistake that male leadership in the family is a result of sin.

We learnt last week that male leadership was set in place before this. So that is not what this is saying.

Or a desire to overtake your husband’s leadership, rule over and overrule just about every idea, decision, plan over your husband because he was originally designed to rule over you.

As a result of the fall, God’s deign for both gender and marriage is now turned upside down.

Men are naturally now given to think of themselves and not love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. That does not come naturally. Women don’t naturally take up the role to submit to her husband and respect him as the head of the home as Christ is the head of the church. The husband does not naturally take up the role to love his wife as himself. It comes naturally to both the husband and wife to manipulate, to overrule, or to fear.

The world became a tough place. But God sent his Son to give us his Spirit to be victorious, to say no to what comes naturally because of the fall and by His Spirit walk in God’s design.

Jesus gives us not only coverage for our sin but empowerment to do what God wants us to do. So we are not without hope.

Male & Female in Genesis

Women “help” (ezer) to Adam.

Some people think being a helping is like a carpenter and then you have their helper who does all the lower jobs. Eve was considered the helper, so therefore she is secondary and the man was the main figure. No.

God is called an ‘ezer’ (Ps. 33:20, Hos. 13:9). Does that mean God is inferior? Ebenezer – stone of help.

Adam named the animals.

When does the woman get the name Eve? When God said to Adam:

Genesis 3:19b-20 for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

²⁰Adam^[named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.

He has just been told that he is going to die and he turns to his wife and names her, “Eve (havah) living one, the mother of all living. He does not curse his wife or yell at her. But he turns to his wife and says, “You are the mother of all living.”

Question: Is he showing his dominance there or rather is he recognizing her character? He recognizes her destiny and honors her also calls her ‘the mother of all living’ after he has been told that you are going to die.

In her is invested the hope, the hope that someday this is going to turn around.

Galatians 3:28 as model: Male and female are all one.

Galatians 3:28

 There is neither Jew nor Gentile (in the OT was there Jew and Greek? Yes. Was it better to be Jew or Greek? Greek), neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Now, this is a scripture that I heard a lot growing up.

Ephesians 5:22

 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.

I was taught this as a child. So, I get married and what do I say to my wife? Submit to me. I am your husband now, submit to me. The point is: How do you determine the meaning of the passage? Context. Eph. 5:21 is fairly close to the context.

Ephesians 5:21-22

 ²¹Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. ²²Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.

Question:

Should the wife submit to the husband? Yes.

Should the husband submit to the wife? Yes

The question must be:

Husband: How do I serve my wife?

Wife: How do I serve my husband?

Beware of power grabbing in marriage.

What happens to the power struggle then?

We give up power, not by grabbing or holding onto power.

Who is my model here? Jesus. Jesus washing his disciples feet. Is that leadership? Does those disciples go and die for Jesus? Yes. Be like Christ and learn how to give up. So the power is not used for conflict, but what happens is how can I server her?

Consequence of the fall is there is going to be power struggle and conflict in marriage.

The solution is to fight against it, not by grabbing power but by serving the other.

Beware of power grabbing or victim status in marriage.

Consequence On The Man; Gen. 3:17-19

Genesis 3:17-19 

¹⁷Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; With hard labor you shall eat from it All the days of your life. ¹⁸Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; Yet you shall eat the plants of the field; ¹⁹By the sweat of your face You shall eat bread, Until you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.” Is work a curse? No Is work a consequence of fall? No Was Adam to work and take care of the garden before the fall? Yes. Work is not the curse. The curse is futility of work.

Futile work (toil & unproductive)

Adam was to work the garden before the fall. Work is not the curse. The consequence is the ‘futility of work’ (toil and unproductive).

Have you ever worked for something, worked for something and then everything fell apart? Have your work went into loss and nonproductivity? The fact of life is that you can really work hard for something and you can watch it all fall apart like a pack of cards. The futility of work. It is devastating when it happens. When you put your heart and soul into the work and you watch is fall apart. It is the futility of work.

There are people who work from Monday to Friday 10-12 hours and they hate their work. So they cannot wait to get out of work and they have this kind of freedom. Then wait for the weekend to party and just not work. They go back to work on Monday but you do not like it.

ILLUSTRATION

I had the opportunity to work in the corporate world 8-10 hours and then get involved in ministry. I loved what I did. Now I am full time in ministry and I love every part of my work. Preaching the message, preparing hours for my Sunday preaching and Bible study, giving pastoral care, getting involved with the management of the church and its affairs, I love every bit of it.

APPLICATION

Young people. Find something that you love to do. Have a convergence of your vocation and your passion. When this happens there is synergy (the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects.)

Futile work is a problem and we all struggle with this.

Man’s struggle with the dust

To dust you will return. Some of you know what death is like because you have seen it in your family. Death is bad, ugly, painful. Death is a big problem.

What did Jesus do? Jesus conquered death by dying. Death is not final, Jesus blew it away.

Consequence On Siblings; Gen. 4:1-22

Read: Genesis 4:1-12

Cain and Abel

This is the first murder in the Bible.

Abel offers the meat offering.

Cain offers the grain (wheat and barley) offering.

Which one was acceptable to God? Abel’s offering.

Why was cain’s offering rejected?

Meat offering versus cereal offering? Is blood the reason why God accepted Abel? No.

God commanded Israel also to offer cereal offerings. Leviticus 2, God asks Israel to offer up their grains to him, their first fruits to him. Grains were legitimate offering to God.

Cain’s problem was not in the material that he offered.

Did Cain have a bad heart and hatred toward his brother?

The issue is his heart, not the stuff that he offered.

Genesis 4:8-9

⁸Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. ⁹Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

Did Cain say, “I murdered my brother but God, you did not give me the 10 commandments yet. The 10 commandments don’t come till Exodus 20. I did not do anything wrong. You never told me not to kill.”

Question:

Do human beings have consciousness? Yes.

Did Cain know the law of the Lord written on his heart? Yes.

Romans 2:14-16

¹⁴(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. ¹⁵They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.)

Cain’s question: Am I brother’s keeper? This is a classic line in scripture. For Cain it is no.

Are we our brother’s keeper? Yes.

Have you ever seen the good brother/bad brother phenomena in the family.

• Competitive nature among siblings.
• Jealously in the family.
• Sibling rivalry. (Leah & Rachel; Joseph & his brothers, Jacob & Easu). Sibling rivalry is a big theme in Genesis.
• Sense of failure – hatred/anger.

Cain gets the curse.

Genesis 4:10-12

¹⁰The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. ¹¹Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. ¹²When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”

The curse of cain is – Wanderer – aloneness – Absconditus

We are seeing at aloneness again.

First it was Adam alone in the garden. God said it is not for man to be alone, so he made Eve and they had fellowship with God. Because of the fall Adam & Eve went out from the Garden. Now we see Cain going out from the Lord’s presence.

Genesis 4:16

So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Cain is alone.

Is aloneness one of the worst thing in the world? I say that because a lot of time growing up, I felt alone in my life. It is devastating to think that you are alone in the universe.

Can is a Wanderer. Do people have problems in our culture being a wanderer? Cain is cursed and he is a wanderer.

Do we in our world move from place, to place, to place. Have you moved in life, grew up in a place and settled in another place?

I was born in Central Kerala. I did my 1^st standard in Trivandrum, then we moved to Bangalore for my 2-5^th Standard. We then moved to Calcutta for my 6-10^th grace. Then we moved back to Bangalore and I completed my studies and settled down here.

It is great to travel. We move from place to place to place. Have any of you travelled and you get so tired of travelling that you just want to be home? By the way, where do we call home? Home is a place where we have our roots. Our generation is wandering so much that they really do not know where their roots are.

Be careful, we can wander all our life. Cain was cursed with this wandering stuff. Moving is okay, people move for various things, but do not lose the sense of home, fix your mind and settle down in one place and have roots there, a place where you feel that you belong.

CONCLUSION

We have journeyed through the passages of Genesis 3:1-4:12, witnessing the profound impact of humanity’s disobedience and the ripple effects that continue to shape our lives even today.

In this exploration, we have seen the consequences of the fall manifest in various aspects of our existence. We witnessed the judgment upon the serpent, forever cursed to crawl upon its belly, a vivid reminder of the consequences of deception and manipulation. Through this judgment, we are reminded of the enduring truth that evil will not prevail and that God’s justice will ultimately triumph.

We then turned our attention to the consequences that befell the woman.

The pain of childbirth and the subjugation she would face within the realm of relationships were a direct result of the rebellion in the Garden. Yet, even amidst these consequences, we discovered the resilience, strength, and dignity that God has bestowed upon women. We saw the beauty of God’s grace in the midst of hardship, as He promised a seed of hope who would crush the head of the serpent, foreshadowing the ultimate victory found in Jesus Christ.

Next, we examined the consequences faced by the man.

The ground, once fruitful and abundant, now yielded thorns and thistles, reminding us of the toil and labour that became necessary to sustain life. We recognized the struggle and frustration that often accompanies our efforts, yet we found solace in the truth that through Christ, our toil can be redeemed and transformed into acts of worship and service.

We then explored the consequences within the sacred covenant of marriage.

The fall brought about a distortion in the dynamic between husband and wife, introducing a struggle for dominance and power. Yet, in the midst of this struggle, we discovered the transformative power of love, sacrifice, and mutual submission. We learned that by embracing God’s design for marriage, we can experience the profound unity and harmony that He intended from the beginning.

Lastly, we witnessed the tragic consequences of sibling rivalry in the account of Cain and Abel.

The seeds of envy and resentment sown in the hearts of these brothers resulted in a heinous act of violence. Through their story, we were reminded of the destructive power of unchecked anger and jealousy. But we also found hope in the midst of this darkness, as God’s mercy extended even to Cain, offering him a chance for repentance and redemption.

As we reflect on these consequences of the fall, we are confronted with the reality of our own brokenness and the brokenness of the world around us. Yet, in the midst of this brokenness, we find the unwavering love and grace of our Heavenly Father, who, through Jesus Christ, offers us forgiveness, restoration, and hope.

Let us remember that although we live in a fallen world, we are not without hope. Through faith in Christ, we can experience the transformative power of His love, which breaks the chains of sin and offers us a new way of living. It is through Him that we can navigate the challenges of relationships, find strength amidst toil and struggle, and extend grace and forgiveness to one another.

May we leave this place today with hearts filled with gratitude for God’s redeeming love. As we go forth, may we be empowered by the Holy Spirit to live as ambassadors of reconciliation, extending God’s love and grace to a broken world desperately in need of His healing touch.

In the name of Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Redeemer, we pray. Amen.