Glimmers of Hope!

Oh, last week we read about the fall of mankind. Oh, so depressing. But if you think that, you're missing something. I'm missing something. What am I missing?

At every point when God speaks, He offers hope for the future. Hope? in the fall of mankind? Uh Oh, we need to read it together today. Let's look at it today.

I'm more than eight.

Well, you found us at our dining room table again. I'm Jim, and I'm Dorothy. And we're sitting here talking through the Bible, specifically in Genesis. And hey, before we go on talking about what we're going to talk about today, let me just say we would love to have some feedback from you about how we're doing. And we'd love to know whether or not you're listening to podcasts like through Spotify or something like that.

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So Where are we today? We are in the middle of Genesis 3. And we've just gone through the very depressing. Fall of mankind.

Well, yeah, that thing that happened so fast, it takes your breath away. And today we get the saddest part of the story, which is God's response. Right. And we left off with him asking them the questions: you know, where are you? What have you done?

Whose voice have you listened to? Who told you you were naked? Right, right. And so they fess up to it. They do, but they pointed at each other and said, you know, it's her fault or it's the snake's fault.

Right, right, right, right.

So, you know, here we have the Lord God, the very personal, present God. Responding to each of the responsible parties, right? And he's going to start with the serpent. He doesn't start with Eve or Adam, he starts with the serpent. But you know what?

Uninvited entered the garden. If I was writing the Bible, it's a good thing I'm not. At this point, I would have God arrive on the scene and just wave his hand and say, I'm starting over. You know, this is a train wreck. I am starting over.

We'll get another man, another woman who maybe they'll obey me this time. We're just, you know, woof. And then everything would be annihilated and we'd start, you know. But God doesn't do that. God doesn't do that.

He does have a reaction to this fall. But, like you say, the reaction is really kind of fascinating. And that's what we're going to look at today. Because, in the end, in the end, the entire intent of what God's going to do next is redemptive. That's right.

It's redemptive. He has not given up on Adam and Eve.

So let's just see what he does. And the process he does it is fascinating.

Okay, and he had told them before they ever partook of the fruit: if you eat that, you will die. You will die.

So here come the consequences now for what they have done. You want me to read? I can read a little bit. No, I'll read.

Okay, look at it.

Okay.

Okay, so we're picking it up in verse 14 of chapter 3. The 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. I 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. Woo Stop there.

Okay, so he starts Aiming at the serpent, who's the one who initiated the conversation. He doesn't turn to Adam or Eve first, he turns to the serpent. Which, you know, has got to be remarkably encouraging to Adam and Eve. That's what I'm thinking. They must feel maybe a little bit protected because God's going after the real culprit.

Yeah. And if you have ever been manipulated by someone for evil, for bad things, and you feel duped, you feel like someone else has gotten the better of you, yeah, God at least is saying, I understand what's going on here. And really, the cause, the fundamental root of all this, is this serpent. I'm going to take care of him.

So the first thing he says to the serpent is, because you have done this, you are cursed.

Okay, so this whole part of Genesis 3, we kind of subtitle the curse, assuming that the entire chapter deals with that. But we need to pay attention to what the text actually says, because God curses the serpent and he curses the ground. He does not curse Adam and Eve. Right, right. And so, That's really important that we just point that out before we read it.

So let's talk about that word curse. What does that mean?

Well, it means you're destined for bad things. Yeah. Yeah. It means you're going to be stuck heading straight into obstacles that you have no power to resist. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, and so you know, he looks at the serpent and says, You know, on your belly you shall go, which kind of matches what we know about snakes today. Right. It's partially why there's so much mystical thinking about snakes because they seem to move and they don't have legs.

Well, there was already a lot of mythology attached to snakes by the time Moses wrote this on the page.

So, but what I don't want you to miss is the fact about it's the dust you shall eat all the days of your life. That is a really classic idea of humiliation. Right. Humiliation. Face in the dust.

Yeah, I ate dirt. It's about being put low. This is really a powerful statement of humiliation.

So, on the one hand, here's Satan, who is tempting Eve by saying, God's just keeping you from being like him. And we read in Isaiah 14, where he says, I want to make myself like the most high. And God, at this point, says, No way, you're not. You're going to be humiliated beyond what you could ever think in your life. And not only that, he says, and Eve is hearing this, I'm.

Put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring.

So, in other words, this battle is not over. Not over, and it involves the woman. It involves the woman, and they're going to go on the offensive. Yep. Right?

That her offspring will be more powerful than you ever will be. Yeah, read it carefully. Between your offspring and her offspring, he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.

Now, there's a lot in that that you got to stop and think about as you're looking at this. But evidently, the offspring of the woman and the offspring of the serpent here are going to be at war and they're going to have some success hurting each other.

So, that's what he's saying, right? But it's the degree of the hurting that really makes a big difference right here. Because it says that he shall bruise your head and ye shall bruise his heel.

Well, let's start with bruising heel, okay? The offspring of the woman, his heel will be bruised. This is not a fatal injury. No, that's right. But it is some kind of short-term victory that causes walking to be painful.

So it's like he's going to cause that one to stumble, or there will be great difficulty connected with the life of this one.

So there will be some limited success from the evil one over the good one. And yet, when you counteract that with what the good guy will bruise your head, well, now we're getting the image of a king who vanquishes a general or an enemy king, and that enemy king or general is brought in before the victorious king, and he's made to be prone in front of that king, and that king puts his foot on his head or his neck, acting like he's his footstool. That's actually the humiliation thing, the vanquishing kind of thing. And so, what it's really getting at is that picture about the. fact that this one will put his feet on the head of this evil one.

And we'll crush him and show sovereignty and victory over him. I mean, that's what's all wrapped up in this imagery.

So you gotta think that Adam and Eve, hearing this, are inside themselves going, yes. Yes, yes. This one undid us.

So God sees what this bad sees it undid. Yeah. But okay, so listeners, if you didn't pick it up yet, most commentators agree this is the first evidence we have of the coming Messiah. Yeah. Yeah.

Right. The first kind of blurry focus promise that it's not going to be this way forever. There's one coming who actually will vanquish this serpent. Yes. Yes.

So we'll fix it. And in fact, it's so early, it has a special name in theology. It's called Proto-Evangelum. Proto meeting the first. Uncheck that, yeah.

Proto the first, Evangelium, the good news. It's the first good news. It's the first good news, comes right here. And really, it is the first good news. It is.

Yeah. Proto-Evangelium, yeah.

So there it is. And you have to believe that Eve hates Satan for his. For what he's done. For the slimy way he deceived her. Yeah, and so here she sees God saying, I know what happened, I know exactly what happened.

But it's interesting that God involves Eve with the one who would vanquish this evil serpent. It's like the best. Justice ever is going to come from the seed of the woman.

Now, you have to understand that's an extraordinarily weird phrase. Because it is. The seed is always a seed of a man. Right. Because it's like a, I don't know what you call it, it's a male hierarchy of.

I don't know.

Well, I'm not quite sure what you're correct with that, but the idea of a seed being implanted, which then sprouts into something, that's a very male and female idea, right? The man implants a seed that then gives birth. I'm saying family and descendants are always kind of characterized from a male side, from a male side. And here, that descendancy is coming through a female side, which is really unusual. That's what's really get-go.

At the very get-go.

Okay, when you press on. Because it's just to the woman. To the woman.

So they've heard what God said to the snake. To the woman he said, I will surely multiply your pain in child-bearing, and in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.

Okay, so this is like God is saying to Eve. This is what is going to happen because of what has happened here. Yeah. So, this is actually the first mention of pain, isn't it? Right.

And it's associated with childbearing when God had just said there will be seed from the woman, but it's going to be painful. To produce this seed. Childbearing, bringing forth, so that involves not just being pregnant and giving birth, but raising children. Yeah, this is gonna be painful. This word, I had to look it up again, really encompasses the whole idea of heartbreak on a mother's part of raising another generation.

The labor and the toil and the heartbreak. Yeah, and I think a lot of that heartbreak is in the fact that you have great hopes for your children when they're born. And then what if they turn the wrong direction? You know, the heartbreak that comes from trying to raise a child that's good and then determined to go another way. Yeah, so it's the entire basket of not only pain in actual childbirth, but the pain and the heartbreak of mothering the seed, of bringing about the next generation.

But isn't it extraordinary that God doesn't remove from them the ability to procreate? Isn't that amazing? Right? He says to Eve, there will be children. You would think.

It's going to be painful, but there will be, there is a future. There is a future. In fact, the future is that seed, too. Yes. But yeah, wouldn't it be interesting?

I would expect God to come in and say, that's it. We're not having you guys reproduce because you guys are losers. He doesn't do that. He's actually saying, this is a fallen mankind, and I'm going to allow you to continue to propagate it, which is fascinating because it's aiming toward the seed that will crush the serpent. Because I have a plan.

There's a plan in place here, but you're going to have to undergo that heartbreak. But look what else he tells her because this is not good news. Right, it says, Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.

Okay, so that word desire, this particular word, is only shows up three places in the scripture. It's rare, yeah. And one of them is in the Song of Solomon, so it has this idea of this yearning, this stretching out after, this wanting to possess in a romantic way. But the other two uses, one of them is right here in judgment, and the other one is in the next chapter when he says of Cain, sin is crouching at the door, and its desire is for you, right? It is this overwhelming desire to control, to manipulate, to seize.

To seize is a good idea. Seize hold of you. It's like to run after and seize. It actually comes etymologically from a word in Hebrew about legs. Yeah.

The pursuit, the grab, the going after. Yeah, but then it says of your husband, he shall rule over you. Right. He shall have authority over you. You will be required.

to submit. And I might point out, this is not that he will lead you. This is he will rule you. This is a dominated. Yeah, domination is what we're talking here.

So her desire is going to be to go after him, but he is going to respond by domination.

So don't we see this still, even in modern relationships, that women very often are prone to manipulation and a seizing and a chasing after one control, and men very often become brutal in their control and the women in their lives. Huh, it all started here. Yeah. And God didn't make this happen. He's just telling them: this is the way it's going to be.

This is what you let in the door. Yeah. Yep. Which, yeah, and if you go back to what we already read about in Genesis 2, you know, God made her to be to fit him and to be a helper in that sense, to fit him, but he was clearly left in the leadership role. And so that's why I like to contrast this.

He's going to be domineering rather than just a leader. It's kind of a perversion of leadership in a really bad way. Because Adam's assignment was to cultivate and to keep the garden and the creatures within it. But he failed to do that. In Eve's case, he did not.

keep her when she was deceived. And then she was made, she was made in a sense to complete him in his humanity. She was made for him and.

Well, and her instinct here is still the same thing, but even from her side, I won't say it's domineering, but it is definitely controlling. It's manipulative for the purpose of control. Right. So it's taking those two good aspects of the way we're designed, which we're meant to do good, and completely perverts it from both sides. Yeah.

And goes over the top with it.

So God's good design has just been twisted. It's been perverted. It's been pulled inside out. Yep. Yep.

Yep. Okay.

What does he say to Adam? You want to read that? Verse 17.

So to Adam, he said, Because you have listened. By the way, I might point out, see, he starts off with because of what you've done. The snake, he says, because of what you've done. When he started off with Eve in 16, he doesn't say because of what you've done. He just said, Here's what's going to happen.

Here's what's going to happen.

So it's interesting. It's a subtle hint toward the fact that it's Adam's sin that's going to do mankind. Because you've 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.

Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. And by 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. Uh Yeah. Again, that's back to that humiliation.

Right. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, it's fascinating because you listen to the voice of your wife.

Well, implying instead of my voice, instead of God's voice, right? Because he says that: you've eaten the tree which I commanded, you shall not eat it. But you listen to Eve instead, right? Right. Right.

He should have put the brakes on. Yeah. Yeah. And that's exactly the right. That's the best way to read this.

He's not so much blaming his wife, but God is saying, I'm not blaming Eve. I'm blaming the fact that you would not obey me. You put her voice over you. He's also not saying to Adam, don't listen to your wife. No, no, no.

And he's not saying to men in general, don't listen to women, because sometimes that's where this idea they think that comes from here.

However, I've told people that if your husband or your wife tell you to do something that's against God, you need to stay listening to God. That's right. Each one of us listening to God. Yeah. So Adam's principal task is going to be to raise food, and God's going to say, Well, guess what?

What was going to be an easy thing to do in the garden, it's not going to be easy anymore. I'm going to curse the ground. The ground is not going to be as responsive as you think Eden is. It's actually going to be opposed to you. It'll be opposed to you.

So, you're going to struggle and fight it, and it's going to cause you pain just to be able to eat for the rest of your life. It's going to be hard work. There will be active opposition. Thistles will come forth. They'll take the fruitfulness of the soil and waste it on something you can't use.

And you'll eat the plants of the field. And this all at the sweat of your face.

So now we have pain and sweat. Pain for the wife, sweat for the man. Obstacles and hard, hard work. Everything is painful and hard now.

So what a contrast. In the Garden of Eden, there were all these trees where the fruit was good for food. It was good for freebies. All you had to do was stick out your hand and pick it.

Now, no more freebies.

Now the sweat of your brow. And the ground is going to fight you. As opposed to Eden, where the ground was not fighting you, it was feeding you. Yeah, yeah. Okay, but here's the gracious thing.

In the middle of this cursing of the ground, God says, the ground is destined and it cannot resist now. The ground is subject to death. Uh but in spite of their sin They will still be able to be fruitful and bear children. And they will still be able to eat. It's just going to be harder.

And more painful now. Right, right. And that's the sad thing that we lose coming out of the garden.

So sad. Yeah, and in the end, what'll be the end of it? Dust. You know, in a way, that's implying death. At the end, there will be death.

Yeah, we'll just be unmade, right? Back to the stuff we were made of, the chemical stuff in the dust.

So any expectations in Eden for that state to be eternal and to go on, now your lifetimes will come to an end. They'll come to an end and death will enter the scene. But that's not such a bad thing as we move on. You'll see the fact that because of the fact that death comes, it's not only a sad end to things, but it's also a release in an amazing kind of way.

So we'll see that in just a second. But that's what God says. That's your life now. That's very non-Eden-like. Your life now.

So that's what things are going to be like. Yep. Yep. And then there's this kind of like, it feels like a pause or a page turn in the narrative because all of a sudden now we're the picture has changed. God's not talking anymore, but he's still acting.

And verse 20: the man called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. How extraordinarily beautiful statement to give hope. Yeah. Right? That Eve, in spite of everything has been promised, there will be children.

And Adam recognizes that by naming her Hava, right? The name that means life. Means life, yeah. She will be a lifegiver.

So her name has changed before she was meant out of man. Right. And now she means life, you know, which really does give a great hope for the future of mankind. But because of the eventual seed, From those descendants. Right.

So there's great hope here. But now she's called life because, well, she'll be the mother of all living things. Even though life is going to be painful. And people will die. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay, and here's God then getting very active now for their benefit. And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins and clothed them. I thought they had fig leaves.

Well, how effective is a fig leaf against thorns and thistles? Not very. But this is accomplishing the same thing, but with greater meaning. There's something very powerful shown here. God doing something for them they could not do for themselves.

God's the one who was dealing with the shame of their sins. Yes. You've got to realize this is God taking the initiative. This isn't them themselves covering their sin. This is God saying, I have a solution to cover your sin.

God is clothing them. Yeah. And at the cost of the lives of animals. There's a great theology. The text doesn't actually say that, but when you, this is one of those questions that comes up, you're like, well, where did the skins come from?

Well, something had to die.

Something had to die. Or something died anyway because it was subject to death. And God used the skin to clothe.

So they are already receiving their covering from the death of another living thing. Yep. So here we have again another glimpse of that proto-evangelium. The first good news is the fact that the consequences of their sin. God takes the initiative.

God takes the initiative. to do something about covering the shame and the consequences of that sin. And he does so by the taking of the life of another. The the that that life, the life of another, is required in order to accomplish that covering. Phew.

Huge theology in this. It's just this teeny weeny little seed of the picture that's going to go on being expanded and more and more focused as the scripture unfolds. And throughout the life of early Israel, you know, they do sacrifices. They come to the altar at the temple there and to admit and confess of their sin. And something has to die.

At almost every sin, something has to die.

So, this idea right here that we're seeing right here is reinforced on a daily basis in the life of Israel. Is that sin brings death? and the death of another can bring you life. Whoa, yeah, okay. It's interesting, though, that lest you think that we move right into Israel, this is hundreds of years before Israel ever comes into being.

But this core idea of the essential nature of a covering for our sin is implanted. And you know, if you go in the core of the life of Israel historically, they could look back at this and read this from Moses and say, I get totally what that means. Totally interesting. Because I just went down to the temple this morning and sacrificed a goat for this stupid thing that I did. They'll get this to cover and to cover the problem of the shame, the exposure of our sin.

Oh. Yeah. We need to finish this 22. I'll do this.

So then the Lord God said: Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.

now lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore, the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the Garden of Eden, he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. Oh, oh, is that a big picture? There's so much.

Such an important picture. There's so much here, too. We're not going to even have a piece of time to look at it. But the interesting thing is that he does know good and evil, which is actually a sadness in this particular case. But the deal is, if he grabs from the tree of life, it'll make that state eternal.

That's right. Eternal, which means man will then be will then be doomed to never being able to be brought out of this possession, no redemption at all.

So he casts them out of the garden and sets a cherubim. That's a very powerful angel to guard the way to that tree.

Okay, that's an angel that's specifically charged with guarding the holiness of God, right? We have cherubim at the entrance of the ark, the holy of holies, guarding access. You can't come in here, right? Right, right, right. And many people misinterpret this.

They think this means the cherubim is keeping everyone out.

However, we do have access to the tree of life through Jesus, who said, I am the way. I am the way.

So this cherubim basically. Is basically saying the only people who are going to be able to take the fruit of the tree of life are those who are qualified through Christ. Who is the living word of God? Yeah. Right?

We have to listen to, receive, and absorb the word of salvation through Christ. Right. In order to have access. To the tree of life.

So there is a way back to the tree of life in terms of this immortal, eternal stance of life with God. There is a way back. And it's not a coincidence that in Revelation 22, We see the tree of life come back. And through the middle of the street of the city, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. And the leaves of that tree were for the healing of the nations.

So, indeed, this cherubim is set to make sure that the eternal state of mankind will only happen when mankind has found redemption from his sins, and that is only through Christ.

Okay, but don't overlook the flaming sword because that is the word of God. Yeah, the only way to go.

So that's where you're going to be able to get back. Into this presence of God is by believing and obeying his word. Right. Coming back to the tree of life, the proper way, the correct way, the informed way. And that informed way is the belief in the word itself, Jesus.

Oh, my goodness. Boy, did we gloss over that or what? Oh, well, I wanted to preach on that for half an hour. We'll have to come back. I have so much to say about that.

So, this entire second half of chapter three has lots of pieces of hopefulness to it. And we hope you saw those. And we're going to come back next time and see what unfolds after this as well. But there's a plan, and this did not surprise God.

So we'll see you here next time on More Than Week. There are many more episodes of this broadcast to be found at our website, morethanink.org. And while you are there, take a moment to drop us a note.

So, what did you think about that? That's kind of fast, huh? It's too fast, too fast, too fast. There's a lot of depth in these passages in Genesis, and that's intentional as well.

So, if you're scared off by it, just go back and read it again. It's fascinating just to dwell on it and ask God: what was that? What was that? Yeah, we'll see you next time here. Bye.

Bye. This has been a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City.