GOD PROMISED THE SEED OF REDEMPTION

Genesis 3:1-24
Key Verse 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 heal.

In Genesis 3 we study the first great turning point in human history--the fall of man. Man's sin transformed God's good and beautiful and happy world into a cursed world, groaning in travail, waiting for its redemption. Instead of living as rulers and stewards of God's world, men became servants of the devil. But God mad a plan to save fallen men.

Read verses 1 through 5.  How was the serpent described? (1, Rev 12:7-9, Jn 8:44)) Whom did he tempt first? How did he twist the meaning of God’s word? (2:16,17  3:1) How did the woman answer him?(2,3)  What did the serpent say to her? (4,5) In what respect did he lie?

v1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, `You must not eat from any tree in the garden?" v2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, v3 but God did say, `You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'" v4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. v5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

More crafty than any of the wild animals:  

7 Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.(Revelation 12:7-9)

44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! (John 8:44)

a) There are two main ideas about Genesis 3, about the serpent. One is that Satan disguised himself to be an animal, the serpent, and talked to the woman. The other idea is that Satan hypnotized the serpent and talked to the woman. But in these two cases, the animal – the serpent is innocent. But when we check out Genesis 3:14,15, there God punishes the serpent, the animal, showing that this physical animal was actively involved in this crime.

b) The only clue the Bible offers is verse 1 - “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.” The crafty character was the direct cause that had made the serpent an instrument of Satan. With his crafty character, the serpent tried to figure out the reason why God put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and why God asked the humans not to eat it, and came to a conclusion that God was hiding something from them. The serpent mindset was manipulated, and began to work to fulfill Satan’s desire.

The woman- Satan knew how to achieve his goal and the weakness of the woman.

Satan tempted the woman to take off the forbidden fruit.

What was the goal of Satan's attack?  It was for man to break God's commandment and break the spiritual order between God and man.  To break the relationship between God and man is Satan's purpose all the time.  

Satan did this in two ways.

He described God's commandment very negatively.  He said, "Did God really say, `You must not eat from any tree in the garden?"  Even though Satan quoted the commandment, it was totally different from God's commandment.  First of all, God gave her the perfect freedom to do anything they wanted.  But the serpent described as God made them not to eat any fruit in the garden.

Satan planted doubt of God's love in her heart.  Satan described God a selfish being who wanted to enjoy good things by himself all the time.

Satan planted pride in the heart of the woman to be like God.  After then the serpent said to her, "You will be like God."  This desire to be like God is actually Satan's desire.  Satan planted his desire in her.  

Woman’s answer - There were four differences between 2:16,17 and woman's saying.

You are free ----- We may

The woman omitted the unlimited freedom from God's word.  Then, God's command became nothing but a chain.  She said that God allowed them to do something.  Here, we can know that she didn't thank God for His blessing.

Tree of the knowledge of good and evil ------ the tree that is in the middle of the garden

She intended to dilute God's command from concrete object to vague object.   She didn't want to talk about it specifically.

You must not eat ------ You must not touch it

She emphasized the negative side.

You will surely die----Or you will die

She omitted the absoluteness from God's command.  God gave her the unlimited freedom and made her keep the command voluntarily. So when absoluteness was taken away from God's command, it became nothing but a suggestion.    

Verses 4,5.

You will not surely die.

When Satan came to talk with her first, he seemed to be using the word of God.  But now he exposes his true identity.  He tells the opposite of the word of God.

He now tells a lie with confidence.  When he lies, he uses his native language.

"For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Now he describes God as a selfish ruler who wants to enjoy good things all by himself.  Satan is a liar and deceiver.

When she showed some room for Satan to attack in this way, Satan did not miss the chance and forced her to make decision to carry out her desire.

Read verses 6 and 7.  When she was tempted, how did the forbidden fruit look? (6) Who did she give the fruit after eating it first?  What was the immediate result of their eating the fruit?(7)

v6 When the woman saw that fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.  She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. v7 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.

The forbidden fruit looked so beautiful, attractive and desirable.  So she took it and ate it.  
-Her act was an act of obedience to Satan and an act of disobedience to God. She moved from the kingdom of God to the kingdom of this world, the kingdom of Satan. Guilt longs for company, so she gave some of the forbidden fruit to Adam;

Man's transgression:  He heard his wife's voice instead of hearing God's voice.
he ate and joined her in the kingdom of Satan. 
Their innocence was gone. They tried to cover themselves to hide from each other. They tried to hide from God. The beautiful relationships with God and with one another were broken. 
Fear, guilt and broken relationships are the gifts of Satan. Lost innocence can never be recovered.

After committing sin, many things happened in their hearts and life.

Their eyes were opened.  But they did not become like God as Satan promised.

Shame arose in their hearts toward each other.  The sense of shame is the result of man's sin.

The relationship between God and man was broken.  Before transgression, meeting God was beautiful time.  But now it became very burdensome.  They were running away from God.

Their own relationship was broken.  Before they loved each other.  But now they blamed each other.

The Garden of Eden was the Garden of Delight no more, but a hiding place.  This is a tragic story.

They lost everything mentally, physically and spiritually.  They lost their purity, integrity, mission and strength.

To overcome Satan's temptation, there is no other way except obeying the word of God absolutely.  Jesus said, "Anyone who follow me will not walk in darkness, but will have  the light of life." Those who believe and obey the word of God are really strong.

Read verses 8-13. When they heard God coming, what did they do?(8) How and why did God call?( 9)What was Adam's answer?(10)How did God confront Adam with his sin?(11) What excuses did they make? (12-13)

v8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord of 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. v9 But the Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?" v10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and  I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." v11 And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" v12 The man said, "The woman you put here with me-she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." v13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

They hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 
They couldn’t stand before God because of sense of guilt. Their relationship with God got broken.

"Where are you?"

God was not asking where they were hiding because he could not find them.  Rather, God was asking see what they became.

Where should Adam be?  He should be at the mission field working hard for God's kingdom purpose.  But now where was Adam?  He was hiding himself among the trees fearful and shameful.  He should be a ruler, and God's missionary, glorious, powerful and beautiful.  But because of his sin, he became a fearful fugitive running away from God.  God wanted him to see his lost existence.

He lost his existence as a human being who had the image of God.  Sin changed his whole personality.  God wanted him to realize this tragedy and repent.

"Where are you?"  This is the voice of the good shepherd who is looking for the lost earnestly.  Even though Adam sinned, God's love did not change.  Rather, God's love shone more brightly when he sinned.

So many people are hiding themselves behind money, behind success, behind their mask smile.  Their souls are groaning and crying out for help.  They must listen to God's voice, "Where are you?", and come back to God.

They blamed each other.  Man blamed his wife and God who put the woman in the Garden.  The woman blamed Satan.  No one tried to take responsibility of what he or she had done.

Read verses 14 and 15.  Describe the curses that fell on the serpent (14,15).  How does God's promise in 3:15 give hope to mankind?

v14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. v15 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."

Now God punished their sin one by one as the Judge.

God's curse upon the serpent has two parts.

To the serpent, which was just animal: it crawls on it's belly and eat dust. (14)

To Satan who worked to the woman through the serpent:  His head would be crushed by the offspring of the woman.  

"Head being crushed" means death.  

God's curse upon Satan is that someday one man from the descendants of woman would come out and destroy him.

Once man did not receive the rule from God, he was to be ruled by Satan.  Satan is the cruel dictator.    

Anyone who commits sin becomes fearful and shameful.  Death brings us deep sorrow and meaninglessness of life.  Death is the source of fear and sorrow.  

These are all the weapons of Satan, which sting us.  We end up sinning continually due to our sinful nature and weakness.  Then, Satan accuses and condemns us so sharply.  "You are an ugly sinner." "You are a wicked man." "You are hypocrite.  Look at your dirty sin."  In this way, due to Adam's transgression, all his descendants became slaves to the power of sin and became hopeless and helpless under the cruel rule of Satan.  

But in verse 15, God curses Satan with a prophecy that one day, a man would come out from the descendants of woman and destroy him. This is the good news for all mankind who suffer from the cruel rule of Satan.  God promised mankind the deliverance from Satan's cruel rule.

Bible scholars call Genesis 1:15 "the pre-gospel."  Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of this promise of God.

"You will strike his heel" shows us the suffering of the Christ in fulfilling God's promise to destroy the power of sin and death on the cross.

In God's right time Jesus, the seed of the woman, would come to crush the head of Satan. 
He would be painfully wounded by Satan, but he would win the victory. This is good news. Satan will be defeated; he will not always rule the world. 
This is the promise of God that plants hope in men's hearts. This promise is fulfilled in Jesus' death and resurrection. (Heb 2:14,15; Ro 16:20)

Read verse 16-19.  How did God punish the woman?(16) How is her punishment related to her blessing? (1:28) Why is the desire for husband a curse?  How did God punish Adam?(17-19)

V16  I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.

Also this curse has two parts.

a) The external pain of woman in child-bearing and delivery of the baby.  Their body is cursed. Since this curse fell on women's body, they will be set free when they receive the resurrection body – they are waiting for the redemption of their body.  

b) Their desire is for husband.  Originally, the woman’s desire was for God and for God’s mission, but not any longer; they come to develop the longings, thirst for their husband’s love. This desire for husband is one single thing that controls their entire life.

Women have a desire for their husband. All women want to meet their prince charming who rides a white horse.  And women want to love them sincerely.  This is the most important matter for woman. So women invest their everything including zeal, time, money, and heart to their prince.  

Because man rules over her instead of showing the same love to her.  Because of this, there is great inner thirsty and pain.

Unlike women’s desire for husband, man's utmost desire is security or success.  Instead of loving her as she loved him, he wants to rule over her.  

So even though women want to receive the full love from their husbands, their husbands never give the full heart to their wife.  Just man wants to possess and enjoy woman.  So their desire for husband cannot be satisfied.  The greater their desire is, the thirstier they become.  The harder they struggle, the thirstier they become.  This is a great pain, the pain of their soul.  They have a never-quenching thirst.  This is God's curse upon women.  Samaritan woman in John 4.

Today, the fact that all women have desire for husband tells us that all of them are under God's curse.  

This thirst is spiritual thirst. Only Jesus can satisfy their thirst.  Once their thirst is quenched through the living water of Jesus, they can be set free from this cursed desire.

John 4 – whoever drinks this water will be thirsty again, but he who drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him springs of water welling up to eternal life.

Once they believe in Christ Jesus, they must not live this cursed life any more.  Their life in Christ must not be controlled by this cursed desire for husband. Instead of trying to quench their thirst with a husband’s love, they must pursue Jesus Christ and find satisfaction in him.

The specific punishment given the woman was directed toward the special blessing God had given her. God had blessed mankind and told them to be fruitful and increase in number. But in a world under curse, childbearing became the woman's cross of pain. 
Joyful friendship with her husband, and the joy of sharing with him in doing God's work was replaced with selfish desire for him. The order of love in the family was replaced by man's tyrannical rule over woman, rule enforced by her fear and desire. 
This curse can only be removed by Jesus. He came to set mankind free from the curse. He died so that we might be set free from slavery to sinful desires and the guilt of sin. He came to restore our relationship with God and to make it possible for men and women to have a healthy and right relationship with one another. He came to restore love and friendship in the home.

v17 To Adam he said," Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, `you must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. v18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you and you will eat the plants of the field. v19 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."

Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, `you must not eat of it.'

Here, God pointed out that man listened to his wife instead of Him.  This was man's sin.  He probably did not want to break his wife's heart.  Then, he had to break God's heart.  In this situation, he chose to stand on his wife's side.  He valued his wife more than God.  Through this he made God very sorry with him.  

Also this curse has two parts.

a) Since the ground produced food for him no more by itself, he had to work hard to fill his hungry stomach.  Because the ground produced thorns and thistles every year instead of abundant crop, he had to work hard every year. Man lost God's mission and had to live for survival in the world (17,18).

1) Man's most urgent matter becomes how to secure the next meal and his biggest desire is to have a security for his future.  Thus man fell to be a bread seeker from God's missionary.  

"How can I support my family?" "How can I buy a car and house?" "If I lose my job, what will happen to my family?" There is so great pain that men cannot help but be bound to this security problem.  So in order to get a clear security for himself and his family, men study and work hard throughout their life span.  To work hard in order not to die for starvation is God's curse to man.

Man's problem is a security or career problem, on the contrary woman's problem is husband problem.

2) Once we believe in Christ Jesus, we can be set free from this cursed desire by seeking his kingdom purpose first by faith. Matthew 6. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

3) God's mission must be given to us when we believe in Jesus so that we may not live as cursed begins any more, but as the blessed missionaries of God. This is why Romans 1:5 says that we received grace and apostleship all at the same time. This is the reason why we must help all people to become Jesus' disciples.

b) Adam received a death sentence as a representative of all human beings. Verse 19 describes the misery of man's life most vividly.  There cannot be real hope, or real vision in man's life.  "Meaningless, meaningless, meaningless!  Everything is meaningless!  Utterly meaningless."

1) Because of the first man Adam's sin, mankind is disconnected from God, the source of life.  Man is like a cut flower in a vase. Since God cursed the ground, man's body is perishing already and will go back to the ground.

2) We can be set free from this curse when we receive the resurrection body.

Jesus is the Christ who restores everything prior to Adam's transgression.  In Jesus Christ we find ultimate hope to escape from this cursed life and have the blessed life as God's missionaries enjoying eternal life.  

Man's punishment was also directed toward his blessing. Man was created to be the steward of God's world. He had tilled the ground to fulfill his mission and serve God, and he had named the animals to joyfully co-work with God. His work was joyful and full of meaning. But now, because of his sin, the ground and all creation were under curse.

He lost his mission; he must work, not for God but for his own survival. Work became toil; the final enemy, death, awaited them both. Only Jesus can remove the curse and restore man's mission. He died and rose to give life and meaning and mission back to mankind.

Adam and Eve’s one act of disobedience seems very small, but it was an act of rebellion against God. Because mankind joined the rebellion of Satan, God put the world under curse. The writer of Romans says that God subjected creation to frustration (or futility) in hope that it would be liberated some day. (8:20-21) So we are living in a world under curse.

Read verses 20-24. What did Adam do for his wife?(20) What did God do for Adam and his wife (21)? Why did God drive them from the Garden? (22-24)

v22 And the Lord God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil.  He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." v23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. v24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.          

God still loves fallen man. He covered their shame and guilt with durable clothes made from animal skins. Animals were killed for the sake of man.
In verse 22, God said "man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil." This was not a blessing, as the Temptor had suggested; it was a curse, because the knowledge of good and evil came through doing evil, and brought tragic consequences, which the Temptor had not bothered to mention. The knowledge of good and evil can also come through resisting evil and doing what is good. This takes a little longer, but this knowledge builds man's character.
God expelled them from the garden. To allow mankind to eat of the fruit of life and live forever in his sinful state would be to sentence them to hell immediately.
Although God expelled them from the garden, he did not destroy the tree of life. The tree of life is still there, waiting for redeemed mankind to come and eat.
The consequences of sin is death. Man cut off from God by sin is like a cut flower. He is already dead. He is dead spiritually. (Eph 2:1) Only physical death and hell waits for him. So man's life becomes a pilgrimage back to the tree of life. He can eat the fruit from the tree of life when his sins are washed in the blood of Jesus (Rev 22:14)
The tree of life is in heaven--in the New Jerusalem. Although we live in a cursed world, by God's grace we can live with a glorious hope. God's unchanging love and his wonderful promises give us hope.