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.”To the woman he said,
“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be contrary to your husband,
but he shall rule over you.”And to Adam he said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
Genesis 3:14-19
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.
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.”
The Mexican Petunia (pictured above) is so deeply rooted that you can’t ever really get it out. It’s an attractive, but invasive weed. This is exactly how sin is in our lives. Sin is deeply rooted, often starts small, and then grows to unwieldy proportions before you know it.
Adam and Eve didn’t really understand what they planted when they ate of the fruit – not even when their eyes were opened – but they would.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
Genesis 3:15
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
There will be enmity, conflict, warfare, pain, and struggle.
To the woman he said,
“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
Genesis 3:16
in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be contrary to your husband,
but he shall rule over you.”
The woman’s contrary desire is a desire to take on the husband’s role as head of the household. This is introducing conflict into the most intimate relationship… conflict in all relationships.
And to Adam he said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
Genesis 3:17
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;
The Fall introduces conflict with nature itself.
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Romans 7:18-25
Evil is close at hand. We wage war with ourselves. We are captive to the law of sin. Death is coming.
that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:16-19
This fallen, conflicted, sinful state is where we are until we reach paradise. The roots are still there, but Jesus keeps the wild Mexican Petunia trimmed and changes the very soil – we are rooted and grounded in Jesus’ love.