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.”
The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
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 from 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.
Genesis 3:15, 20-24
We are longing for home… rest. In this world, our homes are fragile – can be destroyed. Sometimes our home doesn’t feel like home.
Genesis 3 says we are in exile. This is not our home. Our longing is not satisfied here – there’s a promise… home is waiting in heaven because Jesus won the battle against sin, death, and the devil.
There is hope.
And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
Genesis 3:21
God reminds us of His promises when he clothed Adam and Eve. God bans them from the garden to ensure they weren’t stuck in the damaged world forever.
Exile was judgment and mercy.
God and Jesus are bringing us home.
Havens of Healing
While we are here, offer a temporary home – places of rest, renewal, and healing – through grace to our neighbors and those in need.
“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 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.”
Genesis 3:14-19
The Mexican Petunia 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, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
Genesis 3:15
There will be enmity, conflict, warfare, pain, and struggle.
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.”
Genesis 3:16
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 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;
Genesis 3:17
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.
How you see the world is heavily influenced by what you consume.
We are all being molded & formed by what we consume.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Genesis 3:1-13
If you consume, then your eyes will be opened.
Their eyes were opened. Their life was now marked by sadness & shame – not grand and wonderful things or maximum fulfillment. They weren’t liberated, free, or even like God. Instead, they found themselves in a prison of shame, enslaved by sin. They couldn’t get out. So, they hid, avoided responsibility, and blamed others.
Instead of power, they received powerlessness.
Instead of having their eyes opened, they became blind.
God refuses to abandon them in their blindness. God makes it – all things! – right again. ==> JESUS!
The power of Christ who awakens true faith is more powerful than any physical ailment like blindness. Jesus opens our eyes not to shame but to salvation.
