Well, you can turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3, we're going to consider the promise of the Messiah, the first promise, what men have called the proto or first evangel, the promise of God's blessing in and through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's specifically in verse 15. We'll look at the latter half in its entirety, but I do want to read beginning in chapter 3 at verse 1, just so we get the flow of the narrative.
So beginning in Genesis 3 at verse 1. Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Has God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.
Then the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die, for God knows that in the day 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, that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, where are you? So he said, I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. And he said, Who told you that you were naked?
Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat? Then the man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate. And the Lord God said to the woman, What is this you have done? The woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate.
So the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle and more than every beast of the field. On your belly you shall go and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.
To the woman he said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. In pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you. Then to Adam he said, because you have heeded the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, you shall not eat of it, curse it as the ground for your sake.
In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground. For out of it you were taken, for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.' And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
Also for Adam and his wife, the Lord God made tunics of skin and clothed them. Then the Lord God said, behold, the man has become like one of us to know good and evil. And now, lest he put 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 till the ground from which he was taken.
So he drove out the man and he placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden and a flaming sword, which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. Amen. Well, let us pray.
Opening Prayer
Our gracious God and Holy Father, we thank you for the scriptures of both the Old and the New Testaments. We see the relationship, the Old Testament promises, the coming of the Messiah, and we see that revelation in the New Covenant, and the fullness of the time God sent forth His Son, born of a woman and born under the law, to redeem those under the law. We see all those New Covenant promises of God, or all those Old Covenant promises of God are are yea and amen in our Lord Jesus Christ, even down to Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15. We thank you that you've undertaken to save us from our sins.
We thank you that the way that it happened was in a most glorious way. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. May this encourage us, and may it build us up, and may it be the case today that sinners would hear of Christ, who's altogether lovely and chief among ten thousand, and by grace they would believe on him and have everlasting life. Do forgive us now, guide us by your Holy Spirit, and we pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Introduction
Well, as I said, our focus will be on verses 14 to 24, but prior to that, you know the account, you've probably heard it on many occasions, both preached and you've read it, you've read it privately, you've read it hopefully in family worship, and there are wonderful things in the latter half. And the wonderful things speak to the issues concerning the former half. So essentially what you have in verses one to five, you have the temptation to sin. You have the devil under the power of the devil himself, or the serpent rather, under the power of the devil himself, come and tempt Eve.
Eve obviously takes the fruit. She hands it to Adam and thus in Adam all die. After that, you see the fall into sin in verses 6 to 7, and then the reckoning with God in verses 8 to 13. When God asks questions, it's not as if He's on a search for knowledge.
God is, as it were, putting them on the hot seat. It is the case that He wants to interrogate them and wants to show the fact that they have rebelled against Him, they have sinned against Him, and there must indeed be a reckoning. Well, it's a reckoning that they themselves cannot fix. It is a problem that they themselves cannot repair.
It is a situation of enmity now. At one time, they communed with God in the cool of the garden. And now they're running from God. They are fearful.
They are afraid. They don't want to face Him. They don't want to face the consequences of their rebellion. So if the narrative stopped there, it would be all bad news.
Man sinned against God. We in Adam died. And as a result, there's no hope for any of us. But see, God is able, God undertakes, God initiates, and God puts into place this plan of redemption.
And it focuses upon that seed of Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15, which the later redemptive history will underscore for us is our Lord Jesus Christ. So that's the main emphasis that I want to draw out this morning. But as we consider the remainder of the passage, verses 14 to 24, we'll do so under two concerns.
Consequences of the Fall
First, the consequences of the fall in verses 14 to 19, and then secondly, the hope beyond the fall in verses 20 to 24. I will argue that Adam and Eve, though they sinned against God and rebelled against God, they were saved by God. We see that specifically in the latter part of this particular chapter. But let's pick up first with the consequences of the fall.
And there's consequences for the serpent, there's consequences for the woman, and there's consequences for the man.
Curse on the Serpent
So first of all, notice the consequences for the serpent in verses 14 and 15. So the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle and more than every beast of the field. On your belly you shall go and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. Again, there is a lack of interrogation now.
He's not asking questions. He's not investigating. He's not wanting Adam and Eve to come clean. He is now condemning.
He is now cursing. But in the goodness and in the wisdom and in the glory of God, in the midst of the curse, there is promise of blessing. In the midst of this condemnation, there is the promise of redemption. But in terms of the particular snake or the serpent that is utilized with reference to this, notice the curse specifically.
You are cursed more than all cattle. And then the nature of that curse is drawn out there in verse 14. And more than every beast of the field, on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. Some suggest that prior to this, serpents or snakes may have had legs.
And it's in this instance that God takes their legs away. I don't think that's what's happening. I'll quote a man by the name of Michael Reitlnick. He says, when God proclaimed that the serpent would crawl on its belly, it does not mean that serpents previously had legs.
Rather, and this is very important to get, crawling would now forever be understood as a sign of defeat. In other words, it's the lowliest one. It's the most hated one. It's the most despised one.
Now, I know there are odd people out there that like to keep snakes as pets, but you need to remember, in light of Genesis 3, 14, that might not necessarily be the best idea. Just kidding. You can keep your snakes. But God's point is simply this.
When He comes to bring judgment upon this vessel, this vehicle that brought the temptation, it is a total devastation. The later prophets pick up on this language. For instance, in Micah chapter 7, at verse 16, it says, "...the nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might. They shall put their hand over their mouth, Their ears shall be deaf.
They shall lick the dust like a serpent. They shall crawl from their holes like snakes of the earth. They shall be afraid of the Lord our God and shall fear because of you. Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?
He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in mercy. That God who delights in mercy nevertheless doles out consequences for sin, rebellion, and transgression. But then notice as we move on,
The Proto-Evangel: Verse 15
he goes to the power behind the serpent. It's not just the snake. It's not just the serpent. That's not ultimately the issue.
It's the devil that animates the serpent. It's the devil that utilizes the snake to engage in this temptation. So he addresses the devil specifically here in verse 15. This is something common.
You see this in the New Testament, specifically in the book of Revelation. We often talk about the beasts of Revelation in Revelation chapter 13. There's a beast from the sea and a beast from the land. Well, we need to understand that it's not this political or religious power that has authority in and of themselves.
It's the dragon who's spoken of in Revelation chapter 12. And there in Revelation chapter 12, what the apostle is highlighting is that when Herod wanted to destroy the innocents, When Athaliah wanted to destroy the heir to the throne, when the devil himself wanted to stop the ascension of our blessed Savior to the right hand of God Most High, it was the devil. It was that dragon. It was that serpent of old.
And so now we see God's word to the devil, and in this is the proto-evangel. In this is the first announcement of the gospel. So the Lord's curse moves from the serpent to the evil power that animated it. That's what verse 15 indicates.
Notice what it says, and I will put enmity between you and the woman. There's going to be a God-wrought enmity between the righteous and the wicked. That's essentially what that means. You look around at the world today and you can see that.
It's pretty clear, pretty marked, it's pretty obvious there's righteous people and there's unrighteous people. Now, the righteous people aren't righteous in and of themselves. It's because God, in His grace, has imputed to us the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which we receive by faith alone. And on the heels of that, we seek or pursue to do those things that are pleasing to God.
Those who do not have that righteousness, those who are still dead in their trespasses and sins, live like that. They engage in wretchedness, they engage in lawlessness and transgression and iniquity. So God understands, God imposed this particular enmity that obtains between the righteous and the wicked. Notice that this is going to continue.
I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. It's going to run parallel. It's always going to be the righteous and the wicked on this side of the Day of Judgment. Now, that's the beauty of the eternal state.
When God ushers in that eternal state, when we're in the presence of the Lamb, there'll be no more unrighteousness. You see that in Revelation 21, verse 8. All the godless, all the wicked, all the lawless and rebel sinners are cast out into the lake of fire with the beast and the false prophet. But until that time, brethren, we're not going to see paradise on earth.
Until that time, we're not going to have a utopia. Until that time, we still preach the gospel, we have great optimism in the effect of the gospel, we believe that Jesus Christ is building a wheat field, and that there are terrors present to be sure, but there will be terrors to the very end. So we're not gonna be able to see some sort of a glorified state on this side of heaven. There's going to be this enmity.
There's going to be these two camps. There's gonna be the seed of the woman and there's gonna be these wretches that despise the seed and they despise the people of God. And that brings us to consider the corporate identification of the seed and then the individual identification. Notice again, verse 15, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed.
Now, seed typically has two meanings. One, collective. There's a whole bunch of people under that identification of seed. But in scripture as well, we have a singular or a particular application.
Now, in terms of the collective, you'll see right on the heels of this event in Genesis chapter 4, this take place. In Genesis chapter 4, what do you have? You have a clear demarcation between Cain and Abel. As you go further in the narrative, you have the godly line of Seth and the wretched line of the Cainites.
You go throughout redemptive history, and you have the covenant people of God, and then all of the ites on the outside that are not the covenant people of God. You move into the New Covenant, what do you have? You have the Lord Jesus Christ build His church, but you have unbelieving Israel, and you have the Roman Empire trying to exterminate that. So there is the collective element with reference to the seed.
So when it says there's enmity, that enmity affects us, that enmity will be real, that enmity does help us to understand statements like Paul in 2 Timothy 3.12, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Notice what Jesus says in John's Gospel in chapter 15, if the world hates you, just know they hated me first. The servant isn't greater than the master. If they despise the master, they're certainly going to despise the servants.
There is this separation. There is this distinction. It is God-wrought. There's the collective element.
But I think the emphasis here falls upon the seed as an individual, the seed as a particular, the seed of the woman. Notice again in verse 15, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He, the seed, shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. So the individual identification of the seed is made clear by Paul in Galatians 3.
Now, it's again, very important that you kind of keep this mindset as you read subsequent to Genesis chapter 3. Because when you get to say the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, what's God's promise to those men? God's promise is that in your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. In your seed, there will be great benefit to people from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.
Have you ever reflected or pondered on that? Well, who's that seed? It's not Abraham that we owe our salvation to. It's not Isaac.
It's not Jacob. No, it's the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Well, listen to Paul's interpretation of that idea or concept of seed in its individual sense. Galatians 3.16, not to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.
He does not say, and to seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to your seed, who is Christ. So he highlights, or he underscores, or he gives us that reality that it's the seed of Abraham that is the Redeemer.
Four Observations on Genesis 3:15
Now, as we look at this verse, verse 15, there's four observations concerning the seed here that I want to bring out. First, and we'll just call the seed here the Redeemer, because we know this is Jesus. Hopefully we're already tracking at that point.
Redeemer Born of a Woman
First, the Redeemer would be a man born of a woman. Right? Very obvious. I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and notice her seed.
Now, this hints at least, it's not a full engagement of the doctrine of the virgin birth, but the fact that it only mentions the woman helps us to better understand the virgin birth when we arrive in Matthew and Luke's gospel. But with reference to that, the redeemer or deliverer that man was taught to expect would be a man, would be one like himself, would have all of his essential properties, would have all of his common infirmities. And yet without Sid, he would be a man, a champion, the one that would indeed save his people from their sins.
Victory Through Suffering
A second observation is that the Redeemer would accomplish victory through suffering. There's a bit of a comparativeness going on. Notice, and between your seed and her seed, he, the seed, shall bruise your head. That's a death blow, right?
If I were, I'm not gonna say that, take my foot and crush it onto your head, it wouldn't be a sign of love and affection. It wouldn't be a token of my kindness. The fact that we have this foot of the Redeemer crushing the head of the serpent or of the devil indicates that it's a death blow. It indicates that he is delegitimizing him.
It is an evidence that he is crushing him, and that is the particular emphasis. But then notice comparatively, and you, devil, shall bruise his heel. In other words, when he goes about this particular task of crushing the head of the devil, he will receive some sort of a wound, and it will be on his heel. So there is suffering involved in the Proto-Evangel with reference to the man that would be born of a woman.
Victory Through Death
But I would suggest, thirdly, that death is envisaged in this particular passage. So this bruising of the heel not only means that he suffers, he's a man of sorrows and he's acquainted with grief, it not only means he suffers when they flog him or scourge him, or when they bury a crown of thorns into his head, but I think it also involves death. And again, Michael Reitlnick makes the observation, since in the context the tempter has taken the form of a serpent, it is likely that the tempter's blow would be equated with a serpent's bite. Right?
Makes sense. And in the case of this animal, the Hebrew generally uses it to speak of a venomous and lethal snake. Most likely, therefore, the text is speaking of two comparable death blows. The future Redeemer will strike the head of the tempter and thereby kill it.
And at the same time, the tempter will strike the heel of the Redeemer and kill him. So the man born of woman will accomplish total victory through his own suffering and through his own death. You see why people have called this the Proto-Evangel, the first announcement of the gospel, because that's essentially what the gospel is. Christ, the Son of God, comes into this world, takes on our humanity, lives a life of perfect obedience to his Father's law, suffers, dies, is buried, and is raised again the third day.
He does that for us men and for our salvation. And he does that to destroy the works of the devil. And
Total Victory Over the Devil
that brings us to the fourth observation, with reference to this skull-crushing seed of the woman, the Redeemer would accomplish total victory. Absolutely, positively total victory. You can turn to John's Gospel, a passage that we have seen not too long ago. John's Gospel, where he highlights the work relative to the devil and his accomplishment as the seed of the woman in crushing that serpent.
Notice in John 12, specifically at verse 30, this voice did not come because of me, but for your sake, now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. Notice that Jesus connects this to his first coming. He connects it to his death on the cross.
Verse 32, and I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. Turn over to the book of Colossians, Colossians chapter 1, just to see Christ's total victory, His triumph over the devil. And the reason why I bring this out is, one, for the encouragement of the people of God. Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.
Romans 8, if God is for us, who can be against us? Even the devil himself is excluded from the opposition of the believer in that particular statement. But for the unbeliever, we're not going to mince words here, you walk according to the prince of the power of the air who now works in the sons of disobedience. And you may fear, well, I can't ever be vindicated.
I can't ever be saved. I can't ever be redeemed. I can't ever be helped. I'm consigned to live a life of sin and misery and drudgery all the rest of my life.
No, Christ the Lord has crushed the head of the devil. Christ the Lord has dealt definitively with man's sin. Christ the Lord empowers his people to overcome the world. In other words, casting faith upon the Savior means total victory.
Not total victory in the sense that you're gonna get a better job, a better life, better cars, and better houses, but total victory in that what Paul says in Romans 5.1 will be true of you. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. Or Romans 8, chapter 8, verse 1, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So don't think for a moment, well, I just can't, I will not be saved.
He's not powerful enough to defeat the devil in my life. Oh, he's absolutely most positively powerful enough to defeat the devil in your life. Look at Colossians 1 at verse 13. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of his love, in whom we have redemption.
Notice the instrumentality here, through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. See, Christ's life, death, resurrection are absolutely crucial to not only vanquish the devil, but to save us from our sins. Look at Colossians 2 at verse 15. Having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
And then turn over to 1 John. John gives the purpose, or one of the purposes, for which Jesus came into the world. 1 John 3 specifically. Notice in verse 8, he who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil.
Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for his seed remains in him. And he cannot sin because he has been born of God. And then drop down just a couple of verses. I like to think that John, thinking in terms of creation, thinking in terms of Cain and Abel, thinking in terms of the animating power of the devil, says what he says in verse 8 as a result of that.
Notice the appeal to the Genesis narrative. Look at verse 11. So Genesis is in the mind of the apostle. We see it evidently there.
But we also see it evidently in verse 8. Why does the seed of the woman come? So that through his own suffering and through his own death, he might take that foot of glory and crush the head of the devil. And then notice in Hebrews chapter 2, one more passage.
Hebrews chapter 2, I usually like to go in canonical order, or at least the chronological order that we find in our New Testament, I jump ship there. Notice in Hebrews chapter 2, specifically at verse 14, inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same. You see what undergirds the entirety of the New Covenant teaching on our Lord Jesus? He would be a man born of a woman.
In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Notice, in as much then as the children had partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same, flesh and blood, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil. and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For indeed, he does not give aid to angels, but he does give aid to the seed of Abraham. Therefore, in all things, he had to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest.
Let's not forget that. I've stressed his triumph, I've stressed his victory, I've stressed that foot crushing the head of the devil, but let us stress his mercy, his kindness, his willingness, His joy at this, he doesn't save like a miserable leftist. He saves to the uttermost all who draw nigh unto him or all who draw nigh to God through him. This is what he's about.
Do you want to know what it is for the Savior to save a sinner? Well, it's like a shepherd who had, you know, a bunch of sheep and one of them runs off and he leaves the mass and he goes after the one. And when he finds the one, he puts it on his shoulders and goes home rejoicing. The Savior saves like a woman who loses one coin out of the ten, and she moves all of her furniture, and she sweeps the floor, and she looks for it, and she finds it.
What does she do when she finds that coin? She rejoices. And how about that prodigal son, that man who says to his father, in essence, you're better off to me dead than alive. I mean, he's asking for his share of the inheritance while the father's alive.
I mean, imagine that. Kids, or not kids, adults, your kids come to you and go, I want my share of the inheritance. What does that say? You're better off to be dead than alive.
So the father gives him that share of the inheritance. What happens to him? Does he go out and traffic in righteousness and godliness and holiness? No, no, no.
He plunges himself into the depths of depravity. He gets to the point where he's sitting around pigs, coveting their food. Now, brethren, if you've seen pig slop, that's not a happy picture. So what happens to the kid?
He doesn't get saved there. He comes to himself in a mercenary sense. I know what I'll do. I'll go back and I'll cast myself upon the mercy of my father, and perhaps he'll hire me as a day laborer.
I'll get three hots and a cot. That's all I'm after. But it was when he was a long way off that the father runs to him. The father falls on him.
The father kisses him. The father orders the slaying of the fatted calf for him. The father puts a robe on him. The father puts a ring on him.
It's the father who saves him. He doesn't save himself in the pig pen and then come back to God. No, it's God who seeks and saves that which was lost. So when it comes to this reality that you're a sinner and God is angry with the wicked every day, understand that God has provided atonement in His Son, the Lord Jesus.
That there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. So notice again in verse 17, So going back to Genesis chapter 3, four observations on Genesis 3.15. The Redeemer would be a man born of a woman. The Redeemer would accomplish victory through suffering.
The Redeemer would accomplish victory through death. The Redeemer would accomplish total victory. Now, before we move on, I always feel it's necessary to sort of underscore this point as we move through the rest of the Old Testament. Have you ever noticed how many of the enemies of God and his people suffer crushing head wounds?
It just happens. No, it happens typically. It happens as a prefigurement. What the Old Testament authors are doing and what the Old Covenant people are doing is furthering the ball down the field.
We've got this Genesis 3.15 promise, and for you people living at the time of the judges, don't forget it. Remember, during the time of the judges, how does jail dispatch Sisera? With a tent peg to the head. How are those godless Oreb and Zeb dealt with?
Same, head wounds. The woman and Abibolak, who throws that stone off of the tower. Boy, that was fortunate, it found its way into his godless head. No!
This is the people of God being reminded of the promise of God in typical fashion, such that when we get to the New Covenant and Jesus goes to the place of a skull, Golgotha, to render judgment upon the devil, we see all the promises of God are yea and amen and in. And what about David at the Valley of Elah as he takes on that Goliath? Again, a fatal head wound. Now, I know the godless would say, well, the Bible seems obsessed with these bloody, gory details.
No, the Bible's obsessed with the glory of Jesus Christ, the skull-crushing seed of the woman who would do what Adam and Eve could not do, who would do what you and I could not do. Notice in the passage, the first part, we didn't have a lot of time to unpack the first half of the chapter, but notice, what's instinctive in man? I just preached this recently from Proverbs 28, 13. What's instinctive in man?
Well, let's even bring it more close to home. What's instinctive to children? They do something wrong. Is it their first instinct to come to you?
Mommy, daddy, please forgive me, for I have sinned. No. Now, you might be out there, child, I'm not picking on you, but usually it's flight. Usually it's fleeing.
Usually it's hiding. Usually it's covering. Little brother, take the heat for the cookies that are missing in the jar. Little brother, tell mom you haven't seen me all morning.
So Adam and Eve try to cover their sin, don't they? They make the loincloths. When we get to the text on atonement, they don't just need a girdle. They need a tunic.
They don't just need a partial covering. The entirety of man is in sin. The entirety of man is redeemed. Again, necessitates that the man born of a woman must assume our humanity or he doesn't redeem us.
The instinct, the temptation, the tendency, the prevalency of man in sin is to try to cover their sin. So they do that very thing. Now God will come and cover their sin again in a typical fashion to prefigure and point forward to the blood of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. See, when we come to passages like these, we see that it's not the case that there's some celebratory aspect among the people of God that revels in gory head wounds.
No, the Bible's about the glory of the one who wounded by death the devil and his minions. Now,
Consequences for the Woman and Man
drop down to the consequences for the woman. We're not going to spend a lot of time here or on the man just because there's a lot of things going on here. I don't want to keep you through your lunch. But notice, as far as the narrative up to this point, there have been two benefits conferred upon womanhood.
One of those is marriage, and the other is procreation. Procreation is spoken to in Genesis 1, 26-28. Isn't it amazing, this push to engage in depopulation? Everything you see here, you've got God's intended order.
He made man. He made man to govern or lead his household. He made Eve to help him do that, and made them both to exercise dominion over the creatures. That's the first part, or what we find in Genesis 2.
We get to Genesis 3, and it's completely inverted. You've got now the serpent talking to the woman, who then gives the fruit to her man. In other words, there's an inversion, right? God made cosmos, and ever since, sinners have been trying to institute chaos.
That's what makes sinners happy, chaos. And so this inversion is seen even in the cultural mandate of Genesis 1, verses 26 to 28. Is it a curse to have children? Is it a blight on humanity to spawn?
No, it's a blessing. It's a good thing. It is celebratory. It is a gift from God Most High.
So in Genesis 1, verses 26 to 28, Eve learns one of her purposes. Well, she didn't. Adam instructed her that she was going to have children. Genesis 2, 18 to 24, we have the benefit of marriage.
Again, the world continually tries to invert that. Marriage is a good thing. So what do we have now? High divorce rates.
What do we have now? Sexual perversion. What do we have now? Adultery.
What do we have now? Fornication. What do we have now? The whole craze with sodomy and homosexuality.
It's like God made something for good and we take it and we invert it. God gives us cosmos and we manufacture chaos. It is an indictment upon us, brethren. We haven't arrived.
We're not, you know, in some sort of a liberated state now when we mutilate little children in the name of gender transition. That is not God's intention for creation. So there is this inversion. So the benefits of marriage and motherhood.
Notice, however, that in a post-fall world, it's not going to be without its challenges. In a post-fall world, there are going to be difficulties, and this is why he addresses the woman in verse 16. To the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. In pain, you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you. One man says the sentences on the man and woman take the form of a disruption of their appointed roles. I'd argue that when it says there, your desires shall be for your husband, I don't think that's a positive comment. You're going to want to make him waffles, you're going to want to rub his feet, you're going to want to get him his favorite bevy, you're going to want to do all...
I don't think that's what it means. You're going to want to dethrone him. You're going to want to say, I am woman, hear me roar. You're going to want to usurp God's created order.
Not that the created order, not that the institution of male headship comes post fall. Adam was the head at creation. Adam didn't stop being the head post fall. What there is in the language of Wenham there is a disruption of their appointed falls.
Those who connect male headship to the fall error. They fall from biblical exegesis. This is the way God intended it. The husband is the head of the wife.
If you doubt that, may I encourage you to come back tonight in Ephesians chapter five as we work our way through husbands loving your wives. The apostle appeals to redemptive category, just as Christ also loved the church, and then he appeals to creational category. The man is one flesh with the woman. So it's not that there's this, you know, after the fall, now you are subjugated under his feet.
No, no. It's a disruption of the issue. So relative to childbirth, in pain you shall bring forth children. Relative to marriage, your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.
John Sailhammer says, what the woman once was to do as a blessing, be a marriage partner and have children, had become tainted by the curse. In those moments of life's greatest blessing, marriage and children, the woman would sense most clearly the painful consequences of her rebellion from God. He's right! It's not that the categories of headship and submission are instituted post-fall.
That's bad theology, that's bad exegesis, and it reflects humanism and all the sorts of confusion that we see out in the world today. The Bible says that the husband is the head of the wife. That shouldn't make anybody blush. That shouldn't make us as Christians say, well, I'm sorry to have to suggest this.
No, the husband is the head of the wife. And the wife is to be submissive to her own husband as to the Lord. That's biblical. That's theological.
That's accurate. Now notice the consequences for the man. God specifies a reason here. Notice, then he said to Adam, or then to Adam he said, because you have heeded the voice of your wife.
Now, brethren, if your wife is telling you to turn left because where you're going is left, don't say, well, you know, Adam got in trouble because he heated the voice of his wife. I'm going to turn right. That's not what's in view here. They were prohibited from eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
That's the focus. That's the target. That's the issue. Because you have heated the voice of your wife, in opening this can of rebellion against the majesty on high, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and did what she commanded." What does that underscore to us?
There's not supposed to be anything between God's Word and us when it comes to obedience. Well, you know, my husband doesn't like that. My wife does. Does God say it?
Has God commanded? And may I extend that to the civil state? They don't have the right to usurp the authority of God Most High and command us contrary to the Word of God. We must obey God rather than men.
Apply it in an ecclesiastical setting. The imposition of feast days, the imposition of man-made religion. What is the people of God supposed to do? They're supposed to resist that kind of tyranny, and they're supposed to understand that it's the voice of God that they respond to.
That's a good lesson for all of us practically. So notice the nature of the curse, because you have heeded the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, you shall not eat of it. Notice the specific consequences in verses 18 and 19. The perpetual difficulty for labor.
You know, I've wondered this, was it not hard to labor prior to the fall? Did you not sweat prior to the fall? I can't answer all those questions. I think about that with a woman.
Prior to the fall, childbirth just seems by definition that it would be a tough go. But again, God says there are consequences affecting these situations in a post-fall world. And so as far as Adam is concerned, he is supposed to tend the garden prior to the fall. He's not supposed to do so first and foremost as a farmer.
He's supposed to do so first and foremost as a priest. He's supposed to extend the garden sanctuary, multiply image bearers to encompass the entirety of the earth so that God would be glorified in that. But with reference to the post-fall ramifications, it's gonna be hard. It's going to be a struggle.
You're not going to want to get up early. You're not going to want to stay late. You're not going to want to do the difficult jobs. You're not going to want to engage in these things because it's punctuated by difficulty, by hardship.
Notice the perpetual difficulty of labor. Cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Now, don't get the zany idea, well, if that's the case, I'm not going to work.
No, you must work. Don't conclude that, well, you know, it's going to be so hard, so I'm not going to work. There's a line in the road, I'm not going to go to work. No, no, you need to work.
You just need to embrace the fact that there's going to be difficulty. Robert Alter said, the vista of thorn and thistle is diametrically opposed to the luscious vegetation of the garden and already intimates the verdict of banishment that will be carried out in verses 23 and 24. But then notice, verse 18, "...both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground." The narrative is emphasized several times up to this point that Adam was taken from the ground.
Had you obeyed, had you been confirmed in righteousness, you'd have been ushered into everlasting life in a positive sense. But because not, you're going to return to the ground. That doesn't mean there's no soul, no spirit that lives beyond the grave, but it means that the physical is going to be buried. It's going to return to the ground.
I think this does set the stage, though, this whole idea of returning to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for dust you are, and to dust you shall return. I think that's the good backdrop one should keep in mind with reference to the man born of a woman, who would deliver his people through his own suffering and death, and he would triumph over the devil decisively. Paul picks up this theme in Philippians chapter three, and what he says at verses 20 and 21, I think, are fed by an understanding of what happens in the first Adam, or in this man. He says, our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will do what?
He will transform our lowly body. In Adam the first, our lowly body gets cast into the dirt. When Adam the second comes or Adam the last, he transforms that lowly body and fits it and makes it ready for eternal communion with God most high. The Lord Jesus Christ who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to his glorious body according to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things to himself.
Hope Beyond the Fall
And that brings us finally to the hope beyond the fall in verses 20 to 24. This is the second time that Eve has been named. Adam called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. Again, Sailhammer says, this was the second time Adam named his wife.
You see it in 2.23. Her first name pointed to her origin out of man, whereas her second name pointed to her destiny, the mother of all living. See, in other words, when this happens, God doesn't say, that's it, you're gone, you're done. No, God institutes on the heels of this fall into sin his great and glorious plan to save a great multitude that no man could number from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation by the deliverer that he sent, by the man born of a woman who would accomplish victory through suffering and death.
And then notice, in terms of the significance, Adam called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. Adam had heard God's words to the serpent in verse 15 and knew that from the woman the Redeemer would come. It's not just her, Eve, personally and particularly, you've weathered these storms with me, baby. I'm going to give you this wonderful name.
No, this wonderful name signifies what's going to happen as a result of God's promise in verse 15. Adam expresses faith in the promise of God, verse 15, by naming her the mother of all living. So in other words, it's not just significant for her as Mrs. Adam, but it's significant for us, because all of us, by God's grace, who are believers in Jesus Christ, have that vehicle in our history that communicates to us the blessed Savior for sinners.
Coverings of Skin: Typology of Atonement
Notice the coverings of sin, verse 21. Brethren, there's a lot more that could be said on each of these points. I'm trying to make sure that you don't miss your lunch. But this is a, you know, people would say, well, you know, talking snakes and this, that, and the other.
You know that this world and all things in it were made by God, by the word of his power in the space of six days and all very good. You know, there's people out there that, you know, I really struggle with the miraculous and all the stuff going on in the Bible. Why? I think MacArthur said it, if God is, then everything else follows.
I used to work at the B-2 factory. It was a manufacturer for the B-2 bomber. And the idea of evolution would be like building a big aircraft hangar, opening both big doors, letting the wind blow through, and having several B-2s built and ready to go. We're accused of fairy tales with Genesis 3?
Have you pondered evolution? Have you thought through that? Have you ever thought about an adult fairy tale? It's the theory of evolution, brethren.
If God is who the Bible says he is, then axe heads can float. If God says who the Bible says he is, then snakes can talk. So can Balaam's ass. If God is who the Bible says He is, then Christ can be raised again the third day.
See, I don't think it's the mythology of chapter 3 in Genesis that offends the godless. I think it's what they conclude is mythology in the empty tomb. It's not talking snakes so much. It's the Redeemer King at the right hand of God Most High who must reign till all of his enemies are made his footstool.
And I actually think that's one of the emphases driving evolution. What happens when you get God out of the beginning? You effectively remove him from the middle in the end, right? We're like pagans.
We just have cycles of history. We're just in the big circle of life. There's no significance, there's no effect, there's no impact. You know, Paul says, for of him, through him, to him are all things.
Christianity is a linear view of history, not a cyclical, not a circular. So we get God out of the beginning when we get him out of the judgment. You know, is it talking snakes they have an axe to grind with? No, I wouldn't think so.
It's the one who crushes the head of the serpent. It's the one who brings redemption to his people. But in Genesis chapter 3, you should learn it. Boffink makes the good statement.
In principle, Genesis 3 contains the entire history of humankind. All the ways of God for the salvation of the lost and the victory over sin. In substance, the whole gospel, the entire covenant of grace is present here. All that follows, Genesis 4 to Revelation 22, is the development of what has been germinally planted here.
It is programmatic. What you find in Genesis chapter three, the rest of the Bible is just explaining. It's just amplifying. It's just, as I said earlier, moving the ball further down the field.
So then notice this coverings of skin in verse 21. So also for Adam and his wife, the Lord God made tunics of skin and clothed them. Again, not girdles. Girdles just cover your private area.
These were tunics. This covered the entirety. What's God saying? Your sin didn't just affect you there.
You're trying to cover your sin just by covering your private parts. I'm not suggesting you shouldn't cover your private parts. I'm suggesting that man, when he comes to deal with sin, he does it about that deep. God says, no, you must be covered.
He who covers his transgression, he'll not prosper. Whoever confesses it and forsakes it, that one finds mercy. As well, notice that the coverings were not made of plant life. Isn't that where Adam and Eve went?
They went to fig leaves. Well, certainly that must be able to hide us from God. We'll hide among the trees that he made and we'll cover ourselves with these fig leaves. They gravitate toward plant life.
No, God kills animals. God underscores in Genesis 3.21 what the apostle rehearses in Hebrews 9.22. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission.
You see that connection very often in the New Testament documents through his blood. Atonement, wrath must be appeased. God must be satisfied. His justice must be satisfied.
So God kills these animals and he takes the skin off of these animals and he covers Adam and Eve. So that when you roll along through Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy, and you see the institution of a priesthood, you see the institution of a tabernacle and then a temple, and you see the institution of sacrifice, Does it surprise you that it's the blood of bulls and goats, that it's animals? Because there needs to be life for life. There needs to be substitution.
There needs to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So God shows them this. God does this for them. And as well, the Lord underscores, as I've said, the necessity of atonement as the basis for fellowship between God and men.
One man makes the observation, I don't know his theological pedigree, so I'll just tell you I quoted him from Waltke, but it's a good statement. He says, with the sentence given, God does in chapter 3, verse 21, for the couple, what they cannot do for themselves. Chapter 3, verse 7. They cannot deal with their shame, but God can, will, and does.
God can, will, and does. Hear that, because that's important. God can, will, and does. There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared.
Come to me, Jesus says in Matthew 11, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. But I don't understand everything. Come to him. But I don't know everything.
Come to Him. All you need to know is that you're a guilty, vile, helpless sinner that stands liable to God's just judgment and punishment in this life and that which is to come. It's a happy topic, isn't it? but know that God in his kindness and in his grace and in his mercy sent the son of his love, the one announced here in Genesis 3.15, the man born of a woman that would accomplish total victory through his own suffering and death. All those who come to him in faith will have everlasting life.
You say, but that sounds so easy. It is easy on the one hand. On the other hand, it's a check to your rebellion and your transgression and your sin. See, let's not kind of beat around the bush here.
People do what they want to do usually, right? Nobody's putting a gun to your head to go out and sin today. Nobody's got your arm behind your back. Yeah, you do this and you do that.
What does Jesus say in John 3? The darkness doesn't come to the light. Why? Because it doesn't want its deeds exposed.
It doesn't want to be found out. You got to understand that in your own heart, you've got resistance. In your own heart, you have enmity. In your own heart, you have this rebel tendency and spirit.
May I just suggest as lovingly and as graciously and encouragingly as I can, wave the white flag. Stop. Learn from others in the building here, the church here. What were you like before you were a Christian?
Well, you don't even want to know. I already hear certain people, well, you don't even want to know. You know, it's like we come into a church and everybody, you know, dresses up a little bit or dresses up a lot. You know, we brushed our teeth this morning, our hair's in place.
You know, we look polished, right? And it's easy to assume it's always been that way. No, it hasn't always been that way. The man born of a woman who accomplished total victory through his suffering and death saved us from our sins.
Was he able to save me too? Absolutely, positively. He saved the chief of sinners, the apostle Paul. He saved his underlings, us.
Certainly there is mercy to be had with our Lord Jesus when we come to him in faith. Well, brethren, I will just quickly run through the rest. Notice the Lord's comment in verse 22, the us there refers to the triune God. Behold, the man has become like one of us.
It's not a divine council, a divine Sanhedrin. This is the triune God, the same as we see in Genesis 1.26. And then notice, I'm going to just give you what I believe is going on here because there's some difficulties to sort of work out. We don't have much time.
Behold, the man has become like one of us to know good and evil. And now lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever. The particular issue was that this was a knowledge that he sought so that he could operate autonomously. If you look back to the temptation, Look back to the temptation at verse six in chapter three.
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, remember they're in a garden filled with trees that are good for food, right? What does God say? It's a lavish promise. You may freely eat whatever, beautiful.
But continue, that it was pleasant to the eyes, Again, just like all the other trees, they were pleasant to the eyes as well, I surmise. Trees today are pleasant to the eyes. Why wouldn't they be in a pre-fall world? Look at this last bit, though.
And a tree desirable to make one wise. Therein lies the nature of the rebellion. Ye shall be as God. So the knowledge that they've now entered into was a knowledge that was forbidden to them.
It was prohibited to them. Their exclusion from the tree of life, while a curse, was a blessing. What God does in banishing them from the garden that he planted them in, is, in the long run, redemptive. He doesn't want them in that state of sin and misery, in that state of fallenness, to grasp now the tree of life, because they'll be confirmed in a state of unrighteousness.
So he banishes them, he excludes them, he forbids their approach to the tree of life. Why? Because the man born of woman, the man who would accomplish victory through his suffering and death, he will confirm us in righteousness and fit us for that glorious age to come. So in this curse of banishment, there is blessing.
Adam doesn't want to be confirmed in life if it's this kind of life.
Application
In conclusion, two things and then we go. First, the subtle devices of Satan. I know we didn't look at the temptation much. I know we didn't look at his craftiness a lot.
But I want to suggest that this is the one that Peter describes in 1 Peter chapter 5, the devil roams about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. What does that suggest? A lion, doesn't it? or the modern or popular conception of the devil. He's a guy in a red suit or that's just the way he looks and he's got horns and he's got a pitchfork and he's probably very easy to see, isn't it?
I mean, a roaring lion or a guy with a pitchfork. I think I'd notice that in my day. Don't usually see guys with pitchforks unless I'm on a farm. It just doesn't happen at Walmart.
So unless he's buying a pitchfork, I guess that could be the case too. But it's almost like we expect to see the devil and his machinations, to use a good old Puritan word. He works with cunning, cunning. One of the best victories or best helps to victory he ever got was when men started denying him.
He works through deception. And interestingly, what he promises them has a vein of truth in it. It's not absolutely completely contrary, The Lord knows that in the day that you eat, you shall be as gods. The man has become like one of us.
See, this is the thing that you need to understand. He doesn't come and whisper in your ear and tell you, or shout in your ear with his pitchfork saying, go out and sin, go rob banks, go sell drugs, go corrupt yourself. He doesn't do it that way. It's cunning, it's deception, and it's with a knowledge of man's susceptibility.
Why does the serpent come to Eve? She's susceptible to this. She has got a predilection. I don't want to say that because it sounds like God made her that way.
She has genuine free will in this pre-fall situation. There is in her a lack of immutability. She's mutable. She can change.
She can take that which is forbidden. And the devil works through a character assassination upon God. Again, look at verse five. Well, verse four, then the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die for God knows that the day you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
You will not surely die. That's an exact opposite statement to what God had promised. So just understand the nature of your enemy. It is the world.
It's a cursed, messed up place out there. It is your own remaining corruption or your reigning sin. But there's a real devil who has a vested interest, like the birds of the air, when gospel seeds are planted, to come and devour them. Only the birds of the air don't really care about creating misery in your home if you're a farmer, but the devil's purpose is that you don't hear the gospel, that you don't believe the gospel, and that you're not saved by God's grace.
And then finally, we need to make the connections biblically. The seed of the woman is Abraham's seed. The seed of the woman is Isaiah's servant of the Lord. The seed of the woman is David's anointed in Psalm 132.
The seed of the woman is Christ, the Son of God, sent by the Father for us men and for our salvation. Genesis 3.15 is the proto-gospel. It is the reality that God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. I'll end where I hopefully began, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.
Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your Word. We thank you for all roads leading us to the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that the Bible sets forth the scope of Scripture being our beloved Savior. This one announced in Genesis 3, this one amplified throughout the prophets and the Psalms and the historical books, and come to full fruition and realization in the gospel records and in the apostles' commentary on those.
We thank you. for your grace. We thank you for your mercy. We thank you that you've not left us in our sin. God, be pleased to save to the uttermost all who draw nigh to you today through Christ.
We pray that you would grant those graces of faith and repentance, and we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. We may stand