Trial and Sentance for Mankind
A Study of Humanity • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Claim (of the passage): Judgment on sin is experienced now (modelling eternal judgement) but mixed with the judgement is mercy now (and the possibility of mercy eternally).
Focus (of the sermon): The judgment on sin is felt now through conflict in relationships (yet we still relate), painful childbirth (yet we still procreate), painful work (yet we can still feed ourselevs/work/provide) and physical death, but worst of all it causes separation from God (yet can we reunite?)
Function (for the congregation): To see the depravity of our sin and right judgement, but therefore wonderful mercy of God
Lost Zeph - where are you - sad words - But God asks with a very different sadness. Not one of fear he might had lost his child, but knowledge that his child has deliberately rejected him.
Pray
Last week we saw from the beginning of chapter 3 that Adam and Eve, the figureheads for all of humanity, failed to trust the goodness of God and obey his loving rule.
They forgot his Word and chose their own way.
They ate the forbidden fruit.
This weeks passage looks at the justice that is now to be rightly brought about by God.
We begin with a trial.
1 - Called to Give an Account
1 - Called to Give an Account
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord 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. But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’
Sad words aren’t they.
Where are you?
We’re to envisage that after a day of satisfying labour and rewarding work for Adam and Eve, God the gracious and good provider would walk with them in the cool of the day, to talk and share and love.
But today,
they are hiding.
Of course the irony is obvious, you can’t hide from the creator behind created things.
Like a hamster in it’s cage runs and hides in it’s house when you open the door - we know where it is - and so does God.
So often we live out the words of
If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,’ even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
Sin must be brought into the light,
You cannot disobey the creator God of all and expect him to turn a blind eye as if it doesn’t matter.
That would make him out to be a liar who has promised judgement if we deny his command.
Where are you?
cuts to the heart of the matter.
He answered, ‘I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.’
Before they had nothing to hide, now they have everything to hide.
Their physical nakedness illustrative of their moral nakedness.
We have tried to be like him, deciding for ourselves what is best and now we’re afraid - we must hide.
Our naked bodies show the new nakedness of their hearts before God - and they are afraid,
as we should we be when faced with a holy and good God when we have sinned.
God presses deeper into his calling to account for their actions:
And he said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?’
‘Yes’ is the truest and most honourable answer to this simple question,
But humanity sadly learns fast to keep burying sin and blaming others before acknowledging our wretchedness before God.
The man said, ‘The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.’
The depth of human depravity, that even when faced with the all knowing, creator of all,
we try passing the buck.
Such is Adam’s arrogance - now he has started on this path of rebelion against God - he even tries to imply some blame is on God himself!
The woman YOU put here with me!
And if you’re not taking all the blame God, then well that woman!
She’s the one who gave it to me.
And I ate it.
God does not need to rise to Adam’s sorry excuses, he has asked him for his account and received it.
And try as he might, Adam cannot deny the sin itself.
I ate it.
Now, he turns to ask Eve for her account -
Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The snake deceived me, and I ate.’
It wasn’t me, either - really.
The snake deceived me.
Little has changed has it - as we excuse away our sin to other people or other factors.
BUt again - there is no hiding from God -
I ate it - she says.
God’s Sentencing now begins.
2 - Sentencing
2 - Sentencing
a - on the snake
a - on the snake
So the Lord God said to the snake, ‘Because you have done this, ‘Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
The language of judgement is I think clearly illustrative. Snakes no more eat dust for sustenance, than we nesciserily need to think they had legs before this day.
The picture is one of a lowering of status to be under the power and ultimate authority of another.
The image is repeated in the OT at times, and clearly seen in Micah 7v17 speaking of God’s enemies.
They will lick dust like a snake, like creatures that crawl on the ground. They will come trembling out of their dens; they will turn in fear to the Lord our God and will be afraid of you.
We begin to see Satan’s choice of a snake to reveal his true colours is a wise one.
As a snake crawls around in the dust at the mercy of those above, so Satan will crawl at the feet of the Almighty God.
Satan is not only sentenced to crawling in subservience to the Lord God in shame,
But he is also sentenced to be at ongoing odds with humanity.
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.’
There is a lot of debate about this verse, but what is clear enough is that snakes and humans don’t tend to get along.
Enmity exists.
The word offspring or seed of Eve and the seed of the snake is singular not plural.
And The word translated strike and crush are actually the same,
so it carries more the meaning of
‘A seed of Eve will strike at the head of a seed of the snake, and he will strike at his heal.’
There is a sense of ongoing enmity between mankind and satan - represented here by the snake and Eve.
But we also seem to be expecting a fairly categorical fight between ‘a man’ and ‘an evil’.
The sentence is severe and long lasting - but will culminate in a significant event.
There is a amoungst God’s judgement a promise of hope and mercy,
a saviour to come who will finally defeat evil, - but the saviour will also be fatally harmed.
Part of Satans sentanceing is that one day he will fully loose in a battle with a man.
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Hebrews shows us this fulfilment in Jesus for the children of God.
READ THIS ONE
Since the children (of God) have flesh and blood, he (Jesus) too shared in their humanity (he is a seed of Eve) so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
Death which as we’re about to see in the judgment of God upon our sin, holds us in fear of the one who holds deaths power - the devil.
Enmity between humanity and Satan exist in this life.
But in a great battle, the 1 man Jesus is struck and dies, but so too he strikes the head of the devil - to defeat him eternally in power.
This really is extraordinary.
That even in the sentencing of the devil, for leading humanity astray into sin and eternal judgement before God,
God is showing he is still merciful..
Something is coming that shows mercy -despite our failure.
We see God’s Mercy and Wrath.
b - on the woman
b - on the woman
What about he woman's sentencing.
To the woman he said, ‘I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labour you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.’
We see mercy and wrath again.
Giving birth will now be painful, but give birth you will!
We might expect barreness to be a fair punishemnt for humanity - you will not live and go on.
But rather - you will go on, but you will also remember your sin and my wrath at your sin in the pains of childbirth.
The sheer joy of chidlbirth is proof enough of God’s mercy is it not - that in what is frankly a horrendous physical and painful, and historically very often fatal event - new life still brings blessing.
God’s sentencing of sin is both merciful and rightly just.
Imagine a God who placed no sentence on us for our sin.
Then, no-one would ever see thier need for God at all.
We would ignor him entirely.
Or imagine God brought instant and full death, well then there would be no chance for God to be glorified or for us to know him.
SO He graciously gives us both,.
Sentencing for sin that calls us back to remembering our need for him, and blessing of life so we can know him.
Wrath and Mercy
It’s interesting also that the mandate for mankind to fill the earth, is specifically affected by sin. You’ll find it difficult and painful to obey my command moving forward seems to be the message.
And each time you think about that - perhaps we’ll remember the goodness fo God that we have betrayed.
the second part of this verse is not particularly clear to us today.
‘Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.’
There are various theories, from this being a reminder to Eve of Adam’s headship over her - given she has led him astray in her sin.
Or that it actually suggests there will be an ongoing desire for Eve to control her husband, and an ongoing desire for the husband to dominate his wife.
It’s hard to be clear which meaning is meant - but one thing is certain,
sin harms God’s great design marriage.
Finally sentencing
c - on the man
c - on the man
To Adam he said, ‘Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, “You must not eat from it,” ‘Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.
You must not eat from the tree of life is proof that death is coming Adam’s way,
but notice again, how the very mandate of mankind to rule over and subdue the earth now becomes a painful toil.
You’ll find it difficult to obey my command - and in your toil, remeber my goodness that you rejected.
So, The ground v18
It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 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.’
Life will be characterised by difficult, painful, hard work that is not overly rewarding or satisfying.
And ultimately, - will end in death.
To the dust you you will return.
How often do you think about your work and consider leaving for a better job that is less stressful or hard work, or painful.
Sadly - you wont find one.
Of course some are easier than others, but just as the soil produces thorns and makes working the field difficult - so all work carries this pattern.
Yet again, even in God’s sentencing of sin, there is mercy.
Despite the toil and pain, you will still eat food. You will have a life, even though it will now end in death.
So.
3 - Mercy and wrath?
3 - Mercy and wrath?
The question begins to form, well which is greater - which will be shown to be the most glorifying attribute of God?
His right wrath or His underserved mercy?
The clues begin to stack up..
Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
There will still be a human race, and the mother off all sin will aslo be the mother of all people.
The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
Clearly Adam and Eve didn’t do a great job sewing their fig leaves together back in v7.
But again, isn’t the mercy of God so generous - that even in their sin that gives them something to hide, the Lord meets their need.
How often we should be amazed that even in our sin, we find God is gracious to us.
God is very merciful.
But sin cannot be without wrath and judgement as well.
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 for ever.’
Death truely is the consequence of sin.
HUmanity cannot live in God’s world thinking they can be God themselevs - knowing good and evil.
They must be cut off from the tree of life and have limited years on this earth.
So they are banished from the tree and the garden.
So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
God’s right wrath at our sin cannot blibndly accept a rebelion against his good and gracious rule.
And so, his justice and wrath at sin, casues him to separate mankind from himself:
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.
Of course there is no hiding from God, and we cannot go where God is not already.
But the imagery is clear.
A very permanent, definite act of separation from the goodness of God has occurred.
God ‘drove out’ the man,
Cherubim (heavnely creatures), flaming swords, flashing, back and forth,
gauridng.
There is no way back by mans own work.
So which is it?
Wrath or mercy - which will ultimately bring God the most glory?
It is clear you cannot have one without the other.
You can’t have mercy where there is no wrath - otherwise it’s not mercy - it’s just an indifferent God.
And you can’t have wrath without mercy.
Otehrwise he is a just but hard God, who we can never know.
The Isrelaets are soon reminded of this nature of God when they are told in the 10 commandments not to make any idols before God.
You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
God’s mercy is greater than his wrath!
Wrath will rightly be shown to 3 or 4 generation, but love to thousands of generations!
We see it again in the life of Jesus - the evil crusher himself -
where wrath is not spared upon evil, but mercy is shown to those who turn to Jesus
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
What do we make of the fall of mankind, and the trial, sentancing and judgement of God upon sin?
Well we make much of it.
We rightly face God’s wrath,
but what we actually face is hope.
We have food on our tables and children in our church, thanks to God’s mercy.
We as humanity still live and create new life thanks to the mercy of God.
IN our sin we struggle to obey God, yet we still live.
We see evil has been defeated by the one man Jesus,
and so we’re left finally with our own choice.
Will we glorify ourselves and sin on and face the wrath of God.
Or will we repent through Jesus,
glorifying God and so enjoying his favour and mercy to thousands of generation.
I, like Zeph was lost once as a young child,
I’d gon down a steep bank covered in thick bracken and shrubs to a beach - which I’d prob ably been told not to go down.
My mum called where are you? But she knew where I was,.
We could even see each other but I was utterly stuck - running up and down the beach trying to find the path back up, but I couldn’t. There was no way back.
Serve you right she shouted, you got what you deserved, and they all left in the car. - That’s what I thought would happen
But instead, she sent her eldest son, by brother, to come down to me and drag me back to my family.
Wrath is deserved, but in Love, we receive mercy in Jesus.
All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
Pray