Genesis 3:15
Notes
Transcript
INTRO:
Tonight, I want to begin with the verse we ended on two weeks ago. There is so much more to say about Gen 3:15… and quite honestly, we barely touched on it last time around…
15 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.”
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This is God, speaking to the serpent… who, we know as being an angelic being, later named as ‘the devil’.
This is a very important passage, because it literally reaches from the beginning events of the Bible, all the way to the end events of the Bible.
It speaks of things fulfilled in part, 2000 years in our past… and things that will be fulfilled completely, in an undetermined number of years in the future.
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The enmity begins… with the devil, and Eve.
I’m not sure how that played out over the following, 700 - 800- or so years of her life. I’m not sure if she and the serpent had ongoing encounters where this enmity became evident…
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But, when it comes to the issue of the serpent’s offspring, and her offspring… we do see things coming into play.
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We see it quite quickly between her sons, Cain and Able. One of them definitely played the role as Satan’s offspring.
God spoke a sobering warning to Cain along these lines...
6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
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Something caused enmity to spark between Cain and his brother. God saw it growing in his heart… and warned him. Then, in the very next verse, Cain killed his brother…
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You know… our standard interpretation of offspring, in terms of the woman, is singular.
The Hebrew isn’t definite on this conclusion… the term, offspring, or seed… could refer to one, or it could refer to many comprised as one group. The word ‘seed’ can speak of ‘all human history’ while at the same time, permitting a reference to specific individual descendant.
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Even the pronouns used in the second half of the verse, on their own, aren’t enough to nail down a ‘singular person’ as the seed… for the pronoun ‘he’ could also speak of a group, or nation, personified.
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On it’s own… it is vague.
And that’s how it is intended to be. In fact… that is how all the Messianic prophecies of the OT are intended to be. They are clear as a bell to us, in hindsight… but, leading up the revelation of Jesus, His ministry, His death and His resurrection… these things were considered, ‘a mystery’.
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Paul can’t stop talking about the ‘mystery which has been revealed to us’ in his letters. Why? Because the eyes of many… were darkened as they looked upon the scriptures, when it pertained to the coming Messiah…
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26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.
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18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.
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With newly opened eyes, Jesus explained this principle to His disciples… on why He spoke in parables.
10 he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’
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Scholars have been divided over the identity of the offspring from Gen 3:15.
Some Jewish scholars identified the seed simply as ‘humankind’
The scholars who translated the Hebrew Bible in to the Greek version called the LXX, believed ‘seed’ to be… an individual, which is the translation mainly responsible for the second half of this verse saying ‘he’ and not ‘it’.
Some early church fathers transfer these words spoken to Eve, directly to Mary.
And John Calvin, refers to the seed as being the ‘church under the headship of Christ’.
He quotes this passage as his prooftext.
20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
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But, as we get into the writings of Paul, he clears up his view on this matter…
16 Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.
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To sum up this verse… we can see, that the curse upon the serpent includes its final destruction by the descendant of the woman. the animosity between them, is there because God instigated it. The serpent was instrumental in the undoing of the woman, and in turn, the woman will ultimately bring down the serpent through her offspring.
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16 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.”
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As far as we are told, Eve had not given birth to any other children. She would have nothing to compare the pain of childbirth to… except maybe the observations of animals giving birth.
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Interesting thing to take note of… the use of the word ‘curse’ exists in the proclamation upon the serpent and the man… both of whom went into this rebellion wilfully. But Eve’s sufferings are apparently not ‘curse’ related.
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But they are fitting… since part of her role in creation was to share in the multiplication of other humans… and also, she was created as a companion and helpmate to Adam. The two main things she was created for, according to the order of creation… became complicated.
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Bearing children would happen with discomfort, and giving birth to them, will happen through pain. She still will fulfill her commission to be fruitful and multiply… it just won’t be easy…
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I like the way the ESV translates the second half of vs 16, because it brings out a clearer understanding of what ‘ her desire shall be for her husband’ means.
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Your desire shall be contrary to your husband’s desire… meaning… you and your husband will see things differently. You will be at odds. You will have different views on things… - and we see the contrast laid out with the word ‘but’… BUT, HE SHALL RULE OVER YOU.
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So, under the consequences of sin… relationships suffer.
But everything we see in marriage, that is broken with Adam and Eve… finds a solution in Christ.
Adam and Eve were at odds… and yet, the man serves in an authoritarian role.
Why is it authoritarian? Because the desires between the two were contrary… and that brings conflict, and people who have conflict don’t resolve differences well. So, when the husband made the call, it was probably contrary to the desires of the wife… and thus… the relationship between man and woman became, in many cases… oppressive.
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But, when we look at the plan for married couples in the NT… in Ephesians specifically… we see restored order..
We see a submission that is ‘one unto another’ in Christian fellowship.
A relationship that exists in Christian fellowship, is the marriage relationship.
Submission is something that happens on both sides...
But the man, the Christian man, is no longer the authority… he is, instead, the responsible party to the Lord. He has a responsibility to lead his family and to love his wife sacrificially.
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Just as both parties have a responsibility to submit… both parties are also called to love… but the love the husband is supposed to give, is sacrificial… willing to lay down his life for his wife.
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So the redeemed order of marital relationship looks like this… -The husband loves his wife sacrificially. The wife responds to that love, with trust and loyalty… which translates over to a willing submission to him, as he leads his family in the ways of God.
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There’s no place for authoritarian rule. There’s no authority to demand submission. Submission is a willing byproduct of sacrificial love. There is still an order… but it’s an order of responsibility.
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Basically… what is broken, in Adam and Eve, as far as the relationship aspect goes… is repaired in the Gospel… if… BIG IF… the couple… especially the husband, is willing to love and lead sacrificially.
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17 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; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 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.”
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Adam’s curse is linked to his sin.
He wasn’t deceived… he went into his disobedience willingly…
His sinful act, was eating of a fruit.
Therefore, his curse will be related, to the fruit he will eat from now on.
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Adam already had a responsibility to tend to the plants in the garden… but apparently, it was not a strenuous work. We can easily assume, that tending to the plants and trees in the garden was probably, the opposite of what the curse looked like.
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In Adam’s curse, we see the undoing of creation.
He was created from the dust… and to the dust he shall return..
in creation, plants were given for two purposes… to be pleasing to the eye, and to produce good food.
But now… plants will grow thorns and thistles.. - and food will come from ‘plants of the field’, rather than the natural growing plants and trees of the garden.
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In Gen 2.15, man was placed in the garden… to work it and keep it. In contrast to the curse… this was not a painful work… this was not a constant fight against weeds, thorns and thistles… This was his created purpose… and when we humans do what we are are created to do… in obedience to God, there is joy and contentment in the work..
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The curse would, for Adam… reverse this. His commission to be fruitful in his calling… was once a harmonious thing… but now, it is painful and strenuous.
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20 The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. 21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
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Two things happen in this passage… both of them remind us… that Adam and Eve have a future. They are not about to die… but will live on and learn to overcome the challenges that are before them.
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The name Eve, literally speaks of life, or the act of ‘living’. The Gk equivalent would be the word, or name, Zoe. And Adam, the one who named all the animals, now names his wife with great purpose and meaning… -She would be the mother of all living people… from here on out.
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Now, this poses a question to the view that God created humanity in chapter one… and then created Adam and Eve, uniquely and separately in chapter 2.
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If you remember, there is one view that say, human were made in chapter one, and they were sent out into the world, to be fruitful and to multiply… then, a separate creation account happens in chapter 2… where Eden is formed, and Adam… then eventually Eve, were also created.
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Most people believe that the second account is the same as the first, it’s just a periscope upon, and a re-telling of God’s creation of man. - Chapter one was the parade… and chapter two is a close up tour of one of the floats.
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This is the most common view… and it has some problems… there are some parts that don’t fit…
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But that’s ok.. - The other view proposes that God created humans… and they are out there in the world, being fruitful and multiplying… while on the side, He created Adam and Eve… to be the people he would tell His story through…
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In either case… the proclamation that Eve is the mother of all the living… still works. If there are other humans on the earth… she is not their mother… but in chapter 6, all of those people would die… and Eve’s seed would continue on through Noah.
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So in either case, however you want to see the creation of man… this naming of Eve, does not conflict.
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The second thing we see here… is that God made clothing for them, out of animal skins..
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The most obvious implication here, is that man’s attempt to cover his shame, didn’t work. The fig leaves, did not prove to be a good means of modesty… - So God did the work of covering their shame…
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And if there were animal skins as the product… then something must have happened before hand. God must have slaughtered an animal.... blood was spilt, so that the shame of man’s sin could be covered.
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The implications here are more than obvious… for this would be the insufficient method of the law… leading up to the perfect fulfillment, when Jesus would shed his own blood, to not cover the sin of people… but rather… to wash it away.
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22 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—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 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.
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Verse 22 gives us another peek into the divine conversations amongst… either God and the fellow members of the Trinity… or more likely, between God and the divine counsel of elohim.
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God presents the problem to the counsel… and also, presents the solution.
The problem… Man has gained knowledge of good and evil. That is… since man already inherently know goodness… he has now learned, by contrast to goodness… just what evil actually is. -
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What this means, practically, for Adam and Eve… is hard to grasp… but the fruit of humanity to follow will show us, that there is definitely a difference. Their son would soon kill their other son… the world would change as more and more people populated it…
And before too long, every thought of man, would be upon evil… continually.
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God would not abide with his creation… being both, immortal, and evil.
God wouldn’t even tolerate this amongst His angels… In the familiar ‘Divine Counsel’ passage of Ps. 82… where God is bringing judgment upon the rebellious angels… he says:
6 I said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; 7 nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.”
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We even see in the first passage of our study… God would not tolerate immortality and wickedness in the serpent… and we saw the proclamation… and in Revelation, we see it carried out.
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Man needed to be cut off from the Tree of Life… which was, for Adam and Eve, a source of life… a source of immortality according to vs. 22.
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To prevent them from coming back… he placed two things at the Eastern Entrance of garden…
A cherubim
A flaming sword
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It makes sense, that the angel was most likely wielding the flaming sword… and that this angel was continually on the move, guarding the way to the tree of life.
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Another thematic turn, that Hebrew is know for… we see the cherubim guarding the garden… that word ‘guard’ is also translated as ‘care’… The angel, is given the job, that Adam once had… though the application is different…
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But it’s the same word. Adam’s job was to care for the garden… the angel’s job, was the care for the entrance of the garden.
You see how Hebrew literature does this kind of thing all the time… the judgments upon the serpent, eve and Adam, all followed this same logic… - There was always something in the curse… or in the punishment… that reminded them of their own sin…
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Now… in Jewish belief… the garden of Eden, was a picture, or a type… of what the Tabernacle, and eventually, the Temple would be…
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The entrance was always facing east.
Both the tabernacle, and the temple, were decorated with images of the cherubim.
If you went into the garden, from East to west, you would come to the place where God’s presence dwelt…
There was imagery of trees and fruit in the tabernacle.
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these are not connections we would easily make… but the ancient Jewish people saw the tabernacle in this fashion… it’s all over their literature… Eden is where God dwelt… and God’s presence dwelt in the holy of holies…
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The fact that they were expelled from the garden, heading East, is a consistent theme in the Bible…
Cain went eastward from the Lord’s presence
The location of Babel was in the East
When Abraham dismissed the sons of Keturah, they were sent east.
Lot departed from Abraham and settled in the East
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The concept of going East… was figurative of departing from God’s presence, or from God’s will. ++