Click here to be a part of the Live Stream and interact with us in the Chat during this Bible Study.
God’s Design for Marriage: Responsibilities
The Temptation and Fall of Man
Genesis 3:13 And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Genesis 3:14 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.
The Lord God cursed the serpent to degradation, disgrace, and defeat. The fact that the serpent is cursed more than all cattle or any other beast of the field suggests that reptiles are primarily in view here rather than Satan.
Genesis 3:15 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.”
But verse 15 switches to the Devil himself. This verse is known as the protevangelium, meaning “The First Gospel.” It predicts the perpetual hostility between Satan and the woman (representing all mankind), and between Satan’s seed (his agents) and her Seed (the Messiah). The woman’s Seed would crush the Devil’s head, a mortal wound spelling utter defeat. This wound was administered at Calvary when the Savior decisively triumphed over the Devil. Satan, in turn, would bruise the Messiah’s heel.
The heel wound here speaks of suffering and even of physical death, but not of ultimate defeat. So Christ suffered on the cross, and even died, but He arose from the dead, victorious over sin, hell, and Satan.
The fact that He is called the woman’s Seed may contain a suggestion of His virgin birth.
Note the kindness of God in promising the Messiah before pronouncing sentence in the following
verses.
Genesis 3:16 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.”
Just as the beasts of the field, and most especially the serpent, were cursed because of man’s sin, so too, the woman received a threefold curse because of sin. Unto her, God said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. Cassuto and others render this as “I will greatly multiply your suffering in general, and more particularly that of your childbearing. Women’s pains would exceed that of men and particularly during the period of childbearing” (Genesis Part One, p. 165).
The second part of the curse on the woman was your desire will be to your husband. This phrase has been interpreted in several ways: (1) the common view is that of a sexual desire on the part of the woman for her husband, knowing now there will be more pain in childbearing; (2) some refer to it as a psychological dependence upon the husband, i.e., the woman will be a willing servant; and (3) Calvin says she will desire only what the husband desires. But the leadership of the husband is not a result of, or a punishment for, sin, since it was God’s intention from the beginning of creation (cf. 1 Tim 2:13). The general consensus in Hebrew is believed to mean, the woman’s desire will be against her husband and his leadership; she will not willingly submit to his leadership. So with all of these thoughts how can man and woman live peaceably together?
The third curse may actually be a promise in disguise; for God has said he will rule over you. It can be worked out. A parallel promise with the same wording appears in 4:7 with the disjunctive waw and the verb “to rule” translated “but you may rule over it.” Certainly, we live in a day and age when it is obvious that many women are expressing their desire against their husbands. Paul says for husbands to love their own wives and for the wives to “submit,” to their husbands. Why else would it be commanded, if it came naturally? What are your thoughts?
Genesis 3:17 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’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. :18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. :19 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.”
Genesis 3:20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. :21 Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.
Verse 20 is Adam’s response in faith to the revealed Word of God in verses 15 and 16. God had told them that in the day that you eat thereof you shalt surely die (2:17), which involved not only a separation from God but, in time, physical death as well.
Then God gave them the promise in verses 15–16 that Eve would bear children and continue to live physically. Adam’s response to God’s promise was to call his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
“Consequently, by the significant nature of the name employed, as well as by the significant way in which the matter is reported at this important juncture, we are to understand that Adam refers to the things implied in the promise of the victory over the devil. In other words, he here gives evidence not only of believing that God spoke the truth but evidence of belief in the salvation which God had promised” (Leupold, p. 177).
God responded by providing coats of skins, and clothed them. This was His way of demonstrating that fellowship was restored.
“While it may be premature to read into this the introduction of animal sacrifice, it certainly illustrated to Adam and Eve, who may even have witnessed the death of these innocent animals, the high cost of their guilt” (Davis, p. 95).
Genesis 3:22 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”—:23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. :24 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.
There was a shade of truth in Satan’s lie that Eve would become like God (v. 5). But she and Adam learned by the hard way of experience to discern between good and evil. If they had then eaten of the tree of life, they would have lived forever in bodies subject to sickness, degeneration, and infirmity. Thus it was God’s mercy that prevented them from returning to Eden.
Cherubim are celestial creatures whose function is to “vindicate the holiness of God against the presumptuous pride of fallen man.”
Adam and Eve had to decide whether God or Satan was lying. They decided that God was. “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” Thus their names are missing from the Honor Roll of Faith in Hebrews 11.
The ideal environment of Eden did not prevent the entrance of sin. A favorable environment is not the answer to man’s problems.
Cain Murders Abel
Genesis 4:1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the Lord.”
When Cain was born, she acknowledged that this birth was only by the Lord’s enablement.
In naming him Cain (“acquisition”), Eve may have thought that she had given birth to the Promised Seed.
Genesis 4:2 Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
Genesis 4:3 And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord.
Macdonald, Farstad Grady Scott, Hindson, E. MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006).
