"So the Lord said to the serpent, "Because you have done this cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 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." To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be or your husband and he will rule over you." To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it’, Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 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 dust you will return"…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 of the tree of life and eat and live forever. So the Lord banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken." Genesis 3:14-19, 22-23
The disobedience in Eden was discovered. God knows that His commands were disregarded after the serpent tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam ate as well and sinfulness entered God’s perfect creation forever. If you thought God was happy about this, think again. Our scripture from Genesis Chapter 3 shows us an important thing to remember about God: He despises anyone who disregards His commands or leads someone to disregard His commands. This is evident in His words following the failure of His created man and woman, enticed into failure by the serpent.
God curses the serpent, condemning him to crawl on his belly and eat dust forever. Today, modern day snakes do just that and find themselves at the feet of man where they can be crushed by the heel. The serpent tempted man to fail and would thus face death at the hands of man forever.
God’s judgment was not only directed toward the serpent. Eve was next and notice that it wasn’t only Eve who would be plagued but all women to follow. It’s a known fact that women experience great pain when delivering children. It all goes back to Eden.
And Adam wasn’t getting away free either. The ground became cursed because of him and he was forced to eat from it all the days of his life. Thorns and thistles would emerge to scratch and entangle man as he would walk the earth. And Adam would one day return to the very ground God cursed but he would not do so while still in Eden for God banished him from there forever.
So what is our take away from Eden. Here are three main points:
1. Anything good can be ruined by a simple act of disobedience to God’s commands.
2. Anyone can be tempted to disobey God’s commands.
3. Disobedience to God leads to His judgment and consequence.
As we can see, Adam and Eve introduced sin into the world. We’re afflicted even to this day and will be until death. Whether we rid ourselves from sin or not depends on whether we know and trust God’s only Son Jesus who paid the price for the sins of the world by way of His crucifixion on the cross. If you know and trust in Him as Savior, your sins will be no more at death. If you don’t know Him, you’ll never escape damnation. And, of course, if Jesus returns before you die, your fate will be established then and there. The key is to know and trust in Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Don’t delay for better days lay ahead for us after we persevere through living in this sinful world. If we’re obedient to God and trust in Jesus, we can make it.
In Christ,
Mark
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