Mankind Experienced the Consequences of Sin – Part 2
In our last topic, we saw that we want to help our physical and spiritual children learn to explain the immediate consequences Adam and Eve experienced when they disobeyed God and ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We also saw that we want to help them learn to explain the first promise about Christ. In this topic, we will also see that God told Adam and Eve there would be other consequences because of their disobedience; however, God would protect them from living in sin forever.
Genesis 3:16 tells us the earthly consequences Eve received because of her disobedience. That verse says, “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.’” Here, we see that the first consequence for woman is labor and pain in childbirth. John 16:21 says, “‘A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.’” Here, we see that the pain and sorrow of childbirth comes to an end once the child is born. However, during the time of labor, there is great pain and suffering.
Second, God said that the desire of women shall be for their husband. The word translated “desire” means longing or craving. This same phrase is used, in Genesis 4:7, where we read, “‘If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.’” Here, we see that the last phrase of this verse uses the same words to describe the desire of sin to rule the life of Cain. It means longing or craving. In this case, Cain did not listen to God but killed his brother instead. In contrast, the only other time this word is used in the Old Testament, it has a very positive meaning. Song of Solomon 7:10 says, “I am my beloved’s, and his desire is toward me.” Here, we see the beauty of Godly love in marriage as the husband has this same longing for his wife that God said the wife was to have for the husband.
Third, God said that Adam would rule over Eve. The word “rule” means to reign, to rule over, to be governor, or to manage. Genesis 24:2 says, “So Abraham said to the oldest servant of his house, who ruled over all that he had, ‘Please, put your hand under my thigh.’” In this verse, we see that the oldest servant managed everything that Abraham had. In Genesis 45:26, the sons of Jacob told him, “And they told him, saying, ‘Joseph is still alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt.’ And Jacob’s heart stood still, because he did not believe them.” In this verse, the word is translated “governor”. We see that one of the consequences for Eve, and for all future wives, was that, in the home, the husband was to be the leader who exercised management under the authority of God. Ephesians 5:25 tells how man is to exercise that management when that verse says, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her.” This means that Godly husbands should apply this much differently than the world.
Genesis 3:17-19 tells the consequences Adam received for his disobedience. Those verses say, “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. 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.’” The word translated “heeded” means to hear, to hearken, or to obey. The word is used one thousand one hundred and fifty-nine times in the Old Testament. In Genesis 16:2, we read, “So Sarai said to Abram, ‘See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.’ And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai.” In this case, Abram listened to Sarai, and their descendants are still experiencing the consequences of that choice.
God told Adam that the ground was cursed for his sake. First, this meant that he would have to toil in order to get food from the earth. The word translated “toil” means pain, hardship, toil, or sorrow. Ever since Adam sinned, men have had to work hard in order to provide food for their families. God said that this hard work would not stop but would last all of the days of Adam’s life. Second, God said that the ground would bring forth thorns and thistles. This is part of what causes the pain in the hard work. In Genesis 1:29, God had promised, “And God said, ‘See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.’” Now, God said that the ground would also bring forth thorns and thistles.
Third, God told Adam that he would get his food by the sweat of his face. This meant that man would have to work hard out in the hot sun to get enough food to provide for his family. Fourth, God told Adam that in addition to spiritual death, which is separation from God, he would work until he experienced physical death. God told Adam that the day would come when he would return to the ground. Genesis 5:3-5 says, “And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were eight hundred years; and he had sons and daughters. So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died.” Here, we see that Adam and Eve had sons and daughters before they died. We see that Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years before his death. God told Adam that he had come from the dust and would return to the dust.
We will also see another consequence of sin in the final verses of this chapter. Genesis 3:20-24 says, “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.” Before that consequence, we see two other things that happened.
We see that Adam called his wife’s name Eve. The name “Eve” means life or living. We are also given the reason why Adam gave this name to Eve. She became the first mother of all of the people who would live on the earth, both during their lives and for as long as people continue to be born on the earth. As a result, she was the mother of all of the living who would live on the earth. When Adam and Eve sinned, they tried to cover themselves with fig leaves, which dried up very quickly once sin came into the world. Here, we see that God provided Adam and Eve with a covering of animal skins. This required killing animals in order to provide this covering. This was the first animal sacrifice as a covering for sin. Throughout the rest of the Old Testament, we will see that animal sacrifices were offered as a covering for sin, until Christ came to take away sin.
God said that man had become like “one of Us”. In Genesis 1:26a, we see that God said, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.’” God knew good and evil because He knows all things. Man now also knew good and evil, but Adam and Eve knew good and evil because of their own sin. As a result, God had to protect Adam and Eve from themselves. If they would have eaten the fruit from the tree of life at this point, they would have lived in sin, with all of sin’s consequences, forever. That would have been a terrible existence. As a result, God had to remove them from the garden so they would no longer be able to eat the fruit of the tree of life. God sent them out of the garden of Eden so they could not even come close to the tree of life. In this way, Satan could not tempt them to eat the fruit of the tree of life.
Once they were out of the garden, God said that Adam was to till the ground from which he had been taken. The word translated “drove out” means to expel or to cast out. This word is translated “cast out” in Genesis 21:10, where Sarah said, “Therefore she said to Abraham, ‘Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, namely with Isaac.’” Here, we see that Sarah told Abraham to send away Hagar and Ishmael so he would not share the inheritance with Isaac. In the same way, Adam and Eve would no longer be able to eat the fruit of the tree of life.
To protect from anyone, at a later day, eating of that tree, God placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden. Cherubim are angelic beings. Later, God had Moses make two gold cherubim who spread their wings over the mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant. God told Moses, in Exodus 25:22, “‘And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.’” The cherubim in the garden were to guard the way to the tree of life with a flaming sword so no one could eat the fruit of this tree and live in sin forever. Those cherubim would have guarded the tree of life until the time of the flood when the garden was destroyed by the flood. Here, we see the mercy of God as He protected people from themselves. We want to help our physical and spiritual children learn to explain why it was necessary to remove Adam and Eve from the garden and then put cherubim to guard the tree of life so neither they, nor their descendants, could eat from that tree and live in sin in their physical bodies forever. May the Lord richly bless you as you help your children learn to explain why God had to protect the tree of life.
