Genesis 3:14-24

¹⁴ And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: ¹⁵ And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. ¹⁶ Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. ¹⁷ And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; ¹⁸ Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; ¹⁹ In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. ²⁰ And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. ²¹ Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them. ²² And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: ²³ Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. ²⁴ So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

In Genesis 3:6-13, we find two of the four overarching consequences to rejecting God’s Word. We know that rejecting the Word of God is sin because “sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4). When we reject God’s Word we are actually rebelling against the sovereign Creator of the universe and make ourselves deserving of  judgment. We also know that rejecting God’s Word brings shame. When Adam and Eve sinned, they tried to cover their nakedness with fig leaves and hide themselves from God. Then they tried to shift their blame to one another and the serpent. Shame leads us to do so. We must recognize that our sin is our responsibility and that we must confess it to God and repent. In verses 14-24, we will find two other consequences of rejecting the Word of God as God responds and addresses the serpent, Eve, and Adam.

The third consequence of sin we must understand is that rejecting God’s Word produces struggle. As a result of sin entering the world, things would be forever changed. The serpent is cursed above all creatures to crawl on its belly. This is not to punish snakes, but to use snakes as a perpetual reminder of what happened in the Garden of Eden. All of the creation was subjected to the curse. Eve, and all women, are cursed with pain in bearing children. Adam, and all mankind, is forced to work in struggle and strife the creation he once kept with joy. He would have to fight thorns and thistles and obstacles of all kinds. The great news of it all is that through the woman’s pain would come the fulfillment of a great promise found in verse 15. God promised to destroy the serpent, who is the devil, and his work. He would do so through the seed of the woman. This is the first promise of Jesus coming to take away sin and death.

Lastly, we must understand that rejecting God’s Word brings separation. Adam and Eve were removed from the Garden. God did not send them out without hope or purely as an act of wrath and judgment. Rather, Adam expresses faith in God’s promise about Eve’s seed by giving her the name “Eve” which means “life.” He believed that God would bring life out of the death they had brought. As a result, God clothes them with animal skins and the first death occurs. This death is not that of Adam or Eve, but is an animal that dies in their place. They are covered by those skins as a pattern going forward for how God would ultimately take away sin through His Son (the seed of the woman). They are still sent out of the Garden, but so that they may not eat of the tree of life and be stuck forever in their lost, fallen state. God would redeem them through His Son. However, they were still separated from God and His paradise. Sin brings separation.

The good news of Genesis is that even though we have all sinned and come short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23), there is hope for every sinner through the gospel of Jesus Christ. God sent His only begotten Son into the world to pay the price for our sins that we might have eternal life. All of the wrath and judgment that we deserve for our sin was placed on Jesus on the cross so that you and I could be set free from sin’s penalty and its power in our lives. In Genesis 3:15, God made a promise to send a descendant of Adam and Eve who would crush the head of the serpent. This promise was about Jesus. The good news of the gospel is, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  Just like Adam and Eve believed God’s promise and had their sin covered by God’s grace through the shedding of blood in the Garden of Eden, you and I can have our sins forgiven through faith in Christ and what He has done for us. While we will all die physically (Hebrews 9:27), we don’t have to remain spiritually dead and be separated from God for eternity (Revelation 20:14-15). Jesus has made a way by drawing us near to God through His blood that was shed (Ephesians 2:13). He is the way (John 14:6). Will you trust Him today?