Lesson 4 - God’s Promise and Curse

    Suggested Bible Reading: Genesis, Chapter 3:9-20

    God Will Expose Our Sin.

    We have already learned that God created Adam and Eve to know Him and enjoy a wonderful relationship with Him. He placed them in a perfect garden and provided everything that they could need. In spite of all the goodness of God, they still made a choice to believe that God was hiding something from them, and they chose to disobey Him and eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Immediately after they sinned, they felt guilt and shame in their soul for the very first time. As a result, they tried to cover their nakedness and tried to hide from God.

    The Bible says in Genesis 3:8, “And they heard the voice of the LORD God, walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden." Even though they chose to sin against God, God still loved them. Because God loved them, He came to find them and talk to them about the wrong choice that they had made. God loved them too much to allow them to continue trying to hide their sin from Him. There are many strange ideas about love today. Many people believe that if you love someone, you should never embarrass them or criticize them by dealing with sinful choices in their life. However, God is love, and God always confronts His children about the sin in their lives! If God had never come and found them and made them face their sin, they would have lived a miserable life of guilt and fear. They would have always been trying to hide from their Creator.

    The Bible says in Genesis 3:9, “And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, where art thou?” When God came to speak to them about their disobedience, He first began to call for Adam. God had given Adam the command to not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and Adam was responsible to make sure that he and his wife obeyed God’s command. But when God asked Adam if he had eaten of the fruit of the tree, he immediately blamed his sin on Eve. When God asked Eve why she had eaten the fruit, she immediately blamed her sin on the serpent. Nobody wanted to accept the responsibility for their wrongdoing. People today are very much the same as Adam and Eve. We have mastered the skill of defending ourselves by lying about our actions and by blaming our sinful choices on someone else. God did not accept their response though. He made them each face the consequences for their own sinful choices. When you sin, you must realize that God will not overlook that, nor will He put the blame on someone else. You are guilty before God for your own sins, and He has determined a judgment for each of us, because of our sin against Him.

    God’s Curse Upon Sin

    The Bible says in Genesis 3:17-19, “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; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 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.” So what was the judgment that God placed upon them because of their sin? God cursed the earth to make it difficult for Adam to plant and grow food. His work would no longer be as enjoyable as God had originally planned, but now his work in the field would be hard, and his job to provide food for his family would be difficult. We can still see the effect of this curse all around us today. In Genesis 3:16, we read about the curse that God put upon the woman. Because of Eve’s sin, she was going to experience great pain and sorrow in childbirth, and she would live in submission to her husband’s authority. The end result of this curse is God’s promise that Adam would return to the dust. In other words, Adam was going to slowly struggle and eventually face physical death. We ought to remind ourselves often that we are made from dust, and one day our physical bodies will return to the dust. We must realize that there is much more to life that our physical existence. We need to come into a spiritual relationship with the Eternal God!

    The reality of the curse upon the earth and upon man and woman is undeniable. We have all experienced the pain of this curse, and we continue to experience it every day that we live. God had never intended for there to be sickness, sorrow, struggling, and death to come upon the human race. It has only come as a result of our sin against a holy, loving God. Every time you struggle with sickness, or with providing for your family’s needs, or with the death of a loved one, you ought to remind yourself of the awful price of your sin. Genesis chapter 3 is indeed a very sad chapter, but at least it does offer a wonderful glimmer of hope. In spite of the awful destruction that our sin has brought into each of our lives, there is a promise of hope that God gives in the midst of this curse upon sin.

    God’s Promise of Salvation.

    In Genesis 3:15, the Bible says, “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.” God is speaking to the Devil who had used the body of a serpent to speak to Eve and deceive her and tempt her to sin against God. God promises that the human race and the devil’s kingdom would be enemies of one another. Certainly this is true. The devil has no greater desire than to deceive you and destroy you, just as he did with Adam and Eve. God also promised that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the devil, and that in the process the devil would wound the seed of the woman. The seed of the woman is a prophecy of Jesus Christ, who was born about 4,000 years after Eve lived. Indeed, Jesus Christ was wounded when He died on the cross to pay for the sins of the world. However, when Jesus was raised again from the dead after three days, He destroyed once and for all the power of the devil.

    In the midst of this curse on man and on sin, this is indeed a beautiful promise that we don’t have to live in bondage to sin and the devil anymore, because Jesus Christ can give us the victory. If you are still living in bondage to your lusts and the will of the devil, you need to know that Jesus Christ wants to give you the victory over sin and over death. You can come into a real relationship with the living God and find true freedom in Him.

    Study Questions

    1. If God really loved Adam and Eve, He would have just ignored their disobedience of His command.
    2. True love is bold enough to confront someone about sin in their life.
    3. When God asked Adam if he had eaten the forbidden fruit…
    4. God made Adam and Eve each face the for their own sin.
    5. God will probably just overlook the sins that you have committed against Him.
    6. Match the appropriate curse with the correct individual:
    Adam
    Eve
    Serpent
    Devil
    Earth
    7. The Devil really loves you and wants to help you find true fulfillment in life.
    8. The only One who can give you victory is Jesus Christ.

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