Good Bad News

Well, good morning. Am I on? Can you hear me now? All right.

Good morning to all of you. And a special welcome. And I do have a flower up here, to my right. This is, In honor of Cameron Josiah Dobbins.

Born on March 1st, coming into the world weighing 9 pounds. And that 21 inches long. So this is the son of Cameron and Roanna Dobbins, and so we can rejoice with them. And I, I believe someone said they were here today, so we just rejoice with them over this gift of new life and let's be, hey there, praying for them and together with them as they bring up, this gift from God and the nurture and, and the discipline, of the Lord and keep having children, folks.

Keep them coming. All right. Genesis chapter 3, Genesis, chapter 3. We're, continuing in our series through the Book of Genesis.

And it's ironic cause we're gonna be talking about the pangs of motherhood today in our, in our passage, Genesis chapter 3, as we continue in our study through this book, we come to Genesis chapter 3 verses 14 through 16. And we'll do our best to cover, these verses, in detail, this morning. I don't know whether you will think my sermon title for today is good. Or bad.

but the title of my message today is good. Bad news. Good, bad news. I read a story this week of a doctor who finally got a hold of one of his patients and said to him, I have good news and bad news.

Which would you want to hear first? The patient said, well, give me the good news first. So the doctor said, the good news is that you have 24 hours to live. The patient said, oh my goodness, that's awful.

What's the bad news? The doctor said, the bad news is I've been trying to get a hold of you since yesterday. Good, bad news. I'm giving the sermon this title today because even though there is deeply bad news in this text, it has woven into it some really good news.

This whole text in its entirety is essentially bad news for Satan and the serpent, but this bad news is good for Adam and Eve, in ways that are far beyond what Adam and Eve could have ever rightfully expected. And this bad news, even the bad news is good in the sense that it is profoundly deliberate and redemptive, and it leads to an incredible, wonderful, And victorious outcome for mankind. To really appreciate what we're gonna be seeing in verses 14 through 16, today, you need to give a little bit of thought to what Satan must have been thinking after Adam and Eve had partaken of the fruit and fallen into sin.

Satan has succeeded, we have seen in getting Eve to think that God had lied.

That God is petty and that God had been trying to keep some great thing from Adam and Eve. Satan has succeeded in getting Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit, and he has succeeded in using her to get Adam to also partake of the forbidden fruit. At this point, Satan could have been thinking that Adam and Eve are going to completely die on this day. On this very day, and Satan will feel satisfied that he has succeeded in ruining Adam and Eve, who were the very apex of God's creation.

Or it's possible that Satan might have been thinking with a more distant cosmic view. Henry Morris, the commentator, explains what he thinks Satan might have been thinking at this point and I want to read to you what he says here. He says by persuading Adam and Eve to follow his word instead of God's word, Satan probably believed that he had now won the allegiance of the first man and woman and therefore also of all their descendants. They would be allies of himself and his host of evil angels in their effort to dethrone and vanquish God.

Satan was now the God of this world, and the woman especially who was to bear the earth's future children would readily follow him. She had already demonstrated her control over the man who had eaten of the fruit when she told him to. With the wonderful potentialities of human reproduction under his control, Satan could, as it were, In time, create an innumerable host of obedient servants to do his bidding. Imagine what the devil would have been thinking at this point of the story, and I think Morris is on to something here.

In the mind of Satan, Adam and Eve now belong to him. Perhaps he is thinking that God will cast off Adam and Eve and just forsake the human race altogether. Perhaps he's thinking that he will be left alone with Adam and Eve and all their descendants, and he will be their ruler as he makes war. Against God.

Perhaps he is thinking that God certainly would never show up in this garden after what Adam and Eve have done. But to Satan's dismay, God shows up in the garden on the other side of Adam and Eve's. Sin. To Satan's delight, Adam and Eve run away from God and hide from him behind the trees of the garden.

So far, so good, he's thinking. But to Satan's dismay, God reaches out to hiding mankind. And says to Adam, where are you, Adam? And Adam steps forward and an exchange begins and Adam says, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid of you, so I hid myself from you.

God responds by saying, who told you that you were naked, Adam? And when Adam does not reply, God says, have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat? Adam replies with a woefully imperfect confession. He says the woman.

Whom you gave to be with me, she herself gave to me of the tree, and I ate. God looks at Eve and says, What is this you have done? And Eve replies, saying the serpent deceived me. And I ate This is where we left off last week and this is a hugely pivotal moment in the story.

What will God do at this point? Will he destroy Adam and Eve? Will he fly into a rage and do all manner of damage to his creation? Will he concede defeat to Satan?

Will he walk away from Adam and Eve and leave them under the dominion? Of the serpent. You see, we, we often think that the turning point of human history was when Adam and Eve fell into sin, and indeed, that is true, but the bigger turning point is right here starting in verse 14. The biggest turning point in history is not really man's choice to sin.

The biggest turning point in human history is how God chooses to respond to man after he sinned. And we begin to see the account of that in verse 14. We will see as we go along a couple of things. We're gonna see how the pronouncements that God makes are profoundly deliberate in their intention.

And we will also observe how these pronouncements are laced with tremendous hope. These words are not God flying into a rage and venting with judgments and with curses upon mankind. Quite the opposite. This is God being deliberate and surgical.

God is going to crash into the devil's parade in these verses. Satan has messed with the wrong person. God declares war in these verses, and he announces in advance what he will do to Satan in the end. He announces the outcome.

As for man, beginning in our verses today, we actually begin to see how God immediately begins paving the road. That will lead mankind back to paradise. What an amazing God we have. Let me read the passage to you beginning in verse 14.

The text says, and the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field, on your belly, you will go and dust you will eat all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel. To the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth.

In pain, you will bring forth children. Yet your desire will be for your husband. And he will rule over you. This is the word of God and may God help us to understand His word, this morning.

Here's how we'll break things down. We'll observe 6 pronouncements that God makes in response to the serpents and the woman's actions in the fall. Next, time we're in Genesis, we'll look at what God says to Adam. But all we have time for today is to observe today what God says to the serpent and what God says to the woman in response to both of their actions involved in the fall of man into sin.

Pronouncement number one, God pronounces the serpent uniquely cursed among all the animals. God pronounces the serpent uniquely cursed among all the animals. Verse 14, and the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field. It's interesting to observe that.

God does not turn to the serpent and ask the serpent any questions. He asked Adam questions, he asked Eve a question and gives them both a chance to reply. God does not ask the serpent any question. He doesn't say, what is this that you have done?

He gives the serpent no opportunity to confess. This is because Satan is a fallen angel whose fate is sealed and whose doom is sure. There is no plan for the redemption. Of the devil.

The fact that God asked the serpent no question should show us how God questioning Adam and Eve was actually a grace to them, a grace which he does not show to the serpent. Adam and Eve will be the recipients of the grace of redemption. The serpent will not be. Now keep in mind that when God speaks to the serpent in this verse, actually a couple of verses, on one level he is speaking to the physical serpent.

And yet on another level, he is speaking to what the Bible describes as that old serpent. Called the devil. That's the only way to really, handle the language, the exalted language here in these verses fully is to understand that he's speaking yes to the physical serpent, but also to the devil behind the serpent. Please note that in everything that God says in chapter 3, you'll note in the language that the serpent is the only living being that is actually cursed.

this might be a fine distinction to try to make. In verse 14, God says to him, cursed are you. And you might want to mark that. God does not talk this way to Adam.

And Eve. He's going to promise Eve pain, but he will not make Eve a cursed object. In the same way, God will say to Adam, let's see, he'll say to Adam, cursed is the ground because of you. But he will not make Adam himself a cursed object.

So technically, the only directly cursed objects by the end of chapter three are the serpent and the ground. Now as God speaks to the serpent here, and we read in the New American Standard what he says, it's easy to understand the language here to imply comparison, making it seem like God is saying all of the animals are now cursed, but serpent, you will be more cursed than all of them. But literally, the literal language of the text here is he's saying to the serpent, you are cursed from all cattle and from every beast of the field.

The idea is, God is saying, I am singling you out and making you the cursed one among all the animals.

It is true that all the animals. And God's creation on earth will suffer the effects of the curse upon the world, yet God is singling out the serpent as the only animal that is actually a cursed being. He pronounces a curse upon the serpent and says, cursed are you. What is entailed in the curse that brings us to the second pronouncement.

And that is God banishes the serpent to a lowly existence. He banishes the serpent to a lowly existence. Verse 14, he says, on your belly, you will go and dust you will eat all the days of your life. I would, as I read this text, I would presume that this means that the form and the movements of the serpent were altered at this point by God.

Not every commentator agrees with this by any means, but it seems, sensible to me to understand God is causing some alteration. In the physical structure of the serpent at this point, affecting the way that it moves about and also changing its center of gravity and lowering its plane of existence. However, the serpent looked or moved about prior to these words by God, it is now reduced to crawling about on its belly. This banishment, as one writer says, is a badge of degradation.

This is humiliation. The serpent goes from being the wisest animal in God's creation to now being the lowliest in God's animal creation. No other beast of the earth will have as lowly of an existence as that of the serpent. The serpent will have to look up.

To all the cattle and to all the beasts of the field from this moment forward. Now, in saying that the serpent will eat dust all the days of its life, I don't think God is necessarily saying that the serpent will literally dine on dust. There are other similar expressions in the Old Testament that are roughly equivalent to even our language today of biting the dust. In the Old Testament, there are expressions like eating the dust and licking the dust, which have the idea of being humbled or suffering horrible defeat.

Basically, what God is saying to the serpent is, he's saying you will henceforth forever exist in a state of humiliation and defeat. You will eat dirt. All the days Of your life. And by the way, in the book of Isaiah, I think Isaiah 65, talking about during the millennial reign of Christ, when Christ is reigning on earth, talks about the lion will lie down with the lamb and so forth, and there's a change in the animal.

creation, but then it says, and the serpent, dust will be the food of the serpent. There'll be no change in status for the serpent. That might be Isaiah 65:35. You can check that after the message is done.

Don't. Don't, don't be distracted as we move on here. But there's something else that God promises to the serpent, and that brings us to the third pronouncement, and that is he promises to put enmity between the serpent and the woman. Verse 15, he says, and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed.

Guys, as, as many of, this is one of the most important verses in the Old Testament, Genesis 3. 15 Theologians call this the proto-evangelium, which is a complicated way of saying first gospel. This is the first declaration of good news to man on the other side of his sin. Yes, it was spoken to the serpent, but spoken in such a way that Adam and Eve could hear what was being said.

Martin Luther says of this verse, this text embraces and comprehends within itself everything noble and glorious that is to be found anywhere in the scriptures, the DNA of the rest of the Bible. is found here in Genesis 3:15. Adam and Eve have sinned and God is almost right away declaring the good news of the gospel within their hearing. The word enmity speaks of hostility.

In warfare. This is a declaration of war by God. We already know that there was enmity between God and the serpent. But God, interestingly, is telling the serpent here that he will put this same enmity between the serpent and the woman.

Prior to the fall, the woman placed her confidence in the serpent. There should have been enmity between the woman and the serpent the moment the serpent tempted her to partake of the tree, but instead, Eve trusted the serpent and went along with him. But here in verse 15, God is promising to put enmity in the place where there was once friendship. Or confidence, at least on Eve's part towards the serpent.

This is actually a wonderful announcement of a change. That is going to or has already come upon the woman, a good change. We already know that she knows she was tricked, she knows that she was deceived, but God here is promising to do a work in the heart of the woman such that she's going to hate the serpent. God will convert her to his ways such that her former trust of the serpent and submission to the serpent is going to turn into hatred and enmity.

God is promising that the woman will be on God's side and is going to join God in His enmity with the serpent. And part of what God is saying to Satan is, you messed with the wrong person in deceiving this woman. This woman will be at enmity with you from this moment forward, and I, God, will personally see to that. You gain no ally in her.

In doing what you have done, Mr. Serpent, in fact, you just gained a fierce enemy in her. From a physical standpoint, As God continues the pronouncement, look at this, he doesn't just promise that there's gonna be enmity between Eve and the serpent, but also between Eve's descendants and the serpents. Descendants.

Part of what this means. Is that Eve's descendants, and that's all of us, as a general rule, will have a hostile relationship. With snakes, humans and snakes, as many of, have not gotten along well since the fall of man into sin. Before the fall, we see Eve conversing with the serpent, but after the fall, the relationship between mankind and snakes has been very, different.

There have been a few notable exceptions to, to that. Here's one of them. My son, Benjamin went for his senior pictures last year and shared a tender moment with a wild rattlesnake. That's some guy that he had never met before walked up with a wild rattlesnake and said, you wanna hold it?

And kept saying, show it love, show it love, show it love. Benjamin did. And there's some photos of that. So not recommending this behavior here, there probably should have been enmity here, but the snake responded to the kindness that Benjamin showed him.

But as a normal rule, In the normal course of human events, we recoil from snakes, right? John Calvin actually says, and I quote, that every time the sight of the serpent inspires us with horror, as it does me, the memory of our fall is renewed. So that's the relationship as a general rule that mankind has with serpents ever since the fall. But we would be cheating ourselves in this passage if we thought that was all that God is saying here.

There's something so much deeper going on. Keep in mind that God is talking to the old serpent who is called the devil. That being the case, we need to ask ourselves, who is the seed of the serpent and who is the seed of the woman where there will be enmity between them. The rest of scripture makes it very clear who the seed of the serpent.

The seed of the serpent are human beings basically that side with Satan in his war against God. Jesus speaks about such people in John chapter 8 verse 44, and he, he tells the Jews who hated him, he says, you hate me because you are of your father, the devil and you want to do the desires of your father, the devil. And Matthew 3:7, I don't think I have that, yeah, I do. Matthew 3:7, John the Baptist looks at the Pharisees, the enemies of Jesus Christ, and he calls them a brood of snakes, literally offspring of snakes.

You're the offspring of vipers, of serpents, of snakes. Jesus uses the same language in Matthew 12:34. In Matthew 13:28, Jesus speaks of the good seed being the sons of the kingdom, and he also speaks of the sons of the evil one. Descendants as it were of the devil.

In Matthew 23:15, Jesus speaks of the Pharisees as children. Of hell Children of hell. So in summary, as God is speaking of enmity between the serpents seed or the devil's seed and the woman's seed, the seed of the serpent, as one writer says, refers to natural humanity whom he, the serpent or Satan has led into rebellion against God. That's who the seed of the serpent is.

So we know who the seed of the serpent is, but who is the seed of the woman? Well, in a way, we could say that every human being is the seed of the woman, but that clearly is not what God is referring to here. Whatever God means by the seed of the woman here, it is a reference to those who are at enmity. Against the serpent and against his spiritual offspring.

that's the only way to understand the statement that God makes here. Someone who is living in this world, a human being, and they are not at odds with the serpent or with his offspring, cannot rightly, according to this passage, be considered the seed of the woman that God is speaking about here. From a positive standpoint, Henry Morris says that the seat of the women, the woman are those in the human family who are brought into the right relationship to God through faith. That's the people of God, those who side with him in his war against the serpent and his offspring.

So the woman seed are her descendants who follow God and who are at war with the serpent and his offspring. There is a war between these two seeds. Every person in this room, every person in this room is one seed or the other. And I ask you which seed are you?

Which side? In this conflict are you on? Are you of the good seed? Are you a child of God, having been saved through Jesus Christ, or are you of The father, the devil, and it's his desires that you are carrying out.

Whose side are you on? There's more. God says there will be enmity between You, Mr. Serpent, and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring.

There will be enmity, but there is more, and that brings us to the 5th pronouncement that God makes or the 4th, I'm sorry, and that is this, God promises that the woman's seed will deliver a crushing blow to the serpent's head. God promises that the woman's seed will deliver a crushing blow to the serpent's head. Verse 15, God says, he, the seed of the woman shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel. The language of verse 15 is interesting, just notice the sequence.

God says to the serpent, I'm gonna put enmity between you. And the woman, and enmity between your descendants, as it were, and her descendants, but based on the language here, there will be a singular descendant of this woman who will bruise you, Mr. serpent, on the head, and you will strike a blow to his heel. God is not saying here the descendant of the woman, this one descendant will bruise the head of one of your descendants.

No, God is promising Satan himself that this singular descendant of the woman will deliver a blow to the head of Satan himself in a cosmic battle of champions that is yet to come. This champion from the woman's seed will deliver the fateful blow to the serpent's head. The Hebrew verb that is translated bruise is used twice here in this verse, both for the seed striking the head of the serpent and the serpent striking the heel of the woman's seed. This word has the literal idea of striking at.

To deliver a blow. So a good translation would be, he shall strike you on the head and you shall strike him on the heel. He will deliver a blow to your head, but the highest you will get in assaulting him, God says to the serpent, will be to deliver a blow to the back of his foot. So it's the same word used to describe both strikes, but actually, though it's the same word, it has two very different ideas or results.

The striking that the woman's seed will inflict upon the serpent's head is clearly a striking with the foot. A stomping with the foot. As one writer says, when man steps on a serpent's head, a crushing results. You don't punch, punch a snake in the head.

That's not how you deal with the snake. That's not the blow that God is speaking about here. You step on its head, you deliver the blow with your foot as you crush the head of the snake and drive it into the ground. Nonetheless, the serpent will deliver a blow to the heel.

He will inflict an injury, but it will be merely to the heel. Of this singular descendant. Of the woman whom we know as Jesus Christ. Clearly, this passage is a reference to the battle between Satan and Christ at the cross.

At the cross, Christ did suffer injury. He died horribly, but it was at the cross where he said as we sang, it is finished, and it was in the tomb where Christ was raised from the dead, where Christ delivered the punishing fatal blow. To the head of Satan. Actually, he didn't just deliver the blows on those occasions, the blows to the serpent's head.

Continue It is during this time in human history and on the road ahead that Christ actually intends to continue crushing the head of Satan. And that's why you'll like this in Romans 16:20, Paul says, and the God of peace will soon crush Satan. Under your feet Shortly When you read that verse, don't just rejoice in the fact that God is, and He will ultimately crush the head of Satan, rejoice in the fact that he wants to use your feet. To do that.

Live your life from day to day with that. Reality, that looming reality in mind. And when Satan comes to you and he tempts you and tries to intimidate you, just, just quote Romans 16:20 back at him. Preach the gospel to him, which is very bad news for him, but good news for you.

His head will be crushed, utterly and completely in a future day, and some of that crushing, all of it will be done by Christ, and some of that will be by Christ using your very feet to do that. What's interesting is how God says to the serpent that you'll strike a blow to his heel. No one would have looked at the brutal killing of Christ at the cross. And ever thought this at the time, but after Christ was raised from the dead and ascended to the right hand of God, looking back, It only looks like a heel wound.

That he suffered. At the time, it looked like a wholesale slaughter of Jesus Christ and a massive victory for Satan, but in the end, It was just a heel wound. God is making a wonderful promise here within earshot of Eve and Adam, this promise would fill Eve's heart with tremendous hope. Yes, Eve sinned, yes, she ate and yes she gave fruit to her husband, yet God, based on what he says here, is going to use her to bring someone into the world who will deal a fatal blow.

To the serpent's head. There will be a battle that will come, and this seed, this descendant of hers will sustain an injury to his heel. But in the end, he will crush the head of the serpent and will triumph for mankind. Yes, the serpent successfully used this woman as an instrument to get to Adam and to bring sin into the world, but God is going to use this very woman as his instrument through which salvation and redemption.

Will come into the world. It should also be noted, and I love this, that God gives no specifics. As to a timetable here. Some writers say this is so intentional by God.

Listen to what one writer says, by leaving open the question of just what woman the savior was to be born, God mocks the tempter, always leaving him in uncertainty which one would ultimately overthrow him, so that the devil had to live in the continual dread of every woman's son that was born. God does not say when. He does not say when, but a day will come. When one of this woman's descendants will crush your head.

Warren Weirsby is so right when he says that this verse, Genesis 3:15 is a beacon of hope to God's covenant people. It is a declaration of war to Satan and it is a wonderful assurance to Eve that she was forgiven and that God would use a woman to bring the redeemer into The world Have you heard the old joke, where would men be if it were not for Women? How many of you have heard that? It's OK to admit that you've heard it.

I'm not asking you if you've told it. We're Where would men be if it were not for the woman? What's the answer people give? We'd still be in the garden.

Right? But based on this verse, we have a better answer. To that question, where would we be if it were not for the woman? We'd be without a savior.

We would be stuck eternally in our sins. Thank you, ladies. Thank you. Thank you, womankind, for the savior that you gave to us, Jesus Christ, who was born of a woman and who brought us salvation.

Now imagine, keep in mind that God is speaking to the serpent here, but Eve can hear what he's saying and I can imagine that Eve no doubt is hearing God speaking these words to the serpent and thinking, this is awesome. I can't wait to have 100 children so that my offspring can accomplish this wonderful victory that God is announcing here. But it's probably right as Eve was beginning to think that thought. That God turns to her and says, as for you, I've got something to say to you, and that brings us to the 5th pronouncement of God on this occasion, and that is he promises to multiply the woman's pain.

Regarding Childbirth He promises to multiply the woman's pain with regard to childbirth. To the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. In pain, you will bring forth children. There is probably no area of a woman's life that has the capacity to bring her more joy.

Than her bringing new life into this world and bearing. A child I still remember how Donna looked at me. After she had given birth to Brianna, our 4th child, and she said to me, I have this feeling of euphoria like I have never felt before. And I know when Brianna hears that, she's thinking, yeah, I have that effect on people,.

Of course, she would feel happiness in giving birth to me, but But you ladies know what I'm talking about. There's no higher joy. that you have experienced in giving birth to a child. This is a blessing from the Lord Jesus himself in John 16:21 speaks of the joy of a woman upon delivering her child.

Childbirth really is about as close to the miraculous as any of us see in the normal sea of lifetime. Yet based on this passage, even this mountaintop experience of extreme joy is going to experience an invasion of pain. And not just some pain, but God says, I will multiply your pain. And God doesn't just say multiply, but literally the text reads this way in the Hebrew, I will multiply, comma, really multiply your pain.

When it comes to having children. We need to be careful when we read this passage, not to lump this whole statement together and assume that it's merely talking about the physical act of labor pains and delivering a child on the day of delivery. In fact, the first word that is used here is actually the Hebrew word not for child delivery, but for conception. And pregnancy, not delivery.

So let's translate the passage as literally as we can. God says to Eve, I will multiply, really multiply your pain with regard to conception slash pregnancy, and in toil, you will bring forth children. That's literally the idea of what God is saying here. Let's go one step further and paraphrase what God is saying to maybe bring us closer to the idea.

God says, I will multiply, really multiply your instances of pain with regard to the biological processes that make conception and pregnancy possible. Additionally, in toil, you will deliver children. So this promise includes the pain of childbirth, prepartum, postpartum, as well as any pains and discomforts of pregnancy. Along with all the instances of pain entailed in a woman's menstrual cycle throughout her life.

It also includes all the emotional pain. And vulnerabilities that a woman experiences throughout her life as a mother. This pain that God promises will not just be physical. God is warning Eve that being a mother will bring her exceedingly close to the sharpest.

And the keenest edges of the fall. Being a mother is awesome and filled with joy, but being a mother in a fallen world brings a mixture of both joy and pain. That can't quite be accessed any other way. One writer says mothering is fraught with pain from birth onward.

To be a mother is to experience a new and an ongoing index. Of pain. As a mom, you experience unparalleled pleasures, great joys, but however high and deep those joys go, that's the watermark for how deep the pain goes. As A mom.

In the book, Pastoral Leadership for Biblical manhood and Womanhood, there's a story told about an older mom who is having lunch. with a, a, a young wife who had not had children yet and this young childless wife was talking to this older. woman and was saying, my husband and I are thinking about having our first child, and, we're taking a survey right now. What do you think?

Should we have a baby? So she asked this older woman, like, what do you think? Should we have a baby? The older lady spoke in measured tones and said, It will change you.

The childless, woman laughed and said, yeah, no more spontaneous vacations, right? The older woman describes her thought processes as she looked at this pretty young, childless wife and she was thinking, this woman doesn't have a clue. What. And she describes her thought process as she stared at this pretty young, childless woman, listen to what she writes.

I tried to decide what to tell her. I want her to know what she will never learn in childbirth classes, that the physical wounds of childbearing heal, but that becoming a mother will leave an emotional wound so raw that she will be forever vulnerable. I consider warning her that she will never read a newspaper again without asking, what if that had been. My child That every plane crash, every fire will haunt her.

That when she sees pictures of starving children, she will wonder if anything could be worse than watching. Your own child die. When a woman gives birth, her index for pleasure increases and her capacity for pain. Also increases.

Children, this is why your mom cries when she watches movies. It's you. You're the reason. Can I get an amen?

Giving birth to you has changed her and rendered her more deeply vulnerable to the world's hurts. And pains. This is part of the texture of the joy and the pain of motherhood. A mother lives 1000 lives, she laughs 1000 laughters and she weeps 1000 tears.

Think about Mary, the mother of Jesus. What greater honor could ever be given to any woman. Than to be the mother of this singular descendant of Eve, who would crush the head of the serpent. What a great honor, what a great joy Mary did experience upon receiving this news and no doubt what great joy she experienced in raising the Messiah.

Over the years of his growing up, and yet, Simeon looks at Mary. And he says to her, A sword will pierce even your own soul. There is a pain. Yes, there is joy, but there is a piercing that awaits you.

You will be vulnerable. To a very deep hurt and a very deep pain. Please don't misunderstand. God is not announcing here in Genesis 3 that there will be no joy in mothering.

Or even in childbirth, there are incredible joys in being a mother, but he's announcing that this joy will be invaded by pain, multiplied pains. But even in this announcement of pain, we see incredible mercy here. Yes, Eve will experience pain and toil with regard to such things, yet she will have children. God wants her to have children and to be a mother.

God could have said, because you have done this, Eve, you will be childless. But God doesn't do that. He does not render Eve barren. She will be productive and have children, and from among those children, one of them will rise up and strike a fatal blow to the serpent's head and win the battle once and for all.

In fact, Adam is going to be so inspired. by what God says here to Eve that when God is done speaking to both Eve and Adam, Adam is gonna turn to Eve and he is going to name her Eve because she is the mother of all the living. As an expression of his hope that no doubt he picks up here in what God says to the serpent as well as to Eve. Well, there's one final pronouncement that God makes here.

Let's try to get into this and then we'll wrap it up. And pick up here next time, and that is that God promises that the woman's desire will be for her husband, who will rule over her. Verse 16, yet he says, your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you. ladies, you might want to write this down.

The Hebrew word translated desire is teshuka. Teshuka rhymes with bazooka, all right. Tashuka, so feel free to use this word. It's very intimidating sounding.

You can just say to your husband, I am feeling Tehuka right now, just so he can be forewarned. Tohuka Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you. The question is, what does God mean when he says what he says here. Your desire will be for your husband and yet he will rule over you.

how do we figure out what this means? fortunately, we have the word desire, to shuka, and the Hebrew word for rule used. In contrasting clauses in one other place in the Bible, and that happens to be in the very next chapter, Genesis 4:7, and looking at how these two words are used in Genesis 4:7 can help us in knowing how to understand what God is saying here in Genesis 3:16. In Genesis 4:7, God is the speaker, just as he is here, and he is speaking to Cain.

Cain's offering to God had been rejected. Cain is now seething with anger over this rejection. God is speaking to Cain in Genesis 4:7, and he says this to Cain, if you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door, and it's teshuka is for you.

But you must master it. We have the word desire, and we have the word master in Genesis 4:7 just as we have it in Genesis 3:16. Almost certainly what is meant in Genesis 4:7 is, and no one really disagrees with this, that what God is saying is that sin is crouching at the door and its desire is to dominate you. It's desire is to own you, to master you.

Nonetheless, God is telling Cain that he must respond. To sin by mastering it, by ruling over it, by keeping its desire for dominance from being satisfied. So given how God uses these very words in Genesis 4:7, we can arrive at a likely understanding of what God means here in Genesis 3:16. We can understand God to be saying to Eve, from henceforth, you will find within you a desire to dominate and control your husband, yet he will rule over you in a way that is contrary.

To your desire to master him. The word rule that God uses here is not a harsh word. It's a good word. It's used in the Old Testament to speak of God ruling over his people.

The fact that Adam will rule over Eve is not a bad thing, and it doesn't mean that Adam ruling over his wife is a post-fall phenomenon. It simply means That the post-fall reality now is that Adam will have to govern his wife contrary. To her strong desire for dominion. This dynamic, a woman's desire to control her husband and his husband's governing or leading of her contrary to that inward desire is where much strife in marriage.

Derives itself today. The battle of the sexes did not start in the 1960s. It started here in Genesis chapter 3, and every marriage is touched by this battle to one degree or another. How many of of other marriages that have been touched by this battle?

OK. I see those hands. Wise husbands. And good wives are aware of this dynamic.

And they run to God for daily help to help them to get their relationship right. As John MacArthur says, because of sin and the curse, the man and the woman will face struggles in their own relationship, lifelong companions. Husbands and wives will need God's help in getting along as a result. And that's the point, actually.

These fallen conditions are the poison that God alone is the antidote for. It is the pains and the sorrows and marital difficulties that we experience that should drive us to God for the help that we need with our life and with our marriage in a fallen world. When you as a husband and wife are experiencing great brokenness and you're ready to pull your hair out or the other's hair out and in desperation, you come running to God and bowing low before him and saying, God, you've got to help us.

We're desperate.

In such a moment, you're actually hoping for a miracle, but please understand, you're already a miracle that you're now coming to God. God looks at you, bowed before him in desperation. And he says it took me years to accomplish this miraculous moment. of bringing you to myself and desperation so that you would come to me for help.

Here in this passage, we'll be saying more about this in the coming weeks, but here in this passage, guys, in summary, we have good news, bad news, we have good, bad news. God says to the serpent, you cannot have this woman. I will put enmity between you and this woman and between her offspring and your offspring. There will be a battle of champions one day, and there will be one among her offspring who will crush your head.

Eve, the good news is that you will have children. The good news is that a Messiah will come forth from you who will deliver the fatal blow to Satan's head. The bad news is that you will have multiplied instances of pain in the process. The bad news is that you will have within your heart.

A desire to dominate and control your husband. Making his rule over you something that a part of you will always chafe against, and part of this is you will have a fallen husband who gives you a million reasons to chafe against that on so many occasions. But from your union as a broken woman with this man, a broken man on the other side of your sin, ultimately will come forth a savior, who will deal the fatal blow to the serpent's head. And bring everlasting victory.

Amen. Oh God, it's so good. let me just close with this in 1 Timothy 2, Paul is speaking of what happens here in Genesis 3, and he says it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being quite deceived fell into transgression, but she, Eve, and then all women that are represented by her shall be literally, the Greek is saved. Saved through literally the childbearing.

If they Meaning Eve and all the women that she represents continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint. The promise of this verse is so true. Eve and all women who believe in Christ and who continue in faith and love and sanctity. are saved through childbearing because from Eve onward, one generation after another, women gave birth to the next generation with heart-rending cries of pain, each one, until finally Mary gave birth to the Messiah who brought salvation not only to womenkind who believe in Jesus, but to all of mankind who believes in Jesus.

And what we have in our passage today are the broad outlines of this, the most amazing story found anywhere, and it takes the rest of the Bible to unfold the story that we find the beginnings of and the outlines of right here. And the cosmic war between the seed of the serpent and the godly seed of the woman. Whose seed are you? Are you a child of God?

Or are you a child of Satan? There is no middle ground. You are one or the other. And the Bible tells us that as many as received Christ, to them, he gives the power to become children of God.

It is children of God who believe in Jesus, and if you have never believed in Him today and cried out to him to be your Lord and Savior, I call upon you. To confess his name. To come to him with your brokenness and your bankruptcy and say, Lord Jesus, I believe in you as my Lord and Savior, and I surrender my life to your power and to your love. If you do that as a result of God's spirit working in your heart.

You are a child of God and you are on the right side of this conflict. Let's pray together. Lord, that the more we study the Book of Genesis, the more I'm blown away by The genius of it all. There are major themes and subtle themes that just This is like among the most sophisticated pieces of literature I have ever read anywhere.

And it's our story. Our fate hangs in the balance based on these events that are described here. And we thank you, Lord, that after Adam and Eve sinned, and we all sinned in them. That you did not banish them, you did not strike them dead, you did not forever separate yourself from them and leave them to their fate, but you invaded.

You invaded their brokenness. You moved toward them in their brokenness. And you You began to bring salvation and all of us in this room, Lord, are the beneficiaries of this. Those of us that have believed in you, we benefit from this salvation and those who are in this room who have not yet believed in you, they're benefiting today to get to hear this amazing news.

For them to ponder and decide what they will do with it. You're a good God. And your salvation is, is deep and it's strong and it's wonderful. And we celebrate you, God.

For your goodness displayed. And bringing salvation to sinners such as we are. We thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to give of our offerings to you. We ask that you would receive these funds and do much with every penny that is given for the glory of Jesus.

In whose name we pray, and all God's people said,