Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Genesis

Genesis 3:16-19 12/16/01

Intro: Many years ago there lived a little girl was totally blind from birth as the result of an accident who lived to be over 90 years old. She was much loved by the American church because she wrote many popular Christian songs and choruses. Her name was Fanny Crosby. When she was only eight years old, she wrote:

     It is all too easy to see the hard times in life...to see and focus on what is missing or insufficient..isn't it?  There is so much more God wants us to see...blessing in disguise.

     While on a short-term missions trip, Pastor Jack Hinton was leading worship at a leper colony on the island of Tobago. A woman who had been facing away from the pulpit turned around.  "It was the most hideous face I had ever seen," Hinton said. "The woman's nose and ears were entirely gone. She lifted a fingerless hand in the air and asked, 'Can we sing Count Your Many Blessings?' " Overcome with emotion, Hinton left the service. He was followed by a team member who said, "I guess you'll never be able to sing that song again."  "Yes I will," he replied, "but I'll never sing it the same way."

     It is easy to look at life and complain..to see the glass as always half empty...without recognizing that there is still plenty in the glass to drink...especially when you are thirsty.

     All of us need to look deeper in life than the surface. If we don't, we will miss many of the blessings God brings our way.
As I mentioned last week, in our text we will see blessings in the guise of cursing. Hope in the company of despair. Victory in the throws of defeat. Life in the promise of death.

Trans:  We will look beneath the curses and judgments of God to see how they are in fact, a blessing to wayward sinners leading them to a restored relationship with their gracious God.

Background
     Last week we saw three curses placed upon the serpent by God and three blessings in disguise for the Believer with eyes to see and ears to hear.

Trans: Can you imagine how Adam and Eve must have felt when God was finished speaking judgment to the Serpent and turned to speak to them?  God's curses on the serpent didn't mean Adam and Eve were off the hook.

Read: Genesis 3:16a

     But now, she will suffer when raising children.  The word for PAIN in Hebrew also includes the idea of sorrow and I believe this extends the pain and sorrow beyond childbirth ...... to child rearing. Why do some couples have problems conceiving?  Or carrying a child to full term?...Why are their such intense labor pains?...Why do children have  temper tantrums, throw fits and at times act just plain stupid?

     Sorrow! Women, am I right...it hurts to have children and it hurts raising them, especially when they are disobedient?
 That is the consequence of the sin of the woman which was specific to her.

     Second, although there will be pain and sorrow associated with childbirth and raising children...she WILL give birth and raise children. That is the second blessing behind this curse. Although punished for her sin in a way that is specific to her, she can still say with the Psalmist 'children are an inheritance from the Lord and a reward from Him'.

     Third, God is not cruel when He pronounced this punishment on the woman, He is incapable of being cruel.
 In making childbirth and raising children painful and with much sorrow, God is showing you and reminding you that sin ultimately hurts and makes you miserable. He was reminding you and all of us that there are severe consequences to sin...and that is a blessing so that we think twice before choosing to sin.

     Finally, regardless of the pain and sorrow associated with childbirth, God has allowed the woman to regain her dignity through childbirth. The glow of a woman with child is unmistakable and lovely.  I have met very few women who had children and said they regretted it. Talk to any mother, they forget all about the pain when they hold their newborn baby in their arms for the first time. Beneath the punishment of her sin, is God's mercy and grace.

Read: Genesis 3:16b

     Her desire will be for her husband.  I believe the punishment to all women here means that a woman's desire will be to rule over her husband, she will not be willing to submit to his leadership, as Eve did when she coerced Adam to sin. Thereby bringing stress and competition into the marriage relationship.  I believe this because it fits the context of Gen. 3 and the same word 'desire' is used just a few verses later in chapter 4.

Read: Gen. 4:7

     The idea here, according to James Boice, is that the woman has the same kind of desire for her husband as sin has for Cain..to control and rule over him. And certainly that fits the context. God tells Adam in the next verse 'because you have listened to the voice of your wife...'

     The 'curse', is that women will suffer in marriage because she will constantly be at odds with her husband as she will desire independence and autonomy even in the marriage relationship ...which you will remember, God had joined together and you will remember they were made one flesh.

Trans: Is that how your marriage is? It was never intended to be that way.  What good could possibly be seen in this? What is the blessing in disguise?

Read: Gen. 3:16c

     Remember, the battle of the sexes began, after the Fall, after sin, not before it. God, in judging the woman immediately began to restore the marriage relationship. Even though women will desire to control and usurp their husbands leadership in the family, God says 'He, your husband, shall rule over you.'

     God is reestablishing order in the household. It will not come easily but with the birth the specific seed of the woman, Jesus Christ, order will be reestablished in Christian households.

     Is it automatic? No, but it is promised by God when we follow His plan. What's the plan to restore marriage to God's intended purpose?

Read: Eph. 5:21-33

     The blessing is that through Christ and an intimate and obedient relationship with Him, the seed of the woman (Christians) can experience in a small way, marriage as it was intended, prior to the Fall.

     Marriage is tainted by sin  but not destroyed by it when Christ is Lord in the marriage.

     Most problems in marriage have their root here...a failure to live out what God says in Eph. 5. God intends us to be blessed in marriage and has made it possible for us to work through the curse and experience the blessing of marriage where godly order is reestablished.

Trans: I wonder how Adam is feeling right about now? The serpent had been cursed by God, the woman that God had given to him had been punished...he was the only one left. Adams earlier attempt to blame the woman for his sin didn't excuse him. As the punishment for the woman affected her in her role as a mother and wife, so the man's punishment would affect him in his role of provider.

Read: Genesis 3:17-19a

     Pilate should have listened to his wife who told him to have nothing to do with the man Jesus. But he ignored his wife's voice. It is a foolish man who does not listen to the voice of his wife...right dear?

    Second, this punishment is perhaps better understood by farmers and gardeners. Why do you have to plow or till  the ground before planting? Why do you need pesticides? Why do you have to weed? ...I hate to weed. I would grow another vegetable garden in our back yard if I didn't have to constantly weed in between the vegetable plants. Why? Because the ground has been cursed because of Adam's sin. Follow with me here.

     God was to rule and have dominion over all life and Adam rebelled against God's authority.
     Adam was to have dominion over the ground and all living creatures but now the ground will rebel against him...just like Adam rebelled against God. It's punishment to fit the crime.

     Solomon, the preacher of Eccles. had this to say about the curse of man's work.

Read: Eccles. 2: 17-33

    Stress, heart-attacks, dog eat dog competition is the punishment for mans sin. As Adam..and the rest of us, work to meet our needs, we will encounter obstacles, weeds.....lots of weeds. God uses this to remind man that we are disobedient to God just as the ground is disobedient to man's wishes.

     God did not destroy the man, he only made it more difficult for him to enjoy living. Remember, work is a blessing from God found before the Fall in Gen. 2. Making work hard and the ground uncooperative is the curse.

     Even though the ground produces weeds and our work is now hard, it still produces good plants as well. Work is often hard and frustrating but it still accomplishes something and provides for our substance.

    One of the highest complements that can be paid to a person is that they are a hard worker, lazy men are not respected. By grace, God has allowed man to keep his dignity when he works hard and sees the blessing in the curse of toil in work.

Conclusion
     As we end here for this morning, let me leave you with this.

     For those of you who have children, are they a joy, a blessing to you? Do you believe they are an inheritance from the Lord? Or do you see them as nothing more than sorrow and pain.

     For those of you who are married... Are you experiencing the blessing of married life by living it as God directs. Or are you still living in the curse...fighting with one another, battling for leadership and authority.

     For those of you who are working, do you thank God for your job? No matter what it may be? Do you thank Him for providing for you and your family though that job? Or are you living in a sense of hopelessness like the preacher in Ecclesiastes who says that all work is toil and worthless?

     Are you living in the curse of sin or the blessing of God's glorious grace?

    Deut 30...I have placed before you life and death, blessing and cursing...choose life....and I would add, choose blessing.