IIIc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLycgKxlgc0
Ge 3:16 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. {to thy...: or, subject to thy husband}
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; {bring...: Heb. cause to bud}
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. {Eve: Heb. Chavah: that is 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.
(KJV)
Ge 3:16 To the woman he said, Great will be your pain in childbirth; in sorrow will your children come to birth; still your desire will be for your husband, but he will be your master.
17 And to Adam he said, Because you gave ear to the voice of your wife and took of the fruit of the tree which I said you were not to take, the earth is cursed on your account; in pain you will get your food from it all your life.
18 Thorns and waste plants will come up, and the plants of the field will be your food;
19 With the hard work of your hands you will get your bread till you go back to the earth from which you were taken: for dust you are and to the dust you will go back.
20 And the man gave his wife the name of Eve because she was the mother of all who have life.
21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife coats of skins for their clothing.
22 And the Lord God said, Now the man has become like one of us, having knowledge of good and evil; and now if he puts out his hand and takes of the fruit of the tree of life, he will go on living for ever.
23 So the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to be a worker on the earth from which he was taken.
24 So he sent the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden he put winged ones and a flaming sword turning every way to keep the way to the tree of life.
(BBE)
I've spent a lot of time on the possible physical effects of the curse. Let's dwell there a little bit more.
We don't know if there were children before the Fall. We don't know how long our ancestors lived in paradise. We don't know anything of the world outside Eden.
What we know: God looked at everything and said it was good. This implies perfection in everything.
This means the universe itself was in balance in some way we can't understand now because what we research now is the imbalance created by sin. We hae this notion of a clockwork universe, but, as I mentioned earlier, we keep hitting these walls. Science has it down, then another clue reveals something different. We cry for order and then we develop chaos theory to try to explain the mess outside of order and see it as another kind of order. Never saying that any order implies a Creator. We impose our sense of godhood by suggesting we change en event by merely observing it.
We never suspect what Paul says in Romans:
Romans 8:19 For the strong desire of every living thing is waiting for the revelation of the sons of God.
20 For every living thing was put under the power of change, not by its desire, but by him who made it so, in hope
21 That all living things will be made free from the power of death and will have a part with the free children of God in glory.
22 For we are conscious that all living things are weeping and sorrowing in pain together till now.
(BBE)
Ro 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. {the...: or, every creature}
(KJV)
When God tells Adam the earth is cursed, that Adam will now die, the whole of creation begins to fail. Everything collapses around us. a universe that should be stable or slowing down going toward entropy if evolution and the Big Bang are correct, is actually accelerating. going faster flying apart. One sin destroyed everything. EVERYTHING.
The enormity of that needs to sink in. Too often, we don't consider our petty sins of consequence.
"Hey, it's only a couple bucks not on the tax return."
"Hey, so I spent a night with a stranger. the wife will never know."
"So I hit the kid."
"So I stole the paper at work."
On and on. Plug in any one of them you can think of that you let go.
I recall once when my wife came in from the outside where she was puttering, went into the bedroom and shut the door. She came out a few minutes later and I asked what was going on.
"I swore at the weeds out there. I had to come in and pray to God for forgiveness."
It hits me at moments like those where I am at and reminds that she loved her earthly father, Tom, fiercely and would have done anything she could have if he ever needed it. She would never have sworn at him because of her love and that abides in her for the Lord.
My own relationship with my father was other than that. We were locked in a lack of communication and anger flowing both ways at times and that effects my relationship with God at times when I am not paying attention.
I mention all that because we need to focus now on God the father, on what sin, even the apparently small sin of eating from the wrong tree did to all relationships.
That sin broke our connection with God but it also broke the universe's connection, to get back on that track. Meteors which were never supposed to hit planets hit them. Stars that were meant to burn forever began to nova. Radioactive decay began. Neutrons broke from the center of atpoms. The magnetic field that protects the Earth began to warp and decay also. EVERYTHING began to die.
None of it was created for Satan to rule, He hasn't got a clue on how to create or, worse yet, how to maintain. He's just a rogue who wanted to seize power in heaven and God has now let eternity see what would happen if he had won. Heaven would be coming to pieces like this universe. The angels would be aimlessly wandering or doing whatever came to mind. Being directionless they would turn to destruction especially since they can't seem to create anything of their own.
Like us.
Old joke: Scientist confronts God.
"We can do anything you do. We can even create life."
God: "Okay, go ahead."
Scientist; "First we take the dirt."
God: "No, no, First you create the dirt."
Everything we have created is merely seeking to be like him and duplicating what He has already done in our own weak way. We were meant to be caretakers, gardeners, to manage this small spot of the universe. Today we think we were meant for Star Trek. We gave up our right to be the landscapers. We have some televangelists certain we are meant to rule but we don't really know what our place will be in the eventual eternal kingdom. We were meant for humility and loyalty. When we start naming and claiming, that needs to be at the head of the list.
When I spend too much time on this aspect, I get reminded of Job and God asking him where he was when God laid the foundations of the universe. There will always be a whole lot we don't understand about the physical nature of the universe and the way the Spirit effects it.
What we know is: the universe is dying because of what we did.
God punished the snake for his part in it. He was the tempter. He was Satan's agent, so he lost his physical characteristics.
Now God the Father steps forward. Many hate Him today. Like me and my father, they have no communication. They have never walked with Him, never met him. I found a Baptist flyer from a church sitting in a stall in the Walmart men's room. Someone had written in magic marker: "Every person in Hell is a sign of God's failure." And the notation is a sign of human failure. The demand that God explain himself to us personally. Not make us read as Bible or go to church, but come down here right now and tell us what He thinks he's doing and how dare he act like that.
I saw the same behavior at the DNC this week. Supporters of Bernie Sanders were yelling and screaming how it wasn't fair and one young woman, marching out as the losing roll call vote was taken told a reporter: "This isn't right. This is supposed to be a democracy." I guess you need to explain that the lady had 4 million more votes than Bernie and, in a democratic vote, majority rules.
But, thanks to our dumbing-down educational system, the woman leaving the stadium seemed to think democracy meant she would get her way. She could have read a civics book. She didn't understand how things work any more than the guy blaming God for people going to Hell didn't understand it is all adequately explained in the Bible.
Humanity broke the relationship. They were told they faced Death. I'm sure they had perfect communications skills and I also notice Snake told them they surely wouldn't die so they had some comprehension of what it meant and acted in the belief it would not touch them.
Now God steps forward and tells the woman what happens because of what she has done:
To the woman he said, Great will be your pain in childbirth; in sorrow will your children come to birth; still your desire will be for your husband, but he will be your master.
The woman has begun to die. Her decay means she will ow feel pain more deeply as she struggles to bring life into a dying world, Death wants victory. I doesn't want new life here. It wants the complete decimation of every living thing. Her children will now be born in a dying world, doomed to die themselves. The Earth has become their enemy.
God explains it more on the world wide level to Adam. His "curse" is a description of the physical problems dying engenders. Her desire will be for her husband, more for him and home than the outside things. She will need protection when her pregnancy reaches a certain stage. He will need to find food for her and provide while she goes through it, It will put her at a natural disadvantage for most of the history of humanity. Civilization has covered some of that need and modern medicine has greatly reduced some of the agony and hurt. Prejudices from those times remain. I feel the urge to protect a pregnant woman doing anything which may make me the product of my times or my genetics,
The results of her sin are more deeply personal She is fixed on the life around her that is now dying. She gives birth and the child is defenseless. Disease and hunger can now take its life. When Cain arrives we see the brutality is also a threat.
Thomas Haweis:
Verse 16: As the woman is second in guilt, she is next in sentence. She is to share with the man in his curse too; but she hath a burden on her, peculiarly her own.
1. An increase of sorrows in conception and child-bearing. Of all agonizing pains, these are acute to a proverb, while wearisome days and nights precede them; and fear, as well as anguish embitters them. Note, 1. Every groan of travail is the cry of sin; and every sorrow we feel, springs from this root. If our sorrows are multiplied, no wonder our sins are so: at the worst we must acknowledge they are less than our iniquities deserve. 2. We should regard the word of God in every sorrow: this alone can reconcile the heart to patient submission, I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because thou didst it, Ps 39:1-13
Ps 39:1 <<To the Chief Musician. To Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.>> I said, "I will guard my ways, Lest I sin with my tongue; I will restrain my mouth with a muzzle, While the wicked are before me."
2 I was mute with silence, I held my peace even from good; And my sorrow was stirred up.
3 My heart was hot within me; While I was musing, the fire burned. Then I spoke with my tongue:
4 "LORD, make me to know my end, And what is the measure of my days, That I may know how frail I am.
5 Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my age is as nothing before You; Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. Selah
6 Surely every man walks about like a shadow; Surely they busy themselves in vain; He heaps up riches, And does not know who will gather them.
7 "And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You.
8 Deliver me from all my transgressions; Do not make me the reproach of the foolish.
9 I was mute, I did not open my mouth, Because it was You who did it.
10 Remove Your plague from me; I am consumed by the blow of Your hand.
11 When with rebukes You correct man for iniquity, You make his beauty melt away like a moth; Surely every man is vapor. Selah
12 "Hear my prayer, O LORD, And give ear to my cry; Do not be silent at my tears; For I am a stranger with You, A sojourner, as all my fathers were.
13 Remove Your gaze from me, that I may regain strength, Before I go away and am no more."
(NKJV)
2. Her state of subjection pronounced. While innocence remained, if some superiority was placed in man, so gentle and affectionate was the sway that woman rather seemed the equal partner to the throne; but since sin hath entered, her yoke is heavier. Her husband rules, and as the fallen mind is now disturbed with pride and angry passions, these breed disquiet, and often make obedience real punishment. Happy those, who instead of complaining of their suffering, lament their sin. To disobey or murmur, or affect equality, much more superiority, is not only a violation of the divine law, but an insult on the divine judgment.
God brings simple truth that sin has brought death upon them and the nature of their dying has effected the nature of their living. Someone once said: "We are born dying." This is the truth of this whole section of "the curse." God acts on His own to disable Snake. With woman, he explains that her action has changed her life. Sin creates mutants. Contrary to the comic book science of the X-Men, mutation almost always has a negative effect on a species.
But God doesn't seem overcome with rage. He doesn't wipe them out and say, "We won't have any more of their kind. I'll build robots next time." He has something else in mind. He has a plan. He has a purpose. He moves with the active love of his divine nature.
In When God First Thought of You, Dr. Lloyd J. Ogilvie's discussion of 1 John, the man who was once the pastor of the Senate told the story of having a very rough week. He was down. Beat up. Facing depression. Then one friend spoke to him, words that elevated him, changed his week and his life. "Lloyd, I want your life to be as beautiful as it was in the mind of God when he first thought of you."
It pushed Ogilvie to prayer of new depths.
"Lord, what was I like when you first thought of me? What did you intend my life, all human existence, to be?"
The thought dispelled his depression.
"I tried to imagine life as God had intended it before we messed it up. twisted it with selfishness and pride. It was a sublime moment of getting back to basics, awakening again to reality.
...
"More quiet. I was not alone. The Lord was answering my prayer. The answer was himself!"
Lloyd realized in that moment the truth of what we lost when we sinned all that long ago. All the physical results of death drag on us, depress us, dredge into our very souls. The day to day of moving toward death's embrace becomes so ho-hum we barely sense it gutting our lives even as it robs us of them.
But he arrived at one open secret that we need to consider here and throughout this study: "Christ, Lloyd, Christ! That's how I first thought of you. And that's why I (incarnated) in him! Not only so you would know what I am like. But so you could know my picture of what you were meant to be!" (Pages 13-14)
The physical second Adam as the picture of what we were meant to be. The Spiritual Adam as the picture of what we where meant to be eternally.
And then consider again that perfect universe that death entered. Who was that created for?
Ephesians 1:4 reveals that God thought of you before you were conceived. Actually, this verse suggests that God thought of you even before the creation of the world. And he didn't just think about you, but also he chose you in Christ to be holy and blameless in his sight. This is a mind-blowing, heart-transforming truth, don't you think?
Now, you probably know that the interpretation of Ephesians 1:4 and similar verses varies widely among Christians. Some emphasize God's election in a way that minimizes human freedom and responsibility. Others find ways to talk about God's choice in a manner that makes it dependent in some way upon our faith. Others find ways to affirm both God's choice and human choice.
As you might imagine, I'm not going to engage in a debate about election in this short reflection. Rather, I want to underscore the marvelous good news of Ephesians 1:4. However you work out the details, the fact remains that God thought of you and chose you before he created the world. You are that important to him. Even as my son means the world to me, so you mean the world to God. Actually, it might be better to say you mean the universe to God.
https://www.theologyofwork.org/the-high-calling
We lost our proper selves and our proper homes.
Ro 5:8 But God has made clear his love to us, in that, when we were still sinners, Christ gave his life for us.
9 Much more, if we now have righteousness by his blood, will salvation from the wrath of God come to us through him.
10 For if, when we were haters of God, the death of his Son made us at peace with him, much more, now that we are his friends, will we have salvation through his life;
11 And not only so, but we have joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we are now at peace with God.
12 For this reason, as through one man sin came into the world, and death because of sin, and so death came to all men, because all have done evil:
13 Because, till the law came, sin was in existence, but sin is not put to the account of anyone when there is no law to be broken.
14 But still death had power from Adam till Moses, even over those who had not done wrong like Adam, who is a picture of him who was to come.
15 But the free giving of God is not like the wrongdoing of man. For if, by the wrongdoing of one man death came to numbers of men, much more did the grace of God, and the free giving by the grace of one man, Jesus Christ, come to men.
16 And the free giving has not the same effect as the sin of one: for the effect of one man's sin was punishment by the decision of God, but the free giving had power to give righteousness to wrongdoers in great number.
17 For, if by the wrongdoing of one, death was ruling through the one, much more will those to whom has come the wealth of grace and the giving of righteousness, be ruling in life through the one, even Jesus Christ.
18 So then, as the effect of one act of wrongdoing was that punishment came on all men, even so the effect of one act of righteousness was righteousness of life for all men.
19 Because, as numbers of men became sinners through the wrongdoing of one man, even so will great numbers get righteousness through the keeping of the word of God by one man.
20 And the law came in addition, to make wrongdoing worse; but where there was much sin, there was much more grace:
21 That, as sin had power in death, so grace might have power through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
(BBE)
So we lost our home before we got there. We were meant for that perfect place, for that perfect flesh.
We have that God shaped hole. but we also have an Eden shaped hole. And Eden has a human shaped hole. It was meant for us. The universe longs for us back. Paul says it's waiting the people of Christ. the remade flesh of Resurrection. We talk so much about the spirit's renewal. We miss that the First Flesh is our need as well.
The First Flesh that ended that moment as God told Adam his fate was our home as well.
17 And to Adam he said, Because you gave ear to the voice of your wife and took of the fruit of the tree which I said you were not to take, the earth is cursed on your account; in pain you will get your food from it all your life.
18 Thorns and waste plants will come up, and the plants of the field will be your food;
19 With the hard work of your hands you will get your bread till you go back to the earth from which you were taken: for dust you are and to the dust you will go back.
She listened to the snake, and seduced, she spoke to Adam. Up to this point humanity seems to have still had a chance. Adam could have told Eve she was wrong, ordered the snake away and called on God. But he chose to listen and we were all lost. If heaven were like Earth, after the resurrection, we would all be lined up in a row leading to Adam and told we all get one shot at him and all of us hope he gets tired of ducking by the time we get there. Except we know full well we've all done it, Christian or not. I would have folded the minute my wife flashed her lovely big eyes.
Thomas Scott about the guy who did fold:
Genesis 3:17 Ge 3:17
Verses 17-19. The plea, by which Adam tried to extenuate his crime, was adduced as the reason of his punishment. Instead of hearkening to the voice of God, he had hearkened to the voice of Eve, whom he was appointed to counsel and command, not to obey.
Yet the Lord did not denounce a curse on him and his seed, having before given intimations of rich blessings intended for them: but “he cursed the ground for his sake;” that, as he had transgressed in eating the forbidden fruit, so he might be chastised in the labour and sorrow connected with his future sustenance. In consequence of this curse, useless and noxious weeds and plants spring up spontaneously, and multiply with immense rapidity. These must be eradicated, the soil prepared, and much labour bestowed, before the precious fruits of the earth can be obtained. Hence incessant fatigue, pain, and penury, are the lot of the bulk of mankind; which would not have been the case had not sin occasioned it; and at last the herb of the field, the ordinary productions of the earth, were substituted for the delicious fruits of Eden, as a sharp rebuke for coveting and eating the forbidden fruit.
The weight of this part of the sentence falls chiefly on the man, to whom it is addressed, as that of the former on the woman. Nor was any respite or termination of this labour and sorrow to be expected, till death should consign the body to the earth again, to mingle with its original dust.—As we feel that this sentence, in every part, is in full force against the whole human species, it is absurd to deny that we were all joined in the covenant with Adam, our common representative. (Marg. Ref.) But as the sentence upon the serpent couched, under its outward meaning, the threatening of vengeance on the invisible tempter; so the death denounced against the body, which is but “the instrument of unrighteousness,” comprehends also the awful punishment prepared for the soul, the deviser and real agent in every sin. This is evinced by the sinful tendencies of human race, compared with the threatening of “the wrath of God against every soul of man that doeth evil.” Our very nature is fallen under the curse for Adam’s sake, and produces only sinful desires, words, and actions, unless renewed by divine grace; for in the very day in which Adam sinned, he died, he became spiritually dead, the Holy Spirit having left his soul: and all capacity of delighting in the holy service and spiritual worship of God is extinct in every descendant of Adam, till “the spirit of life in Christ Jesus” restores divine life by regeneration. Indeed, the apostle directly opposes the death which came by Adam, to the life which comes by Christ; so that, if the one is eternal, so is the other. (Marg. Ref.) Thus all are concluded under sin and wrath, and one by Jesus, the Mediator of a new covenant, can deliver us. And thus He, “the second Adam, the Lord from heaven,” as our surety, was under subjection, and made a curse for us; laboured through His sorrowful life, sweat blood in the garden, endured the travail of His soul—and at length expired on the cross, and was hid in the grave, that He might bear every part of the sentence deserved by man’s sin, and so finally save the whole multitude of His believing people.
We lost a lot physically as well as spiritually. Our universe began to rot. Our relationships became iffy. We had to work hard for a living. Farming killed a lot of couples and families with work and bad crops. Then we mechanized everything and ruined the food so the machines could pick it. Thorns make walking barefoot in the forest a foolish thing. Those delicious berries can now rip open your hand and lead to deadly infections with their thorns. Some of the berries are poison. The animals all have teeth and claws. And they sure don't listen anymore. Anymore than your wife or kids. Or you for that matter. Certainly not that fool in the car ahead who can't go faster than 30 miles per hour for some ungodly reason and seems to think he should talk on the blasted phone and how can a human being be so thoughtless since you have to get home to watch your show tonight and... I want you to keep all that in mind as we go on. The reason for stressing flesh throughout this blog is to see the very pertinent every day, pie-on-the-table reasons Christ died as well as the enormous pie-in-the-sky spiritual ones.
Watchman Nee in Changed Into His Likeness (p.90 1972 paperback edition);
"At his creation in the Garden of Eden. Adam had by nature a distinct self-conscious personality, but no sin, no 'old man.' He possessed free will, which made it possible for him to act on his own account, so that self was already there, but not sin."
Nee suggests it was always free will that made sin possible and it was also free will that made love possible. It was love that carved our universe perfectly and it was our free will to follow it always or fail. Nee spends time on the failure and the fact sin created Adam's old man.
"Before he sinned Adam was a natural man. After he sinned he was the old man."
Sin created the old man. The spiritual loss. Our Fallen Flesh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoafQWXEGis&list=RDuoafQWXEGis#t=0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLycgKxlgc0
Ge 3:16 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. {to thy...: or, subject to thy husband}
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; {bring...: Heb. cause to bud}
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. {Eve: Heb. Chavah: that is 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.
(KJV)
Ge 3:16 To the woman he said, Great will be your pain in childbirth; in sorrow will your children come to birth; still your desire will be for your husband, but he will be your master.
17 And to Adam he said, Because you gave ear to the voice of your wife and took of the fruit of the tree which I said you were not to take, the earth is cursed on your account; in pain you will get your food from it all your life.
18 Thorns and waste plants will come up, and the plants of the field will be your food;
19 With the hard work of your hands you will get your bread till you go back to the earth from which you were taken: for dust you are and to the dust you will go back.
20 And the man gave his wife the name of Eve because she was the mother of all who have life.
21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife coats of skins for their clothing.
22 And the Lord God said, Now the man has become like one of us, having knowledge of good and evil; and now if he puts out his hand and takes of the fruit of the tree of life, he will go on living for ever.
23 So the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to be a worker on the earth from which he was taken.
24 So he sent the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden he put winged ones and a flaming sword turning every way to keep the way to the tree of life.
(BBE)
I've spent a lot of time on the possible physical effects of the curse. Let's dwell there a little bit more.
We don't know if there were children before the Fall. We don't know how long our ancestors lived in paradise. We don't know anything of the world outside Eden.
What we know: God looked at everything and said it was good. This implies perfection in everything.
This means the universe itself was in balance in some way we can't understand now because what we research now is the imbalance created by sin. We hae this notion of a clockwork universe, but, as I mentioned earlier, we keep hitting these walls. Science has it down, then another clue reveals something different. We cry for order and then we develop chaos theory to try to explain the mess outside of order and see it as another kind of order. Never saying that any order implies a Creator. We impose our sense of godhood by suggesting we change en event by merely observing it.
We never suspect what Paul says in Romans:
Romans 8:19 For the strong desire of every living thing is waiting for the revelation of the sons of God.
20 For every living thing was put under the power of change, not by its desire, but by him who made it so, in hope
21 That all living things will be made free from the power of death and will have a part with the free children of God in glory.
22 For we are conscious that all living things are weeping and sorrowing in pain together till now.
(BBE)
Ro 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. {the...: or, every creature}
(KJV)
When God tells Adam the earth is cursed, that Adam will now die, the whole of creation begins to fail. Everything collapses around us. a universe that should be stable or slowing down going toward entropy if evolution and the Big Bang are correct, is actually accelerating. going faster flying apart. One sin destroyed everything. EVERYTHING.
The enormity of that needs to sink in. Too often, we don't consider our petty sins of consequence.
"Hey, it's only a couple bucks not on the tax return."
"Hey, so I spent a night with a stranger. the wife will never know."
"So I hit the kid."
"So I stole the paper at work."
On and on. Plug in any one of them you can think of that you let go.
I recall once when my wife came in from the outside where she was puttering, went into the bedroom and shut the door. She came out a few minutes later and I asked what was going on.
"I swore at the weeds out there. I had to come in and pray to God for forgiveness."
It hits me at moments like those where I am at and reminds that she loved her earthly father, Tom, fiercely and would have done anything she could have if he ever needed it. She would never have sworn at him because of her love and that abides in her for the Lord.
My own relationship with my father was other than that. We were locked in a lack of communication and anger flowing both ways at times and that effects my relationship with God at times when I am not paying attention.
I mention all that because we need to focus now on God the father, on what sin, even the apparently small sin of eating from the wrong tree did to all relationships.
That sin broke our connection with God but it also broke the universe's connection, to get back on that track. Meteors which were never supposed to hit planets hit them. Stars that were meant to burn forever began to nova. Radioactive decay began. Neutrons broke from the center of atpoms. The magnetic field that protects the Earth began to warp and decay also. EVERYTHING began to die.
None of it was created for Satan to rule, He hasn't got a clue on how to create or, worse yet, how to maintain. He's just a rogue who wanted to seize power in heaven and God has now let eternity see what would happen if he had won. Heaven would be coming to pieces like this universe. The angels would be aimlessly wandering or doing whatever came to mind. Being directionless they would turn to destruction especially since they can't seem to create anything of their own.
Like us.
Old joke: Scientist confronts God.
"We can do anything you do. We can even create life."
God: "Okay, go ahead."
Scientist; "First we take the dirt."
God: "No, no, First you create the dirt."
Everything we have created is merely seeking to be like him and duplicating what He has already done in our own weak way. We were meant to be caretakers, gardeners, to manage this small spot of the universe. Today we think we were meant for Star Trek. We gave up our right to be the landscapers. We have some televangelists certain we are meant to rule but we don't really know what our place will be in the eventual eternal kingdom. We were meant for humility and loyalty. When we start naming and claiming, that needs to be at the head of the list.
When I spend too much time on this aspect, I get reminded of Job and God asking him where he was when God laid the foundations of the universe. There will always be a whole lot we don't understand about the physical nature of the universe and the way the Spirit effects it.
What we know is: the universe is dying because of what we did.
God punished the snake for his part in it. He was the tempter. He was Satan's agent, so he lost his physical characteristics.
Now God the Father steps forward. Many hate Him today. Like me and my father, they have no communication. They have never walked with Him, never met him. I found a Baptist flyer from a church sitting in a stall in the Walmart men's room. Someone had written in magic marker: "Every person in Hell is a sign of God's failure." And the notation is a sign of human failure. The demand that God explain himself to us personally. Not make us read as Bible or go to church, but come down here right now and tell us what He thinks he's doing and how dare he act like that.
I saw the same behavior at the DNC this week. Supporters of Bernie Sanders were yelling and screaming how it wasn't fair and one young woman, marching out as the losing roll call vote was taken told a reporter: "This isn't right. This is supposed to be a democracy." I guess you need to explain that the lady had 4 million more votes than Bernie and, in a democratic vote, majority rules.
But, thanks to our dumbing-down educational system, the woman leaving the stadium seemed to think democracy meant she would get her way. She could have read a civics book. She didn't understand how things work any more than the guy blaming God for people going to Hell didn't understand it is all adequately explained in the Bible.
Humanity broke the relationship. They were told they faced Death. I'm sure they had perfect communications skills and I also notice Snake told them they surely wouldn't die so they had some comprehension of what it meant and acted in the belief it would not touch them.
Now God steps forward and tells the woman what happens because of what she has done:
To the woman he said, Great will be your pain in childbirth; in sorrow will your children come to birth; still your desire will be for your husband, but he will be your master.
The woman has begun to die. Her decay means she will ow feel pain more deeply as she struggles to bring life into a dying world, Death wants victory. I doesn't want new life here. It wants the complete decimation of every living thing. Her children will now be born in a dying world, doomed to die themselves. The Earth has become their enemy.
God explains it more on the world wide level to Adam. His "curse" is a description of the physical problems dying engenders. Her desire will be for her husband, more for him and home than the outside things. She will need protection when her pregnancy reaches a certain stage. He will need to find food for her and provide while she goes through it, It will put her at a natural disadvantage for most of the history of humanity. Civilization has covered some of that need and modern medicine has greatly reduced some of the agony and hurt. Prejudices from those times remain. I feel the urge to protect a pregnant woman doing anything which may make me the product of my times or my genetics,
The results of her sin are more deeply personal She is fixed on the life around her that is now dying. She gives birth and the child is defenseless. Disease and hunger can now take its life. When Cain arrives we see the brutality is also a threat.
Thomas Haweis:
Verse 16: As the woman is second in guilt, she is next in sentence. She is to share with the man in his curse too; but she hath a burden on her, peculiarly her own.
1. An increase of sorrows in conception and child-bearing. Of all agonizing pains, these are acute to a proverb, while wearisome days and nights precede them; and fear, as well as anguish embitters them. Note, 1. Every groan of travail is the cry of sin; and every sorrow we feel, springs from this root. If our sorrows are multiplied, no wonder our sins are so: at the worst we must acknowledge they are less than our iniquities deserve. 2. We should regard the word of God in every sorrow: this alone can reconcile the heart to patient submission, I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because thou didst it, Ps 39:1-13
Ps 39:1 <<To the Chief Musician. To Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.>> I said, "I will guard my ways, Lest I sin with my tongue; I will restrain my mouth with a muzzle, While the wicked are before me."
2 I was mute with silence, I held my peace even from good; And my sorrow was stirred up.
3 My heart was hot within me; While I was musing, the fire burned. Then I spoke with my tongue:
4 "LORD, make me to know my end, And what is the measure of my days, That I may know how frail I am.
5 Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my age is as nothing before You; Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. Selah
6 Surely every man walks about like a shadow; Surely they busy themselves in vain; He heaps up riches, And does not know who will gather them.
7 "And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You.
8 Deliver me from all my transgressions; Do not make me the reproach of the foolish.
9 I was mute, I did not open my mouth, Because it was You who did it.
10 Remove Your plague from me; I am consumed by the blow of Your hand.
11 When with rebukes You correct man for iniquity, You make his beauty melt away like a moth; Surely every man is vapor. Selah
12 "Hear my prayer, O LORD, And give ear to my cry; Do not be silent at my tears; For I am a stranger with You, A sojourner, as all my fathers were.
13 Remove Your gaze from me, that I may regain strength, Before I go away and am no more."
(NKJV)
2. Her state of subjection pronounced. While innocence remained, if some superiority was placed in man, so gentle and affectionate was the sway that woman rather seemed the equal partner to the throne; but since sin hath entered, her yoke is heavier. Her husband rules, and as the fallen mind is now disturbed with pride and angry passions, these breed disquiet, and often make obedience real punishment. Happy those, who instead of complaining of their suffering, lament their sin. To disobey or murmur, or affect equality, much more superiority, is not only a violation of the divine law, but an insult on the divine judgment.
God brings simple truth that sin has brought death upon them and the nature of their dying has effected the nature of their living. Someone once said: "We are born dying." This is the truth of this whole section of "the curse." God acts on His own to disable Snake. With woman, he explains that her action has changed her life. Sin creates mutants. Contrary to the comic book science of the X-Men, mutation almost always has a negative effect on a species.
But God doesn't seem overcome with rage. He doesn't wipe them out and say, "We won't have any more of their kind. I'll build robots next time." He has something else in mind. He has a plan. He has a purpose. He moves with the active love of his divine nature.
In When God First Thought of You, Dr. Lloyd J. Ogilvie's discussion of 1 John, the man who was once the pastor of the Senate told the story of having a very rough week. He was down. Beat up. Facing depression. Then one friend spoke to him, words that elevated him, changed his week and his life. "Lloyd, I want your life to be as beautiful as it was in the mind of God when he first thought of you."
It pushed Ogilvie to prayer of new depths.
"Lord, what was I like when you first thought of me? What did you intend my life, all human existence, to be?"
The thought dispelled his depression.
"I tried to imagine life as God had intended it
...
"More quiet. I was not alone. The Lord was answering my prayer. The answer was himself!"
Lloyd realized in that moment the truth of what we lost when we sinned all that long ago. All the physical results of death drag on us, depress us, dredge into our very souls. The day to day of moving toward death's embrace becomes so ho-hum we barely sense it gutting our lives even as it robs us of them.
But he arrived at one open secret that we need to consider here and throughout this study: "Christ, Lloyd, Christ! That's how I first thought of you. And that's why I (incarnated) in him! Not only so you would know what I am like. But so you could know my picture of what you were meant to be!" (Pages 13-14)
The physical second Adam as the picture of what we were meant to be. The Spiritual Adam as the picture of what we where meant to be eternally.
And then consider again that perfect universe that death entered. Who was that created for?
Ephesians 1:4 reveals that God thought of you before you were conceived. Actually, this verse suggests that God thought of you even before the creation of the world. And he didn't just think about you, but also he chose you in Christ to be holy and blameless in his sight. This is a mind-blowing, heart-transforming truth, don't you think?
Now, you probably know that the interpretation of Ephesians 1:4 and similar verses varies widely among Christians. Some emphasize God's election in a way that minimizes human freedom and responsibility. Others find ways to talk about God's choice in a manner that makes it dependent in some way upon our faith. Others find ways to affirm both God's choice and human choice.
As you might imagine, I'm not going to engage in a debate about election in this short reflection. Rather, I want to underscore the marvelous good news of Ephesians 1:4. However you work out the details, the fact remains that God thought of you and chose you before he created the world. You are that important to him. Even as my son means the world to me, so you mean the world to God. Actually, it might be better to say you mean the universe to God.
https://www.theologyofwork.org/the-high-calling
We lost our proper selves and our proper homes.
Ro 5:8 But God has made clear his love to us, in that, when we were still sinners, Christ gave his life for us.
9 Much more, if we now have righteousness by his blood, will salvation from the wrath of God come to us through him.
10 For if, when we were haters of God, the death of his Son made us at peace with him, much more, now that we are his friends, will we have salvation through his life;
11 And not only so, but we have joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we are now at peace with God.
12 For this reason, as through one man sin came into the world, and death because of sin, and so death came to all men, because all have done evil:
13 Because, till the law came, sin was in existence, but sin is not put to the account of anyone when there is no law to be broken.
14 But still death had power from Adam till Moses, even over those who had not done wrong like Adam, who is a picture of him who was to come.
15 But the free giving of God is not like the wrongdoing of man. For if, by the wrongdoing of one man death came to numbers of men, much more did the grace of God, and the free giving by the grace of one man, Jesus Christ, come to men.
16 And the free giving has not the same effect as the sin of one: for the effect of one man's sin was punishment by the decision of God, but the free giving had power to give righteousness to wrongdoers in great number.
17 For, if by the wrongdoing of one, death was ruling through the one, much more will those to whom has come the wealth of grace and the giving of righteousness, be ruling in life through the one, even Jesus Christ.
18 So then, as the effect of one act of wrongdoing was that punishment came on all men, even so the effect of one act of righteousness was righteousness of life for all men.
19 Because, as numbers of men became sinners through the wrongdoing of one man, even so will great numbers get righteousness through the keeping of the word of God by one man.
20 And the law came in addition, to make wrongdoing worse; but where there was much sin, there was much more grace:
21 That, as sin had power in death, so grace might have power through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
(BBE)
So we lost our home before we got there. We were meant for that perfect place, for that perfect flesh.
We have that God shaped hole. but we also have an Eden shaped hole. And Eden has a human shaped hole. It was meant for us. The universe longs for us back. Paul says it's waiting the people of Christ. the remade flesh of Resurrection. We talk so much about the spirit's renewal. We miss that the First Flesh is our need as well.
The First Flesh that ended that moment as God told Adam his fate was our home as well.
17 And to Adam he said, Because you gave ear to the voice of your wife and took of the fruit of the tree which I said you were not to take, the earth is cursed on your account; in pain you will get your food from it all your life.
18 Thorns and waste plants will come up, and the plants of the field will be your food;
19 With the hard work of your hands you will get your bread till you go back to the earth from which you were taken: for dust you are and to the dust you will go back.
She listened to the snake, and seduced, she spoke to Adam. Up to this point humanity seems to have still had a chance. Adam could have told Eve she was wrong, ordered the snake away and called on God. But he chose to listen and we were all lost. If heaven were like Earth, after the resurrection, we would all be lined up in a row leading to Adam and told we all get one shot at him and all of us hope he gets tired of ducking by the time we get there. Except we know full well we've all done it, Christian or not. I would have folded the minute my wife flashed her lovely big eyes.
Thomas Scott about the guy who did fold:
Genesis 3:17 Ge 3:17
Verses 17-19. The plea, by which Adam tried to extenuate his crime, was adduced as the reason of his punishment. Instead of hearkening to the voice of God, he had hearkened to the voice of Eve, whom he was appointed to counsel and command, not to obey.
Yet the Lord did not denounce a curse on him and his seed, having before given intimations of rich blessings intended for them: but “he cursed the ground for his sake;” that, as he had transgressed in eating the forbidden fruit, so he might be chastised in the labour and sorrow connected with his future sustenance. In consequence of this curse, useless and noxious weeds and plants spring up spontaneously, and multiply with immense rapidity. These must be eradicated, the soil prepared, and much labour bestowed, before the precious fruits of the earth can be obtained. Hence incessant fatigue, pain, and penury, are the lot of the bulk of mankind; which would not have been the case had not sin occasioned it; and at last the herb of the field, the ordinary productions of the earth, were substituted for the delicious fruits of Eden, as a sharp rebuke for coveting and eating the forbidden fruit.
The weight of this part of the sentence falls chiefly on the man, to whom it is addressed, as that of the former on the woman. Nor was any respite or termination of this labour and sorrow to be expected, till death should consign the body to the earth again, to mingle with its original dust.—As we feel that this sentence, in every part, is in full force against the whole human species, it is absurd to deny that we were all joined in the covenant with Adam, our common representative. (Marg. Ref.) But as the sentence upon the serpent couched, under its outward meaning, the threatening of vengeance on the invisible tempter; so the death denounced against the body, which is but “the instrument of unrighteousness,” comprehends also the awful punishment prepared for the soul, the deviser and real agent in every sin. This is evinced by the sinful tendencies of human race, compared with the threatening of “the wrath of God against every soul of man that doeth evil.” Our very nature is fallen under the curse for Adam’s sake, and produces only sinful desires, words, and actions, unless renewed by divine grace; for in the very day in which Adam sinned, he died, he became spiritually dead, the Holy Spirit having left his soul: and all capacity of delighting in the holy service and spiritual worship of God is extinct in every descendant of Adam, till “the spirit of life in Christ Jesus” restores divine life by regeneration. Indeed, the apostle directly opposes the death which came by Adam, to the life which comes by Christ; so that, if the one is eternal, so is the other. (Marg. Ref.) Thus all are concluded under sin and wrath, and one by Jesus, the Mediator of a new covenant, can deliver us. And thus He, “the second Adam, the Lord from heaven,” as our surety, was under subjection, and made a curse for us; laboured through His sorrowful life, sweat blood in the garden, endured the travail of His soul—and at length expired on the cross, and was hid in the grave, that He might bear every part of the sentence deserved by man’s sin, and so finally save the whole multitude of His believing people.
We lost a lot physically as well as spiritually. Our universe began to rot. Our relationships became iffy. We had to work hard for a living. Farming killed a lot of couples and families with work and bad crops. Then we mechanized everything and ruined the food so the machines could pick it. Thorns make walking barefoot in the forest a foolish thing. Those delicious berries can now rip open your hand and lead to deadly infections with their thorns. Some of the berries are poison. The animals all have teeth and claws. And they sure don't listen anymore. Anymore than your wife or kids. Or you for that matter. Certainly not that fool in the car ahead who can't go faster than 30 miles per hour for some ungodly reason and seems to think he should talk on the blasted phone and how can a human being be so thoughtless since you have to get home to watch your show tonight and... I want you to keep all that in mind as we go on. The reason for stressing flesh throughout this blog is to see the very pertinent every day, pie-on-the-table reasons Christ died as well as the enormous pie-in-the-sky spiritual ones.
Watchman Nee in Changed Into His Likeness (p.90 1972 paperback edition);
"At his creation in the Garden of Eden. Adam had by nature a distinct self-conscious personality, but no sin, no 'old man.' He possessed free will, which made it possible for him to act on his own account, so that self was already there, but not sin."
Nee suggests it was always free will that made sin possible and it was also free will that made love possible. It was love that carved our universe perfectly and it was our free will to follow it always or fail. Nee spends time on the failure and the fact sin created Adam's old man.
"Before he sinned Adam was a natural man. After he sinned he was the old man."
Sin created the old man. The spiritual loss. Our Fallen Flesh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoafQWXEGis&list=RDuoafQWXEGis#t=0
SUNDAY, JUNE 12, 2016
More attacks on Indian Christians at Sunday worship
Christian worship services and prayer meetings across India are often targeted by Hindu radicals. Last Sunday in Bihar and the Sunday before in Uttar Pradesh, worship services were disrupted by armed men who assaulted the pastors and, in Bihar, the entire congregation including women and children.
Uttar Pradesh: Pastor and wife severely assaulted during Sunday worship but warned not to get medical attention or complain to police
Pastor Lalta Prasad, 58, and his wife were assaulted by four masked men with wooden sticks during their church’s worship service on Sunday 29 May. The church is located in the village of Naupur, Jaunpur district, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
Pastor Prasad (left) with his wife and a member of his church who was also injured in the attack
Around 50-55 Christians were present at the church when the attack took place. Amongst those present were women, children and the elderly, all of whom escaped. The men in the church remained and attempted to rescue Pastor Lalta Prasad and his wife, but they too were attacked.
The attack lasted for 15-20 minutes, before the assailants fled on their motor bikes.
Both Prasad and his wife were taken to the police station and then to the district hospital for treatment.
Dinanath Jaiswar, a church leader from the city of Varanasi who visited the couple on Tuesday (7 June), said to Barnabas Fund, “The doctor on duty warned the couple of the consequences of getting a medical examination done and on filing a case against the assaulters on the basis of the medical test. The couple got extremely frightened and agreed not to get into further trouble and decided not to proceed with the medical examination and thus the police complaint was not filed”.
Jaiswar added, “The political pressure on the police and the medical staff is evident in this case”.
Prasad sustained internal injuries to his head, back, face, legs and muscle tissues, while his wife is unable to stand due to the many blows she received to her back. “They have been very tactfully attacked with no blood and no fractures, so that their injuries would not seem severe to the police”, said Jaiswar.
Prasad, his family and members of the church remain in shock after the attack. According to Jaiswar, “there has been no church service [since the attack] and it seems that the assaulters have been successful in their motives”.
In March this year, Prasad received threats from a group of Hindu extremists and a complaint against him was lodged with the District Magistrate (DM), falsely alleging that he was enticing Hindus into Christianity with the promise of money or employment. The DM ordered an enquiry and instructed the police to look into the matter.
The police investigated Prasad and other Christians, and submitted their report to the Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) stating that, “These Christians only pray and worship; they pray in the name of Jesus and healings take place; they do not do any conversion activity.”
Jaiswar comments that “the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh [a Hindu nationalist organisation] were shocked that the police were supportive of the Christians and thus they explored other means to stop Pastor Prasad from ministering to the people”.
