Gen. 3:8-21
“I Will Put Enmity”
We cannot watch any nature programs on TV or DVD without hearing about the delicacy and fragility of our ecosystem. A delicate balance between the number of predators and preys as well as the availability of food and nutrients must be maintained for any ecosystem to thrive. If the food chain breaks down somewhere, the devastation would quickly spread throughout the whole ecosystem.
When God created the world, He did not just bring things into being. God brought order and structure, yes, the cosmic ecosystem. And what is ecosystem but the proper order of relationship among all things? But this order extends not just into biological or physical but also into the moral arena as well--the relationship between God and man, between man and woman and between man and other creatures. We can be sure that the disruption in this moral order has more devastating and far-reaching consequences, not only temporal but also eternal consequences!
In our passage we see how the Fall of Adam and Eve resulted in the breaking down of the delicate order/system, which God Himself ordained, and how God responded to it.
What was the order, which God established at the creation? In descending order: God at the top, then the man, then the woman (functionally speaking, of course, not in terms of their worth and dignity as the image of God) and other creatures (including the forbidden fruit and Satan). But after the fall, the order was completely reversed. Adam and Eve ended up serving Satan and worshipping the forbidden fruit (insofar as they desired it more than obeying God). So Satan and the forbidden fruit took the place of God at the top (that is, in the order of importance to Adam and Eve, not in the actual cosmic order of things--God is still the sovereign Lord of all). Also, Eve became the active leader (making the decision to take the fruit, actually taking it and eating it first, then giving it to Adam). Adam took the fruit and ate it, without any word of protestation or rebuke, thus relinquishing his role as the leader and relegating himself to a passive follower. At the end of v. 7 we are told that Eve, after taking the fruit and eating it, gave it to Adam with her. When we consider the rapid succession of events from Eve taking the fruit, eating it to giving it to Adam with her, it is very likely that Adam had been with her all along, being completely silent and passive. So, this is the order that resulted from the Fall: Satan and the forbidden fruit at the top as the object of Adam and Eve’s obedience and desire, then Eve, then Adam. And who ended up at the very bottom? God. For they disobeyed God’s command and ignored the order God established.
And that is precisely what happens when we do not treasure God above all things. When we prefer something--whether it be a person or an activity or a thing or an idea--[when we prefer something] to God in our hearts, we place it above God. And the moment we do that, we become its slave rather than God’s royal servant. When we do that, we place ourselves above God because we are choosing our desire over God’s glory and honor and truth and love. So we relegate ourselves to a slave of a thing and we insult God and we bring much pleasure to Satan--a triple whammy. Talk about the break-down of an ecosystem!
But the Fall affected not only the vertical order of the cosmos; it
also affected the cosmic landscape horizontally. What was the spiritual, cosmic
landscape like before the Fall? God and the First Pair
were joined together in a holy alliance. Opposing this holy alliance was the
unholy, diabolic alliance between Satan and his demonic hosts. But as a result
of the Fall, these alliances were radically
rearranged. The holy alliance between God and the First Pair was broken and a
new, unholy alliance was formed between the fallen First Pair and Satan against
God.
What was it
like for Adam and Eve to live and move and have their being in that holy
alliance with God? A life of peaceful, harmonious unity and
rich abundance. God making Adam and Eve in His glorious
image, granting them dominion over all other creatures. Adam and Eve worshipping God and enjoying Him as their supreme,
priceless Treasure. Adam loving and cherishing Eve as
his own body. Eve assisting and submitting to Adam as her
honorable lord. The two together subduing and ruling over all other
creatures. The two making their abode in the Garden of Eden, having
access to all the rich supply of the garden-paradise (except to the forbidden
tree). In this holy alliance, God rejoiced in His generous giving to
Adam and Eve; Adam and Eve delighted in God and offering their obedience to
God; Adam delighted in giving himself to Eve in sacrificial love; Eve delighted
in giving herself to Adam in self-effacing, joyful submission. This wonderful
holy alliance was characterized by generous giving--God giving, Adam giving,
Eve giving.
Now Adam
and Eve entered into an unholy alliance with Satan. And what was this alliance
founded on? Satan’s deception; Eve’s God-forsaking, self-exalting pride; her surrender
to the lust of the flesh (“[Eve] saw that the tree was good for food”), to the
lust of the eyes (“that it was a delight to the eyes”) and to the boastful
pride of life (“that the tree was to be desired to make one wise”); Adam’s incomprehensible
abnegation of his leadership responsibility; Adam’s God-forsaking, spineless
acquiescence to Eve’s sinful inducement. Satan presented himself as Eve’s true
advocate and friend but he had no love or concern for her or Adam! His only
motivation was his diabolic desire to see their destruction. Eve had no regard
for Adam’s authority over her. Adam did not eat the fruit out of his love for
Eve (“[true love] does not rejoice in wrongdoing”--1 Cor.
13:6). He shows this when he shifts the blame on Eve. What kind of alliance can
one expect from such a beginning and foundation? Nothing but
self-centeredness manifesting itself in self-defense, finger-pointing and
betrayal. What an alliance! How could such an alliance be sustained? The
only way is when there is an enemy greater than their hatred and jealousy among
themselves. And think about that! Even in their bickering and finger-pointing,
they stood united against God. You see, if this alliance was unholy, it
was not because the dynamics of the allies--all those finger-pointing and
backbiting, etc.--were repulsive. Rather, it was because it was an alliance
against the holy God! They could live with anything,
they could stay united with anything, as long as they were united in their
rebellion against God!
Into this fallen, chaotic state God enters. And the man and the woman hide themselves upon hearing the sound of God. Oh, how things have changed! This could not have been the first time God visited Adam and Eve in the beautiful garden! This could not have been the first time they heard the sound of God walking in the garden! But I am certain that, however many times God had visited before, God did not have to call out their names to find them. The sound of God walking in the garden was enough to make Adam and Eve stop whatever they were doing to run toward the sound, like children running to the door when they hear their daddy’s car pulling into the driveway! So irresistibly attractive was God to them in their state of righteousness and innocence! But that very same sound, which had brought so much delight and joy to them once, now brought fear and dread to their souls. You know how it is. Children with clear conscience, children, who did well on their tests and did all their chores, would delight in the sound of their daddy’s car. But if they did something wrong, really wrong, they would dread Daddy coming home.
Now, after eating the forbidden fruit, they could not help
but hide themselves behind the trees with great shame. What else could they do?
Of course, the honorable thing would have been to present themselves
to God and acknowledge their wrong doing. But they could not even do that. That
is how far they had fallen, how far a sin brings us down. But that is the very
nature of sin: it makes us turn away from God and run from Him. “For everyone who does wicked things
hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be
exposed” (John
As God enters into this situation, He calls out to Adam: “Where are you?” This was not a question of inquiry. God knew exactly what had happened. This question brings out the strangeness of this new situation. Why should God look for Adam? Why was Adam not coming to God? Where was the happy, joyful reception, with which Adam used to greet his God?
But notice how God is addressing Adam and not Eve. Do you see how significant God’s action is here? He addresses the man first, then the woman. Thus God reverses the order, in which Satan approached the Pair. Satan approached the woman first with an obvious, evil intention of disrupting and reversing the divinely ordained order. But God reverses it again. Though it was the woman, who transgressed first; though it was the woman, who seduced the man to eat the forbidden fruit, God addresses Adam first. For Adam was the leader of the home and as such he was primarily accountable. Thus God reminded him of his position and responsibility and in some way restores him back to his former position. And it is only after addressing Adam does God address the woman. Thus God shows the proper order of things.
But God poses no question to Satan. God simply delivers the judgment.
He does not deserve interrogation. And when God renders the judgment, He does
so in the order of crime: Satan first, then Eve, then Adam. And judgment He
must deliver because He is holy and just. He must not let their sin go
unpunished. And He promised, “[O]f
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day
that you eat of it you shall surely die” (2:17).
But there
is another significant reason that God judges Satan first. Think about the
sentences, which God pronounces upon Eve and Adam. These are judicial punishments
for certain: labor pain and forced submission, sweat and frustration of labor
and ultimately death. How utterly hopeless and dismal that would have been! Adam
and Eve would have been left without any hope.
But we
realize that God did not come to the garden just to punish, thank God! That is
why God delivers the judgment to Satan first! God’s judgment on Satan is the context,
in which God’s judgments on Eve and Adam are to be viewed! What was God’s
judgment on Satan?
“Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (vv. 14-15).
Do you see
the reversal that God is bringing about through this punishment? Satan incited
the woman to be like God by taking the forbidden fruit: “You will not surely
die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be
opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (vv. 4-5).
He knew that this was a powerful and effective temptation because he himself
once found this temptation irresistible. Ever since then, the ultimate goal of
his existence has been to topple the throne of God and take the throne for
himself. The constant mantra of his heart has been, “I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of
assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of
the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High” (Isa.
13-14). Now God thrusts this serpentine devil to the lowest recesses. He shall
crawl on his belly. Dust shall he eat all the days of his life. If he should
surpass any other creature in anything, it would be in his being cursed, not in
glory and honor!
But the
reversal does not just stop there. When the woman yielded to his seduction and
listened to his words, she rebelled against God and aligned
herself with Satan, which alliance Adam quickly joined through his disobedience
to God’s command. God now steps in and declares that He would break that diabolic
alliance: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your
offspring and her offspring….” In Adam and Eve the whole human race fell into
slavery under Satan. We see it clearly in the sentences pronounced on Eve and
Adam. Labor pain and forced submission for the woman, and sweat and frustration
of labor and ultimately death for the man were not just for Adam and Eve. As it
is obvious in our experiences, they are universal curses on all humanity. It
was not just Adam and Eve, who fell and were cursed,
but the whole humanity in them. Though our individual experiences of these
curses may differ in degree, they are still universal. And in some sense, they
are not so gender-specific, either. Labor pain is unique to the woman, of
course. But man is not free from pain. Neither is forced submission experienced
by women only; men in their work and in other social contexts find themselves
in similar situation. Nor frustration in labor unique to man; the woman also
experiences all kinds of frustration in her own labors. Nor returning to dust
in death is the fate of men only. The whole humanity fell in Adam and Eve.
If that is
the case, what was God intending to do when He put enmity between the serpent
and the woman and between the serpent’s offspring and the woman’s offspring? He
was expressing His intention to divide the humanity into two groups. Yes, the
serpent’s offspring refers to people. John the Baptist referred to the
Pharisees and Sadducees as “brood of vipers” (Matt. 3:7). Jesus, too, referred
to the hypocritical religious leaders of His day as “brood of vipers” as well
(Matt.
This
gracious, divine intention is most clearly expressed in the very last part of
God’s judgment on Satan: “he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his
heel.” Here God promises that a descendant of the woman shall come and crush
the serpent’s head, although his heel will be bruised by the serpent. It is
true that the same Hebrew verb is used for both actions. But it is clear that a
mortal combat is envisioned here. And the image we get is the serpent’s head being
crushed by the foot of the woman’s seed as the serpent is biting the heel of
the man-child. This makes the outcome obvious--the head being one of the vital
organs and the foot not so vital. Throughout the biblical literature, being
placed under foot is an imagery of utter defeat. And think also of the context:
this is the final part of God’s sentencing on the serpent. He has been reduced
to crawling on the ground on his belly and eating dust all his life, to a state
of utter humiliation. This life of humiliation will end in the ultimate humiliation
of his final defeat, being crushed under foot by the Seed of the woman.
This is why
God’s judgment on the serpent is called protevangelium, the First Gospel. It was the first
pronouncement of the gospel, the good news, and it contained all the essential
elements of the gospel: it guaranteed the defeat of Satan, our mortal enemy; it
promised our redemption (insofar as God promised to separate out some from the
fallen humanity, which was under God’s judgment); it announced that this
salvation would come to us by God’s grace--not through our own works but through
a promised Champion, who would defeat Satan on our behalf; and this Champion
would be hurt in the mortal battle although, in the end, He would obtain the
final victory for our redemption. He had to be hurt to bear the punishment of
our sin.
God in His
grace announced this gospel first before He delivered His sentence on
Eve and Adam. Though Adam and Eve must face their sentencing, it was given in
the context of God’s gracious covenant unto them for their redemption. Though
Eve and her daughters must face labor pain and frustrating relationships;
though Adam and his sons must face frustration in work and ultimately death
itself, a living hope was given to them. This hope would enable them to endure
through their pain and suffering and even death. In fact, the promised man-child,
the Champion of God’s people, would come through the labor pain of a woman. So
Eve named her first child “Cain, saying, ‘I have gotten a man with the help of
the LORD’” (Gen. 4:1). This showed her longing for the promised man-child. The
very instrument that Satan used to bring sin and curse into the world--the
woman--would be used by God as the channel, through whom the Savior would come!
Another marvelous redemptive reversal!
You may say
at this point, “This is all great! But what about God’s credibility?
He promised that Adam and Eve would die in the very day that they ate of the
forbidden fruit. But obviously they did not! We are glad that God spared them
but didn’t God break His promise still?” It is a good question and I myself
have been plagued by that question for a long time. But I recently realized
that they did die. I am not just talking about their spiritual death! I am
talking about their physical death as well because I don’t think God meant just
the spiritual death. How did they die physically? Take a look at v. 21: “And
the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed
them.” Here we see the first instance of animal sacrifice. To clothe Adam and
Eve with garments of skins, animals had to be slaughtered. They had to be killed
to provide the garments to cover their nakedness (now shameful because it was
devoid of their original righteousness and glory). Insofar as the animals were
slaughtered in their place to cover their guilty shame, they were killed as the
First Pair’s substitute. For the wages of sin is death, as God warned. Adam and
Eve died in the death of their substitute! This kind of substitutionary
atonement was made again and again through redemptive history.
But think
about the very first sacrifice: it was God Himself, who provided it and offered
it. He did once again in the Old Testament when He provided the ram to take the
place of Isaac at
And God’s
only begotten Son did come as our Champion-Redeemer according to the promise of
God. He came as the Seed of the woman, being conceived by the Holy Spirit, born
of the virgin Mary. He did engage in the mortal battle
with the serpent of old. And He was wounded in that mortal battle. In fact, He
died--He had to die because the wages of sin is death! He died as the Lamb of
God, who takes away the sin of the world! But it was only His heel, which was
bruised, in the sense that He did not remain dead but rose again from the dead!
And through His resurrection He defeated sin and Satan and death once for all!
Through His resurrection He crushed the head of the serpent. Through His death
and resurrection Jesus Christ accomplished our salvation and Satan was defeated
once for all! Satan is bound. He cannot deceive the nations any longer. He
cannot snatch anyone out of the hand of God and Christ. And now, whosoever
believes in Jesus Christ will not perish but have everlasting life.
Everything
Christ did for our redemption, He did so by keeping and restoring the true order
of things--always loving and cherishing God above all things and obeying God’s
will in all things. Through His death and resurrection, Christ has inaugurated
the new creation, in which the order, which God established, will never be
broken down, but will be perfected at the return of Christ.
Brothers
and sisters, you have been brought into this eternal, unbreakable, holy
alliance with God by grace through faith. What does it mean to be in this holy
alliance with God? It means that we pledge our allegiance to God in all things,
to honor God and treasure Him most of all. But the most amazing thing is that God
is in this holy alliance with us! He initiated it! He established it
unbreakably through the blood of His Son. He is our God and He is our King and
He is our Father. He has come to our rescue. He called us by name, not to
deliver His judgment and condemnation but to usher us into our eternal,
heavenly paradise. He did that before we sought Him, while we were running away
from Him. He will not abandon us! He will be the first to come to our rescue!
He is our Deliverer, ever-present Help in times of need. What a glorious
alliance we have with God in Christ Jesus!
To be loyal
to God means to be at enmity with sin and Satan. They are not our friends; they
are our enemies! You are in this holy alliance with God. Does it show in your
life? Does it show in your life--in your priority, in your use of time, in your
use of resources. Are we enjoying God’s gifts or are
we enslaved to them? Do you have the freedom to part with them, if needed, for
the sake of God?
But we must
think about the danger of our slavery not only to the things that we have but
also to the things that we do not have. For we can be
enslaved to our desires and greed as much as to what we have, if not more.
So many people do not follow Christ, not because they are so attached to what
they have but because they cannot even give up their desires for what they do
not yet have! We must make sure that our life is not driven by our desires and
greed rather than by the supreme glory of God!
Do we show
that we have been brought into the new creation in Jesus Christ? Do we show
that by preserving and promoting the proper order in our relationship with
others? As husbands, do we take our leadership seriously? As wives, do we take
our role as helpmate seriously? Do we as parents care for our children well as
God’s covenant representatives? Do we as children honor our parents in all
things? Do we honor our superiors? Do we love our equals? Do we guide and nurture
our inferiors with love and care? Our treasuring God above all things is the
key to all these relationships! We saw how Adam and Eve’s failure to treasure
God above all things had the domino effect of breaking down all other
relationships! Much wisdom is needed to restore and sustain broken
relationships. But if God is not honored and cherished above all, if it is not
done for the glory of God, we will only make idols of our relationships! So
then, let us treasure our God above all things! Let our allegiance to God be
the foundation and source of all other relationships we have. Let us do all
this until Satan and all those, who belong to his diabolic alliance, will be
thrust into hell forever and we in a holy alliance with God will be ushered
into heaven to enjoy God’s glory and love forever!
© Copyright
2008 by Jeong Woo "James" Lee
All Rights
Reserved.