Why is Life So Hard? (Genesis 3:14-24)
This sermon was preached by Jonathan Tan.
Good Morning GBC, today we are in our second of four sermons in our Advent series. What better way to prepare our hearts for Christ’s birth than to revisit Life’s Big Questions? Our text for today is from Genesis 3:14-24 and the title is “Life’s Big Questions: Why is Life so Hard?”
One thing this sermon title assumes is that whatever our shape or size, or what season of life we are in, we can all agree that life is not easy. Relationships are not easy: starting them is not easy, maintaining them is not easy, growing them is not easy, losing them is not easy. Work is not easy: dealing with complex tasks, meeting deadlines, navigating workplace relationships, managing expectations. Sometimes simply waking up in the morning is not easy, for some of us falling asleep at night is not easy. So if life is so hard, why is it that way? And what hope do we have? Today’s big question is another foundational piece that everyone needs a definite answer to. We need it to understand the world and ourselves. Without it we are like astronauts back from space: disoriented and struggling to adjust, expecting the cup to float where we left it, only to find it falling instead.
But I am thankful that we have God’s clear word this morning to shed light on truths about Himself, and us. God’s people are not left guessing. Let us go to God’s word. We are in Genesis 3:14-24.
We live in a fallen world but we are clothed in Christ’s righteousness and awaiting return to paradise.
Today’s big idea is: We live in a fallen world but we are clothed in Christ’s righteousness and awaiting return to paradise.
We live in a fallen world(Gen 3:14-19)
Our passage opens with the LORD God addressing each of the parties involved in the rebellious sin. Scripture wastes no time in connecting the act of sin and God’s pronouncement of judgment. How did things come to this? Last week, Caleb preached to us from Genesis 3:1-13. And we heard about how sin is fundamentally distrusting God for who He says He is and instead trusting in lies. We saw the slippery slope of the man and woman untethering themselves from the words of God. It appeared harmless at first as they entertained the serpent’s seemingly innocent questioning of God’s words “Did God really say?” (Gen 3:1b), then Eve in her response added to God’s words “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die” (Gen 3:3), then to allowing outright contradiction of God’s words as the serpent said “You shall not surely die” (Gen 3:4). All this finally led to Eve doubting the very goodness of God Himself as they entertained the serpent's words in their hearts: “For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:5). The serpent’s sinister words sought to drive a wedge between man and God. Painting God as fearful, insecure, selfish and withholding from His creation.
In the first two chapters of Genesis, we read of God reserving nothing but the best for man. In creating the world, He ordered it with plant life pleasing to the eye, populated it with domestic animals and wildlife of rich diversity. He created man and woman in His image giving them each other for companionship and complementary roles to help in their tasks. And more importantly gave them a purpose to enjoy Himself and worship Him in paradise, to be caretakers of the garden and fill the earth. Yet in entertaining temptation, they wrote off all of God’s rich blessings. Focusing on what they were forbidden, they lost sight of God’s goodness to them. Distrusting Him, they trusted the lies of the serpent and sought to be like God in knowing good and evil. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, And so in that act of taking and eating of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, they disobeyed God. Romans 5:18 tells us that this sin had consequences that reverberated down through history. For Adam’s trespass lead to the condemnation for all man. Adam’s sin did not just affect himself and Eve. But as the representative for the human race his rebellion introduced sin into the world and as a consequence all humans are born into sin. We are born morally and spiritually corrupted, unwilling to seek, unable to know or obey God on our own volition.
Thus, in today’s passage, God’s judgment is pronounced to the 3 parties involved. Judgement in today’s world is a word with quite a negative connotation. It has shades of harshness, intolerance, discrimination and bias. Some people even prefer to entirely reject the notion of God’s judgement all together, favouring human-centered ethics and justice systems. Deciding right and wrong based on human well-being, dignity and respect. It hopes to promote fairness for everyone to create a better, more just society. However, I would like to highlight a few key points on why it is important that the God of the Bible is a God that judges:
It is consistent with God's holy character: a sinless and holy God cannot tolerate sin.
It gives us confidence in His words: God judges proceeds from gracious warning, not from vengeful retaliation. His words are consistently true in warning and in his promises. We can live by His words.
It restores righteousness: so that we know righteous judgement will be served even if it is not achieved in human courts or societies. We do not need to take justice into our own hands but can trust in His righteous judgment.
It shows us that we matter: so that we know our actions have significance.
And it ultimately leads to the redemption of creation: God judgment exposes the reality of sin and acts as a catalyst for repentance and transformation. Restoring us back to right relationship with God.
Man’s sins do not somehow threaten God. He is not diminished in any way. His rule is not undermined, and His glory was not robbed though it may have been His creature's intentions. So divine judgment is not an act of retaliation, but a righteous response to sin.
God is the judge. Before Him, all three parties stand accountable for their actions. The LORD God addresses the snake first according to the order of the trespass.God is sovereign over everything before and after sin entered into the world. The cunning and deceitful Satan, who had plenty to say before judgment, is now silent before the holy God. There is no debate, no bargaining — only God’s precise and deliberate pronouncement of judgment. The serpent is cursed above all livestock and beast of the field (Gen 3:14). As a result of deceiving the woman, the serpent will be the most detestable and lowest of all animals and its physical form will embody its cursed state.
This is manifested in the way the serpent will move, slithering on the earth. And how it shall eat dust all the days of it’s life — a saying used in parts of Scripture such as Psalm72:9 — ”May … His enemies lick the dust”. I is a term to describe thorough submission and abject humiliation. The serpent sought to elevate Himself over God by destroying God’s perfect creation. He sought to create chaos in God’s paradise, to overthrow God and elevate himself over God’s rule. But instead God throws him down to be the last of all animals. In cursing the serpent, all the days of its life, He gives Adam and Eve a permanent and visual reminder of Satan’s imminent destruction, and how he will be rendered powerless.
Genesis 3:15 transitions from judgement over the biological serpent to judgment on Satan himself. God will put opposition between Satan and Eve. This might seem like a strange curse, but because Satan sought to disrupt God’s perfect world by causing a rift between God and His creation, God will not allow him to deceive man and woman forever. Satan and mankind will be enemies of each other. And there will be opposition between the offspring of Satan and the offspring of Eve.This enmity will culminate between the offspring of the woman and the offspring of Satan. Furthermore, through the word “he” and “you” we know that there will be a singular descendant from the line of the woman that will fatally wound Satan’s offspring while at great cost to himself.
This is the first announcement of the gospel in Scripture. We do not see Christ explicitly mentioned here, but we see how Christ is the perfect fulfillment of the seed of the woman who will one day come and crush Satan once and for all. Though Adam’s trespass led to the condemnation of all men, so one act of righteousness leads to the justification and life for all men. This one act is the decisive act of Christ dying on the cross. He was begotten by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary; fully God and fully man. Lived a life experiencing temptation just as we do, yet was without sin. He willingly gave up His life to die on the cross for the sins of those who would repent and believe in Him. On the third day, He rose from the dead and disarmed Satan by removing sin, the sting of death. He is now risen to the right hand of the father and He will come back to judge and will cast Satan into an eternity of torment in the lake of fire.
Evil is not an equal force to God, but is a corrupt creature under the authority of God’s sovereign judgment and rule
This passage teaches us that evil is not an equal force to God, but is a corrupt creature under the authority of God’s sovereign judgment and rule. Instead of having unrestrained freedom to continue to deceive and ally himself with the offspring of Eve, he is cursed to be their adversary. Why is life so hard? Well, the first reason we see here is that the Devil is our present opponent. The devil’s destiny is sealed, his fate is sure. He will be crushed. He knows he is under God’s curse and that his time is short and he is not idle.
Friends, this morning if you are struggling with sin, maybe you have been facing temptation. The voice of the devil telling you that there is no consequence for sin, that your actions are just your own private matter, that God will never know or that he does not care. Take heart that God knows, God cares and He has promised to one day fully crush Satan.
Why is life still so hard? Since sin has entered the world through Adam, Scripture does not paint a life that is without resisting sin. This opposition to sin is described as keeping watch and praying so that you will not give in to temptation (Matt 26:41). In James 4:7b, we read “…Resist the devil, and he will flee from you”. James 1:12 has another promise for us, “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.”
Life is hard because we are in opposition with the devil and sin.
There are only two sides: either you are fighting sin and in opposition to the devil, or you have embraced sin and are in opposition to God. If you are a child of God, be it an elder, deacon or member, we are all in this fight against sin together. We all need to be alert against temptations, keeping watch of our souls.
So life is hard because we are in opposition with the devil and sin. But we know that God has already pronounced judgment on the devil and his days are numbered. This has already been partially fulfilled in Christ’s death and resurrection. Because of that, you are no longer enslaved to sin to do its every bidding. And we await the final fulfilment of Satan’s crushing when Christ comes back again and sin will be no more.
Friends, even as God was delivering His definitive judgment upon Satan, in His same breath contained definitive words of life and hope to Adam and Eve. As the guilty couple stood by what they overheard were words of judgment upon their deceiver. But also hopeful words of salvation for man’s hopeless condition. Galatians 3:16 tell us that all Christians — those who are in Christ — participate in the crushing through Christ. In the conclusion of the book of Romans, Paul writes “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Rom 16: 20).
In Genesis 3:16 God turns to curse the woman. There are two parts to this curse: pain in bringing forth children, and conflict in the marital relationship. Both of the curses strike at the heart of the distinctiveness of the woman in creation. In Genesis 2, God states that it was not good for Adam to be alone. However among the animals there was not found a creature suitable for him. So God created woman out of the rib of man. When God brought her to Adam, he proclaimed this is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh (Gen 2:23). Finally a counterpart of the same nature, perfect for Adam, created equally yet distinct from from him.
The first distinctiveness was her biological gift to bear children. God’s command to Adam and Eve was to fill the earth and multiply. Before Eve took and ate the fruit, she would have bore children without pain, her children would have grown up without illness and lived forever, just as they would have lived. But as a result of the punishment, not just the birth act itself is cursed with exponential pain. But even beyond pregnancy there would be morning sickness (not exclusive to mornings), the aching and wearing of the body as it bears the weight of a growing child, and then the post-partum blues. Then, there is also the constant worrying about germs and illness, the growing worry of a mother’s heart over her children as they develop in independence and are exposed to greater physical, emotional, spiritual danger. Not to mention the whole host of other challenges women faced around childbearing in times when they were not treated as equals in society. Or yet still in third world countries where health standards and basic necessities are not adequately met. These are the fears of a mother’s heart that come after birth — sorrows that sometimes husbands do not fully understand. Struggles that are unique to her.
Following right after the curse on the Serpent and Satan, pain in child bearing is particularly significant. God has promised that the defeat of Satan will come through the birth of the seed from Eve. Adam further echoes this by calling his wife “mother of all living” (Gen 3:20). So as God’s people longingly anticipate the promised seed of deliverance, these longings are also intermingled with pain and sorrow. The reason for this is to keep front and center in His people’s minds that we live in a fallen world marred by sin.
The second distinctive characteristic of the woman that the curse addresses is in regards to her marital relationship. Genesis 3:16b says that her desire will be contrary to her husband, but he shall rule over her. Before the fall, the husband and wife existed in perfect harmony. Each carried out their God ordained roles. There was and strong leadership and perfect joyful submission as both went about their tasks to work in the garden. Now, there will be competing desires in the most intimate of all human relationships. In marriage, there will be struggle over the leadership. God’s ordained pattern of complementary relationship between the husband and wife will be distorted by sin. This will look like conflicting desires for the wife, and domineering rule or complete abdication of leadership on the part of the husband.
What is the deeper meaning behind this curse? Eve sinned by pursuing to please her senses — “So when the woman saw that the fruit was good for food, a delight to the eyes and was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit and ate” (Gen 3:6). She chose to satisfy her pursuit of pleasure above obeying God, and so the woman's joy and satisfaction in bringing forth children will be wrought with challenge and pain. As the woman did not defer to her husband’s leadership when she was tempted, but instead took the lead to eat of the fruit and because Adam abdicated his leadership and protection of his wife, their marital relationship will be turned on its head. The wife will domineer her husband and the husband will go the path of brute force to gain back his authority. As they both rejected their God given roles, God gave them into experiencing the brokenness of their choice. God knew that it is precisely in these distinctives that the woman is most tempted to allow her identities to be defined.
The good gifts of children and family are never going to be enough to truly fulfill. Neither will finding and marrying the right man give lasting fulfillment to the woman. Only God can be everything that you need.
So God’s curse is a constant reminder that we live in a fallen world marred by sin. But more specifically, that the good gifts of children and family are never going to be enough to truly fulfill. Neither will finding and marrying the right man give lasting fulfillment to the woman. Only God can be everything that you need. So, search and find it only in God.
On Sundays, my role in the family is to make breakfast while my wife rounds up the kids and gets them ready for church. So recently I have been experimenting with making this thing called a tornado omelette. It is easy because i can just throw in six eggs in the pan and if i do it right it will not stick to the pan so it is easy to clean. So I am twisting and twisting the egg and getting it just perfectly runny on top, and well enough cooked inside. Then I plate it three ways and get my daughter started first as she is the slowest. As I am back in the kitchen cleaning the pan, i hear my daughter say ”Papa Jon, this egg is so tasty!” Really a moment that makes all the work worthwhile. Then i hear my wife say to her, “It is actually because of the Trader Joe’s seasoning that our friend brought back from the States”. We are laughing now, but in the moment it truly felt like my wife’s contrary desires towards me tried to rob me of my daughter’s affections. And of course if you know my wife, she is the kindest and most supportive person in my life and never meant in that way. Aren’t we tempted to look for ultimate fulfillment, acceptance in our children or in our spouse, and it is always a good reminder that we should never look to them for what only God can give?
Life is hard because we are born in sin and guilt. And we live life through the lens of the curse of pain in childbearing and marital conflict.
So why is life so hard? Life is hard because we are born in sin and guilt. And we live life through the lens of the curse of pain in childbearing and marital conflict. No amount of self-help, sound baths, and rationalization will help. My prayer is that we would face it as God intended. And that we would turn to Him for ultimate fulfilment.
Last but not least, God turns to Adam and before delivering the curse and ensures he understands exactly why he is being punished (Gen 3:17). God is like a parent before disciplining his child who reiterates the trespass so that the child can learn from this experience. The reason is “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it’”. Just to be clear God is not saying that husbands should not listen to their wives. But what is key is that husbands should not abdicate their God given responsibility: of leadership, to make the call. Husbands are to lead by protecting their wives from harm, even if it costs them their life. The nature of the sin is this: that they ate of the tree that God commanded him not to eat. In these first two sentences, God clearly lays out the offense. Man’s God-given role was left undone, and as a result, he did what he was not supposed to do. All of which God had warned him about.
God’s punishment of Adam is of the very ground that he was fashioned from. Since he ate from the tree that was prohibited to him, he will struggle to eat in the future. In the garden, his work was fruitful productivity that brought about order and beauty. Sustenance was not top of mind as God abundantly provided. But now he will work the ground from which he was taken. And it will be cursed. Eating from it will involve pain and suffering as long as he shall live. Crops will have to contend with thorns and thistles: weeds that choke and strangle plantings, will reduce the yield each harvest. Man will have to come to terms with production shortfall, he will have to factor in seed reserves to offset potential losses. The ground will still yield produce for him, but this will come through hard toil and labour in conditions unlike the cool of the garden that they once walked in. Man will learn about soil erosion, wind damage to crops and declining soil health the hard way, through first hand experience. Why is life so hard? The harmonious relationship that existed between humans and nature is now disrupted.
To be clear, God did not curse work. God Himself engaged in work as He created the world and as His image bearers, man too, works to bring about order. Though we do not live in an agricultural society in Singapore, we too, experience the curse of the ground in work. Maybe you have experience working hard on a project only for the credit for the work handed over to another person. Or you were passed over for a promotion. Maybe you experience long hours in a demanding job because competition is stiff or the expectations are high. Maybe you experience difficult relationships at work: conflict with colleagues, abrasive or abusive management that makes work unbearable. Maybe you feel trapped in your current job that is not aligned with your personal interest or values and maybe you had your job taken away from you because of retrenchment due to the broader economic uncertainty. Scripture reminds us that we are not alone in these struggles, not just across our generation. But across all time, we struggle with work not because of Economic inequality and Capitalism. We struggle because the world is corrupted in sin. As Romans 8:22 reminds us, “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”
We are clothed in Christ’s righteousness (Gen 3:20-21)
There is hope yet in Adam as he responds to discipline with acceptance.
The most encouraging feeling as a parent having just disciplined my child is to have them come back to me and give me a hug. Knowing full well what they have done, but also knowing that they are safe, loved and cherished. We get a sense of this here in Genesis 3:20 as Adam, after hearing the judgment pronounced, had the presence of mind to focus on the hope before them. He grasped onto the promise in Genesis 3:15 of the offspring that would come from his wife that would crush Satan. He immediately responds by naming his wife Eve, meaning mother of all living. He took up the role which he had neglected in his rebellion, to name creation and imbue meaning once again. There is hope yet in Adam as he responds to discipline with acceptance.
The LORD God personally makes for Adam and Eve garments of skins to replace their fig leaves. Can you imagine wearing garments personally put together by God? Better than any other designer wear. It is a tremendous gesture of God’s tender care for man and woman to cover their shame and allow them dignity even as they had sought to rebel against him. In order to provide garments of skin, God would have had to kill an innocent animal in order to attain the skins required. This is perhaps, foreshadowing the animal sacrificial system that God will establish with His people in Moses’s day to atone for sins. This eventually points forward to the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ as the final and lasting atonement for our sins.
Friends, we have gone through a heavy passage of God’s judgment on sin. If you only leave today with one piece of information, let it be this, that God sent His son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins. If we repent of our sins and believe in Him, we are in Christ and are clothed in His righteousness. We may have been sinners like our forefather Adam, born into sin and unable to love God. But if we are in Christ, His righteousness is imputed to us. His righteousness is ours as if we had never sinned at all. This is the meaning of Christmas. If you would like to know more I would love to spend time to share more with you. But we must press on.
We await our return to Paradise(V22-24)
Genesis 3:22 reads, “Behold the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.” God did not mean that man is now like God as the serpent had falsely promised Adam and Eve. Man knew good and evil through personal experience of sin. Yet God knows good and evil because He is the ultimate moral authority. He knows both perfectly, allowing Him to judge righteously. And He does so in Genesis 3:22.
God seems to stop mid-sentence with the thought of man taking from the tree of life to live forever while being in a sinful condition as something unbearable for God to think about. He wastes no time to cast Adam and Eve from the Garden. Outside of Eden, man is to work the ground from which he was taken, for the first time, away from the presence of God and without the provisions in the garden. To further protect man from reaching the tree of life , God also placed the cherubim and a flaming sword to guard the way to the tree.
In the last chapter of the Bible, in Revelation 22:2-3 we are given another glimpse of the tree of life — “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.”
In the New Heaven and the New Earth, the tree of life once banned from sinful humanity will be in the midst of the city to satisfy the city’s residents year-round. There, God’s people will worship Him in His presence in the city. There will be no need for a temple for God Himself will be the temple and God’s people will see Him face to face as Adam and Eve saw him in Eden.
We may now be working the ground and living in a fallen world. But this is not how things will be forever.
Friends, we may now be working the ground and living in a fallen world. But this is not how things will be forever. God promises us that Christ will come back again to judge the living and the dead once and for all. look forward to the day when we will be with God in paradise.
In December of 1934, American Missionary couple John and Betty Stam were murdered by Communist Chinese Soldiers in the small town of Miaoshou in Anhui province. The communists demanded 20,000 as a ransom, which John knew would not be paid. In his letter to China Inland Missions HQ, he wrote: “The Lord bless you and guide you, and as for us, may God be glorified whether by life or by death”.
Friends, life is hard in a fallen world because the world is groaning as in the pains of childbirth. Sin has permeated the world. Our relationship with creation is broken, our relationship with each other is broken and most importantly our relationship with God is broken. But we can have confidence even in the face of death because we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ and know that we will be with Him.
We close with this Christmas hymn written 90 years ago by Frank Houghton:
Thou who wast rich beyond all splendor,
All for love’s sake becamest poor;
Thrones for a manger didst surrender,
Sapphire paved courts for stable floor.
Thou who wast rich beoynd all splendor,
All for love’s sake becamest man;
Stooping so low, but sinners raising,
Heavenward by thine eternal plan.
Thou who art God beyond all praising,
All for love’s sake becamest man.
Thou who art love beyond all telling,
Saviour and King, we worship Thee.
Emmanuel, within us dwelling,
Make us what thou wouldst have us be.
Thou who art love beyond all telling,
Savior and King we worship Thee.