Blessed Discipline
Notes
Transcript
Genesis 3:16-21 ESV
16 To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” 17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” 20 The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. 21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
Whenever we met last week, we said that a comfort to the saint but a terror for the non-believer is that God knows everything and that there is nothing hidden from Him or beyond His finding out.
And we said that the reason why this is a terror for the non-believer, the one who is in constant rebellion against God, is because it lets them know that their sin will not go without being punished.
And we also said that the reason why God’s omniscience is a blessing for the believer is because it lets us know that no sin of ours will not merit the Paternal discipline of the Lord.
We also spoke of the difference between the punishment of God and the Parental discipline of God.
We said that for the non-believer who is destined for damnation, when God punishes him for sin, the only thing that it produces within his heart is a further hardening towards his sin and a furthering hatred for God.
But we also said that for the believer, the one whom God has saved and has thus determined to maintain in a state of salvation will receive the Paternal discipline of God when he sins.
This means that just as the parental discipline of our own children is meant to correct them and set them on the right track when they do what they should not do, so is the discipline that God administers to those of us who are saved, meant to correct us, and set us back on track when we sin.
Last week, we looked specifically at the act of divine punishment, that which is carried out on those who are destined for damnation when we read the indictment that God had given to the serpent and the details of his sentencing.
This week though, we will look at the Paternal discipline that God pronounces upon the man and the woman, Adam and Eve, and how God, even after sentencing the man and the woman, still graciously provided for them.
We see this as we read of God beginning to carry out His sentence on the woman in the first part of verse 16, where we read:
Genesis 3:16a ESV
16a To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children.
God says to the woman, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children”.
God says to the woman “You will indeed bring forth children into the world, but as you are multiplied through the bringing forth of children, you can be sure that your pain in bringing forth children will be multiplied as well”.
As we have said in previous sermons, God brought forth the woman that she may be a helper to the man, his complement, and that the man in turn may be a helper to the woman and serve as her complement.
Therefore, in bringing forth new life, the woman finds the fulfillment of her destiny as man’s complement. But God tells the woman that now that she and her husband have fallen into sin, this bringing forth into the world will only be accomplished after suffering great pain and coming dangerously close to death in the process.
But that is not all, for God continues in the second half of this verse to tell the woman,
Genesis 3:16b ESV
16b Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”
If you remember a few sermons back, when we spoke of when the man and the woman first fell into sin, we read back in verse six of this chapter that when the woman ate of the forbidden fruit that she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
Now, when we exposited that particular verse, we said that the woman’s husband being with his wife meant more than a geographic locality. We said that it meant that at that particular time, when there was no sin in the world, there was no strife and that the man and the woman were of the same accord. They were together, in agreement about everything.
But God tells the woman that now that sin has come into the world, that will no longer be the case. But rather, God tells the woman that her desire, that which she wants will run contrary to, will be the opposite of what her husband wants. But though they will not see eye to eye, the husband will rule over his wife because God has given the man headship in the family.
Thus, being a true helper to one another will no longer be what is natural for the man and the woman, now they will not see eye to eye and thus it will require a gracious influence for the man and the woman to serve as one another’s helper. But this, God says is worse for the woman, for she will inevitably find herself on the short end of this equation.
Then beginning in verse 17, we see God’s sentencing of the man, as we look first here at the first two thirds of this 17thverse, which reads:
Genesis 3:17a ESV
17a And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you;
Now turning to the man, God said that because Adam had acted as one with his wife in eating this fruit, because he did not discourage her from eating the fruit, and because he instead chose to act as one with his wife here, and also ate the fruit, the fruit which God personally commanded Adam not to eat; God said because this is the case, the ground is now cursed.
This means that the ground lacks water and fertility and is subject to a variety of plagues. And this, God tells Adam is because of Adam. Thus, not only does man suffer because of his sin, but all of creation suffers because of this rebellion on the part of the man and his wife.
And as we look at the last part of this 17thverse and going to the first half of the 19th verse, we read how the man is directly affected by this where we read:
Genesis 3:17b-19a ESV
17b in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19a By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread,
God says here that for this reason, because the man and his wife have sinned, because the ground and all of creation is cursed due to his transgression, he shall eat what comes from the ground only through pain, all the days of his life.
To the man, God declares that where before there were only life-giving elements within the land, now the land will bring forth thorns and thistles which grow so thick as to rob the soil of moisture and nutrients and choke out the fruit-bearing plants.
As the woman experiences pain in her labor, in her childbearing, so does the man experience pain in his labor, backbreaking work in the field, as it is written that man shall eat bread, he shall be maintained, God will give the man sustenance, but as our reading tells us, it shall be obtained only by the sweat of man’s face. God will sustain man, but this sustenance will require much labor on man’s part.
Thus, man is cursed with planting that which is meant to give life and sustenance, and in addition to the fruit that the plants bear, he will also experience weeds and thorns and insects; those things which seek to destroy those same plants which God gives to man for his sustenance.
Yet though this is the case, we see here the grace of God toward man in that He still wills to sustain him. Man most certainly does not deserve this God-given sustenance, but God still lovingly does so, He sustains man, albeit through much pain and toil.
And this pain, this toil that man experiences on earth, God says in the second half of this 19th verse, will be present:
Genesis 3:19b ESV
19b till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
Man, God says, will toil and labor until he returns to the dust that he was formed from.
Man was formed from the dust, taken from it. Indeed, this was a reminder to Adam of his humble origins. God says to the man, “you are dust”. In saying this, what God is doing is showing man that which he was made from, reminding him that inherently, he is nothing special, that he is mere dust. And though man was formed from dust, he has the gall to rebel against the God of heaven and earth.
God says that because this is the case, because Adam has insisted upon rebelling against his Creator, Adam has then forfeited his immunity from death. Man came from the dust, and man returns to the dust, and thus, as man was created, so does he return to the dust and effectively become uncreated.
But even in all of this, even though the man and the woman, Adam and Eve have committed cosmic treason, even with all of the judgments that have come upon them, God is still merciful towards them, indeed, not only merciful, but gracious towards them.
We see this first in verse 20, where we read:
Genesis 3:20 ESV
20 The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
The man, Adam, our text says, called his wife’s name “Eve” which means “life”. Adam called her this, our text says, “because she was the mother of all living”.
By giving his wife this name, what Adam was proclaiming is that despite the curses pronounced against them, his wife would fulfill her destiny of motherhood for which God had designed her, so that from the motherhood of Eve would come all who will ever live.
Thus, do we see the God ordained hope that was instilled into the hearts of Adam and Eve, who now, having the hideous reality of their sins exposed to them, repents of their sins and now throws themselves at the mercy of God.
This act of Adam in naming his wife “Eve” is a statement of faith. It is a statement that declares that though they have sinned against the God of heaven and earth, God will remain ever faithful, and that which He desires to accomplish through Adam and his wife will indeed be accomplished.
And in addition to this hope that Adam held to and knew was certain was the most gracious provision of God found in verse 21, where we read:
Genesis 3:21
21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
If you will remember a few verses back, back in verse seven of this chapter, we read about how Adam and his wife had sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths, having been made ashamed of their nakedness because of their sin.
But then a few verses later, in verse ten, Adam says to God, “I heard the sound of You walking in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked”.
So, though Adam and his wife had attempted to clothe themselves, they obviously had not done a very good job at it, for as was said, Adam had told God back in verse ten that despite having made these loincloths, he still considered himself to be naked. Thus here in verse 21, we see God graciously clothing Adam and Eve with garments of skins.
What this shows us is that here, God is expressing His intention to continue to support and fellowship with humans. It shows that God intends to support and sustain that which He has created, and He faithfully does so.
But even more importantly, what this reveals to us is the truth that when people have their eyes fully opened to their own sin, when God graciously blesses one to realize the grotesque reality of his own depravity, such a one comes to despair of his sin.
When God blesses such a one with such a realization, he does not love his sin any longer, but rather, he comes to despise, hate his sin, despairing of it.
But then such a one is in fact further blessed by God as God reveals to such a one that not only is their sin grotesque, but He reveals to such a one that he is helpless in his sin.
Thus, as God reveals to such a one the hideous reality of his sin, God also causes such a one to hate his sin, and most of all, God causes such a one to see that he is helpless in his sin. And what a blessing it is!
But you may wonder how in the world is that a blessing. It is a blessing from God for it is after God reveals to such a one his helplessness in sin that He also shows such a one that He, the Lord God of heaven and earth to be such a one’s salvation from sin.
Suddenly, the holiness of God, the goodness of God, the love of God becomes so much desired in such a man that He flees to God, having his heart renewed by Him. And then God graciously sustains such a one for salvation.
Indeed, remarkable is God’s election to salvation! That He causes His elect to be aware of their sin, to hate their sin, to flee from their sin, and to flee to God!
And so it is, not only at salvation, but throughout the saint’s pilgrimage on earth. For those whom God has graciously chosen to save, God also graciously maintains in their salvation. And He does this through that paternal discipline that we spoke of earlier.
Adam and Eve had obviously fallen hard and fast into sin, but here we see God’s determination to graciously redeem them. And as we today who have been chosen to salvation find ourselves wandering away from a proper obedience to God, so can we know that God will be faithful to discipline us.
He will be faithful to discipline us as through it we will see the wretchedness of our sin, the beauty of His holiness, and we will flee to Him!
Praise God that He loves His people so! Praise God for His blessed discipline!
Amen?
