26-0208p Transcript

(1:02) It’s good to see everybody. We’re continuing our journey (1:06) through the first 11 chapters of Genesis and this evening we’re diving deeper (1:11) again into chapter 3. This morning we explored verses 14 and 15 where God (1:19) pronounces a curse on the physical serpent that will crawl in its belly and (1:24) eat dust all the days of its life. And the puppet master behind it all, Satan, God (1:32) declared there would be enmity, an ongoing war between the seed of the (1:39) woman and Satan’s seed. And ultimately the seed of woman will crush the serpent’s (1:44) head while the serpent will only bruise his heel.

This came right after Satan’s (1:50) successful temptation of the woman who then influenced her husband to sin as (1:57) well. We saw how God and his sovereign wisdom would use the very person. I just, (2:06) this is almost a jaw-dropper when you realize what happened there.

God (2:14) would use the very person, Satan the seed, the woman, to bring about his (2:20) ultimate defeat through her offspring. That’s a beautiful reversal. The deceived (2:27) becomes the instrument of the deceiver’s downfall.

That only God. Now God’s (2:36) attention turns directly to the woman as he announces the consequences of her (2:41) sin. So let’s read this together, Genesis 3, 16.

So the woman, he said, I will (2:51) greatly multiply your pain and childbirth, and pain you will bring forth (2:57) children. Yet your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you. (3:04) There are two main consequences here for the woman, and we’ll focus first on (3:10) the pain and childbearing, and later we’ll address her desire for her husband (3:14) and his rule over her.

So first God says to her, I will greatly multiply your pain (3:22) and childbirth, and pain you will bring forth children. This is one of the most (3:30) familiar elements of the consequences in Genesis 3. It’s etched in our cultural (3:37) memory. But let’s pause and think back to when you first encountered this passage, (3:44) perhaps before you knew much about the Bible.

What did you expect God’s (3:49) judgment on the woman to look like? Something drastic, like immediate (3:54) death or total destruction? I know I did. When I first read this as a young person, (4:03) I braced for something severe. Maybe even the serpent’s fate extended to humanity.

(4:09) I was surprised that on the surface no one seemed to die right then and there, (4:15) and painful childbearing? I understand I was a young man, young boy, when I first came (4:23) across this childbearing, that caught me totally off guard. It seemed almost (4:30) unexpected as a primary consequence. Why would God target that? I suspect the (4:37) woman herself, Eve, standing there in that raw, real-time moment, might have felt a (4:44) mix of perplexity and gratitude.

She wasn’t struck down right there on the (4:51) spot. Her life was spared. But unlike her, we have the luxury of hindsight.

We view (4:59) this historical account from a post-resurrection vantage point, after the (5:05) seed of the woman, Jesus Christ, has indeed crushed that serpent’s head. And (5:13) we have the full sweep of Scripture to illuminate what happened. So let’s dig (5:18) into this together and see what we can glean.

Notice how God’s words to the (5:24) woman immediately follow the prophecy in verse 15. The Bible’s first gospel (5:33) promise, the initial hint that Satan and sin would be vanquished. God said he (5:40) would put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.

(5:47) He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel. So here the (5:53) woman is central to the redemptive plan. Her contribution, her seed, her offspring.

(6:02) Through childbearing, she would play a pivotal role in bringing forth the one (6:08) who would defeat evil. Imagine Eve listening intently as God addressed the (6:14) serpent. Her ears may have perked up at the mention of her and her seed, (6:20) realizing she had a significant part in the solution.

Her life wouldn’t end right (6:27) there. She would bear children, and through that lineage, victory would come. (6:35) Then God turns to her and says, I will greatly multiply your pain and childbirth.

(6:43) In pain you will bring forth children. Suddenly, it clicks. The consequence is (6:52) perfectly tailored.

The very process that now becomes essential because of sin, the (6:59) bearing of children to fulfill the promise, will be marked by intensified (7:06) pain. This isn’t arbitrary. It’s a direct result of sin entering God’s good (7:13) creation.

Before the fall, the world was one of harmony and blessing without curse (7:19) or brokenness. Childbearing, as part of God’s command to be fruitful and (7:24) multiply, Genesis 128, might have involved some natural effort, but now it’s (7:30) dramatically amplified, sharpened into severe, acute suffering. So look at the (7:38) Hebrew here for a moment.

It’s emphatic. It forcibly emphasizes the phrase (7:47) greatly multiply. It uses a double verb form that I can’t pronounce, but I know (7:54) it’s two verbs, stressing certainty and degree.

God isn’t just adding a little (8:02) discomfort. He’s intensifying it profoundly. And the Hebrew words for pain (8:09) go beyond just the physical agony of labor.

They encompass the whole experience, (8:16) hardships and anxiety during conception and pregnancy, the risk of miscarriage, (8:22) the dangers of delivery in the fallen world, and even the emotional toil of (8:27) motherhood afterwards. It’s not limited to the birth moment. The entire journey of (8:35) bringing life into a broken reality is now laced with struggle.

Theologically, (8:42) this carries deep layers of meaning. First, it’s continual reminder of sin’s (8:48) devastating effects. Every generation of mothers feels this, pointing back to our (8:56) shared human fall and our desperate need for redemption.

Yet, woven right into it (9:03) is hope, the first gospel’s promise. The pain and childbearing is set against a (9:11) backdrop of redemptive victory. The very process that hurts will bring the Savior.

(9:19) Life emerges through suffering, a theme that echoes through Scripture and (9:24) culminates in Christ’s own death and resurrection, where ultimate life bursts (9:29) forth from ultimate pain. Even in judgment, grace shines through. Children will still (9:37) come.

Fruitfulness persists. Right after this, Adam names his wife Eve, the mother (9:45) of all living, in verse 20, affirming blessing amid the curse. And here we see another beautiful (9:54) layer of Hebrew wordplay that ties together.

Her name is Chavah, which echoes the word (10:02) chai, meaning living or life. And Adam calls her Chavah because she is the mother of all chai, (10:11) all living things. This isn’t accidental.

It’s a profound pun. Amid the curse, God highlights (10:19) her role as life giver. The multiplied pain and childbearing is real and severe, but it’s tied (10:28) directly to the promise in verse 15, the seed that will vanquish sin.

The pain is purposeful (10:37) because through it comes life, and ultimately the life giver, Jesus. The very toil points (10:45) forward to redemption, where life triumphs over death. As a result of sin, everything changed.

(10:54) Physical, emotional, relational realities shifted. Pain and childbearing is one stark example, (11:02) but it’s embedded in a story of promise, redemption, and victory through Jesus, the seed of (11:08) the woman. Let’s let the truth shape how we view our own struggles in this fallen world.

(11:16) So now let’s turn to the second consequence. God pronounces on the woman in Genesis 3.16, (11:24) yet your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you. We’ve just seen (11:32) how sin brought intensified pain and toil into the beautiful gift of childbearing, (11:39) the very process tied to the promise in verse 15 that the woman’s seed would crush the serpent.

(11:47) Now God addresses the relational sphere, the marriage bond itself, the one flesh union (11:55) that was meant to reflect harmony and mutual partnership in Eden. Both of her consequences (12:04) were related, and they were both related to the marriage relationship, which is interesting. (12:13) Before the fall in Genesis chapters 1 and 2, a picture of equality and complementarity, (12:21) both man and woman created in God’s image, given joint dominion over creation, becoming one flesh (12:27) without any hint of hierarchy or dominion.

There was no power struggle, no imbalance, (12:35) just perfect unity. And Genesis highlights this unity through another striking wordplay. (12:41) In Genesis 2.23, where God made woman from Adam’s rib, and when Adam first sees her, he says, (12:52) this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

She shall be called ishah, woman, (12:59) because she was taken out of ish for man. ish for man, husband, and ishah for woman or wife. (13:08) The words are strikingly similar, like two sides of the same coin, emphasizing the profound (13:15) complementarity and oneness.

They fit together perfectly, derived in sound and meaning to (13:24) show they belong to each other, completing one another in God’s design. No dominance here, (13:30) just mutual belonging, a partnership where together they reflect the image of God. (13:36) But sin fractures everything, and here God describes how that fracture (13:40) hits the core of human intimacy, turning harmony into conflict.

(13:47) The key phrase is, your desire will be for your husband. The Hebrew word for desire used here is (13:55) a rare term, appearing only three times in the Old Testament. Here in Genesis 3.16, (14:03) a woman’s desire for her husband.

In Genesis 4.7, where sin’s desire is for Cain, (14:10) but he must rule over it. And in Song of Songs, Chapter 7, Verse 10, where it’s used positively (14:19) as the man’s desire for the woman in a romantic, affectionate context. (14:25) Because the word is so rare, interpreters have wrestled with its exact nuance.

Two primary views (14:33) emerge. First, a persistent longing or attraction, even amid the hardship. Many (14:41) traditional and lexical sources see it as longing or attraction.

The yet, as in, yet your desire (14:51) will be, and some translations suggest contrast, despite the multiplied pain of childbearing (14:57) and the struggles of family life in a fallen world, the woman will still have a deep pull (15:05) toward her husband for intimacy, partnership, and union. It’s a grace note the relational bond (15:13) endures, drawing her toward marriage and family, even when it’s costly. And the other view of the (15:21) desire here is a conflicted or controlling urge, influenced by the parallel in Genesis 4.7, (15:30) sin’s desire for Cain.

Some scholars in the 1970s and many complementarian interpreters since argue (15:40) that desire here carries an adversarial edge, a sinful desire to dominate, control, or usurp (15:48) authority over the husband. Just as sin crouches to master Cain, the woman’s fallen inclination (15:57) might be to challenge or overpower her husband. The husband’s rule then becomes a distorted counter (16:04) to that urge.

Whatever the nuance we emphasize, and the majority of the lexical evidence leans (16:11) toward longing rather than opposition. The overall picture is clear. Sin introduces conflict and (16:21) imbalance into marriage.

The beautiful mutuality of Eden captured so poetically in the ish, ishah wordplay (16:30) gives way to struggle. The Hebrew word for rule means to govern or have dominion, and here it (16:38) describes a hierarchical dynamic where the husband exercises authority, or often in a harsh (16:45) dominating way than loving leadership. This isn’t God’s perspective ideal, it’s descriptive of fallen (16:53) reality.

Sin distorts what was good. The woman’s longing persists but now coexists with relational (17:01) pain and vulnerability and power imbalances, and the husband’s rule shifts from gentle leadership (17:07) to potential domination or self-controlled self-centered control. And throughout history, (17:14) this is played out in patriarchal structures, misuse of authority, abuse, resentment, and the (17:20) battle of the sexes.

Marriages become battlegrounds instead of sanctuaries of love, and I’m not (17:27) talking about those who may have been enlightened by Christ. I’m talking about the world in general, (17:33) and the depraved world acts this way. Think about it.

Every strained marriage, (17:40) every power struggle between husband and wife, every instance of where authority is wielded (17:46) archly or submission is demanded without love, traces back to this fracture in Genesis 3. (17:54) It’s part of the broader brokenness sin brought, not just thorns in the ground or pain and birth, (18:00) but thorns in the closest relationships where the once perfect ish and ishah now face tension (18:09) instead of seamless unity. Yet even here, grace glimmers. The very desire that draws a woman to (18:17) man keeps the human race going, keeps family forming, keeps the promise alive.

And remember, (18:24) this consequence sits right after the gospel prophecy. The seed of the woman will crush (18:29) the serpent through childbearing, yes, but ultimately through Christ, born of a woman, (18:36) Galatians 4. In the New Testament, redemption begins to heal these distortions. Christ bears (18:44) the curse, Galatians 3.13, and in him relationships are restored toward mutuality.

There is neither (18:52) Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus, Galatians 3.28. (19:00) Husbands are not called to domineer but to love sacrificially, as Christ loved the church, (19:06) Ephesians 5.25, laying down their lives, not ruling harshly. Wives are called to respect (19:13) and partner, not in fear but in freedom of gospel love, Ephesians 5.33. The gospel pushes back (19:22) against the curse, inviting us toward marriages that reflect Eden more than Eden’s loss, (19:29) where ish and ishah can once again find true oneness in Christ. So what does this mean for (19:36) us? If you’re married, recognize that any relational friction isn’t just personality (19:42) differences.

It’s part of the false legacy. Bring it to the cross. Husbands fight the temptation to (19:49) dominate, love as Christ loves.

Wives fight the temptation to control or withdraw, respect (19:56) and partner in grace. If you’re single or in painful relationships, take heart. (20:02) Christ’s victory over sin means ultimate healing for all our broken bonds.

This verse doesn’t lock (20:10) us into the curse. It diagnoses the problem so we can run to the Savior who resolves it. (20:17) The seed has come.

The serpent is crushed, and in him we glimpse marriages and all relationships (20:25) made new, echoing the original harmony of ish and ishah and the life-giving promise of Chavah. (20:34) The gospel redeems even this part of the fall. And that’s the lesson for tonight.

(20:41) We’ll extend the invitation. Final, we stand in saint.