The Rev. Ron Purkey
Guest Columnist

Read: Genesis 3:1-19

The Rev. Ron Purkey

“The Lord God said unto the serpent [Satan], Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:14-15).

First, internal (Genesis 3:7-13). When Adam and Eve sinned, immediately there came a loss of innocence and glory and a sense of guilt. They tried to cover their nakedness with their own works, garments that God did not accept (verse 21).

Further, we see a loss of desire for fellowship with God. When they heard God approaching, they hid! Guilt, fear, and shame broke the fellowship with God that they had enjoyed before their disobedience.

Notice too that there was a growing attitude of self-defense: the man blamed the woman and the woman blamed the serpent. We see here the tragic internal effects of sin.

Second, external (Genesis 3:14-19). It is likely that the serpent Satan used was not the crawling creature that we know today. The name suggests brightness and glory, but because the creature yielded to Satan and shared in the temptation, it was judged and condemned to a lowly life in the dust.

The woman’s judgment involved multiple conception and pain in childbirth. She was made subject to her husband. Notice that Paul suggests that Christian women who marry unsaved men may have special dangers in bearing children (1 Timothy 2:8-15).

The judgment on man involved his work: paradise would be replaced by wilderness, and the joy of ministry in the garden by the sweat and toil in the field. It is not work that is God’s penalty, because work is not sinful (Genisis 2:15). It is the sweat and toil of work and the obstacles of nature that remind us of the fall of man.

All creation is cursed and in bondage because of sin (Romans 8:15-25).

Third, eternal (Genesis 3:15). This is the first Gospel declared in the Bible: the good news that the woman’s seed (Christ) would ultimately defeat Satan and his seed (Galatians 4:4-5).

It is from this point on the stream divides: Satan and his family (seed) oppose God and his family. God himself put the enmity (hostility) between them, and God will climax the war when Satan is cast into hell (Revelation 20:10).

Review the Parable of the Tares in Matthew 13, and notice Satan has children just as God does. In Genesis 4, Cain kills Abel, and 1 John 3:12 informs us that Cain was “of that wicked one” — a child of the devil.

The OT is the record of the two seeds in conflict; the NT is the record of the birth of Christ and his victory over Satan through the cross.

Read Ron Purkey’s Bible study outlines free at rcpbibleoutlines.com. Purkey has been an ordained Baptist minister for 50 years.