Erik Petrik • February 11, 2024 • Gen. 3:14-24

Why the world is a disaster, why you & I have so many problems,
& why we shouldn’t worry about it.

A Biblical Perspective

Series summary: Beware: your trash may actually be a treasure.
So the Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this, ‘Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.’” (Gen. 3:14-15)

Remember: The serpent wasn’t just a snake
• The most cursed of the animals.
• The most popular enemy.
• The most certain demise.

To the woman He said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your
husband, and he will rule over you.” (Gen. 3:16)

The wounds of wives & moms
• The problem of pain.
• The problem of a partnership.
• The problem of power.

To Adam He said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ ‘Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.’” (Gen. 3:17-19)

The wounds of husbands and fathers
• The problem of weeds. (vs.17)
• The problem of toil. (vs.18)
• The problem of death. (vs.19)

“Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the Lord God said, ‘The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.’ So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Gen. 3:20-24)

The Blessing(s) of the curse
• Not all bad: “Eve” (vs. 20)
• The benefits of a zebra jacket (vs. 21)
• The advantages of getting kicked out of paradise (vs. 22-24)
• The blessing of all blessings. (revisit vs 19)