JUDGMENT ON ADAM/CURSE ON THE GROUND

GENESIS 3:17-19

The focus of our study tonight is Gen. 3:17-19. Read passage.

•	What happened to the ground as a result of sin?

◦	Cursed

•	How does the curse on the ground affect man's relationship with the ground?

◦	It requires painful toil to eat of it

◦	It produces thorns and thistles and plants of the field

◦	It receives death

•	How do these affects contrast with man's original relationship with the ground? (Support from context of Gen. 1-3. Find out where else in the context each of these is repeated.)

◦	Man was not originally designed to work the ground but to work the garden.

-	(Garden present for a king because mature–God gave them dominion, rulership over it. Why such an insult for Ahab to want to buy Naboth's vineyard and turn it into a vegetable garden in 1 Kings 21:2)

◦	(Plant of the field are technical terms, not just referring to any old plant. Give that shrub of the field is term for thorns and thistles and that plants of the field refer to grain crops. Shrub of the field only appears in Gen. 2:5, Gen. 21:15 (Hagar stuffed Ishmael under a bush in the desert), Job 30:4, 7 (associated with nettles). There were no thorns and thistles and no plants of the field before

◦	It brought forth life (before Mother Earth, now the grave)

•	How would you summarize man's relationship to the ground after the fall?

◦	Painful struggle and death

•	According to the passage, why does man need to struggle painfully with the ground?

◦	In order to eat

-	And why? Why does he do that? What will happen to him if he didn't eat? (God designed him to need to eat to live.)

▪	To keep from dying

*	For how long does he keep this up?

+	All the days of his life (until he dies)

•	What is ironic about this picture?

x	Man's struggle is with the very thing that will ultimately conquer him. He fights with the ground all his days, and the ground wins in the end.)

•	Now tell me again, what is this very thing that will one day conquer him?

◦	The ground

-	I want you to look back at verse 19 and tell me what is ironic about the fact that man succumbs to the ground?

▪	for dust you are He is the ground; not made out of the ground

•	I wanted to know in my original question what man was struggling with that would one day conquer him. In light of what we have just seen, what does man ultimately struggle with?

◦	Himself (implies struggle is with self)

•	How would you like to be on the receiving end of this?

◦	It's horrible.

-	What kind of life is this describing?

▪	A life of futility

▪	A life of struggle where we have to work to eat to live but are going to die anyway

•	Notice that this is specifically a judgment pronounced by God. He could have let them die rather than experience a futile life. So why would God judge in this way? What is God trying to teach us? That we have to work to eat to live? Salvation by works? A lot of us have bought into the idea that we have to work for salvation. Does He delight in watching us struggle? (Let struggle a little.)

◦	He wants us to see the futility of our own work–our condition) No matter how hard we struggle and sweat, we will die anyway. (Appropriate in light of fall where Adam and Eve ignored God's gift of life to try and gain better life through own work.)

•	Now I want to look at more detail in the story that might give us more insight on this issue. What is similar, both before and after the fall, about what it takes to sustain life?

◦	Have to eat

-	Eat what?

▪	Food/bread/plants of the field–interesting that God made us so that we have to eat food both before the fall and after

•	What is different about the food? (Actual types of food?)

◦	Before fall food given as gift; after fall have to toil for it

◦	Before fall seed-bearing food; after fall plants of the field/bread

-	In what way are these types of food different? (Remember that man was designed to work a garden and now he has to work the ground. What is different about those two?)

▪	One comes from mature trees that need little toil

▪	Other needs tilled soil and must be replanted yearly

▪	(What would the seed-bearing plants be? How different from plants of the field? Maybe nuts.)

•	ASIDE–I find it interesting that vegetables and grain crops are introduced after the fall, particularly considering the way that Jesus chooses to identify Himself in the New Testament. With which of these kinds of food does Jesus identify Himself? (From your general knowledge of N.T. Scripture.)

◦	Bread (Annual crop)

◦	Possibly juice of the vine (Perennial crop)

-	Why might Jesus choose to identify Himself with a food that is introduced only after the fall? (Take into account everything that you have noticed about this kind of food.)

▪	It requires work, sweat, struggle, fighting with the thorns and thistles that are trying to constantly suffocate the plants

▪	Man after the fall has to eat of this kind of food to keep from dying.

▪	Jesus dealt with the sweat and thorns to become the bread broken for us. (How is bread eaten?–broken [Read John 6:26-23])

•	Again, I want to know why does God judge in this way. So far, we have seen that He wants us to have a correct understanding of the futility of our work to gain life. What else? (He could have made us just die or not have to eat to live.)

◦	He gives us His work and life as a gift

◦	He wants us to realize that we are dependent on Him for life–He made us have to eat (believe–distrust is actually what happened in the fall) before and after the fall for this realization. His plan of redemption is consistent with His character–before and after the fall. He is not just vindictively trying to make our lives difficult. He is trying to restore our pre-fall existence.

◦	He is doing it as a redemptive activity

•	What is the point of the struggle?

◦	To get me to receive life

•	How to people commonly react to struggle?

◦	Curse God

◦	Work harder to get done

◦	Try to avoid work

•	So how about you; what's your typical reaction to struggle?

•	How might your reaction be different understanding what the purpose of struggle is?

•	In groups

◦	Identify one part of your life where you do not respond to struggle as a redemptive activity (write one paper)

◦	Think of one way you could respond differently in light of what we have seen (write on paper)

◦	Share with the group

◦	Ask the group for input

QUESTIONS GOOD FOR A SERIES ON GEN. 3

•	What primary action is God taking in Gen. 1:28-29?

◦	Blessing

-	Who receives the blessing?

▪	Them–Adam and Eve

•	In what specific ways does God bless them?

◦	Fruitfulness

◦	Dominion

◦	Life-giving food

•	What kind of a world did Adam and Eve live in at this time?

◦	Very good

•	In Gen 3:16-19 God pronounces judgments on Adam and Eve. Notice in your groups how the judgments are different and/or similar to the blessings God gave before the fall. I just want you to notice the three basic areas of blessing and the broad sweep of what is different in the judgments. (Do not give me a lot of detail. Do not interpret yet, just give me the facts.)

◦	Be fruitful and increase in number–pains in childbearing

◦	Rule over fish, birds, creatures that move along the ground–desire for husband; he rule over you

-	Before fall, they were to rule together over creatures

-	After fall, husband ruled over wife

◦	Gift of seed-bearing food–by the sweat of your brow you will eat your food

-	Before the fall, food received as a gift

-	After the fall, food comes with pain and toil groups read chapter 11, verses 1-13.