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Weekly Message | April 18th, 2010
Passage: Genesis 3:1-4:26
Key Verse(s): 3:15, 20
For many years my perception of Adam has been very negative. It was based on the familiar line in 1 Cor 15:22, “In Adam all die, and in Christ all will be made alive.” Because of Adam the death came into this world. Because of Adam original sin has been passed onto us. In a sense, many people regard Adam as the one to whom we should blame all our troubles. I thought that very little I could learn from him. However, we study Adam’s life more closely to learn the stewardship in this fallen world. Genesis 3 and 4 are in a sense the story of Adam and Eve. They shared this story after the fact of their failures in the Garden of Eden. In a sense, Genesis chapters 1-4 are Adam’s autobiography. He described awesome description of God’s creation including him and his wife. He then spoke of about his humble beginning—a small grain of dust from the ground, received the infusion of God’s spirit, elevated as the crown of glory, promoted to the caretaker of the Garden of Eden, possessed all the authority and power to rule the Paradise but lost everything—driven away and ended up in the fallen world. That’s not all. There he tasted sufferings and pains in this life. However, as we read Genesis 3 and 5 carefully, we find an inspiring story of living by faith in this fallen world. So let’s focus not only what happened in the Garden of Eden but after his fall from the glory.
First, Adam and Eve took the responsibility for our disobedience to God (3:1-13). Adam’s story continues. He then describes very clearly how he failed in the Garden and why he lost all. He started with the temptation of Satan. Satan approached in the form of the crafty serpent (1). Satan was one of the chief angels. But he rebelled against God and fell(Is. 14:12-17; Jude 1:6; 2 Peter 2:4). It is a mystery how Satan was allowed to come to the Garden of Eden. Disguising himself as an angel of light Satan appeared and temped Eve to disobey God (2 Cor. 11:3, 14-15)
Satan first planted a doubt in the heart of the woman when he asked, “`Did God really say, `You must not eat from any tree in the garden’”?. Well, God in fact said, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden”(2: 16a). Eve’s reply was, “We may eat fruit from the tree3s in the garden but God did say, `You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and your must not touch it, or you will die”. God said, “but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”(2:17). Then, Satan said, “You will not surely die," and even added, "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
Then, what happened? Look at verse 6: “ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” This is what Adam and Eve repeatedly shared the key details of their failures to their descendants again and again. The point is this, “Satan tempted us. But we did it. We took and ate it. We disobeyed God. We failed together. It was our responsibility.” They took responsibility of their disobedience to God. They never denied about their responsibility for their critical failures.
In Clint Eastwood’s latest film, Invictus—Latin for “unconquered”—Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) gives a copy of William Ernest Henley’s poem to Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), the captain of the South African national rugby team that won the 1995 World Cup. The poem provided inspiration to Mandela during his 27 years in prison, so instead of lying down he chose to forgive, live and lead. The rousing last lines of the poem are “I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul”. This means that we have free-will. You choose the paths you take and where they will lead you. "I am the captain of my soul" is that whatever choices you make are yours, so the outcome, if negative, should not be blamed on anyone but you."
The starting point of stewardship in the fallen world is to take responsibility of our choices. The first step of faith is “repentance toward God” (i.e., taking responsibility for our sins and choosing to live differently). What is the message of Jesus Christ? “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the gospel”(Mk 1:15). Repentance is about taking responsibility of our failures before God. It is to learn the responsibility of our failures. In the positive sense, it is to accept the consequence of our choices.
Second. Adam and Eve faced the reality of broken relationships (3:7-13). What were the immediate results of their disobedience to God? Adam and Eve shared their experiences in this way. Adam and Eve escaped from God. They lost sense of where they were. God visited them and said, “Where are you?” Adam answered,” I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked." The reality of sin is this—they were running away from God. It was no longer comfortable for them in the presence of God. This is the reality of the broken relationship with God. The perfect image of God is impaired and damaged. Our vital communication function with God is damaged and broken. It does not work.
Adam blamed his failures initially to the woman, saying, “The woman who put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it”(12). Eve then blamed to the serpent. These are the broken relationships. The reality of broken relationships! Here, the second important aspect of the stewardship in the fallen world is to accept the reality of broken relationships. If so, we are ready to rebuild, reconcile, restore and reconstruct these broken relationships. This is what life is about. We are all strangers to God and to one another. What do we do in this life then? We are born to reconcile, restore and rebuild our broken relationship with God. We are here with among people to build relationships based on respect and love for one another. Broken relationships are the reality of this fallen world. Stewardship is consistently and positively rebuilding these broken relationships.
Third, Adam and Eve accepted God’s words and gave thanks to God (3:14-4:2). God’s judgment fell on the serpent, woman and man. Look at verses 14 and 15: “So the LORD God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 15 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.” The continuous war goes on between Satan and people. The ultimate victory is through the seed of woman—Jesus Christ. Jesus will suffer to the extent of dying on the cross, but God will raise him from the dead. God's curse upon man came because of woman, but his saving work will also come through the woman. God graciously preserved the dignity and role of woman for the salvation of all people.
Look at verse 16: “To the woman he said, ‘I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.’” The pains of childbearing are the reality in this fallen world. Women experience near death experience with each childbirth. In this fallen world, the desire of many women is men, not God. Sadly men do not respect and love such women. Rather, many men rule over such women.
Look at verses 17-19: To Adam he said, ‘Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, “You must not eat of it,” Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 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.’” God punished Adam for his sin—listening to his wife. God did not ask why. God dealt him with the fact of his failed choice and consequence. In this fallen world life is full of thorns and thistles which make people experience hardships and pains. Man return to dust. Death came into this world.
From stewardship standpoint, the key is Adam’s response to God’s words. He put his hope in the salvation through the seed of woman. Adam remembered the failures of the past. Yet, he did not dwell on it. Rather, he looked forward. He anticipated the day when the seed of woman come someday and become wounded for the sake of sinners and save and restore the people to the Garden of Eden again. How do we know that it is what Adam did? Read 3:20: “Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living”. Adam welcomed his wife. He respected his wife. He was thankful to his wife. He honored her as the mother of all the living.
Look at verse 21. The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.”How God showed his love for Adam and Eve”. God hated sin of Adam and Eve but loved them. God shed the blood of animals. Adam and Eve remembered this love of God. God’s integrity requires the expulsion of Adam and Eve. Everlasting life in a sinful state is most miserable. However, God did not destroy the tree of life. In the Heaven the tree of life is still there. God blocked any potential entry of people to the Paradise with the flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. God wanted sinners come to regain eternal life and the glory of God through the seed of woman—the Savior of the world.
Afterward, both Adam and Eve started a new humble life in this fallen world. There they had to build everything from scratch. Adam loved his wife. Eve became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man”(4:1). She gave thanks to God for the birth of her first son, Cain. This is the way Adam and Eve’s attitude toward God and each other—gratitude and thanksgiving.
Gratitude is the third important element of the stewardship in the fallen world. Are you thankful to God? Are you thankful to the people you live with? To love is about being thankful. To love means to be thankful to the person we love. Too long I have not been thankful for people around me. But these days this is what I do. I am thankful that you are a part of my world. Why does the Bible say, “Be joyful always, pray continually, and give thanks to God in all circumstances, because it is the will of God in Christ Jesus”(1Thes 5:16-18). We become poor stewards in this world because we fail to give thanks to God. We refuse to be grateful to our neighbors who are around us. The agonies of soul are mostly from this inability to give thanks to God and to our neighbors. The right stewardship is to give thanks God and the people around us.
Fourth, Adam and Eve lived beyond the heart-breaking events (4:3-13). Genesis 4:3-13 are the story about the two sons of Adam and Even—Cain and Abel. This is what Adam and Eve shared to their descendants down through the generations. Here, we imagine the pains, sufferings and despairs that they had to endure.
What are the details of the story? Look at verses 3-4. We do not know exactly why God did not look with favor with Cain and his offering. The point is that God has the right to accept or reject our offerings. God is not obligated to respond us in ways that we like.
Look at verses 4 and 5: “The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.” Cain was very angry. God was very gracious to Cain. God visited Cain and said, ‘Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.’” God assured his love toward Cain. God counseled Cain to do what is right before God and overcome the desire to sin.
What did Cain do then? Look at verse 8: “Now Cain said to his brother Abel, ‘Let’s go out to the field.’ And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.” “Then the LORD said to Cain, ‘Where is your brother Abel?’ ‘I don’t know,’ he replied. ‘Am I my brother's keeper?’ 10 The LORD said, ‘What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.”… When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.’” God in love rebuked Cain for his sin. Cain became fatalistic and was filled with the burdens of sin. He appealed to God for removal of his burdens. God extended his hand of mercy by giving him Cain's mark—a mark of protection. Then, Cain left the presence of God and became a restless wanderer
Cain and Abel incident speaks about the reality of the first tragic, broken home. It seems that the focus of this chapter is Cain. But in fact the focus is not Cain but Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve lost their two sons—one was murdered and the other disappeared. But they did not despair. Neither did they followed the path of Cain. Cain chose his ways of restless wanderer’s life but Adam and Eve chose to love God.
When a woman and a man grow up and form a family. The great joys are through their children and the most painful aspects of life are also related to their children. Yet, Adam and Eve lived by faith. This is the fourth aspect of stewardship. In this fallen world we live beyond the heartbreaking events. Even the most disappointing and painful events in this life are not the end. These events do not define our ultimate choices. We choose life that pleases God. We come to God. We walk with God. We seek God’s reward (Heb 11:6).
Fifth, Adam and Eve passed the baton of faith to his descendants (4:17-26). Verses 17-26 are about two lines of Adam and Eve. One is Cain’s descendants who built up technology-based civilization apart from God. Cain and his wife did not recognize God. Neither did they give thanks to God. Instead, they built civilization apart from God. The technological capabilities were excellent. They were able to build cities for large population with large populations. In verses 23-24, the content of literature and music was violence, murder, despair and fatalism. They were under the heavy burden of sins.
Look at verses 25-26: “Adam lay with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, ‘God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.’ 26 Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to call on the name of the LORD.” Adam lived 930 years. Throughout his life, he raised many of his descendants—Seth, Enosh, Kena, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch and even Methuselah. Adam saw almost seven generations of his descendants during his lifetime.
In all these years he shared his life story—God’s creation, his favor, wonderful honor, all the failures, sufferings and then life of faith. This story of Adam and Eve show how people in this world pick up their broken pieces and keep living—ultimately seeking for the kingdom of God.
The last element of stewardship in this fallen world is to accept that each of us a connecting point for the next generation. Now, we enjoy God’s given life. The end will come sooner or later. We pass the baton to the next generation and we move on. We pass the baton to the next generation and we move on to the kingdom of God through Jesus Christ. Until then, we live by faith from first to last. This is the meaning of life. This is the end of the stewardship in this fallen world.
April 18, 2010. Toledo UBF
Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
