Relationships Rupture

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Opening Prayer

Eternal God, may I see Your Word as a true lamp to my feet and light to my path (Psa. 119:105).

Read Genesis 3:14-24

^[14] 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. ^[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.” ^[16] 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.” ^[17] 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. ^[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.” ^[20] Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. ^[21] The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. ^[22] 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.” ^[23] So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. ^[24] 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.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of International Bible Society.

Meditate

“Joy to the world! The Lord is come … he comes to make his blessings flow / far as sin’s curse is found” (Isaac Watts, 1674-1748).

Think Further

Choosing to act independently, thus rejecting a trusting relationship with God, brings consequences. Immediately the couple hides from God and one another, covering up, and blaming others, including God. Guilt, shame and marring of relationships follow (vs. 8-13). God’s own words show far more extensive consequences, all too evident in the world today.

“The sentences pertain to their primary roles in life (in that culture), roles of stature among the animals, roles of wife and mother, roles of tiller of the soil and provider of food” (T.E. Fretheim, Genesis). All relationships continue, but with conflict, tensions and frustrations. Both woman and man have “pain” and compete for control (16,17). The resulting patriarchy that reigned for so long, and many related ills came as a consequence of sin. They were not the divine intention.

But God moves beyond judgment. We may choose to rely on our own resources, but God does not leave us. Following Adam’s naming his wife “Eve” (“living,” v. 20), she later says, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man” (4:1). Human attempts at managing sin’s consequences (“fig leaves,” v. 7) are replaced by God-provided “garments of skin” (21). The simple image illustrates human “patching up” and God’s gracious continuing providence. The God-given task to “work the ground” (2:15) is reaffirmed, although now outside the garden (23). References to “the tree of life” bookend the Bible: here access is barred (23,24); but Revelation joyfully proclaims “the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God” (Rev. 2:7; 22:2,14). In Christ, the removal of the all-pervading results of sin has begun. We have been reconciled with God and now work with him, in acts of healing, justice and mutual submission. The curse is not God’s final word.

Apply

How is God working in and through you by his Spirit, removing or lessening the results of sin in your relationships?

Closing prayer

Lord, I know that in You I have become a new creation. Each day, as I continue to surrender to Your Spirit, be formed in me anew.

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