Just

"And he said, 'Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?' The man said, 'The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.' Then the Lord God said to the woman, 'What is this you have done?' The woman said,'The serpent deceived me, and I ate.'

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.'

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.'

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.'” -Genesis 3.11-19

Something has gone wrong, and God directly deals with it. He asks Adam a direct question, and Adam passes the blame to his wife. God asks her a a direct question, and again, she passes the blame. Now that God is at the bottom of the problem, He begins to deal with it and enforces justice. The serpent is cursed for his deception. He is cursed to drawl on his belly and eat dust, with enmity existing forever between man and snake, with the promise of ultimate defeat.

At first glance this seems like it should be the end of it. The serpent was the one who brought all of this about, it's his fault. Now that he has been punished, that should be the end of it, and that was probably the hope of passing the blame, as it is the hope of us today. But the tactic didn't work then, and it will not work when we each stand before God. God is just, and every act of disobedience will be dealt with. Every sin will be punished.

God dealt with the serpent, but now He turns to Adam and his wife. They knew God's command, His one rule, and they chose to break it. The language earlier in the chapter shows deliberate choice and action. The woman saw that it was good for food and for gaining knowledge, so she took and ate, and then gave some to Adam who was with her, and he ate. They had the choice, and they chose to disobey God, and the blame cannot be passed on.

To the woman, she will still give life, but it will be painful. She will have a desire for her husband, and he will rule her. No longer will their relationship exist as helpers, but as leader and follower. To Adam, for his failure to lead, and failure to fight for his wife, and all of creation, the ground is cursed. No longer is there the freedom to simply reach out to a tree and eat freely, now food comes by the sweat of his brow. His muscles will ache, his back will be sore. The final punishment is death. Disobedience is sin, and Romans 6 says that sin brings death.

God is just, and all who violate His commands will be punished. God cannot overlook sin because it is a violation of His character. Sin was not part of His design. Painful childbirth, dominion of people over each other, cursed ground, and difficult toil were not part of His creation. But God is just, and He must, and will deal with sin, all sin. There were no innocent parties in Genesis 3. The man was guilty, the woman was guilty, and the serpent was guilty, and God the just, dealt with all of them. And just as God dealt justly with their sin, He will deal justly with all sin.

TO GOD ALONE BE THE GLORY!

Peace be with you