Note: This series will consist of five phases: Created-parenting, Pre-parenting, Parenting, Post-parenting, and Grand-parenting. Each of these phases will have four sections.

First Phase: Created Parenting

Section 4. Created Distortion – Problem

“Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, ’Has God said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?’” (Gen. 3:1)

The Enemy

There is no doubt that the serpent was inhabited by Satan. Both Rev. 12:9 and 20:2 call him “that serpent of old.” Isaiah 14:12-17 and Ezekiel 28:11-19 have traditionally been taken by conservatives to explain Satan’s fall from heaven. Satan is real; he was originally called Lucifer (“day-star”); when he sinned he was cast out of heaven.

The time. It appears that angels were created at the first moment of creation. Ezek. 28:13 refers to the “day you were created.” When Job describes the creative acts as “when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy” (38:7), we can place the creation of angels at that moment. Since God finished all creation in six days, we know Lucifer was created within that time.

The form. Satan and demons are able to take many forms (2 Cor. 11:14) and inhabit physical bodies. Satan was speaking from within the serpent at a time when he (Satan) was a fallen creature but the earthly animals were not. Eve does not seem to be surprised by the talking animal, so perhaps before the fall animals had a closer relationship to Adam and Eve than they did after the fall or as they do to us today. Adam named all these creatures personally (Gen. 2:20) which may suggest a closer relationship. Also, it was not until Gen. 9:2 that the fear of man was placed in every animal creature.

The deception. The process of the deception of Eve by Satan is well-known (doubt, distortion, denial, disobedience). 1 John 2:16 describes this as the common way of temptation. It could be said that Eve’s desires were all good but directed in the wrong way, being a violation of God’s plain prohibition. More importantly, we should remember that humanity’s fall into sin came from Adam’s partaking of the tree and not from Eve’s. She was “deceived” (2 Cor. 11:3) and was in “transgression” (1 Tim. 2:14), but we sinned in Adam (Rom. 5:12) and by Adam we all die (1 Cor. 15:22). Eve also came from Adam and sinned as part of the whole human race.

The curse. Gen. 3:14 is directed both to the serpent and to Satan. The serpent was relegated to the realm of creeping things as a reminder of what happened. The poor animal was no more culpable of the fall than all the other animals that were affected (Rom. 8:20). To Satan, on the other hand, his “seed” will always be at enmity with the woman’s seed. Since Satan could not have physical seed, this would refer to spiritual seed or progeny (John 8:44). He will be the spiritual father of lost humanity and she will be the progenitor of Messiah and His spiritual children.

The Woman

For purposes of marriage and family it is important to see what changed and what remained the same as Adam and Eve (and the serpent) were brought before God.

Her seed. The woman does not have physical seed either, though 3:15 mentions her “seed.” Her progeny (or spiritual seed) will come through the one seed, Jesus Christ (Gal. 3:19). This is the protoevangelium, or the first gospel mention. Her seed then will consist of children that she and Adam produce who will be spiritually born again. This will be through the godly line of Seth and eventually all who believe in Jesus Christ as the promised seed (Gal. 3:29). Uniquely, Jesus would be “born of a woman” (Gal. 4:4) without the physical seed of a man, and by virgin birth would be both the physical child of Mary and the promised Seed, or progeny, of Eve.

Her conception. Eve’s punishment for her sin is specifically applied to her pain in child-bearing. We know there were no children born to her at this time but we know later she bore Cain and Abel, Seth, and other “sons and daughters” (Gen. 5:4). The common question of where Cain got his wife is answered in Eve’s later daughters, there being no prohibition at that time on marrying one’s sister. In fact it was a necessity. It should be noted also that child-birth is not a miracle, the only exception being Jesus’ virgin birth. Childbirth is the most natural thing in the world and happens constantly among animals and humans. If it were a promised miracle from God it would not have a curse connected to it.

Her desire. There is a two-fold warning for both Adam and Eve by God. “Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you” (Gen. 3:16). This “desire” is not the desire of physical attraction but the desire to rule over her husband in a way contrary to the creation order of chapter two. The word “desire” is from the Hebrew word teshugah. It is used and defined in 4:7 where God is confronting Cain for his sin of murder. “Sin lies at the door. And its desire (teshugah) is for you, but you should rule over it.” Sin desired to rule over Cain but he must resist that desire. For Eve, her desire would be to rule over her husband but she must resist that desire. Adam’s part in that sin will be dealt with in the following point.

The Man

Whereas Eve’s difficult responsibility would be in painful childbirth, Adam’s difficult responsibility would be in tilling the ground. Adam was created a gardener from the beginning. “Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it” (Gen. 2:15).

His failure. Adam’s failure in the fall happened because he did not take the lead in his family and protect Eve. As we have seen, it was from Adam’s sin in eating of the forbidden tree that sin was brought to the human race. Had he protected his wife rather than following her lead, neither of them might (we don’t know for sure) have sinned at that time or in the same way.

His curse. One result of Adam’s failure would be in his response to Eve’s wrong desire. Not only would she desire to rule over her husband, but, as the text says, “he shall rule over you” (Gen. 3:16). “Rule” is from the word mashal which means to rule harshly. Whereas before, the husband and wife served God in a loving and God-ordained way, now she would desire to rule over her husband and he would respond by harshly ruling over her. Headship and submission were not part of the curse as feminism and now egalitarianism want to insist. These were plainly given to Adam and Eve as a blessing when God created them male and female.  However, the distortion of submission and headship certainly did begin after the fall.

“The Lord was warning Eve that one of the bitter consequences of her sin would be a perpetual struggle with her husband. She would attempt to usurp his authority. And he would respond by trying to impose a despotic, authoritarian rule over her that would suppress her in a way God never intended. We see those very consequences at work in the failure of millions of families to this present day.” (John MacArthur, What the Bible Says about Parenting, p. 186)

Adam’s curse also involved the ground which he was created to till. “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life” (Gen. 3:17). It will be by the sweat of his brow that the ground again will produce food. Farming itself is perhaps the most biblically honored profession of man’s dominion. We see life revolving around farming in the Psalms and Proverbs, the parables and illustrations, and the general life of most people in the Bible. Now the ground is hindered from easy productivity and, due to the curse, no profession will be successful without hard work. Only in the coming millennial kingdom will the earth produce again as it did before the fall (see Psa. 67:6-7; Zech. 8:12).

His return to the ground. “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19). Solomon will add, “Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it” (Ecc. 12:7). Adam was first a body made from the ground and then given a soul, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7).

Adam’s sin brought the separation of body and soul physically, as well as separation of man and God spiritually. Both deaths were promised as a result of disobedience. Now, each of us is dead spiritually until salvation, and when we die we will be dead physically until resurrection. Those who accept Jesus Christ as Savior will be made alive spiritually in this life. They also will be made alive (made whole again) physically at the first resurrection. Those who have not accepted Christ will never be made whole spiritually but they will be resurrected physically in the second resurrection and live in an incorruptible body eternally in the lake of fire. (see Dan. 12:2-3; John 5:29; Rev. 20:5-6)

The commission of sin by the man resulted in all humanity being born sinners in Adam. The solution to the problem comes by accepting the Seed of the woman as the propitiation for one’s inherited sin.