What The Bible Teaches About Marriage: The Fall

What the Bible Teaches about Marriage: The Fall * PCJB PP Presentation devised and prepared at Gujranwala Theological Seminary may be copied for non-commercial use only September 2008

Marriage: Result of The Fall A Reversal Rather than God being in charge, with the man, helped by the woman, ruling creation for him, a complete reversal takes place of the roles assigned by God to the man and the woman.

The Fall Satan, (in the form of a serpent) approaches the woman, who draws the man with her into rebellion against the Creator. Who was to blame?

The Purpose of Marriage: Sex? The clearest example of sin: The replacement of the Creator with an element of this creation.

The Purpose of Marriage: Sex? Sex was created for use in the service of God, yet this servant seeks to be master. Sexual immorality: often associated in Scripture with idolatry.

The Purpose of Marriage: Sex? Sex becomes an idol when it ceases to be a gift from God to be received and becomes the goal to be grasped. The exultation of sex as a goal or as the purpose of marriage removes the need for the inclusion of God.

Sexual Immorality: Its False Promise Sexual immorality would not exist if it did not offer so much: e.g. fulfilment, release, satisfaction, life, escape from frustration, etc

Sexual Immorality: Its False Promise However, it does not live up to the hype. Sex for the purpose of sex can only lead to emptiness.

Combating Sexual Immorality: Showing Its Emptiness It is not enough to simply forbid extra-marital sex; it is necessary to show it as the empty vessel it is outside of the God appointed role.

Combating Sexual Immorality: Showing Its Emptiness Idols in the Old Testament were met with mockery and derision, how foolish it is to worship an idol such as sex.

Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made, He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘ You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

Genesis 3:2-3 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it,

Genesis 3:4-5 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Genesis 3:6a When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining knowledge, she took some and

Genesis 3:6b She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

To Discuss Who was to blame? The Man: - by his absence (not leading?) (or his acquiescence) OR: The Woman: - by failing to consult her husband?

Genesis 3:7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realised that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Genesis 3:8 Then the man and his wife heard the voice of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Genesis 3:9 But the Lord called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”

Genesis 3:10-12 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.”

Genesis 3:13 Then the Lord said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Genesis 3:14-15 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. 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.”

Genesis 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.”

Genesis 3:17 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.

Genesis 3:18-19 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 3:20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.

Naming & Lordship Adam did not name his wife in the account of her formation from Adam’s rib.. At that point in time they were equal. Adam was not then lord of his wife. 

Naming & Lordship It is now, after the Fall, that Adam names his wife and he starts to rule over her. See Genesis 3:16 and 20.

Genesis 3:21 The Lord made garments of skin for Adam and Eve and clothed them…

Genesis 3:22 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 for ever.”

Genesis 3:23 So the Lord banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.

The Fall: Consequences for the Woman Childbearing: Relationship

physical pain.

with her husband: loving harmony replaced by struggle to exert control over her husband, who responds by asserting his authority by dominating her (Gen. 3:16; cf. 4:7)

The Fall: Consequences for the Man Trouble

fulfilling God’s command to subdue the earth (cf. Gen. 1:28). He must extract the fruit of the land from thorns and thistles Eating his bread by the sweat of his brow (Gen. 3:17-19).

The Fall: Consequences for the Man & Woman Both

The

the man and the woman will die (vv. 19, 22)

couple is expelled from the Garden (3:24)

The Fall: God’s Response Provide

appropriate clothing for the human couple (skins to replace their fig leaves) (Gen. 3:21 & Gen. 3:7)

The Fall: God’s Response Predict

a time when the woman’s seed —the promised Messiah— will bruise the serpent’s head (3:15) The good news (in seed form) of a coming descendent of the woman who would overcome the power of Satan over humanity.

Results of the Fall A complete reversal of the God-ordained pattern of relationships, with disastrous results overturned only through the coming and the saving death of the Messiah.

Results of the Fall The

Marital Relationship changed forever

Men seek to dominate women  Women seek to fulfil their own agendas  Harmony is broken  A vision for the common task is lost 

Results of the Fall The

Sexual Dynamics changed forever



Self-satisfaction replaces service

Remember: Part of the wonder of sex in marriage as God created it is that it turns a pleasure outwards towards the service of God in the world

Results of the Fall God’s ideal for marriage (Genesis 1–2) still the standard for the responsibilities and roles of husbands and wives toward each other in the subsequent history of humanity.

Results of the Fall But now added to the task of caring for the world is the task of bringing the world under the rule of God’s Kingdom through the proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ. “The Kingdom Come!”

Next Session

Sexual Temptation

Sexual Temptation Lessons from Joseph‘s good example: God

has made boundaries in human affairs which we must never cross Bring a third party (actually ot mentally) into a situation of temptation Have reasons for resisting temptation before the temptation arises Learn to be faithful in all situations

The End