Nurturing the NationsNurturing the Nations

Reclaiming the Dignity of Women in Building Healthy Cultures

Genesis 3:The Distortion in

Being and Function

Part 4THE TRANSFORMING STORY12 The Big Story

13 Genesis 1: Equal in Being

14 Genesis 2: Corresponding in Function

15 Genesis 3: The Distortion

16 Sexism and the Spirit of Baal

17 The Coming of the Bridegroom

18 The Bride of Christ

19 The Wedding of the Lamb

20 The Reign of Women: Nurturers of Nations

Outline

• Introduction

• The Temptation and the Human’s Response: Genesis 3:1-7

• God’s Confrontation and the Human’s Response; Genesis 3:8-13

• The Fall and the Corruption of Authority

Introduction

The fall brought a distortion in the human understanding of being

and function.

Breaking the Primary RelationshipBetween God and Mankind

• Set # 1 – Genesis 6:5-6– Romans 1:21-23– Romans 3:23

• Set # 2– Isaiah 44:9-20– Habakkuk 2:18-20

All the Secondary Relationships Are Broken

• They no longer knew who they were individually and intrinsically.

• They no longer knew who they were in relationship to one another, as male and female.

• They no longer knew what their purpose was and their relationship to the rest of creation.

Exchange in Social Patterns

• FROM – Trinitarian Order: Unity of Being & Diversity of Function

• TO – Atomism – Absolute Diversity – Sexism

• TO – Monism – Absolute Unity – Radical Feminism

The Temptation and the Human’s Response

• Read Genesis 3:1-7

• Questions:– What did Satan do?– What was the man’s response?– How did the woman respond?– Who is ultimately responsible for the

decision?– What were the immediate consequences?

The Rebellion Against God

• Is a rebellion against His order

• Leads to the creation of dis-order – a counterfeit order

Who is responsible for the fall?

• Set # 1: Genesis 3:9• Questions:

– Who did God call to account?– Why did he call this person to account?

• Set # 2: Romans 5:12,14,17-19; 1 Corinthians 15:21 - 22

• Questions:– Who does God say is responsible for the fall?– Who is not responsible? Why?

Adam, NOT Eve, is responsible for the Fall

• Adam was called to account: “But the LORD God called to the man, “Where

are you?”

• Adam is representative mankind: “… death reigned from the time of Adam to the

time of Moses, …. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man ….”

The Representative Man

• Adam was not only the first man, He was also the representative man – the head mankind

• Similarly, Eve the representative woman – the mother of all the living

• Jesus is the Second Adam – the 2nd representative man

The Bible lays the primary responsibility for the introduction of sin into the world, not at the feet of

Eve, but at the feet of the Man.

The Shame!

Genesis 3:7

The Dis-integration

• Lack of personal integration – wholeness

• Separation between the transcendent and the physical body– Masculine spirit and male– Feminine spirit and female

God’s Confrontation and the Human’s Response

Genesis 3:8-13

Adam’s Irresponsibility

• Read Genesis 3:8-12

• Questions:– What did God do?– In addition to shame, what else did Adam

feel?– What did Adam do?– To whom did he do this?

Eve’s Irresponsibility

• Read Genesis 3:13

• Questions– What did Eve do? – What did she fail to do?

The Curses

Genesis 3:14-15a, 17b

The Curses

• The first is on Satan – Genesis 3:14-15a

• The second is on the ground – Genesis 3:17b

• Note that neither Adam nor Eve is cursed

The Hope for the Future

“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 Impact of the Curse

• While the man and the woman were not cursed, each was subject to the effects of the curse

• There is symmetry in the realm of labor:– The man in the field – Genesis 3:17b-19– The woman in childbirth – Genesis 3:16a

To the Woman

“I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children….” (Genesis 3:16a)

To the Man

“ … through painful toil you will eat of 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 3:17b-19)

The Perversion of Male – Female Relationship

Genesis 3:16b “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule

over you.”

Your desire

• Hebrew t^eshuwqah: “longing,” “desire,” or “craving”:– of man for woman – of woman for man – of beast to devour

• Used three times in O.T.– Genesis 3:16; 4:7; So 7:10

1st Interpretation

• The woman grovels before her husband, she is utterly dependent upon him:

“The man’s fallen propensity to dominate the woman, seems compulsively matched by the woman’s fallen destructive ‘desire’ for the man – for securing relationships, even unhealthy ones, no matter what the cost.”

Psychologist Mary Stewart Van-Leeuwen

2nd Interpretation

• The woman’s usurping her husband’s authority • There is a parallel phraseology between

Genesis 3:16 and 4:7 • Gen. 4:7 “… sin is crouching at your door; it

desires to have you, but you must master it”• As sin desires to devour Cain so Eve desires to

dominate her husband.• Cain must resist sin’s domination and so Eve

must resist her desire to dominate her husband.

He will Rule

• Hebrew mashal: rule, reign, dominion, governor

• Used 81 times in the O.T.

Description not Prescription

• Description: What IS – the way things are!

• Prescription: What OUGHT to be

• The woman’s desire and the man’s rule is a description of what is, not what ought to be

• What ought to be is loving-serving-headship and loving-respectful helping!

The Consequences of the Fall!

• The fall did not destroy the created order, it distorted it!

• It distorted the Trinitarian Order and replaced it with:– An Atomism Order – Sexism – male

tyrannical rule and female subservience– A Monism Order – Radical Feminism –

hostile and aggressive against any male authority

Summary

“Sin has corrupted both the willing submission of the wife and the loving headship of the husband. And so, the rule of love founded in paradise is replaced by struggle, tyranny, domination, and manipulation.”

Theologian Susan T. Foh