The first consequences of sin: Genesis 3

How do people write books? It seems the best way is to spend the winter secluded in a large resort in the mountains. I want to write a book of approximately 300 devotionals that a reader can use as a guide for reading approximately half of the Bible... the core stuff. You know. Skip Song of Solomon and Esther, for example. They will be for Volume 2. I don't think I will be able to do it "in my spare time." Anyway, here's what I wrote today.

Genesis 3:1-3:24

The serpent redirected focus to what God has forbidden. The serpent offers freedom, fulfillment, pleasure, discovery and autonomy. God does too—except for autonomy.

I am impressed by verse 11: “Who told you that you were naked?” God is offering these first two humans an opportunity to confess and to express regret; but each of them transfers blame to someone else. They never regret. Mending damaged relationships begins with expressed regret.

However, the violated party in a damaged relationship can do a lot to mend the damage. God set for us a really good example by providing only natural consequences of the infraction. There were three parties involved in this sin: the serpent, the woman and the man. The only one of these three that actually was cursed is the serpent. There is no curse language directed towards the woman or the man. We recognize God’s mercy in these consequences.

The consequence that sent a shock wave through the ages is what God said to the woman. “He shall rule over you” (vs. 16). None of the consequences detailed by God are results we should happily embrace. That the man shall rule over the woman is not some beautiful new pecking order. It is not divine notice of the woman’s new “place” in the social order. Rather, it is a natural consequence of sin.

There is every good reason to make work easier and more efficient (less sweat), to try to live longer (no hurry to return to the ground), to ease the pain of giving birth and to eliminate female subjugation.