Why Your Most Important Relationships Are the Most Painful | Genesis 3

The first pages of Genesis are filled with powerful word imagery. Written more than 3,000 years ago, Genesis remains ahead of our time in its picture of the deepest realities in your life. And Genesis 3 explains why your most valued and important relationships are also your most painful ones. Genesis 2:8–9 NIV 8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:15–17 NIV 15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Genesis 2:25 NIV Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. Genesis 3:1 NIV Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. Genesis 3:7 NIV Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Genesis 3:14–19 NIV 14 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. 15 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.” 16 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.” 17 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. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 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.” Romans 8:19–24 NIV 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. 1 John 3:8 NIV The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. Hebrews 2:14–15 NIV 14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. Jesus promises in… Revelation 2:7 NIV11 To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. All the earth will become an “Eden” when Christ returns… Revelation 22:1–3 NIV11 …The river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, [was] flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, …yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of...