THE CURSE OF THE FALL

1. THE CURSE OF THE FALL Chapter 2

2. Read Genesis 3:14-19 14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.

3. Read Genesis 3:14-19 16 To the woman He said: I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you. 17 Then to Adam He said, Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, `You shall not eat of it': Cursed is the ground for your

4. Read Genesis 3:14-19 sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. 18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. 19 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.

5. Clichés we grew up with: -If you want to see what your fiancée will look like in 20 years, just look at her mother. -Like father, like son. -He’s a chip off the old block. -He’s the spitting image of his old man. -What can you expect from him, given who his parents are? Is there any truth to those clichés? Are we destined to be like our parents?

6. HEREDITORY OR ENVIRONMENT? -To what degree are we products of our pasts? -Are we just biological products of our parents? -Have our personalities and habits been totally shaped by our upbringing? Environment VS Genetics Chances are we will behave the same way we were brought up. We will discipline our children as we were disciplined.

7. HEREDITORY OR ENVIRONMENT? (Con’t) will relate to our spouses as our parents related to each other. UNLESS… we make concentrated efforts to reprogram our minds and retrain our habits, we will bring into our marriages all that we have been taught in the past. -Don’t we also inherit spiritual bents towards certain sins?

8. HEREDITORY OR ENVIRONMENT? (Con’t) (Example) Abraham claimed his wife was his sister to save himself. (Gen12:10-20). His son Isaac did exactly the same thing (Gen26:7). Isaac’s son Jacob lied about everything. But Joseph, Jacob’s son, had the perfect opportunity to save himself with lying…. But he did NOT! -How have the sins of our ancestors affected us and our marriages?

9. EFFECTS OF THE FALL The first sin and its domino effect throughout the generations, began with Adam and Eve. They defied God, and so they died. Both physically and spiritually. All the personal attributes inherent in creation (spiritual life, identity, acceptance, security, significance) were gone FEAR was the first emotion expressed by fallen humanity.

10. EFFECTS OF THE FALL (Continued) John 3:20, 21 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.

11. EFFECTS OF THE FALL (Continued) Facing the truth is the first step towards freedom. Another consequence of the fall was that when Adam and Eve were no longer spiritually alive, they now had to find their own identities, and purpose for living in the natural world. The women by bearing children and going through the pain, and the men by working and sweating. (Gen 3:16-19)

12. EFFECTS OF THE FALL (Continued) After the fall Adam and Eve faced another issue… Who should rule?? “your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you” (V.16) But God’s plan of redemption was implemented immediately. He cursed the snake and foretold the downfall of Satan. Enmity will occur between the descendants of Serpent and those who are in the family of God.

13. THE MESSIANIC LINE The Old Testament always talked about the messianic line, waiting for the seed of the woman. In the New Testament it became irrelevant after the birth of Christ. It is no longer the first birth that is important, it is the second birth.

14. THE FIDELITY OF MARRIAGE In the Old Testament, those who had a covenant relationship with God were not to marry those who did not, nor make any covenant with them. In the Ten Commandments, five of them had direct or indirect bearing on the fidelity of marriage relationships

15. Adultery THE FIDELITY OF MARRIAGE Seventh commandment: You shall not commit adultery. Very clear.

16. THE FIDELITY OF MARRIAGE Ninth commandment: You shall not give false testimony. This commandment would be violated in the case of adultery. As it would be a false testimony in the oath of marriage between God and man.

17. THE FIDELITY OF MARRIAGE Eighth commandment: You shall not steal. An adulterer steals the most precious possession that another person has.

18. THE FIDELITY OF MARRIAGE Tenth commandment says: A man is not to covet his neighbors’ wife, manservant or maidservant. To covet means to desire something that doesn’t belong to us.

19. THE FIDELITY OF MARRIAGE Fifth commandment: Honor your mother and father. Adulterers bring shame to their families and parents

20. THE FIDELITY OF MARRIAGE First commandment: Have no other God. God will have no other Gods before Him, not the god of this world nor our appetites. Adulterer elevates sexual pleasures above our relationship with God

21. SATANIC INTERFERENCE As Gods plan of redemption unfolded, Satan tried to prevent the seed of Abraham from coming and saving us. -The pharaoh ordered all the sons less than 2 years of age to be drowned. But God preserved Moses. -Herod ordered all male babies to be killed. But God warned Joseph and they fled to Egypt. -Judas betrayed Christ, but that worked well with Gods plan.

22. GENERATIONAL SINS All of the creation has been affected by the fall. Marriage is not unrelated to this cosmic struggle; it is at the heart of it. Saints in the Old Testament repented of their sins and the sins of their father. In the Old Testament they were to confess their sins and iniquities. The latter relates more to a rebellious spirit or strong self will. Somehow these iniquities are passed on from one generation to the next.

23. GENERATIONAL SINS (Continued) But the good news is that Christ died as atonement for all our sins. “The death He died, He died to sin once and for all” (Rom 6:10) We receive the gift of eternal life and forgiveness of sins by faith and repentance. The Greek work for repentance is metanoeo.Meta means ‘after’ which implies change. Noeo means to perceive. It is derived from the root word ‘nous’ which is translated ‘mind’. Repentance literally means a change of mind.

24. GENERATIONAL SINS (Continued) The early church (and the Coptic Orthodox Church in baptism) would stand facing the west and declare out loud “ I renounce you satan and all your works and all your ways.” Then they would face the east and declare their faith in God. We understand it is necessary to renounce all the evil practices that had gone on in our families and lives.

25. GENERATIONAL SINS (Continued) Our church and marriages will experience tremendous turmoil if we enter into those relationships with a saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, but without any evidence of repentance. Many people choose to believe in Christ, but they still hold on to their old ways of doing things whish they learned from their families and cultures.

26. CONCLUSION It is believed that we have been affected by through 3 ways after the Fall: -socially -physically -spiritually The good news is: “ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13).