Part 1 - The temptations, the disobedience, and
the immediate
consequence (Gen. 3:1-8).
Part 2 - God's judgment on the Satan and salvation
promised for the
human race (Gen. 3:9-15).
Part 3 - Consequences of sin in the woman's
relationships (Gen. 3:16).
Part 4 - Consequences of sin in the man's work and
his death (Gen.
3:17-19)
Part 5 - The Tree of Life (Genesis 3:19-24)
End Notes
Hearing version
of this same series of lessons.
Genesis 3 - Part 2:
8 Then
Adam & Eve heard the Lord God walking in the garden during the cool
part of the day. The man and his wife hid from the Lord God among
the
trees in the garden. 9
But
the Lord God called to the man and said, "Where are you?"
10 The
man answered, "I
heard you walking in the garden, and I was afraid and I hid, because I
was naked."
11 God
asked, "Who told you
that you were naked? ?Did you eat fruit from that tree, I
commanded you: Don't eat?"
12 The
man said, "You know
that woman You gave me? She gave-me fruit from the tree. Then I
ate."
13 The
Lord God said to the
woman, "You did what!?"
The woman answered, "That
snake fooled me, then I ate."
14 The
Lord God said to the
snake,
"Because you did that,
you will have a curse worse
than all other animals,
farm and wild.
You will slide on your
stomach,
and you will eat dirt all
during your life.
15 I
will make you and the
woman enemies.
Your future children
and her future children
will become enemies.
Her future Son will
crush your head,
and you will bite His heel."
One day our after-school deaf
Bible class was
settling down for a lesson about Adam & Eve.
Three girls sitting in back decided
that day was too beautiful for sitting in
church.
We will name those girls Susan, Jenny, and April.
That room had a side door.
When the girls thought the teachers weren't looking,
together they ran through that door to play outside.
The girls were not fast enough.
All the adults and half the students saw them go.
We waited while a helper went outside
and shepherded the girls back into class.
Susan came in first. She saw everyone looking at her.
She said, "Not my fault! Jenny told me!"
Next Jenny came in. "Not my fault! April told me!"
Then April came in. She smiled and shrugged ["Oh well..."].
I told them, "Sit down girls. You will enjoy our story today."
I began explaining
about Eve and the snake, and their conversation.
Eve took the fruit, and ate.
She gave it to Adam, and he ate.
Then they both felt terrible. Why????
All the students sat quiet, except one girl: Susan.
She raised her hand, and signed, "I know! I know! I know!"
I waited, but no other students wanted to answer.
"OK Susan. After Adam and Eve ate the fruit, why did they feel
bad?"
Susan answered, spelling: "G - E - R - M - S!"
Susan had learned her health lessons in school.
I explained to the class
Adam & Eve felt ashamed, because they knew
they did something very, very
wrong.
God gave them a clear command,
and they didn't obey Him.
Adam & Eve were guilty, and they knew that.
So they tried to hide from God.
God called them out from their hiding place,
and He asked them... what happened?
"Adam! Did you eat that
fruit?"
Adam answered, "Not my fault! Eve told me!"
Eve?
"Not my fault! The snake told me!"
Snake?
"[Shrug]."
(Three girls in class sat shocked, mouths open.)
When we do something wrong, and we know that,
what do we do?
Same as Adam & Eve, we try to hide our crime,
and cover the evidence.
If we get caught, what do we do?
Same as Adam & Eve, we blame other people.
We quickly notice things they do wrong.
Or we continue the Devil's lie,
and tell "good reasons" for the things we did.
And while we work to avoid responsibility,
we make our mess worse-and-worse.
Yes, we excuse ourselves, but blame other people.
First Adam blames God:
"You gave me that woman. God, that's
Your fault!"
(Maybe Adam forgot where God got that woman.)
Then Adam blames Eve:
"She gave me that fruit. Her fault!"
But Adam knew that he was doing wrong,
and he proceeded doing that, anyway.
Here we see Adam and Eve have their first family argument.
Sin always has CONSEQUENCE.
Here we see sin destroy
the unity that God planned for marriage.
Genesis chapter 2 tells us that husband and wife are
two become one.
Now we see husband and wife divided
back to two again, no more as one.
God proceed to talk to each of the three guilty persons.
First...
The
Lord God said to the snake,
"Because you
did that,
you will have
a curse worse than all other animals,
farm
and wild.
You will slide
on your stomach,
and you will
eat dirt all during your life.
I will make
you and the woman enemies.
Your future
children and her future children
will become
enemies.
Her future Son
will crush your head,
and you will
bite His heel." (Genesis
3:14,15)
What is God talking about here?
If we had nothing more before or after this story,
we can guess that God is describing
the natural struggle between people and snakes.
But that seems strange --
God punishing snakes for what the Devil did.
And we wonder --
Before this happened, could snakes walk???
One week ago we learned that the tempter here
was NOT an animal, but the Devil himself.
Clever.
Beautiful.
But now wild in rebellion against
God.
We can read about
who the Devil is,
and why he came to earth,
in the last book in the Bible, Revelation chapter 12:
"In
heaven a war happened.
The good angel
named Michael
and his
other holy angels together
fought against
the Dragon,
and the Dragon and
his evil angels fought back.
But the Dragon
was not strong enough.
He and his
angels lost their place in heaven.
That great Dragon, he was-thrown-down
out from
heaven.
He is that old
snake called the devil or Satan.
Now he
tricks the whole world.
That Dragon
with his angels
was-thrown
down to earth." (Revelation
12:7-9)
Now we see
God uses that same picture for the snake
in Revelation chapter 12
in His description for the Devil's punishment
in Genesis chapter 3.
We see that God isn't talking about animal snakes,
No, He is-talking about THE great Snake from hell,
the Devil.
But also in Genesis chapter 3,
we notice that God talks about the descendants,
future children, from the woman.
And we see that God isn't talking about
any and every human child.
No, God describes how THE one special CHILD
will one day fight against the Devil.
That Special Son from the woman will
"crush the Devil's head"
while the Devil "bites His heel."
And Who is that special Son from the woman?
Yes! Jesus!
Again we see,
God still uses the picture language for a snake.
God predicts that
Jesus and the Devil will fight.
Jesus will get crucified (The Devil's bite).
But in Jesus' death,
the Devil will lose his legal-right to own us.
Jesus wins!
Here in the Garden of Eden we see
God's first promise for sending His Son,
our Savior Jesus Christ.
Sin began with Adam & Eve in that Garden.
But God already had a plan in Jesus Christ for saving us
from the eternal consequences for our sin.
The Bible says that the "first Adam" gave us sin and death,
But the "second Adam" - Jesus Christ -
forgives our sin and gives us life forever.
Now, that story about war in heaven,
we recently read from Revelation 12.
That story continues:
That
great Dragon... with his angels
was-thrown
down to the earth."
Then I heard a
loud voice in heaven saying:
"Salvation and
power and the kingdom of our God
and the
authority of His Christ
have now come.
All day and
all night in front of our God
the Devil
accuses our
brothers and sisters.
The Devil
has been thrown down.
And our
brothers and sisters defeated the Devil
through
the blood of the Lamb - Jesus.
And they
defeat the Devil
through
the message they preached.
They were not
afraid to die for Christ.
Now rejoice,
everyone living in heaven!
But terrible
for the earth and the sea,
because
the devil has come down to you!
The Devil is
filled with anger,
because he
knows he does not have much time." (Revelation 12:9)-12
That explains why our world is still filled
with much hurt and hate.
That explains why we also continue to struggle
against temptation.
Christ on the cross defeated the Devil, yes.
But the Devil still has a little bit more time for his dirty work.
The Bible says that day will come
when the Devil and his followers
will-be locked in hell forever,
no more able to bother,
no more able to lie, tempt, and hurt us.
Until that Day, let us all continue holding on to Christ in faith.
Amen!
Genesis 3 - Part 3:
Genesis
3:16
Then God told the
woman,
" When you become pregnant,
you will have much trouble.
And when you give birth to children,
you will have great pain.
You will have desire for your husband,
but he will rule [control] over you."
In Part 1 we saw Adam
& Eve thinking about the Devil's lies,
deciding for themselves
what is right and
what is wrong,
the two of them becoming gods for themselves,
and experiencing shame and guilt
in their separation from God.
In Part 2 saw God's
explain
His punishment on the Devil,
His promise for sending our Savior, Jesus Christ,
and that war between Jesus and the Devil on the cross,
that crushes the Devil's power.
Now in Part 3 we
begin to see how sin touches our every-day life
and how sin damages our union with other people.
Genesis 3:16
First God said to the
woman,
"I will cause you to have much trouble
when you are pregnant,
and when you give birth to children,
you will have great pain."
We all know about
pain women feel
during natural childbirth.
A friend of mine
asked a group of women,
"Childbirth feels how?"
One woman answered,
and told the man:
"Grab your mouth lower lip."
The man did it.
Then the woman said,
"Now pull your lip over your head."
Ouch!
But a mother's pain
for her children includes much more
than labor during birth.
One popular
translation for this verse says,
"I
will increase your sorrow,
and your conception."
Not all women are
happy about having a baby.
Many say, "I hope I'm
not pregnant!"
Grief? Yes!
Then after the baby
is born, the emotional pain
continues.
Birth
really-is the easy part.
Raising
children, teaching them to become good,
that's the hard part.
And while parents
raise their children, who suffers most?
Mom? or Dad? Yes, Mom.
One Bible verse in
Proverbs says,
A wise son makes his father happy - proud,
but a foolish son makes his mother sad - grief. (Proverbs 10:1)
If children succeed,
Dad will brag about them.
And if children
rebel, Dad knows how to let them go.
But mother holds her
feelings,
and carries pain for her children all her life.
Sin influences not
only a woman's relationship with her children.
Sin also ruins her
relationship with her husband.
The 2nd thing God
told Eve,
"You
will have desire for your husband,
but he will rule over you."
Now, be
careful! That verse is easy to misunderstand.
That first line: "You
will have desire for your husband."
That word "desire"
means what?
?Does "desire" here
mean fall in love? Sweetheart?
Positive emotions? Sex?
Sorry, no.
The Hebrew language
has several different words
that mean "desire."
But the Hebrew word
that we find here in Gen. 3:16
appears only 3 times in the whole
Bible.
The first time is
here, God speaking to Eve.
The 2nd time is in
the next chapter,
in
that story about two brothers, CAIN and ABEL,
Adam & Eve's first two sons.
Maybe you know that
story.
ABEL worships God
with his sacrifice,
But his older brother
CAIN only gives a sacrifice
but he has no true faith, no true worship.
CAIN becomes jealous
against his brother.
God speaks His
warning to CAIN.
"CAIN, you are angry. Why?
Your face is sad. Why?
If you do well, I will help you.
But if you don't do well,
sin is near your door, crouching....
Sin
has desire for you,
but you must rule over it."
(Genesis 4:6,7) |
 |
That's a clear
picture!
God describes sin
same as a lion ready to grab and kill a deer.
Or the picture is
same as a gang of thieves hiding,
waiting for a person to walk past them.
God told CAIN:
"Sin is near your door, crouching.*
Sin
has desire for you."
Desire here means
what?
Fall in love? Sweetheart? Friends? NO!
God tells CAIN: "Sin
wants you for its lunch!"
Sin
has desire for you,
but you must rule over it.
That's exactly the
same way
God uses that same word...
|
God said to Eve:
"You will have desire for your husband,
but he will rule
over you." |
|
God said to Cain:
"Sin has desire for
you,
but you must rule
over it." |
Many English Bible
translators misunderstand Gen. 3:16,
and they incorrectly translate that verse.
God is not painting a
beautiful picture about
love between husbands and wives.
God
is not describing here how a husband must become
a loving serving leader in his home.
Many other verses in the Bible talk about that. But not here.
The picture here shows
anger, conflict, misunderstanding,
struggle for control,
all still happening in families
today.
Why? Sin.
Sin always has CONSEQUENCES.
Sin ruins love and fellowship in marriage.
Sin ruins love and trust between parents and their children.
Same-as sin ruins our love and fellowship with God.
But you know the way God made for us
to connect again in fellowship with Him
is through Jesus and His
cross.
The way we experience God's love again
happens in forgiveness.
The same way we show love in marriage and in family
happens in our forgiving each-other.
Sin separates us from God,
but the cross of Jesus is same as a bridge
that connects us to Him, together
again.
Sin separates husbands and wives,
sin separates parents and children.
But the cross of Jesus is same as a bridge
that connects our families together again.
Things that separate our families are
disappointment
hurt
angry words
mocking words and facial-expressions
time we spend looking-at
TV, computers, work, hobbies,
instead of time that we need for looking-at
each-other.
All your sins, God nailed on the cross with Jesus.
And all those sins that other people in your family do,
God nailed their sins on the cross, also.
Jesus makes possible for us to release our sins to Him,
And Jesus also makes possible for us to release to Him
our hurt, our anger, our disappointment.
Jesus makes possible for us to release to Him
all those sins that other people do against us.
When our love is gone,
Jesus make possible for Him to show His
love
through us.
Same-as God told Eve,
sin has broken our families.
But now Jesus heals our families
in His love and forgiveness.
Genesis 3 - Part 4:
Now we learn about what God told Adam.
Genesis 3:17-19
17 Then God said to
the man,
"You listened-to your wife,
and you ate fruit from that tree
that I ordered
you: Don't eat.
Because you did that,
now I will curse the ground for
you.
From now on, during all your life,
you must work hard with pain for
your food.
18 The ground will
grow thorns and weeds for you,
and you will eat plants from the
field.
19 You will sweat
and work hard for your bread,
until you go back in the ground.
Remember, I made you from the
ground.
You are dust,
and you will become dust again."
If we can
summarize God's punishment for Adam in two words.
Those two words are work and death.
But Question: Before Adam began sinning,
Adam lived in the Garden of Eden doing what?
Adam was doing work!
Remember, God told Adam,
"You work and take care of that Garden." [Gen.
2:15]
God first planned for Man to work.
Work before sin.
Work after sin.
What's different?
Remember, in Genesis chapter 1
God made Man and Woman perfect.
They had no sin.
And the Bible also says that
God made Man and Woman
"in His IMAGE."
That means their
thoughts,
ideas,
attitudes,
actions,
and feelings
were same as His
thoughts,
ideas,
attitudes,
and actions.
The Bible says that during those first six days,
God worked,
creating,
and making the world.
Then God gave Adam responsibility
for taking care of His world.
And Adam's work also was creative and wonderful.
But when sin began,
that world became broken.
And man's work changed.
Adam first worked
for God,
for his wife,
for the animals.
But now Adam must work for himself.
Adam first worked,
for giving pleasure to God,
and for serving other people.
Now Adam must work for staying alive,
and for feeding his family,
and for supporting his wife and children.
God made His world good and perfect.
But Adam's sin broke His world.
Now everything that Adam makes, also will break.
God's first plan for our work really never stopped.
Work that creates,
serves,
and satisfies,
is always best.
But that work now must have 2nd place.
Work for staying alive, now that's first.
Work becomes ruined with sin.
Now our focus is-not working for giving.
Now we focus on work for getting.
God told us, we must take care of this world.
But our work often ruins part of His world.
Adam wanted to become smart as God, right?
Now we are stuck, trying to do for ourselves,
work that God first planned
for Him to do for us.
Adam & Eve wanted to become gods.
Our broken world proves that we are lousy gods.
Now, please notice again
what God told Eve,
then what God told Adam.
We see in HIS description
about sin's influence in our lives,
those things that give us most pleasure,
now give us most grief.
Maybe you notice that men and women
think and act differently.
When men meet for the first time,
they talk about what?
Their work.
When women meet for the first time,
they talk about what?
Their families and friends.
Men identify themselves in their jobs, their professions.
Women identify themselves in their relationships
with other people.
Now notice that in God's description about sin's influence,
sin gives women most pain, where?
In their families - with children and husband.
And sin gives men pain and frustration where?
In their work.
Also notice that where we have our greatest strength,
we also have our greatest temptations.
Men often focus on work so much, they ignore their families.
Many famous old men successful in business
answered this question:
"If you can change anything in
your life,
what will you
change?"
No one says, "I wish I had worked harder."
No one says, "I wish I had stayed in my office more
hours,
working more over-time, working more weekends."
No one says, "I wish I bought more things."
Most men say, "I wish I had paid attention to my wife.
I wish I had given more time to my children."
For man, work is both a blessing and a curse.
If our goal for work is getting more things,
we will always have disappointment,
and we will never become satisfied.
God first gave Adam and Eve everything they needed for life -
BASICS.
The Bible teaches that we also can become satisfied
with the things God already gave us.
And we can trust Him for everything we really need,
while we give our lives in service to Him
and serving other people.
Because we have sin,
now we must work to earn our food and our homes.
But one thing we can never earn:
our home in heaven.
Work for that is finished.
Jesus did that work for us,
in His suffering and death on the cross.
Now Jesus invites us to rest in Him.
That is really important, because God told Adam
that sin not only ruins our work.
God also said, sin destroys our life.
If we do sin, we will die.
We all sin. Therefore, we all will die.
God said,
"You will sweat and work hard for your bread,
until you go back in the ground.
Remember, I made you from the
ground.
You are dust,
and you will become dust again."
Where do we often see those word?
If you go to a funeral,
the pastor maybe say that verse
over the body in the cemetery.
If you go to Ash Wednesday worship,
when you get your ashes
the pastor says to you,
"Remember, you are dust,
and you will become dust again."
And Adam could never forget that,
because his name ADAM means "ground."
God invented life.
Sin destroys life.
And Jesus let our sin destroy His life.
His death pays our debt.
Sin leads us to hell.
But now Jesus made heaven open again,
for all who will give-Him their sin,
and trust His promise.
Amen!
Genesis 3 - Part 5:
Our study began,
seeing Adam and Eve eating fruit from the tree
that gives knowledge about good and evil,
that tree God forbid them to eat.
But remember, the Garden of EDEN had two special trees:
[1] the tree that gives knowledge about good and
evil, and
[2] the Tree of Life.
Four-weeks-ago, our study began focusing-on the first tree.
Now our study ends focusing-on the second tree.
Genesis
3:20-24
20 The man named
his wife EVE [meaning "life"], because she became mother for
every person that since lived.
21 Lord God made
clothes from animal skin for the man and his wife, and God
put-clothes-on-them.
22 Then the Lord
God said, "Man has[finish] become same-as Us; he knows good and
evil. Now, if Man eats fruit from the Tree of Life, he will live
forever. He must not do that."
23 The Lord God
forced the man out from the Garden of Eden, to go work the ground, that
ground God took and made man.
24 After God
forced the man out [finish], God put an
angel, protecting the Garden of Eden, on the east side. And God
put
there a sword of fire. That sword turned every way, protecting
[blocking] the way to the Tree of Life.
Two trees.
One tree gives life.
The other tree gives death.
Adam & Eve first choose which tree?
Yes, the tree that gives death.
Today we see people still making that same choice.
Often, when God offers-us life,
we choose death.
Now, Question:
After Adam & Eve sinned,
God didn't-want them eating fruit from the Tree of
Life.
God blocked their way to that tree.
Why???
God said,
"If Man eats fruit from the Tree of Life,
he will live forever. He
must not do that."
God first made man and woman perfect, having no sin.
God's first plan for us, means life forever. No death.
But now we are perfect no more.
We all sin, and sin leads to death.
If we understand this Bible verse right,
that Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden
can stop physical death, only.
Yes, God's judgment against Adam & Eve
blocked their way to that Tree of Life.
But also, that was God's mercy.
Imagine, living forever in sin!
I don't know about you,
but I am happy that God limited our time
for struggling against sin.
In Genesis chapter 6,
God says He limits the number of years for our life,
because person living a long time can invent much
evil.
God said,
"My Spirit will not struggle against people
forever,
because they are sinful flesh
From-now-on, they will live only 120 years."
But, you know-that here in Genesis chapter 3 is not the last
time
we see the Tree of Life.
We see that Tree again in the last book of the Bible, REVELATION.
The Bible often compares
the Garden of Eden
and heaven.
The Hebrew word for "garden" is
"paradise!"
Also, we see the Bible's description about heaven
includes the Tree of Life.
Relation chapter 2, in the first letter to 7 different churches,
Jesus said:
"My Holy Spirit now speaks to your churches.
Every person must pay attention.
Every person that wins,
I will give-him the right to
eat fruit
from the Tree of Life,
that tree
God's garden."
In REV. 22, the last chapter in the Bible,
JOHN saw the Tree of Life,
"that gives healing for the
nations."
Then Jesus said,
"Happy are people who wash their robes.
They will receive the right to eat the fruit
from the Tree of Life.
And they can go through the gates into the city."
Yes, God kicked Adam & Eve out from the Garden of Eden.
But not forever!
Yes, God block their way to the Tree of Life,
but only for a short time!
Our way back into God's Garden is how?
That verse in Revelation explains two steps.
The first step is "washing our robes."
The Bible often uses that picture meaning
washing away our sins.
That already happened
when Jesus died on the cross for us
for taking-away our guilt.
Remember in Genesis chapter 3, after Adam & Eve sinned,
they tried to cover their shame using fig leaves.
But that didn't succeed.
In our story today, we see God covered them, using animal skins.
Those animals that died to cover Adam & Eve's bodies,
that becomes a picture for Jesus, God's perfect Lamb,
sacrificed for us,
covering our ugly sins in His
perfect blood.
If we want to enter heaven, we must be covered in Christ Jesus.
The second step for entering heaven, Jesus said,
is eating fruit from the Tree of Life.
But what exactly does that mean?
We find the answer
in the Greek word the Bible uses for "tree."
In English we have only one word: T-R-E-E.
And in ASL we have only one sign: tree.
But the Greek language, has two words:
[1] DENDRON
[2] XULON
The first word, DENDRON, means a living growing green tree.
For example, Jesus said,
"Every good tree - DENDRON - grows good fruit,
but a bad tree - DENDRON - grows bad fruit" [Matthew
7:17]
That is the word the Bible most often uses for naming a tree.
But the Bible also uses the other Greek word, XULON,
meaning WOOD.
For example, Peter on trial for preaching about Jesus,
Peter told the judges,
"You killed Jesus by nailing Him on the Tree -
XULON." [Acts 5:30]
...meaning the cross.
Later Peter wrote in his first letter,
"Jesus carried our sins in His body on the Tree -
XULON -
so we can stop living for sin and start living for
what is right."
[1 Peter 2:24]
And in several other verses, the Bible uses that
word XULON
for naming the cross where Jesus died.
Now, guess which word Jesus uses for naming the Tree of Life
in the last book of the Bible. ??
[1] DENDRON - a living, growing, green tree?
or [2] XULON - the cross?
Which?
Yes #2.
The Tree that gives Life forever
is the cross of Jesus Christ.
In His death that happened in our sin-filled world,
we receive life forever in His perfect world.
Sin kicked us out from Eden,
but Jesus and His cross leads us back in.
An angel and a sword of fire blocked the way to the Garden.
Now Jesus stands blocking our way to hell.
The tree that
gives knowledge about good and evil
brings us death.
But Jesus' cross becomes the Tree of Life,
that makes possible again
God's first, beginning plan for
us,
when He made our world good and perfect.
Now in Christ, we can live forever!
Thank you, Jesus! Amen!
END NOTES
Part 1
People tend to
invent helpful rules for themselves, rules not directed in God's Law,
and then impose those rules on other people. A good
example comes from
the late Paul E. Little, How to Give Away
Your Faith,
© 1966 by Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship of
the United States of America, Inter-Varsity Press, Downers Grove, IL.
Pp. 100-101.
I got
some practical firsthand experience with this
problem at a student conference in New Jersey some years ago. There I
met a fellow, a salesman, who literally worshipped baseball before he
became a Christian. He would slave away all winter long so that he
could be completely free for his god in the summer months. For
something like twelve years he hadn't missed a single game in
Philadelphia. He knew every batting average since 1910. He
slept, ate, drank, and breathed baseball. Then he met the Savior and
gave up his idol, leaving it at Jesus' feet.
Toward the
end of our rugged and somewhat exhausting
conference, this fellow overheard me suggest to another staff member,
'Say, after the conference let's go to Connie Mack Stadium and see the
Phillies. They're playing
the St. Louis Cards.' The salesman was staggered. Incredulous, he
stared
at me and demanded, 'How can you as a Christian go to a baseball game?'
Now,
I've heard a lot of taboos in Christian circles, but this was the first
time
I'd heard baseball banned! I was flabbergasted and didn't know what to
say.
When he asked a second time, 'How can you and Fred claim to be
Christians and then go out to a ball game?' Fred and I starting
thinking and discussing the situation. As we talked to the salesman we
uncovered his problem. Here was a man like the Christians in Rome, a
former idol worshiper. Baseball had
been a big thing to him; now he assumed that anybody who saw a game
(ate meat),
however removed from idolatrous intents, was worshipping baseball as an
idol.
Fred and I
canceled our baseball date since our going would have
needlessly disturbed our friend at a sensitive stage in his Christian
life.
But we also talked and counseled with him, and he gradually realized
that
not all Christians find baseball a problem. With his background,
baseball
will probably be a dangerous temptation to him for the rest of his
life;
this he knows. But later he also saw that he couldn't legislate for
Christians
who have no problem with the sport. It heartened us to see him begin to
mature
in his attitudes.
Part 3 (Desire)

Part III
of this study notes that the Hebrew word "desire" (teshuqah) used in Gen. 3:16
is used only 3 times in the whole
Old Testament. The second reference is Gen.4:7, in the Cain and Abel
story, as discussed
above. However, the third time it is used is in Song of Solomon
7:10, "I am my beloved's, and he has desire for me."
A first
impression from the Song of Solomon text seems to allow for
translating teshuqah as
"affection."
However, the meaning of teshuqah (preditor's desire
for prey) as it is used in
Gen.4:7
also applies to Song of Solomon 7:10.
Song of Solomon
7 opens with the husband describing, with poetic delight,
his wife's body. If we apply the Gen.4:7 meaning of
"desire" to the wife's response in Song of Solomon 7:10, "I am my
beloved's, and he has
desire for me," that text becomes a playful, "My beloved is the
hunter and I am the hunted (and I am very much enjoying the
hunt)!"
Part 5
(Tree)

Other NT verses that use DENDRON for green, growing tree:
Matt.
3:10
7:17-18
12:33
13:32
21:8
Mark
8:24
Luke
3:9
21:29
Rev.
7:1-3
8:7
9:4

Verses that use XULON for the "tree" of the cross of Christ:
Acts
5:30
10:39
13:29
Gal
3:13
1
Peter 2:24
Verses that use XULON for the "Tree of Life"
Rev. 2:7
Rev. 22:2,14,19

What is the Hebrew word for "tree" in the Genesis texts? The
Hebrew word ETz is the word for "tree" most freqently used
throughout the OT, including the Genesis texts. That word also
refers to virtually anything made of wood - timbers and planks in
houses, fire wood, gallows, wood carved into idols, etc.
What about the
Septuagint? How does it translate "tree of life?" Surprise!
Three hundred years before the crucifixion of Christ, the rabbis and
scribe who translated the Septuagint also chose the Greek word XULON,
rather than DENDRON, when
translating "tree" in the Genesis 1-3 texts.