The Fall and the Rejection of God

Where In the Bible: Genesis 3-11

In the previous sermon, we looked at the perfect world that God had made. Everything was made in a way that was orderly and good, and humans were the centrepiece of creation, in harmonious relationships with each other, with God and with the created world. Whilst this kind of world resonates with our deepest longings, it is a far cry from the world we see around us. People fight and hurt one another. Humans are destroying the created world, and are experiencing the consequences of a world that is out of balance. God is neglected and rejected by many. In this sermon we see how the perfect world that God made turned into the very imperfect world in which we now live.

The Fall and Turning From God (Gen. 3:1-6): Just like it is in the creation story, God’s word is a powerful theme in the account of the fall. This time, God’s word is being questioned as the serpent starts to cast doubt on what God has said to Adam and Eve, asking them “Did God really say…”. Not only did he question the Word, but he also subtly changed it, suggesting God had forbidden them eating from any tree rather than just one. This is often how temptation comes, as we begin to miscast God’s motives and mischaracterise him as something other than good. This can be particularly true when there is something we desire that is contrary to God’s will, such as the fruit in this case. Eve responds by correcting the serpent’s mistake, but she adds in an error of her own, going along with a characterisation of God as overly harsh, suggesting she is not even allowed to touch the tree. The serpent then outright denies what God has said, suggesting that God is a liar who does not have their best interests at heart. Eve took the fruit and also gave some to Adam, who it seems had been sitting right there doing nothing. This incident highlights the three route causes of our sin: the world (the peer pressure coming from other people), the flesh (seeing something that looks desirable) and the devil (the influence of the serpent). It is when Adam and Eve broke trust with God and chose to rebel against his word that everything started to go wrong.

The Consequences of Sin (Gen. 3:8, 16-19, 23): By turning from God. Adam and Eve had broken something in God’s perfect world, and things could not go back to how they had been. We see first that they had broken the relationship with God himself. When God came walking to be with them, they hid from him in shame rather than embracing and enjoying him. Sin leaves us exposed and it creates in us a discomfort with the presence of a holy God. Sinful people cannot be around God’s pure perfect righteousness, and this creates a problem that the rest of the Bible seeks to solve. In the end, the humans are banished from Eden and driven away from the place of God’s dwelling. As well as the relationship between people and God being broken, so is their relationship with each other and with the land, as is articulated in the curse narrative. We should note that God does not curse the people: he curses the serpent and the land, but nonetheless the people must face the consequences of their sin. Disharmony had been introduced into their relationship with each other, and there would now be discord and battles for power and authority, and child-bearing would now be something that comes with pain and trouble. Similarly, difficulty has been introduced into their relationship with the land, which would now only release its crop with toil and thorns. These points correspond to the command to fill and subdue the earth, and show that these things would no longer be easy to accomplish. Nevertheless, God did not leave his people hopeless and in Genesis 3:15 promised that there will be a descendant of the woman who would ultimately defeat the serpent.

The Spread of Sin (Gen. 4-11): Over the following chapters, the impact of sin spreads and we see many of the features of our broken world emerge in embryonic form. You will not be able to read all of these sections in detail, but it would be good to lay out some of the ways sin spread and contaminates the world in these chapters. In chapter 4, we see the spread of violence as seen  through the story of Cain and Abel (4:8), and then Lamech (4:23-24), and also the breakdown of the marriage covenant as Lamech takes two wives for himself (4:19). In the genealogy of chapter 5, we see death spreading through the world, just as God had warned would happen if people sinned. By chapter 6, the human heart had become so corrupt and violence had spread so throughly that God regretted creating in the first place, and the flood should be seen as an act of de-creation. Nevertheless, God provided salvation for Noah’s family: not because they were perfect, but because Noah had found favour with God. This did not fully solve the problem, because straight after Noah emerged from the ark, and God made a fresh covenant with him, reiterating his creation promises to Adam, we find Noah drunk in his vineyard and his son shaming him in his nakedness. By chapter 11, the pride of humanity is on full display, as they reject God’s command to spread through the earth and instead attempt to make a name for themselves by bulding a tower to the heavens.

Potential Applications:

• A key take home from the sermon is connecting the brokenness we see in our world with the story the Bible tells about the spread of sin. Help people connect these stories with their own experiences.
• Seeing how Adam, Eve and others sinned makes us look at our own hearts and see where we have made similar choices to turn from God to do things our own way. There is a moment for sober reflection and repentance.
• Through it all, God keeps showing grace – from the promise of Genesis 3:15, to providing skins for Adam and Eve to wear, to placing a mark on Cain, to providing Noah with the ark, to the promise of the rainbow. Whatever we might have done and however deep the brokenness we experience is, these chapters point us to God’s grace that reaches into the midst of it.