Questions:
13.
a.
Cursed above all animals, crawl on belly, eat dust, enmity between you & woman & offspring, he crush head you strike heel
b.
labor pains, desire for husband, he will rule over you
c.
Ground cursed b/c of you, through painful toil will you eat, thorns, thistles, work, sweat, die: from dust to dust
14.
a.
That the offspring of a woman (Jesus) would crush the head of the serpent (satan)
b.
Made garments of skin (some living thing died)
15.
a.
Except for the gift of salvation, we are condemned by sin, being born into a sinful state. Through Adam & Eve’s sin, we were separated from communion with God.
b.
Christ, the lamb, takes away the sin, only through Christ may we reunite, His shedding of blood paid the price for our un-punised sin and re-initiated atonement.
My Daily Journal:
While answering the questions today was relatively easy, the reality behind them is hard. Our lesson today reminds us of the rippling consequences of sin. When we sin it changes things and it stretches out to affect not only ourselves, but others, our environment and even future generations. The sin of Adam and Even brought pain and suffering, longing and brokenness, mistreatment and domination, thorns and thistles, work and sweat to eat and survive. And, it brought death. None of this was God’s design, none His desire for us, nor are these bad things that God put in place to get even. God is not vindictive, that is not an attribute of God. These are ripples of the original sin.
When God sacrificed the first animal, it only provided a covering. Underneath, we were still the same creature carrying the same sin, bearing the same consequences and ripples of our sin. That was true of sacrifices throughout the old testament. They were coverings for our inability to completely obey the law.
But, Christ’s sacrifice was different. He crushed the head of Satan in the spiritual world and has paid the price of our sin. Clearly, there is still pain, suffering, toil and death in this physical world and the bible tells us that Satan has not, yet, been removed from this world, but as brothers and sisters in Christ, we are no longer of this world. Christ’s death was not just a covering, we are a new creation.
This is critically important to remember as we read the verses in today’s lesson. We readily acknowledge in church that Christ removed death, one of the repercussions of the original sin. But, He did not stop there. He actually removes the sin and all the ripples of it for eternity. Do we still face pain, longing, brokenness and mistreatment? Yes, because we are still aliens in this physical world. But, through the work of the Holy Spirit in us, we are being transformed back into the state that we were with God before the original sin. He can heal our pain, He can provide for our needs. He can remove the thorns and thistles that entangle us. He can teach us how to live together without longing or domineering. All of that is from sin. These are not God’s design, they are all bad things that were ripples from our original sin. God sacrificed the animal in the garden to cover our sin, but He sacrificed His only son to remove the sin and ALL that goes with it.
The Notes are Good 