LESSON 11
GOD
JUDGED ADAM AND PLACED A CURSE ON THE EARTH;
AND HE PROMISED TO SEND A DELIVERER
Scripture: Genesis 3:9-20
1. God called out to
Adam.
God loved Adam
and Eve and wanted to be with them. Before they were separated from God, they, too, enjoyed being with Him. But when they knew God was there to
visit with them after they had disobeyed Him, Adam and Eve hid. Listen
to what God did.
Read Genesis
3:9
Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are
you?”
• Why did God call out to Adam?
Didn’t God know where they were hiding? Isn’t He everywhere? Wasn’t He there
beside them among the trees? Couldn’t
He see them all of the time? Yes! God
knew where they were hiding.
God knows everything, and God is everywhere.
God could see Adam and Eve where they
were hiding.
So why
did He call out to Adam?
God called
out to Adam because God still loved
Adam and Eve. Even though Adam and Eve had disobeyed, God still loved them. And even though God intended to punish them for their
sin, He still
loved them. So God called out to
them because He wanted Adam and Eve to come to Him voluntarily and admit their sin. He wanted them to agree with Him that they were wrong to believe
Satan, and He wanted them to
agree that all He had said to them was
the truth.
• God calls out to people today.
God has not changed.
He still calls
out to us today, even though we cannot hear His voice like Adam did.
How does
God speak to people today?
• God speaks to us through all the
things we can see around us.
We know that God exists and we know what His character is like because
of the things He created and we enjoy.
Every day, as we see all the things God has
created, God is saying to us, “I am the true God, and I am the creator of all things. Look at all I have created
for you. This shows you that I am almighty and that I love you. Listen to me and seek Me.”
•
God
is also speaking to us through the Bible.
The Bible is God’s message to everyone in the world. It is God’s message to you personally. God wants you to know,
understand and believe His message.
2. Adam and
Eve tried to hide from God.
Read Genesis
3:10.
He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden,
so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”
Adam and Eve were
afraid of God because they had disobeyed His command. Adam and Eve
hid, but God could see Adam and Eve
where they were hiding.
3.
God
questioned
Adam.
Read Genesis
3:11.
“Who
told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the
tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”
Did God already know the answer to these questions? Yes! God already knew the answers. So why did God question Adam? Because God was giving Adam the opportunity to repent, that is, to change his mind and agree with God that he had
done the wrong thing.
• Both Adam and Eve belonged to
God.
God had
created Adam, and then He made Eve from Adam’s rib.
Because God was their rightful owner, God had the authority to hold them accountable. Adam and Eve had to answer
to God for what they did.
• God is our rightful owner.
God has given life to all people. Each of us will have to answer
to Him for everything we have thought and done during our lives.
God wanted Adam and Eve to acknowledge that they had sinned, so God
questioned them.
4.
Adam
blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the snake.
Read Genesis
3:12-13.
The man
replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”
Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”
“The
serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”
• Adam and Eve would
not take personal responsibility for what they had done.
When a person gets caught for something he does wrong, he usually tries to blame
someone else. Sometimes an innocent person is punished because the one who did
wrong puts the blame on him.
• No one can deceive God.
We may be able to deceive other people into punishing someone else for our sin,
but can we deceive God so that He will punish someone else for our sins? No!
God sees and knows the truth about each person. We cannot escape God’s punishment by blaming someone else.
Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent, but God already knew everything
that had happened. Nothing is hidden from Him.
5.
God
cursed
the
snake.
Read Genesis
3:14.
Then the Lord God
said to the serpent,
“Because you have done
this, you are cursed
more than all animals,
domestic and wild.
You
will crawl on your belly,
groveling in the dust as
long as you live.
God cursed the snake because it had been used by Satan. God does not tell us how
the snake moved around when God first created it, but we know it did not crawl on its belly. After Satan had used it to
deceive Eve, God said it must crawl on its belly and eat dust.
6.
God
promised to send the Deliverer.
• dam and Eve were
under Satan’s control.
When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and submitted to Satan’s control, their relationship with God was broken.
They were no longer God’s children. They were
Satan’s children
and were under Satan’s control. As we learn more and more from the Bible, it will become clear that from the time Adam obeyed Satan, Satan began to lead most people to do the
things Satan wanted them to do.
Satan probably
thought that he had defeated God. He probably
thought that he would
have complete control of the world and all people. But no one can win against God. He is the Almighty Creator.
•
God promised that He would send a Deliverer
who would overcome Satan and deliver
people from Satan’s power.
Read Genesis
3:15.
And I will cause hostility between you
and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike
his heel.”
God
planned that the promised Deliverer
would be the child of a woman.
God did not mean that the Deliverer would literally crush
the serpent’s head but
that the Deliverer would fight against Satan and overcome him. Satan would not literally hurt the heel of the Deliverer. Satan would fight against the Deliverer, but Satan would not be able to defeat the Deliverer. The Deliverer would defeat Satan – He would destroy
Satan and deliver
people from Satan’s
power. Through the promised
Deliverer, people would no longer need to stay separated from God.
•
We
have already learned many things about God.
What
have we learned about God as we have studied the Bible?
- God is eternal. He never
had a beginning. He will
never have an
end.
- God is all-powerful.
- God knows
everything.
- God is everywhere all of the time.
- God is loving and kind.
- God is holy and righteous.
- God punishes
those who rebel
against Him and disobey His commands.
Today, we learn something new about God. By promising to send the Deliverer,
God was showing us that He is merciful
and gracious.
• God is loving, merciful and gracious.
Adam and Eve deserved
to die and go to everlasting punishment. Adam and Eve had
disobeyed God, and as a result, they were immediately separated from God. God could
have abandoned them. But instead, God promised the Deliverer who would make a way to deliver
them and all people from Satan’s control.
This Deliverer would provide
the way for man to come back to God. God promised to send the Deliverer because He is merciful and gracious.
God had given Adam and Eve everything they needed when He created
them. God did not have to give so many good things to them, but He did because
God is loving and kind. But when Adam and Eve rebelled against
God, they deserved
the wrath of God. Did God immediately
send them to everlasting punishment? No!
Because He is merciful and gracious,
God promised to send the Deliverer
to save them from the
punishment they deserved.
7.
God said
Eve
would suffer because of her sin.
Read Genesis
3:16.
Then
he said to the woman,
“I
will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy,
and in pain you will give birth.
And
you will desire to control your husband,
but he will rule over you.”
God spoke to Eve and told her that, because she had disobeyed
the Lord, she would
suffer in childbirth. God also said that her desire would be for her husband, and that her husband would have
authority over her.
8.
God said
Adam
would suffer because of his sin.
Read Genesis
3:17-19.
And
to the man he said,
“Since
you listened to your wife and ate from the tree
whose fruit I commanded you not to eat,
the
ground is cursed because of you.
All your life you will struggle to scratch
a living from it.
18
It will grow thorns and thistles for you,
though you will eat of its grains.
19
By the sweat of your brow
will you have food to eat
until
you return to the ground
from which you were made.
For
you were made from dust,
and to dust you will return.”
• Adam and Eve fell into Satan’s trap because they listened to
Satan.
Satan deceived
Eve, and then Satan used Eve to tempt Adam to sin against
God. Adam listened to Eve instead
of remembering what God had said to him. Satan
used Eve to lead Adam away from the truth.
You must be careful,
because Satan will try to stop you from listening
to God. Satan may even try to use you to lead others away from God’s truth. If you listen to
Satan and believe
him instead of God, not only will you go to everlasting punishment but you also may
cause others to do the same.
If you listen to Satan and believe him instead of God, you will be like a blind
person. You won’t be able to see the right path, and you won’t be able to
recognize Satan’s traps. If you try to influence other people by turning them away
from God’s Word, you will be like a blind person leading
another blind person. You will both fall into Satan’s
trap as Adam and Eve did. You will both go to everlasting punishment.
Because Adam and Eve listened to Satan, they fell into his trap and disobeyed God.
• Because Adam sinned, God cursed
the ground.
Before he sinned against
God, Adam took care of the garden.
Everything grew without Adam doing any hard work. But when Adam sinned, God cursed the earth
so that many weeds began to grow.
This made Adam’s work hard.
• Because Adam sinned, God told
Adam that his body would die.
God had made Adam’s body from the dust of the ground. Because
Adam sinned, God told Adam that his body would die and go back to the dust of the earth. When God
created Adam and Eve, He did not intend for them to die. But because
of their disobedience to Him, Adam and
Eve would die.
This is why your ancestors died, and it is also why people die today. You know that
people die. People here in your village
have died, and people all over the world have died. The punishment for sin is death – physical
death and then separation
from God forever in the place
of everlasting punishment.
• All the bad things in the world are here because Adam disobeyed God.
Think
about the hard things that you face in your lives.
o You have to work hard.
o The ground produces thorns and
weeds.
o Women suffer pain in childbirth.
o You face devastating storms or droughts.
o Many plants, snakes and spiders
are poisonous.
o Many animals are ferocious.
o You have sickness and sorrow.
o And you face death.
The Bible
teaches that all these things
are in the world because
Adam disobeyed God.
9.
Adam
and
Eve
are
the
ancestors
of
all
people.
Read Genesis
3:20.
Then the man—Adam—named his wife Eve, because she
would be the mother of all who live.
Eve was the first woman; therefore, she became the mother of all humanity. Adam
was the first man; therefore, he became the father and original ancestor
of every human being. Even though people have different colors of skin and different features, we all originally came from the
same ancestors – Adam and Eve.
Adam
was
separated from
God
because he turned away from
obeying Him. Because of his sin, Adam died.
This meant that all his descendants would also die. All people
everywhere die because all are descendants of Adam.
Questions
1. Adam and Eve hid when they knew God had come to the garden to visit with them. Can anyone hide from God?
2.
Why
did God call out to Adam?
3.
Why
did God have the right to question Adam and
to hold him accountable for his
actions?
4.
Why
are all people accountable to God for what they have done?
5.
What
was God’s curse on the snake?
6.
Whom did God promise to send?
7.
What
did God say that the woman’s son would do?
8.
Did
Adam and Eve deserve God’s love and
His promise of the Deliverer?
9. Adam and Eve deserved to be punished
for
their
sin,
but
God
promised to send the Deliverer. What does this show
us about God?
10.
What
did God say that Eve would suffer because of her sin?
11.
What did God say that
Adam would suffer because of his sin?
12.
What
was God’s curse on the earth?
13. What are some things we see today
that are the result of Adam and Eve’s sin and God’s curse on the earth?
14.
Who
were the ancestors of all people?
15.
Why
do all people die?