The Ideal Marriage Part Three Diminished Relationships & the Games We play Gen 3:6-24 Created by David Turner

Adam had an Ideal Marriage Focused on Companionship Shared Headship Grounded in Commitment Bonded by Intimacy Equal Trust and Vulnerability Innocence – no shame or guilt

SIN – INNOCENCE LOST

The Sin – Breaking the Commandment Genesis 3:6-24 (NET) 6 When the woman saw that the tree produced fruit that was good for food, was attractive to the eye, and was desirable for making one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some of it to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.

VULNERABILITY DIMINISHES Game One – Hide and Seek

Diminished Vulnerability They hid from each other 7 Then the eyes of both of them opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Shame caused them to hide from each other and the rest of Creation. Innocence lost leads to lost vulnerability.

Diminished Openness They hid from God 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God moving about in the orchard at the breezy time of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the orchard. Guilt causes fear which makes us hide.

But God always wins at Hide- n-seek 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 The man replied, “I heard you moving about in the orchard, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”

Though we hide we are still vulnerable to God who sees all 11 And the Lord God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

TRUST AND COMMITMENT DIMINISHES Game Two – The Blame Game

Diminished Trust - The Blame Game 2 The man said, “The woman whom you gave me, she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.”

The Blame Game 13 So the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman replied, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.”

JUDGMENT Consequence of Sin, Hide-n-seek and the Blame Game

God Judges the Serpent 14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the wild beasts and all the living creatures of the field! On your belly you will crawl and dust you will eat all the days of your life.

God judges the Serpent 15 And I will put hostility between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring; her offspring will attack your head, and you will attack her offspring’s heel.” There is an external battle for headship

God judges the Woman 16 To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your labor pains; with pain you will give birth to children. You will want to control your husband, but he will dominate you.” (NASB) 16 ….; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.” Genesis 4:7 (NASB) 7 “….. And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” There is competition in marriage for headship

God Judges the Man 17 But to Adam he said, “Because you obeyed your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ cursed is the ground thanks to you; in painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, but you will eat the grain of the field. Creation will no longer cooperate with his headship – diminished intimacy with Creation

Man’s Intimacy has diminished With his God With his Wife With Creation God gave him companionship with himself, with the creatures and with his wife. Sin diminished intimacy and man is on the edge of being alone. But, he losses even more...

Headship diminished – the earth consumes him 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat food until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you will return.”

BUT, GRACE AND HOPE ABOUNDS

Life and Hope Eve 20 The man named his wife Eve (Living), because she was the mother of all the living.

God provides a sacrifice 21 The Lord God made garments from skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.

God protects man and creation from man’s knowledge of evil 22 And the Lord God said, “Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not be allowed to stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”

God’s future for man exceeds the garden’s ideal 23 So the Lord God expelled him from the orchard in Eden to cultivate the ground from which he had been taken. 24 When he drove the man out, he placed on the eastern side of the orchard in Eden angelic sentries who used the flame of a whirling sword to guard the way to the tree of life.

Expelled, yet prepared Expelled from the perfect garden to prepare us for the perfect city. Expelled from the orchard to prepare us for banquet table Expelled from a place where we could walk with God to prepare us for a place we can dwell with God Expelled from the tree of life to prepare us for eternal life Expelled by the power an angel to prepare us to live in the presence of angels. Expelled to live with suffering and death to prepare us for a place where there will be no more tears or death. The Second Adam has given us a means to partial restoration of the ideal marriage (companionship, intimacy, headship, etc.) The Second Adam is preparing us for the Ideal marriage