Reflection: Genesis 3: 14 – 5: 29

What does it feel like to be the cause of your own enslavement? Ashamed, trapped, wanting to go back, caught up in anger and emotion, unable to press forward, feeling the weight of failure and the responsibility of those you’ve disappointedly unsupported.

So the effects of sin go after the fall. An experience we all can relate to, because it is a broken world we all now travel through. Trapped by the trickster who caused us to turn from surety and provision. All so we might know our own destinies, defining right from wrong, dictating life by our own seemingly inconsequential decisions.

To the serpent comes a casting from heavens abode, now shall he rule on earth, in the dust of our toes. Crushed will he one day be, by the offspring of the creature he tempted. Eternally banished, for the power grab he attempted.

To the woman, pain in childbearing and fear for her life shall come. She shall desire to control her husband, to point out his failures that have caused so much to be undone. Yet, hurt by his brokenness and rule she shall be. Equality has been broken and supplanted; love will go unenchanted. Her husband shall rule over her, becoming quick to take charge, easily angered when he feels taken for granted.

To the man, because he listened to the temptation his wife was caught in, he too shall be tempted to lust after her in resentment and domination. He will be bound to work for food little by little. Struggling to provide a crop, he will return home day by day quaint and distraught.

He shall work his days to put food on the table, for fear his family will go hungry. He will be bound to till the wilderness and ground he came from. Cast from the garden, he is now at whim to weather, flood, and drought. Earth, once in his domain, is now fallen from his control. Thorns and thistles, thumb pricks, scraped knees, working amongst the weeds, dreary faced, making bread, gathering grain, grinding flour, all for food that will likely come out bland and soured.

To his first creaturely companions, there will also be a deadly cost. Animals are now killed, tempering man’s eyes for his bride, which now stand glossed. Crying and shrieking, skin from game is slain, to protect man from winters reeling cold and lustful shame.

Cast from the garden to till the ground and wilderness from which Adam was made. The tree of life is guarded to protect humanity from an eternity in the serpent’s domain. Instead of a paradise to celebrate with his wife. Adam is ashamed and impoverished as consequence for sin’s delight. Make no mistake, however, despite saddening ramifications, God is still for Adam and Eve’s favor. But a longer more difficult road is now to be traveled lest sin would dominate them as a slaver.

Notice how, while living in penance for their actions, Adam and Eve’s desire is to be faithful. While fallen and broken, the God who walked with them in the garden is remembered. His promises ring out twofold in hope. First, to be fruitful and to multiply, to bring children into the world. Second, by their descendants to await the crushing of the serpent’s head whose reign is to be unfurled.

When Cain is born, they proclaim the Lord’s help. Cooperating with the creating activity of their Lord, they prioritize their son’s creation despite the difficult hand they now have been dealt.

Cain takes after his Father, tilling in the ground. His brother Able, later born, takes care of the sheep. Cain however grows bitter, rejecting the Lord’s acceptance. Sin lurks at his door. Homicide brings the family horror. A crash into broken humanity; a brokenness we too know all too well; This is the broken world Adam, Eve, Cain, and Able also experienced. Tragedy, heartache, unjust wrongs, untimely deaths; this was not how the world was made to be. Yet, here in Genesis, we learn the Lord is even more so grieved.

Adam is haunted by Abel’s death. How could so much go wrong even after he chose to credit the Lord’s help and live into God’s command? As cause for sin, Cain is left to wander the earth and be its slave. Yet, mercifully protected from a vengeful death he will remain.

Despite travesty and tragedy, Adam and Eve again remain open to God’s command. Seth is born and there is a moment for their rejoicing. Sorrow is felt for Cain’s departure and for the family fractures left by sin. Yet, joy arises for the new son who stays. For a son, who despite his own humanity, chooses to call upon the Name.

Cain leaves the Lord’s presence. He goes to build cities in his own descendant’s name, preoccupying himself with work and technological success. Talents and skills are the fixations to which his family aspires. Cain’s sin is handed down generations after to Lamech. Murder is the cycle Cain’s line is caught up in. So too today do we also experience generational sin.

From Seth onward Adam and Eve’s family remembers the Name of God who once walked with them in the garden. To God’s credit, Eve proclaims Seth’s birth. From Seth onward, the family line calls upon the Name of the Lord. Participating in the creative power of God; Seth, Enosh, Kenan, all the way to Noah, go about family building. Adam and Eve and their sons onward choose to hope in the promise of the serpent being defeated by a descendant of their line. There is hope also for all of us if we surrender our family to the hand of the Divine.

Eventually, death’s door comes knocking for Adam, to earth and dust he will return. But not without living and leaning into the commands his God had given. Adam, knowing his fault obeyed his God by working the earth in sweat and toil. Adam doesn’t make excuses; he doesn’t turn vengeful towards God when he had the chance. Rather, he accepts and acknowledges the responsibility and challenges that come with navigating the broken world that fell within his domain. By building a family who called upon the Lord by Name. He welcomed lives into a broken world he very much was responsible for causing. When his first son and family fell into disarray, he built again a family after the Lord’s Name. Adam doesn’t give up. He chooses to hope in the promise of the serpent’s defeat despite not knowing the outcome.

In defiance to the serpent who reigns over them, Adam and Eve bring human life where the serpent brought upon them death. They raise a family despite the cost, sorrow, challenge, and seemingly insurmountable odds. They continue to live into the Lord’s promise given to them in the garden, to be fruitful and to multiply. They allow still the Lord to create something out of the brokenness of their lives. They toil and the Lord creates for them plants and food. Despite being fallen and separated from union with God, they trust in their Lord to still care and provide for them.

Who are we to think marriage and family building is not the time proven test to renew our culture and world? Who are we to think children are a burden? That starting families are too costly? That the world is too much of a mess to bring a child into? Who are we to think we can’t bring those around us into a broken Church when Adam and Eve chose to bring a family into a broken world?