Day 4: Judgement Pronounced

Because God is omniscient, He was completely aware that there was something wrong in the Garden of Eden.

omniscient: definition from Merriam-Webster Dictionary.com: 1 : having infinite awareness, understanding, and insight 2 : possessed of universal or complete knowledge

You might say that when God sought the disobedient couple in the garden, He was prepared to hold a trial....First, he pursued him as an officer of the court to bring them to justice. Next, He questioned the about their behavior as a prosecuting attorney would do. Now we'll see Him address them and Satan, their co-defendant, as the divine Judge, pronouncing His sentence on them. As the One who created all three of the defendants, God had every right to judge them.

1. Describe how God cursed the Serpent physically.

He told the snake that it would always be on its belly, and it would eat the dust of the earth. He also said that it would be cursed beyond all cattle and more than any beast of the field.

2.a. How did He curse the Serpent spiritually?

There would be war between the woman and the snake, and between the offspring of the serpent and the woman.

b. How do you think this speaks prophetically of Satan's battle with Jesus?

Jesus and Satan always battle against each other, for generations. They battle over the souls of people.


3.a. Next God pronounced His judgment on the woman. How did He punish her concerning childbirth?

He told her that her pain during childbirth would be multiplied.


b. What did He pronounce concerning her marriage?

He decreed that she will want to please her husband and that he would always lord that desire over her.

4.a. God next turned His attention to Adam. Explain why He pronounced a judgment on Adam.

He judged Adam because he listened to his wife and ate from the tree that he was commanded not to eat from.


b. How did God judge Adam concerning his work?

He told Adam that the very ground would be cursed because of him, and that getting food from the ground would be as painful to him as childbirth would be to Eve. He told Adam that he would have to work in pain his entire life, fighting against thorns and weeds that the ground sprouted to get food from the earth.

c. What would the ultimate punishment be for eating from the tree?

That he would return to the ground, dead and buried, and eventually turn into dust, just as he started life.

5.a. What key phrase did God use to remind Adam of his status as a created being?

He told Adam that out of dust he was created and to dust he would return.

b. How would this make you feel if God talked to you in this manner?

It would make me feel about as low as the dust to which He is referring!

6.a. God put enmity between the seed of the woman (Christ) and Satan. Read Galatians 3:16. What is one interpretation of who the seed represents?

According to this verse, it is seed singular, referring to Christ, instead of seeds plural, referring to many people.

b. Based on what you know of history and Scripture, how did Satan "bruise" the heel of the seed of the woman?

Satan brought sin into the world, which led, ultimately, to the crucifixion of Christ...where his feet were nailed to the cross.

c. Paul says, "Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead" (2 Timothy 2:8). How do you think this fulfills the prophecy of the seed of woman (Eve) bruising or crushing Satan's head?

Satan could no longer hurt people, for Christ died for our sins and was resurrected from the dead!

7. God's punishment for Eve's disobedience was that there would be pain in childbearing and implied pain in child rearing. Yet Scripture considers motherhood a high calling.

(I've never thought about it like that! I am called to be a mother, and God considers that important!)

a. Read the following passages and draw a line to connect them with how mothers are to be treated.

Exodus 20:12-----Honor your mother

Exodus 21:15-17--Do not physically or verbally abuse her

Proverbs 1:8-----Follow your mother's instructions

Proverbs 23:22---Help your mother in her old age

Proverbs 23:25---Make your mother proud

b. Talk about how you've either experienced some of the pain involved in being a mom, or how you have treated your mom.

Amazingly, I remember more of the pain I've caused my mom---and still feel bad for it---than she seems to remember or keep account of. Isn't that how unconditional love is, though? I caused her much pain and worry when I ran away, when I attempted to take my own life, when I was skipping school...when I lied to her, when I behaved in ways that I knew she would not approve, when I did not greet her with the respect and regard that she deserved. Just the other day, she was commenting that she was glad that my sisters and I didn't 'lose our minds' temporarily and do increasingly foolish things. While I think how I must have added grey hair to her head, she looks upon me as a blessing. SHE is a true blessing to me, and I have learned a great deal from her! I will gladly care for her in her old age!

Warren Wiersbe said,"This submission isn't identified as a part of a curse or as a mandate for husbands to have sovereign power over their wives. The New Testament makes it clear that husbands and wives who love each other and are filled with the Spirit will be mutually submissive (Ephesians 5:18ff; 1 Corinthians 7:1-7).

God reestablished relational order not to put women down but to promote harmony in the home. Don't be deceived when the world tells you submission is slavery--you are showing the world a picture of salvation through Christ: "Just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything" (Ephesians 5:24).