God is faithful and good. God is sovereign. God is our redeemer.
What is the consequence of rebellion?
Act Three: REbellion, Week 3
Sitting down to write a summary about consequences reminded me of parenting. How can it not? As parents, Chris and I have spent considerable time considering the natural consequence of our boys' disobedience. Natural consequences were always the best ones, but of course, there were those offenses that we could not imagine a natural consequence for. What is the consequence of repelling out the window with a hose? What is the consequence of aiming a dart at your brother's head and barely missing his eye? What is the consequence of wasted time and slow obedience? For some reason, the more complicated the offense, the more desperate I was to deliver an extremely severe impact — natural or not. I intended to "teach them a lesson" of pain. I often heard myself saying, "They can't just get away with that!" Chris typically took the conversation and heart posture approach, whereas I thought there always needed to be a physically felt consequence. Parenting is challenging.
Let us not forget that God is the parent, the author of this story, and He knew the end before the beginning. God created the world for His glory—so that all of His creation would live unto him, praising Him alone. As we looked this week at the consequences of rebelling against God, we saw with such clarity that His plan has not changed. Evidence that God is a faithful and good Father is that He continues to desire praise from us despite our sinfulness and disobedience. Evidence that God is our sovereign redeemer is that He takes each and every consequence of our rebellion and turns it around for good, and glory, pointing us to Jesus and His redeeming love.
I hope we remember this! It is paramount that we remember, as we look at the consequences and curses of humanity's rebellion, who our righteous King is and why He created us (don't forget Act Two!).
The word curse could conjure up strange voodoo witch doctor pins and dolls, since the actual word does mean to inflict harm on someone or something. However, the fall and its consequences—the curses, as well as redemption and reconciliation—lie at the heart of the Gospel message. Because of humanity's disobedience toward its creator, death and suffering (the curse) had to enter the world, SO THAT by the death and suffering of God's Son, Jesus, we are gifted salvation and no longer have to live condemned in this fallen world. Jesus became a curse for us. Galatians 3:13 says it clearly, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree'”—and He hung on the wooden Cross. He received the curse—the inflicted harm and intended pain we deserved. He took it for us.
The consequences (curses) fall into three categories. Nothing, and nobody, is left untouched by the impact of rebellion. Nobody, and nothing, is left without fault or without consequence.
The curse for Satan: Satan, who pridefully wanted to be God, was laid belly down, prostrate, in the most humble position to "feast on the dust" (be defeated) by the creation that he wanted to rule. He is given a deep hostile hatred (enmity) for mankind and is in constant rebellion against God.
However, it is through Satan's curse that God announces His plan for salvation and the ultimate defeat of darkness (Genesis 3:15).
The consequence for women brought pain and sorrow, specifically in regard to childbearing. Women would desire (to rule over) their husbands—at constant odds with one another, which is not the way God intended it to be when He created us to be a helper (Genesis 2:18).
However, the pain and wrestling that sin brought, no one knew more than Jesus, the man of sorrows. He suffered on the cross and, through that very act, brought (birthed) many sons to glory.
The curse on the ground is the consequence for man, in that he was asked to laboriously (not joyfully) work and keep a ground that now grew thorns and weeds. It was by his sweat that he would eat bread and he would also return to the ground in death, as dust. Adam's sin brought death to all of humanity (Romans 5:12-14).
However, remember Jesus, the bread of life? It was His work on the cross, the thorns on His crown, and the blood He sweat that won our salvation. He brought eternal life (Romans 5:15).
After God administers the consequences and curses, He does something incredible—so loving! He clothes Adam and Eve, with grace, with tunics of skin (a sacrifice of death needed). In their naked shame, "no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account" (Hebrews 4:13). Adam and Eve (and you and I) humbly were rescued from their sinful condition and clothed with righteousness. Then, they were escorted far away from the Tree of Life. God is not being mean here, putting gross animal parts on them and casting them out of the garden in anger. He is providing for them and He is protecting them! If Adam and Eve had been left in the garden, and God had not administered the consequences, they may have eaten from the Tree of Life and would have lived forever in this sinful state (a hopeless, eternal separation from God).
So, what is the consequence of the rebellion? It is the beautiful Gospel story. Looking through the lens of the Gospel, we are able to see that God's consequences were nothing like Chris' and mine. He didn't consider which natural consequences would match the rebellious acts, and He absolutely wasn't trying to "teach us a lesson" and, in an angry voice, exclaiming, "They can't get away with that!" He is a much more loving and gracious Father than we can ever imagine. Though we are still rebellious children and all of us, every one of us, have fallen short of the glory of God, Jesus redeemed the curse that we earned. We are saved by His gift of grace.
♥️ Meghan
