Brokenness: Where It All Began
Genesis 3:8-15
This morning we are beginning a new series that will canvas the next few months. Our new series will be loosely based on a book that I read multiple times a year for the past three years. This book has been one of the most influential and heart-wrenching reads because it consistently reminds me that when a broken, battered, and beat-down person is embraced by the hands of a gracious and loving Savior, then a journey of healing and restoration is sure to follow.
The book is titled “A Tale of Three Kings” by Gene Edwards and essentially uses the lives of King Saul, King David, and King Absalom to display how God uses the painful, heartbreaking, gut-wrenching experiences we faced at the hands of others and how we have caused the same to others, to mold us into men and women who will either press into or push away from suffering as a means of greater reliance upon Jesus.
This morning we will be going back to where it all began. And, Lord willing, after we have gone back to the beginning, we will be better able to understand just how God uses “brokenness” in us and others to mold us into men and women who act in obedience and see the hand of God at work.
This morning, as we look at “brokenness” in Genesis Chapter 3, I want you to understand this brokenness comes from sin. It comes from a place of God created everything that was good, and then something happened. And something happened that ruptured and fractured the relationship that we will see in Genesis 3.
Next week we will be looking at the life of Saul, how he was used as a king to not only shape the Nation of Israel but also the life of David. Both men ended up being broken but in different ways.
What we will be looking at in Genesis Chapter 3 is the result of Adam and Eve’s sin.
When you hear the word “broken,” what do you think of?
1). A broken chair, a broken alarm clock, a broken door, a broken time-change that robs you of a solid hour’s worth of sleep?
2). A broken tooth, a broken bone, a broken leg?
3). A broken marriage, a broken relationship, a broken friendship?
There are many ways we think about, see, and feel brokenness in our world. And the reality is we live in a world that is filled with broken things and broken people. This reality is something we will not escape on this side of heaven. (But thank God he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to be the sacrifice for us, to forgive us our sins, restore us into a right relationship with God, and therefore we have the opportunity to experience restoration in our relationship with him and with others.) It’s important for us to be reminded of this fact.
We must understand exactly what the Bible says about brokenness, specifically how it relates to our passage. And when I refer to brokenness today, I am talking about the brokenness that has occurred as a result of sin. We will see how God uses it to draw us into a deeper, more intimate relationship with himself and how God uses us and others in this process.
As we go to Genesis Chapter 3, let me give you a little bit of a back-story. God has created everything, and it is all good. Adam and Eve are living in the Garden with God. They are exercising dominion over the earth. Their relationship with God, each other, and the world is complete and perfect. But Satan has deceived Eve, and now she and Adam have eaten from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and disobeyed God.
Genesis 3:8 (NLT)
8 When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees.
Can you see and feel why Adam and Eve would hide themselves from their Creator? He was completely holy and righteous! They hid themselves because of their shame, guilt, and fear. These were emotions, feelings, and thoughts Adam and Eve had never felt before.
Think about that for a moment. Adam and Eve have only ever experienced complete joy, complete peace, complete and perfect love, complete satisfaction in being known, complete and utter goodness and faithfulness, all of these because of who God is and their relationship with him.
And now, after having been deceived and disobeying God’s command, they are instantaneously thrust into a broken and ruptured relationship with God. They are no longer holy and sinless before God. And they display their guilt by hiding themselves from the very person with whom they walked in complete intimacy with. They no longer experience complete connection and intimacy because of their sin. That’s brokenness. Their relationship with God has been broken and shattered along with their relationship with each other and the earth along with it.
I am certain there are some of you here this morning who are experiencing similar thoughts, emotions, and feelings that Adam and Eve felt. Perhaps because you have never accepted the free gift of salvation that God has provided through his Son, Jesus Christ, you cannot experience this level of intimacy with the Creator. You have a broken relationship. But thank God he has provided a way for us!
Maybe you have received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, but you are still currently feeling the effects of a ruptured and fractured relationship with a spouse, sibling, friend, or co-worker. Sin doesn’t go away. It’s important for us to understand. Even though we are born again, sin still remains, and it still impacts our relationships. We can all be really a not nice person. Some of us can be real “stinkers.”
As most of you know, I’ve been married for about two years. And I love my wife. Me and my wife have worked really hard to try to create a relationship where we try to communicate really well. When I am experiencing something or going through something, I try to sit down with her and try to explain to her what is going on. And we also try to go out and have a date night, which is so important. (Don’t stop dating your wife.)
Saturday, yesterday, we went to a Wounded Warrior Project event. And Meredith loves horseback riding, and so do I. We went to this event and had an amazing time. And after the event, we left. As we were leaving the gate, we ran into this woman named Christina. And she just started talking to me and Meredith. And she was talking, I got this overwhelming sense that she was not only struggling with anxiety, but she was hurting. I could feel it. And I was sitting there thinking, Lord, this is you.
And so, I just asked her. I said, “Hey. Do you struggle with anxiety? Do you struggle with fear?” And she’s like, “Yeah.” She admitted to me. And then she went on to explain to me how she’d experienced some things while she was in the military, how she had been sinned against. And then that specific sin had resulted in her feeling this disconnect between herself and her daughter. And she was really wrestling with that. She was trying to share with me how she felt so broken and disconnected from her family, from her daughter.
And I began to talk to her and share with her, and explain to her those things are normal because things happen to us in our lives that we can’t control. And yes, there are things that we can control, but oftentimes what happens is when sin is entered into our lives, or when someone has sinned against us, it creates brokenness. And I saw it on her face; she was broken. And so, Meredith and I continued to talk to her, and I shared with her that I counsel veterans, and I want to open up this opportunity.
And she said something that will always stick with me. She said, “You are a man. And I feel so uncomfortable with most men. But there’s something about you that makes me feel at peace.” And I was like, “Yeah. It’s because I know Jesus.”
And so, we exchanged numbers, and she was talking about how she’s been praying to the Lord and wanting to see God move in her life. I was like, Praise God! Thank you, Lord!
But it was such a tangible example and evidence of how devastating brokenness can be in someone’s life.
The reality is that when we feel disconnected from someone we once had joyful intimacy with, our hearts hurt. We tangibly experience the realities created by this fractured and broken relationship. This may be the result of our own sin or maybe the sin of others. And I really struggled with this; it may not be a result of sin. But that is really hard for me to stomach because when you really barrel down and delve into a situation or circumstance, whether it’s a conflict or division, there’s always going to be somewhere in that process where someone has sinned. They have done something to hurt another person. Read through James Chapter 4 and see for yourself. But the reality is, it all still hurts.
I can’t help but ask this question, though. If we experience brokenness, and we experience this fractured, ruptured connection tangibly, then what about our Father? What about God? Look with me in verse 9 and see how God responds to Adam and Eve.
Genesis 3:9 (NLT)
9 Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
God knew exactly what had happened and where they were. This isn’t saying that God did not know or was caught off guard by their disobedience. Rather, that what had always been, Adam and Eve walking with and enjoying their Creator was no longer present. We don’t know how long it was from the time that God created everything to Genesis Chapter 3 when Adam and Eve sinned. But I have to believe that during that time, Adam and Eve were living in this complete and perfect unity, connection, and relationship with God. So, would it not have been weird or awkward for Adam and Eve to literally be in the presence of God? What we see here is God saying, “Where are you?” They ran from God rather than running to him. By asking them a question to which he already knew the answer to, God gave Adam and Eve further opportunity to understand and wrestle with how their sin and their choice to be disobedient to God was impacting them. It was a rhetorical question.
This is such a powerful picture of the tremendous damage sin does to relationships. Instead of Adam and Eve joyfully running to and eagerly anticipating God’s presence in the Garden, they do the exact opposite. They understood to some degree at this time, the level of separation and disconnect between God and themselves. But the harsh reality is from the moment Adam and Eve sinned against God, from this moment, their/our relationship with God was fractured, their/our relationships with others were fractured, and the world became fractured.
When we are talking about brokenness in light of Genesis 3, it’s this understanding and reality that because of sin, the relationship with God had become fractured, the relationship with each other had become fractured, and the earth in and of itself was fractured.
Look what Adam says to God in verse 10.
Genesis 3:10 (NLT)
10 He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”
I think a question we could ask ourselves based on this verse is this. What causes Adam and Eve to hide themselves, literally trying to blend in with the trees around them in an attempt to cover their nakedness from their Creator?
Well, their disobedience and sin against God literally cause both Adam and Eve to fear the good and faithful and loving God who made them. Think about that for a moment. Those of you with kids know that when your kid does something wrong that they know that they’ve done something wrong. And then you know that they know that they have done something wrong. How that is displayed is unique to our own children. But the reality is that children grow up, and we who are adults are no longer children. And so, we know when we’ve sinned. God knows when we’ve sinned. And we know when God knows that we have sinned. So, what does that look like when we willfully sin against a holy and just God?
For me, it’s shame. I try to hide myself. And it’s not like I’m in my room hiding, it’s more literally like I can’t even come to the Lord and say, Lord, I have sinned against you. I am so sorry. Please forgive me. And then I have to be reminded that there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus for those who have been called according to his purpose. Hey, wait, my perception and my twisted reality of how I see God in light of my sin is not actually the way that God IS. If I am his child, I have been forgiven. I have been restored. And I have a right relationship with God the Father.
So then, what does that mean when I sin? I go to him. I confess my sin to him. I ask him for forgiveness. And I tell somebody else, hey, I’m confessing my sin to you so that you will pray for me so that I will be healed. But how hard is it to go to the Lord and say, “Lord, I have sinned”? “I have done what is evil in your sight. Please forgive me.” It takes humility.
So, what do Adam and Eve do? Do they exercise humility?
Genesis 3:11-13 (NLT)
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?”
12 The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”
Notice here how Adam refuses to take ownership and responsibility for his sin. His response to God demonstrates the sad reality in which Adam is now operating. He goes from blissful content in Eve to blaming her for his sin. He passes the blame to Eve and in this process, further amplifies the destructive nature of sin and its impact on his relationship with God and with his wife.
Notice also how Adam blames God for Eve, since it was God who gave her to him. Adam turns around and places God on trial for his sin, when Adam is completely and utterly responsible for his decision and by blaming God, Adam tries to avoid being held accountable for his sin of disobedience.
Think about that for a moment. How often do we do that? I’m thinking about my relationship with my wife. And oftentimes, where there are moments of conflict, or there are moments of tension, or I feel like we’ve been disconnected, it’s because it’s my fault. It really is. And when I don’t take ownership of how I have caused a disagreement, or maybe misunderstood her, or maybe didn’t take the time to just listen to her, our relationship suffers. Because, as the spiritual leader of the home, God calls me to humbly love my wife, the way that Christ loves the Church. And so, when I don’t do that, what do you think is going to happen? There’s going to be conflict.
And so, it’s fascinating how Adam doesn’t take responsibility and ownership for his sin. And then he blames it on Eve and then follows it up with, “God, it’s really your fault. If you hadn’t have given me Eve, none of this would have happened.” It’s such a distortion of the reality of why God created her in the first place.
So, again, brokenness in light of Genesis 3 is a result of sin, which has fractured and ruptured the relationship with God and each other. It’s so huge.
Notice also how Eve, although she has a rightful place to blame Satan because she was indeed deceived, follows her husband’s lead and shifts the blame over to Satan. Again, while Eve is not wrong in blaming Satan for deceiving her, she chose to disobey God’s command and sin against God. Satan did not make Eve sin; she willingly chose to listen to partial truths and lies over and above what she knew to be true. But the sin of disobedience and the following result of a fractured and broken relationship with God and with Adam was both Adam and Eve’s fault, not God’s.
When we are getting ready to sin, I absolutely, one hundred percent believe that God gives us an opportunity to turn to him. I think about times in my life when I have led up to my sin. I think about it for like a day or two. Like, I’m literally dwelling on it. And instead of going to the Lord and saying, “Lord, I need your help. Give me the strength to overcome this deception,” I don’t. And succumb to it.
While Eve was deceived by Satan, she made the choice to disobey God. Adam is also complicit to that because Adam, as the leader should have stepped up and said, no, that’s wrong. What did he do? He ate.
More can be said here, but for the sake of our focus this morning, do you see what a powerful picture these verses serve in reminding us exactly where sin entered the world and how it fractured their/our relationship with God and with each other?
A goal this morning was to see “brokenness” in light of these verses and remind us that Adam and Eve’s disobedience and sin against God resulted in the following:
A fractured and broken relationship with God
A fractured and broken relationship with each other
A fractured and broken world
There is so much more that can be said about how all this impacts and influences our world, but for the sake of staying focused on where it all began and being reminded of how it all was restored, let’s look at Colossians.
Let the Word of God remind you of the very real and present hope we now have because of Jesus Christ.
Colossians 1:15-22 (NLT)
15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,
16 for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.
17 He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.
18 Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything.
19 For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ,
20 and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
21 This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.
22 Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.
Do you hear the resounding triumph of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice in these verses? See how God, in his wisdom, mercy, and grace sent Christ to restore us back into a right relationship with himself! He restored the brokenness caused by Adam and Eve’s sin, and also our own.
Adam and Eve fractured their relationship with God because of their sin, but Jesus tore the veil of separation through his blood on the Cross.
Adam and Eve fractured their relationship with each other, but Jesus restores our relationships with each other through his blood on the Cross.
Adam and Eve fractured the world because of their sin, but Jesus will restore the earth when he comes again and create a new heaven and earth.
Yes, Satan is the great deceiver but death is defeated, and he too, will be destroyed.
We spent a lot of time exploring where brokenness all began. And, I hope this morning we are reminded that the fractured and ruptured relationship between Adam, Eve, and God as a result of their sin and disobedience, was ultimately restored in and through Jesus Christ.
But a question still remains this morning. As Christ-followers, why does “brokenness” still exist in this world, and how are we supposed to respond to this reality in our own fractured and broken relationships and world?
Well, next week, we will explore this question further by looking at the life of Saul and how God used him, his decisions, and his failures to shape and mold the life of David.
The book is titled “A Tale of Three Kings” by Gene Edwards and essentially uses the lives of King Saul, King David, and King Absalom to display how God uses the painful, heartbreaking, gut-wrenching experiences we faced at the hands of others and how we have caused the same to others, to mold us into men and women who will either press into or push away from suffering as a means of greater reliance upon Jesus.
This morning we will be going back to where it all began. And, Lord willing, after we have gone back to the beginning, we will be better able to understand just how God uses “brokenness” in us and others to mold us into men and women who act in obedience and see the hand of God at work.
This morning, as we look at “brokenness” in Genesis Chapter 3, I want you to understand this brokenness comes from sin. It comes from a place of God created everything that was good, and then something happened. And something happened that ruptured and fractured the relationship that we will see in Genesis 3.
Next week we will be looking at the life of Saul, how he was used as a king to not only shape the Nation of Israel but also the life of David. Both men ended up being broken but in different ways.
What we will be looking at in Genesis Chapter 3 is the result of Adam and Eve’s sin.
When you hear the word “broken,” what do you think of?
1). A broken chair, a broken alarm clock, a broken door, a broken time-change that robs you of a solid hour’s worth of sleep?
2). A broken tooth, a broken bone, a broken leg?
3). A broken marriage, a broken relationship, a broken friendship?
There are many ways we think about, see, and feel brokenness in our world. And the reality is we live in a world that is filled with broken things and broken people. This reality is something we will not escape on this side of heaven. (But thank God he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to be the sacrifice for us, to forgive us our sins, restore us into a right relationship with God, and therefore we have the opportunity to experience restoration in our relationship with him and with others.) It’s important for us to be reminded of this fact.
We must understand exactly what the Bible says about brokenness, specifically how it relates to our passage. And when I refer to brokenness today, I am talking about the brokenness that has occurred as a result of sin. We will see how God uses it to draw us into a deeper, more intimate relationship with himself and how God uses us and others in this process.
As we go to Genesis Chapter 3, let me give you a little bit of a back-story. God has created everything, and it is all good. Adam and Eve are living in the Garden with God. They are exercising dominion over the earth. Their relationship with God, each other, and the world is complete and perfect. But Satan has deceived Eve, and now she and Adam have eaten from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and disobeyed God.
Genesis 3:8 (NLT)
8 When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees.
Can you see and feel why Adam and Eve would hide themselves from their Creator? He was completely holy and righteous! They hid themselves because of their shame, guilt, and fear. These were emotions, feelings, and thoughts Adam and Eve had never felt before.
Think about that for a moment. Adam and Eve have only ever experienced complete joy, complete peace, complete and perfect love, complete satisfaction in being known, complete and utter goodness and faithfulness, all of these because of who God is and their relationship with him.
And now, after having been deceived and disobeying God’s command, they are instantaneously thrust into a broken and ruptured relationship with God. They are no longer holy and sinless before God. And they display their guilt by hiding themselves from the very person with whom they walked in complete intimacy with. They no longer experience complete connection and intimacy because of their sin. That’s brokenness. Their relationship with God has been broken and shattered along with their relationship with each other and the earth along with it.
I am certain there are some of you here this morning who are experiencing similar thoughts, emotions, and feelings that Adam and Eve felt. Perhaps because you have never accepted the free gift of salvation that God has provided through his Son, Jesus Christ, you cannot experience this level of intimacy with the Creator. You have a broken relationship. But thank God he has provided a way for us!
Maybe you have received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, but you are still currently feeling the effects of a ruptured and fractured relationship with a spouse, sibling, friend, or co-worker. Sin doesn’t go away. It’s important for us to understand. Even though we are born again, sin still remains, and it still impacts our relationships. We can all be really a not nice person. Some of us can be real “stinkers.”
As most of you know, I’ve been married for about two years. And I love my wife. Me and my wife have worked really hard to try to create a relationship where we try to communicate really well. When I am experiencing something or going through something, I try to sit down with her and try to explain to her what is going on. And we also try to go out and have a date night, which is so important. (Don’t stop dating your wife.)
Saturday, yesterday, we went to a Wounded Warrior Project event. And Meredith loves horseback riding, and so do I. We went to this event and had an amazing time. And after the event, we left. As we were leaving the gate, we ran into this woman named Christina. And she just started talking to me and Meredith. And she was talking, I got this overwhelming sense that she was not only struggling with anxiety, but she was hurting. I could feel it. And I was sitting there thinking, Lord, this is you.
And so, I just asked her. I said, “Hey. Do you struggle with anxiety? Do you struggle with fear?” And she’s like, “Yeah.” She admitted to me. And then she went on to explain to me how she’d experienced some things while she was in the military, how she had been sinned against. And then that specific sin had resulted in her feeling this disconnect between herself and her daughter. And she was really wrestling with that. She was trying to share with me how she felt so broken and disconnected from her family, from her daughter.
And I began to talk to her and share with her, and explain to her those things are normal because things happen to us in our lives that we can’t control. And yes, there are things that we can control, but oftentimes what happens is when sin is entered into our lives, or when someone has sinned against us, it creates brokenness. And I saw it on her face; she was broken. And so, Meredith and I continued to talk to her, and I shared with her that I counsel veterans, and I want to open up this opportunity.
And she said something that will always stick with me. She said, “You are a man. And I feel so uncomfortable with most men. But there’s something about you that makes me feel at peace.” And I was like, “Yeah. It’s because I know Jesus.”
And so, we exchanged numbers, and she was talking about how she’s been praying to the Lord and wanting to see God move in her life. I was like, Praise God! Thank you, Lord!
But it was such a tangible example and evidence of how devastating brokenness can be in someone’s life.
The reality is that when we feel disconnected from someone we once had joyful intimacy with, our hearts hurt. We tangibly experience the realities created by this fractured and broken relationship. This may be the result of our own sin or maybe the sin of others. And I really struggled with this; it may not be a result of sin. But that is really hard for me to stomach because when you really barrel down and delve into a situation or circumstance, whether it’s a conflict or division, there’s always going to be somewhere in that process where someone has sinned. They have done something to hurt another person. Read through James Chapter 4 and see for yourself. But the reality is, it all still hurts.
I can’t help but ask this question, though. If we experience brokenness, and we experience this fractured, ruptured connection tangibly, then what about our Father? What about God? Look with me in verse 9 and see how God responds to Adam and Eve.
Genesis 3:9 (NLT)
9 Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
God knew exactly what had happened and where they were. This isn’t saying that God did not know or was caught off guard by their disobedience. Rather, that what had always been, Adam and Eve walking with and enjoying their Creator was no longer present. We don’t know how long it was from the time that God created everything to Genesis Chapter 3 when Adam and Eve sinned. But I have to believe that during that time, Adam and Eve were living in this complete and perfect unity, connection, and relationship with God. So, would it not have been weird or awkward for Adam and Eve to literally be in the presence of God? What we see here is God saying, “Where are you?” They ran from God rather than running to him. By asking them a question to which he already knew the answer to, God gave Adam and Eve further opportunity to understand and wrestle with how their sin and their choice to be disobedient to God was impacting them. It was a rhetorical question.
This is such a powerful picture of the tremendous damage sin does to relationships. Instead of Adam and Eve joyfully running to and eagerly anticipating God’s presence in the Garden, they do the exact opposite. They understood to some degree at this time, the level of separation and disconnect between God and themselves. But the harsh reality is from the moment Adam and Eve sinned against God, from this moment, their/our relationship with God was fractured, their/our relationships with others were fractured, and the world became fractured.
When we are talking about brokenness in light of Genesis 3, it’s this understanding and reality that because of sin, the relationship with God had become fractured, the relationship with each other had become fractured, and the earth in and of itself was fractured.
Look what Adam says to God in verse 10.
Genesis 3:10 (NLT)
10 He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”
I think a question we could ask ourselves based on this verse is this. What causes Adam and Eve to hide themselves, literally trying to blend in with the trees around them in an attempt to cover their nakedness from their Creator?
Well, their disobedience and sin against God literally cause both Adam and Eve to fear the good and faithful and loving God who made them. Think about that for a moment. Those of you with kids know that when your kid does something wrong that they know that they’ve done something wrong. And then you know that they know that they have done something wrong. How that is displayed is unique to our own children. But the reality is that children grow up, and we who are adults are no longer children. And so, we know when we’ve sinned. God knows when we’ve sinned. And we know when God knows that we have sinned. So, what does that look like when we willfully sin against a holy and just God?
For me, it’s shame. I try to hide myself. And it’s not like I’m in my room hiding, it’s more literally like I can’t even come to the Lord and say, Lord, I have sinned against you. I am so sorry. Please forgive me. And then I have to be reminded that there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus for those who have been called according to his purpose. Hey, wait, my perception and my twisted reality of how I see God in light of my sin is not actually the way that God IS. If I am his child, I have been forgiven. I have been restored. And I have a right relationship with God the Father.
So then, what does that mean when I sin? I go to him. I confess my sin to him. I ask him for forgiveness. And I tell somebody else, hey, I’m confessing my sin to you so that you will pray for me so that I will be healed. But how hard is it to go to the Lord and say, “Lord, I have sinned”? “I have done what is evil in your sight. Please forgive me.” It takes humility.
So, what do Adam and Eve do? Do they exercise humility?
Genesis 3:11-13 (NLT)
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?”
12 The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”
Notice here how Adam refuses to take ownership and responsibility for his sin. His response to God demonstrates the sad reality in which Adam is now operating. He goes from blissful content in Eve to blaming her for his sin. He passes the blame to Eve and in this process, further amplifies the destructive nature of sin and its impact on his relationship with God and with his wife.
Notice also how Adam blames God for Eve, since it was God who gave her to him. Adam turns around and places God on trial for his sin, when Adam is completely and utterly responsible for his decision and by blaming God, Adam tries to avoid being held accountable for his sin of disobedience.
Think about that for a moment. How often do we do that? I’m thinking about my relationship with my wife. And oftentimes, where there are moments of conflict, or there are moments of tension, or I feel like we’ve been disconnected, it’s because it’s my fault. It really is. And when I don’t take ownership of how I have caused a disagreement, or maybe misunderstood her, or maybe didn’t take the time to just listen to her, our relationship suffers. Because, as the spiritual leader of the home, God calls me to humbly love my wife, the way that Christ loves the Church. And so, when I don’t do that, what do you think is going to happen? There’s going to be conflict.
And so, it’s fascinating how Adam doesn’t take responsibility and ownership for his sin. And then he blames it on Eve and then follows it up with, “God, it’s really your fault. If you hadn’t have given me Eve, none of this would have happened.” It’s such a distortion of the reality of why God created her in the first place.
So, again, brokenness in light of Genesis 3 is a result of sin, which has fractured and ruptured the relationship with God and each other. It’s so huge.
Notice also how Eve, although she has a rightful place to blame Satan because she was indeed deceived, follows her husband’s lead and shifts the blame over to Satan. Again, while Eve is not wrong in blaming Satan for deceiving her, she chose to disobey God’s command and sin against God. Satan did not make Eve sin; she willingly chose to listen to partial truths and lies over and above what she knew to be true. But the sin of disobedience and the following result of a fractured and broken relationship with God and with Adam was both Adam and Eve’s fault, not God’s.
When we are getting ready to sin, I absolutely, one hundred percent believe that God gives us an opportunity to turn to him. I think about times in my life when I have led up to my sin. I think about it for like a day or two. Like, I’m literally dwelling on it. And instead of going to the Lord and saying, “Lord, I need your help. Give me the strength to overcome this deception,” I don’t. And succumb to it.
While Eve was deceived by Satan, she made the choice to disobey God. Adam is also complicit to that because Adam, as the leader should have stepped up and said, no, that’s wrong. What did he do? He ate.
More can be said here, but for the sake of our focus this morning, do you see what a powerful picture these verses serve in reminding us exactly where sin entered the world and how it fractured their/our relationship with God and with each other?
A goal this morning was to see “brokenness” in light of these verses and remind us that Adam and Eve’s disobedience and sin against God resulted in the following:
A fractured and broken relationship with God
A fractured and broken relationship with each other
A fractured and broken world
There is so much more that can be said about how all this impacts and influences our world, but for the sake of staying focused on where it all began and being reminded of how it all was restored, let’s look at Colossians.
Let the Word of God remind you of the very real and present hope we now have because of Jesus Christ.
Colossians 1:15-22 (NLT)
15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,
16 for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.
17 He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.
18 Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything.
19 For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ,
20 and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
21 This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.
22 Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.
Do you hear the resounding triumph of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice in these verses? See how God, in his wisdom, mercy, and grace sent Christ to restore us back into a right relationship with himself! He restored the brokenness caused by Adam and Eve’s sin, and also our own.
Adam and Eve fractured their relationship with God because of their sin, but Jesus tore the veil of separation through his blood on the Cross.
Adam and Eve fractured their relationship with each other, but Jesus restores our relationships with each other through his blood on the Cross.
Adam and Eve fractured the world because of their sin, but Jesus will restore the earth when he comes again and create a new heaven and earth.
Yes, Satan is the great deceiver but death is defeated, and he too, will be destroyed.
We spent a lot of time exploring where brokenness all began. And, I hope this morning we are reminded that the fractured and ruptured relationship between Adam, Eve, and God as a result of their sin and disobedience, was ultimately restored in and through Jesus Christ.
But a question still remains this morning. As Christ-followers, why does “brokenness” still exist in this world, and how are we supposed to respond to this reality in our own fractured and broken relationships and world?
Well, next week, we will explore this question further by looking at the life of Saul and how God used him, his decisions, and his failures to shape and mold the life of David.