LESSON 3 • The Effects of Sin: Loss of Order and Balance(Genesis Chapters 3 and 11)

I. Genesis Chapter 3:8-19

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" 

10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." 

11 And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" 

12 The man said, "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." 

13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 

15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you 
will strike his heel." 

16 To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." 

17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' 
"Cursed is the ground because of you; 
through painful toil you will eat of it 
all the days of your life. 

18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 

19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." 


II. “Our first parents introduced into human history the principle of basing moral choices on limited human perception and experience rather than on the Word of God.”(From Creation to the Cross)


A. The curse on the serpent.


1. What is revealed to us about Satan in the passage, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.” (Genesis 3:1)

2. What penalty does Satan pay for his role in deceiving mankind into disobeying God?

3. What did God mean when He stated, “Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals?” (Genesis 3:14)?

4. What was the symbolism of the statement; “You will crawl on your belly and will eat dust all the days of your life.” 
(Genesis 3:14)?

5. What hope for mankind is revealed in the latter part of God’s curse on the serpent, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”? (Genesis 3:15) 


B. The curse on the woman.


1. What is revealed to us concerning God’s curse on the woman?

2. What was God’s intent for the woman prior to her fall?

3. What did God mean by the second part of the curse, “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”? Are women today still living under this curse?


C. The curse on the man.


1. What is revealed to us concerning God’s curse on the man?

2. What was God’s intent for the role of the man prior to the fall?

3. What was God’s intent concerning the type of punishment or curse applied to the man? 

4. Is man today under the same curse?


III. Sin’s Progress. (Genesis 4-11)

A. From the fall of Adam and Eve until the call of Abraham, how has God chronicled the permeating of sin throughout society?


1. How did sin effect Adam’s immediate family?

2. How did sin effect Adam’s extended family?

3. What was the long-range effect of sin on society from the fall until the call of Abraham?

B. The role of sin on humanity and its relationship with God from the post flood time period until now.


“Fallen society fails to recognize the inner deterioration of 
its own civilization.”

1. How has the curse that was placed upon the woman and the man affected our present way of life and our relationship
with God?

2. How have some human beings been able to withstand temptation to the point that God granted them the title of being “righteous” (Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham), yet others appear to have succumbed without much effort? (Eve, Adam, Cain, Society prior to the flood)

3. Due to the length of time that sin has been present among humanity, how much damage has it caused to the relationship between God and mankind?