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Lesson Four: The
First Assault on the Family - Part
2
Genesis 3:1-7
Introduction:
This morning we are going to be in Genesis 3:1-7 again as we finish
studying Satan's first attack on the family. As I have shared with
you in the past, Satan lost no time in trying to dismantle this
wonderful institution that God had just created. Last week we
focused on the first prong of Satan's attack - he set out to
separate God's creation from their source of authority. God had
spoken clearly to Adam and Eve. He had given them explicit
directions about how they were to conduct their lives. But how did
Satan separate Adam and Eve from God's words to them? First of all,
he cast doubt on what God had said ("Indeed, had God
said . . . "). Then, he then magnified the restrictive element and
minimized the bounty of what God had provided ("Has God really said
you can't eat from any tree of the garden?"). And he succeeded in
his objective.
Satan uses this very same
method today with great success. We see it most clearly in 1) role
reversal in the family, 2) restrictions on ministry, and 3) keeping
people from coming to God for salvation. God has given us explicit
instructions about all three of these matters, and yet Satan comes
to us and say, "Do you think that is what God really had in mind
when He said . . . ?" And we respond with a "Whoa, - maybe I
haven't understood this correctly all this time." And before we can
follow that thought very far, Satan puts another thought in our
minds - "The Bible as many people understand it is repressive. If
you follow it literally, you will never realize your full potential
as a Christian." And if we listen to him, we will become separated
from our source of authority, and then he is free to do with us
whatever he wants to.
Transition:
This morning we are going to look at the second prong of Satan's
attack. His first course of action was to get God's creation
separated from their source of authority, his second course of
action was quite a bit more devious. Think with me for a while
about the fact that Satan was having this dialogue with Eve, and not
Adam. That is not coincidental - it was deliberate.
The question that comes up is
this. "Where was Adam during the course of Eve's conversation with
Satan?" There are two schools of thought about where he was. One
view, and I hold to this view, is that Eve was all by herself
somewhere in the garden and Satan capitalized on that vulnerability
and took advantage of it. The second school of thought is that Adam
was present during the entire temptation, but demonstrated cowardice
in not stepping into the gap and dealing with this creature that was
enticing his wife to disobey God's words. Regardless of how it all
happened, we know Satan uses both tactics in attacking the family,
so we can make good application regardless of whether or not we know
conclusively where Adam was.
The reason I believe Eve was
alone is because the little phrase "with her" in 3:6 is put into the
story only when you get to the end of the account. That would be an
odd way to tell the story had Adam been there the entire time. But
the fact that it is thrown in at the very end of the story seems to
convey that either Adam came upon the scene of the temptation at the
very end, or that Eve sought him out and gave him the fruit to eat
after she had already eaten it.
So, my perspective is that
Satan deliberately went after Eve when she was alone and therefore
vulnerable. Now, the Bible is full of teaching that isolation makes
a person susceptible to temptation. We see this truth taught by
both example and precept. Whether it was Jesus all by himself in
the desert when Satan tempted Him (there was nothing coincidental
about Satan's timing), or Elijah all by himself hiding in a cave
after his ordeal with Jezebel and the prophets of Baal, or Jonah all
by himself outside the walls of Ninevh - isolation increases a
person's susceptibility to temptation.
But we see this truth in
precept as well. In the passage we looked at last week, we have
God's personal input - "It is not good for the man to be alone."
Aloneness is not desirable for a variety of reasons, one of the
greatest being that we are stronger when we are linked together with
someone else. In Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, Solomon says,
"Two are better than one because they have a good return for
their labor. 10 For if either of them falls, the one
will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there
is not another to lift him up. 11 Furthermore, if two
lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone?
12 And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can
resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart."
This is how I see the first assault on the family - Satan went after
Eve when she was all by herself and therefore more susceptible to
temptation. One person, all by himself, is not nearly as resistant
to temptation as two people together. I am sure we have all
experienced that.
Let me make a specific point
of application here. Guys, as the husbands, it is our
responsibility to protect our wives. I'm not speaking about
protection in the physical realm (bashing someone who makes an
uncomplimentary statement about your wife), I'm speaking about
protection in the emotional and spiritual realm. It's true we have
to protect our wives physically, but we don't usually struggle at
this level. Where we struggle is with allowing our wives to become
emotionally and spiritually isolated, making them vulnerable to
Satan. In the very same way that Eve was alone and therefore
susceptible to the schemes of the devil - so too our wives can feel
emotionally and spiritually isolated, making them susceptible to
Satan's attacks.
I won't ask for a show of
hands, but I would imagine that most of the wives here this morning
wished their husband spent more time with them in significant
conversation and meaningful, spiritual, dialogue. Christian
counselors will tell you that one of the frequent disappointments
wives share with them is that their husbands don't talk to them
about significant matters. Men, when we don't do this, our wives
feel isolated - and it has nothing to do with our physical
presence. I can remember having this discussion with Holly one day,
and so I reminded her that I was home every day for breakfast and
lunch, and I was even home most evenings of the week. And her
response was, "You are physically home a lot, but you are not really
here." That was her way of expressing her feelings of isolation in
spite of my physical presence. And probably every wife here this
morning knows exactly what Holly was talking about.
So men, the challenge is
this. Engage your wife in significant conversation. And by the
way, I know this doesn't come naturally to us. By nature, men are
doers, not talkers. But meaningful conversation goes a long way in
protecting our wives from feelings of isolation. So if you don't
know how to get started, here are three questions to get the ball
rolling. 1) What is God doing in your life recently? 2) What can
I do to make your life easier? 3) How can I pray for you this
week? Questions like this convey personal interest on your part,
and personal significance on your wife's part.
So, it could be that Satan
was capitalizing on Eve being alone in the garden, so he went after
her. That fits with the overall teaching of Scripture, and we
certainly see lots of examples of how it works. But others view
this passage as if Adam were present during the entire dialogue.
People who hold to this view
say that the problem here is that Adam was passive. In other words,
Adam was the world's first, spiritual, couch potato - he was zoned
out in that when Satan addressed Eve, he did not step up to the
plate and run interference for his wife (illustration from The
Incredibles). He allowed her to face the temptation all by
herself. Scripture does not record Adam saying a single word in
this whole scenario. So if Adam was present but passive, it was a
gross dereliction of duty on his part. Part of his responsibility
was to protect his family - that is the essence of the word "keep"
in the verse the Lord God took "the man and put him into the
garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it."
The point of application I
want make here has to do with spiritual leadership in the home. We
could spend several weeks addressing this matter, but I just want to
make two points. First of all, male spiritual passivity has
devastating results. In the grand scheme of life, it
introduced sin into the world and made necessary the crucifixion of
Jesus. That is the ultimate consequence of Adam being blobbed out
spiritually. In the large scheme of American religious
expression, male spiritual passivity is responsible for the
emasculation of the pastoral ministry. It is fully developed in the
mainline denominations and making steady progress in Evangelical
circles. But there is a principle of nature that we express by
saying, "nature abhors a vacuum." In other words, true vacuums
can't exist - something will always fill in the void. And as men
abandoned their responsibility to be spiritual leaders, that vacuum
was filled with good intentioned women who nevertheless violated the
scriptural standards and assumed roles for which they were not
created. 3) In the smaller scheme of the Christian family,
male spiritual passivity is responsible for homes breaking up and
children not embracing the faith of their parents.
The application I want to
make here is specifically for the men, and I want to answer the
question, "How do we go about this matter of being the spiritual
leader in our home?" In other words, we are all convinced that we
need don't want to be like Adam. We don't want to be spiritual
couch potatoes because we know what the consequences are, but what
can I do? Let me give you three ideas to get started.
1. Maintain a close walk
with the Lord yourself. Unfortunately, many men aren't the
spiritual leaders in their homes because they simply don't walk
closely with the Lord to begin with. And you can't impart to
someone else what you don't possess in the first place! So if you
aren't in God's Word every day asking God to speak to you from His
Word, you simply aren't going to be able to lead your family safely
through the treacherous shoals we call "life."
2. Make sure the family
has a daily time of prayer and Bible study. It doesn't have to
be an in-depth study, all you have to do is say, "This is what God's
Word says, this is what it means, this is what it looks like, and
this is what it means for us today." Now, if this is a completely
new concept to you, it may sound intimidating, but like any new
endeavor, you have to start small. You may even want to start with
something like Our Daily Bread. You can read the verse, then
the point of application, and then have someone close in prayer. It
is simple. It is to the point. And most importantly, you are
leading the family in spiritual matters.
3. The third idea I want to
share with you is probably more of a personal preference than a
scriptural principle. I don't have a specific Bible verse I pin
this idea on, but I'm going to lay it out anyway. Guys, I feel like
it is the man's responsibility to either pray before the family
eats, or ask one of the children or even your wife to pray
before the meal. Taking that initiative conveys your role. I
realize this may just be a personal quirk on my part, but when the
wife takes the initiative at the meal time by either praying herself
or asking one of the children to pray, and the husband is just
sitting there, something seems out of whack.
Conclusion: I
want to close this morning with one more word to the men. Guys, our
duty to lead our family spiritually is not based on our skills in
God's Word or our intrinsic spirituality. It is based on our role
in the family. In other words, you can't wait until you feel
competent in spiritual matters to start leading your family
spiritually. It is something we do out of our sense of
responsibility and obedience to God, and then we expect God to bless
our obedience.
Guys, we need to rise to the
challenge. Our adversary wants to destroy our families. We can't
undo the effects of Adam's passivity and dereliction of duty, but we
can take definite steps to strengthen the family God has given to
us. And that is what we are after in this series. Creating strong
families. It is a daunting task, but with God's help, we can do it.
And if there is someone here who has
never come to Christ for salvation, that is the first step you need
to take in creating a strong family. |
