Sermon(Gen 3:4-5): Union and Division

The original Korean text: https://blog.naver.com/stevision/50025221428

 

 

 

Scripture reading: But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” - Gen 3:4-5

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The story of Eden in Genesis 3 tells us about the beginning of the sin of human beings. The Hebrew word 'adam' here is not a personal name like David or Solomon, but a common noun, meaning 'a man, or rather a human being'. Hebrew nouns, as in German, are divided into masculine and feminine nouns. A masculine noun, when attached with '-a', becomes a feminine noun. For example, 'ish' is 'a man or a husband', and 'isha' is 'a wife'. Adam is a human being, so it includes male and female. If added with feminine suffix '-a', 'adam' becomes a feminine noun 'adama' meaning 'ground or soil'. This expresses well the thought that humans came from dust of the ground. Eve means 'life', which shows well the ability of a woman to conceive. Thus Adam represents all mankind, all men and women, and means also 'a man' in contrast to Eve, a woman.

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Today, people are living in such an abundance that they hardly think of the God. In the old days, people prayed to gods if it didn't rain. Christians might give joint prayer to God then. Today, however, there are dams and water pumps, so prayers for the rain are little, if at all, needed. People prayed for daily bread earnestly before, but that kind of prayer could be a nominal prayer for those in the rich countries today. When they got sick, people would only pray in the past; but they have hospitals and medicines nowadays. God's role has more and more contracted.

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So do human relationships. Husband's role, wife's role, and parent's role are maintained by machines and money, so the role of a man toward his close people is getting smaller. The result is that God and man, and man and man are estranged. The divorce rate is rapidly increasing also in our country nowadays. The number of crimes against humanity is on the rise. This is the evidence that people are more and more separated from one another. The text Gen 3 illustrates clearly why God and man, man and man, and man and serpent separated from each other. When we know the fundamental reason, we can restore that split. The Bible tells three factors of the separation.

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1. The wrong idea of equality separates man from God, man from man.

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Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge so that they might become like God and know the good and the evil. The motive of their deed was to be like God, the Creator, although they were but human beings, the creatures of God. This is the thought that man and God can be equal and should be equal. This is a false idea of equality. Separation will take place if either of them does not recognize the equality. At Gen 3:23, God drives Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden.

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God created all creatures, each with different authority, dignity and glory. In other words, God set difference in dignity and authority between God and man, man and man, and man and animal. The wrong equalitarianism tells that this difference is not fair. But this is the right way: man must honor God, wife must honor husband, children must honor parents, students must honor teachers. However, Satan whispers in the ears of many that this difference is inequality. But how they can be equal when each of them does different work, has different ability and role? He who says that such difference (in honor and authority) is inequality tends to defy the authority God established. God punished those who rebelled against this authority.

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Prov 1:7 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." To fear the Lord is to love and honor the Lord. It is the first step to wisdom to recognize the difference in authority that God has established. There is not separation where the authority of God and the authority God established are acknowledged. The church is at peace if the saints admit the authority of the pastor. A home is quiet when the wife admits the authority of her husband. And a family is quiet when the authority of the parents is firm. This does not hold true in America. In the United States, parents can't punish their children freely for their wrongdoing. If things go wrong, the parents must go to jail. Because they think parents and children are equal! It results in the loss to the children who are not chastised. The Bible tells us to bring up the children with the whip, because the whip will not kill them but make them good human beings.

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The assertion of homosexuals, expecially gays in the USA these days, is the same as that of the serpent in the Garden of Eden. First, they say that homosexuality is a matter of one's taste for sex not of sin. So they say that people must admit homosexual marriage and gay pastor. Obviously, these claims are devilish ideas. Homosexuals, seduced by the Devil, ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge, and now they determine themselves what is good or evil and assert that homosexuality is not sin. My brethren, the last bastion of protection of human rights of a country is the judiciary. If the judiciary goes wrong, the people's right to live is threatened. Likewise, if God is not the ultimate judge of good and evil, and if human beings are the judges of good and evil, the world cannot but become a kingdom of Devil. Then God can't be with them. A long time ago, I watched AFKN, where homosexuals and their opponents were arguing fiercely. I couldn't understand well what they were saying, but, to sum up the words I could hear, the homosexuals spoke like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah when they were forced into a corner by the opponents. They said, "When did we make you our judges?" That is, they were saying, "We act by our judgment!" They are the sinners who have eaten the fruit of the tree of knowledge. The Bible plainly says that the homo sex is sin, but they say, "The homo sex is within our freedom, so it's none of your business." They are indeed the children of darkness.

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The false idea of equality that the Satan gives us today looks like the fruit of the tree of knowledge that looks good to eat, to see and to have wisdom. There will be oneness and union where the difference between God and man, and man and man is recognized, so that there is love and respect between them.

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2. The lack of positive interactions makes it easier to separate.

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The reason why Adam who had been rebuked by God abandoned Eve like old shoes and put all the responsibility for the fault on her was that it was paradise. Because the place where they lived was a paradise in which each can live alone without others' help. People do not feel a sense of relationship with others when they give nothing to others or receive nothing from others. Evil relationship as it is, an unbreakable relationship exists between a debtor and a creditor. So is the relationship between God and man, and man and man. If people don't devote themselves to each other with love, they will break up even by a petty disagreement. God cannot forget human beings because he had his Son killed because of them. Because he remembers what he paid although he bears a grudge against them. Usually, a believer who is loyal to his church does not leave the church.

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Active relationships are threatened today, because, like the Garden of Eden, there's a lot to eat, and you don't have to make your clothes, and the threat to life has been reduced. Nowadays, a man of a good shape and much money is the best one for a groom for the young women. Women with pretty face get easily and well married even if they can not sew, make clothes, make kimchi and do laundry well. Suddenly I feel like envying men of the past. They wore clothes their wives had made, and clothes their wives had washed and pressed, ate the food that their wives had prepared with tears in the smoke at the furnace on the windy day. Such devoted wives will not look ugly even when they are old. The very reason why people in the old days did not divorce was that the older the wives were, the more lovable they looked to their husbands. As a man, I am very sorry to see that women's useful good skills given by God, such as sewing, washing and cooking, are done by machines. It seems that the life of today is less fun than before.

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This creates side effects. A wife can wait on her husband with a finger. She just presses the switch on the electric rice cooker and the switch on the washing machine. Today, equalitarianism prevails so wide that, when a husband asks, "Where is my tie?", his wife just points her finger at the tie. So, today, a husband presents a golden ring with a diamond in it to his wife because her finger is the prettiest member in her body; however, he rarely hugs her with deep love. You know >조강지처: jogang(조강, 糟糠) wife<, an old saying. Jogang is rice-bran. People in the past said, "The heaven will punish you if you desert your jogang wife who has established your house with you, and who, when young, ate jogang with you because of poverty." However, many women have little chance to be a jogang wife today for the world today is like the Garden of Eden. These days, single life is easy and divorce is easy. But a wise woman becomes a jogang wife even today, and can be loved all her life. I don't think it's a bad thing for a new-married couple at first to have a hard time together.

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God's prescription for these side effects of paradise life was to make men find food hard, and to make women give birth to men's children hard. In other words, God made the world of humans a world without >free charge<. Where is such a place? It is outside the paradise. God drove out Adam and Eve who didn't have a bond between them to the outside of the paradise, where they could be a good couple. God sent them to a place of scarcity so that one needs the other. The manly Adam goes out into the fields and works hard in the sweat and brings provisions and money into home. Eve eats the food and keeps her life thanks to Adam. She repays his work for the family by giving birth to his son in labor pains. Adam disobeyed God and had to die, but he was very fortunate to be able to leave his >alter ego<, that is his son, in the world. God sometimes allows suffering in order that people might be necessary to each other. God sent Adam and Eve to the world where all things have high prices. It is not so much a punishment as a discipline. Even today when the world looks like the paradise, there are a lot of things to do, by which pastor and laymen, husband and wife, and parents and children can be one. If a wife washes the clothes herself instead of using a washing machine, she can save electric charge, have a nice figure, and be more loved by her husband. It's >killing three birds with one stone<. No, >four birds<, because if she works diligently, she will be healthy and live long. The Bible tells us not to be saddled with any kinds of debt except the debt of love. This mutual positive relationship, that is, the debt of love, prevents separation. It makes the faults covered. It makes people love steadily. It makes us one.

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3. Sin is the cause of all divisions.

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The author of the sin was the serpent. God made a reconciliation between humans and himself, and man and woman by setting the humans who had sinned in new relationships, that is, by establishing difference, responsibility and duty. However, he firmly refuses to reconcile himself with the serpent. He thoroughly cursed the serpent. The author of sin remained an enemy against God and man. We cannot be one with God as long as we harbor sins in heart. If the sins are set toward other people, we cannot be one with them. Where there is love and respect, sin disappears; where there is true repentance and forgiveness, there is oneness of heart. If you sin against others and want reconciliation with them without asking for forgiveness, it will cause a greater antipathy and you'll be separated farther from them. No man is more detestable than he who makes others shed tears and lives in peace as if nothing had happened.

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The lesson the Bible gives us is that God and man, and man and man can be one if we acknowledge the difference in the authority God established, and achieve an active mutual relationship of love. And we must also know that the true reconciliation and love can be obtained only if we ferret out the sins and get rid of them. Today, when destruction of home and divorce are prevalent because of individualism and selfishness and lack of respect for others, we must be ones who gain the common peace and love by helping others and doing all one's duty, considering the purpose of God who drove out humans from the paradise.

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(ps. Look, women. Please honor your husband. That's the surest medicine for the marital problems. Think of your husband's devotion and love. Then you cannot but thank him in tears. Look at your husband with respectful eyes. Please, once in a while, say to him, "Thank you very much!" Please do not raise your voice to him. Is it difficult to do it? It is never more difficult than to earn money outside. As a woman gets older, she tends to rule over her husband. You should not be such a broken woman. A woman, who claims equality of men and women belittles her husband and breaks the peace of the family, behaves foolishly like that because she certainly hasn't experienced true love of her husband. Do not listen to her words and become an unhappy woman like her. If you were born a woman and die unhappy without having been loved by your husband, you're stupid. Some women claim equality of man and woman and encourage destruction of home although they never know the real marriage and family life. You, who are wise, must ignore them! This is not a part of the sermon but just my personal opinion.)

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Chong Tack Kim

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                                     - Dongtoma Sunshine Church -