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Genesis 3:7-12,20-21
Introduction:
Personal, greeting, prayer:
(introduce the problem before the title) The regular definition of a remedy is related to medicine, the cure for a disease, the poultice for a sore, the thing that relieves pain. It’s also legal in definition, and I love this one “ the legal means to recover a right or to prevent or obtain redress for a wrong”. Or simply, to correct what has been wronged. Remedies in general cure, heal, mend. So naturally if there’s a remedy there has to be a problem, right?
The title of this message is called “The Remedy”. We are going to walk through how Jesus is our Remedy in three ways, there are so many ways, but just focusing on three for now.
1. Our Shame
2. Our Situation
3. Our Soul
****Giving away the ending here, (and by the end I pray you all have the same if not more of the sense of God’s goodness toward us as I did while prepping)---- ***
(Story) -ILL
but Jesus is OUR REMEDY. -but again, let’s start with the problem.
Want to start by reading with you the passage the describes the entirety of the issue. This is the description of the fall. In this passage there’s so much… the Lord lays out the problem, offers immediate assistance and provides for their (and our) future healing.
READ THE PASSAGE
1. He is the remedy for our Shame
First, Adam and Eve recognized they were naked and in their shame, hid from the presence of the Lord. In the previous passage about their nudity we read “they were naked and not ashamed” Here they recognize their state and their shame is implied in a couple ways, first. They sewed together fig leaves for clothes to cover themselves.
Then, when they hear Him they tried to hide themselves from God. He of course knows where they are, but in His gentle way, knowing all they have done, still calls to them and invites them to talk to Him about it.
We and I mean all people experience shame in a few ways:
We experience it as a result of Our own sin, and then also (and this is so so sensitive) sin that’s been perpetrated against us. Lets first Define shame—so we all know what we are talking about.
I found this definition in an article published by a scientific journal having to do with various causes of depression and anxiety –which funnily enough we will get to in a few minutes. Shame is the uncomfortable sensation we feel in the pit of our stomach we feel when it seems we have no safe haven from the judging gaze of others---But listen to this :
We feel shame when we violate the social norms we believe in. At such moments we feel humiliated, exposed and small and are unable to look another person straight in the eye. We want to sink into the ground and disappear.
Shame makes us direct our focus inward and view our entire self in a negative light. Feelings of guilt, in contrast, result from a concrete action for which we accept responsibility. Guilt causes us to focus our attention on the feelings of others.
Women are quicker to feel humiliated than men, and adolescents feel shame more intensely than adults do. As a result, women and adolescents are more susceptible to the negative effects of shame, such as low self-esteem and depression.
Wow, whether it’s God’s gaze or the gaze of our peers, both are devastating. With adam and eve they were suffering shame under the gaze of the Lord, that’s the most intense, right? When we feel the weight of our shame caused by our own sin.
IIlustration: think of the child who’s been caught red-handed and tries to “hide” behind hands or a piece of furniture. They are for sure suffering under the judging gaze of their mom, right ? and feel the need to run and hide.
What are the ways we run from and try to hide ourselves from that gaze is so discomforting. For Adam and Eve, it was the Fig leaves and hiding physically from God’s presence when they heard him. For us, I don’t think we are far from the way Adam and Eve did it. Here are some common ways we try to cover our shame—some call them coping mechanisms.
Addiction
Retreating from relationships
Defensiveness-blameshifting, just like both adam and Eve did in the fall accoun
Running to “the world” for answers
BUT GOD, has such a better plan, always…. Lets look back at the text again.
Skipping 13-19 for now, and I promise we’ll get back to it later.
Solution
God called to them
Then In verse 21, God makes for them garments made of skin. Couple things to note here, God made these, they aren’t like what Adam and Eve made, they are durable, (they just used leaves, which I don’t know if you’re very familiar with leaves, but once they leave the tree, they sure don’t last long.) Second, these are made from “skins” which is animal skins. It’s not explicit in the text, but scholars rightly conclude that this act of God points toward sacrificial atonement which comes later in Genesis and is ultimately fulfilled through Jesus’ atonement. (“without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sin.” Heb 9:20)
So let’s review, they cause this situation where they are ashamed, frightened, naked….and instead of seeking God and His presence where there is healing, they hide. Then he calls them to himself and provides not only a covering (remember a foreshadowing of Jesus) for their shame but describes to them His ultimate plan to remedy the situation.
Loved ones, lets exchange our meager attempts to hide from his gaze for the remedy—His own presence and provision. He himself provides an immediate and ultimate remedy for their shame, and ours. It’s his presence and provision. In his Presence we see the truth about ourselves, are re-aligned with his plan of redemption, and receive ultimate atonement and forgiveness.
Let’s look at how.
We see how God did this for Adam and Eve, how does he do it for us? Think of the stories from the life of Jesus, The adulterous woman, the woman at the well, the woman with the bleeding. Each were suffering shame under the gaze of either man or God and found the remedy in Christ’s presence and provision. What are some practical ways we can run into his presence and receive the provision of his healing. Confession, 1 John 1:9 --- Repentance which has as part of its meaning an “agreement” with the truth, for the cases of shame that results from sin perpetrated against us, this may mean AGREEMENT with what God’s word says about us when we are in Christ. Pink Sheet verses
2. Secondly, God is the remedy for Our Situation
Alright back to the middle part of the passage: verses 13-20 Read…
Here’s the situation they are facing now, when addressing these two people- God says first that women will experience more pain in childbirth and that marriage like the rest of creation will have an element of struggle within it. Imagine being there and up until this point they’ve likely experienced such joy and unity within their marriage that we can only imagine, and in fact long for in our marriages. Now they are being told that this, their beautiful relationship, will be damaged, how devastating.
The full story of this is a beautiful and pretty powerful illustration of the remedy God provides through Christ to heal marriage- that’s coming up….
Next they are told that the land will be cursed and in order to feed and provide for themselves they will toil and work the earth as a consequence to their sin.
Think about that word “toil” for a moment. It’s the same word Paul talks about when he says he “for this I toil” on behalf of the church in Colossians 1:29. It means “to engage in hard and continuous work, with weariness, difficulty or pain.” No longer will they be provided for by a sweet garden where they need only eat the fruit allowed, without toil. This is altogether a bleak situation.
How does this mirror our (mine your) current situation?
Is there a broken relationship? Is there a longing for a relationship? Is there an uncertain future? Is there anxiety over kids, parents, finances, health? Does it feel hopeless at times?
We know that we have an anchor for our soul, this passage from Hebrews ( Hebrews 6:19)
Even as he is explaining the consequences of their actions, he is showing them the way back, he’s providing a remedy for them. They don’t know it, we get to know it now, but God talks about Christ here, this is the earliest prophecy of Christ we have, and him being the remedy for sin and shame.
Let’s look further at the passage where he banishes them from the garden, even in this consequence-- He shows He is full of mercy. To leave them in the garden would mean no remedy for their sinful state, it would be sin in perpetuity, with no future with God for mankind.
...........
3 He is the Remedy for Our Soul
Remember earlier I talked about that article and how they were making a case for shame being a cause of depression? Well in that scientific article, they don’t provide to reader the ultimate remedy for the shame that we know Jesus provides, but they do rightly link shame to depression, anxiety, hopelessness.
Have you looked at the statistics lately for some of the wellness/mental health issues? Here are some and probably the most devastating.
Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among people aged 10–14 and the 3rd leading cause of death among people aged 15-24 in the U.S. Suicide is the 12th leading cause of death overall in the U.S. 46% of people who die by suicide had a diagnosed mental health condition - but research shows that 90% may have experienced symptoms of a mental health condition.
Statistics on mental health,
Then Covid
We see un-mitigated violence toward the marginalized and vulnerable and society. Walk through any grocery store and see families faced with poverty, with generational sin. Oh how it grieves us. How much more does it grieve Him? The state of our world, the One who made it, the One who loves each person , the One who shouts through creation and supplies all our needs, how much does it grieve Him?
Our souls are weary
Word nerd, unapologetic bibliophile that I am, The other week I was walking through a local book store, and found just the perfect illustration for this message.
Pics of books,
This is in the “self-help” or Mental wellness section of this store, take a look at some of these titles …..
We (humans) are virtually screaming for help for our weary souls.
So in the bookstore, directly opposite this wall of futility (j/k some of them may be helpful to some) was the wall of “religion” the majority of which are printed bibles, and books written by Christian authors. What a picture, right?
Point
Explain
Illustrate (story, examples,etc)
Application