Genesis 3:15 symbolizes the age-old battle between humanity and the force of evil.”[1] Adam and Eve though seen united to sin in the earlier verses of this chapter, their unity does not last long. The serpent presents sin as something to liberate man and bring them to a higher level—to be like God— yet sin proves to be a very costly blunder for the two.
The pursuit of knowledge,
pleasure and wisdom becomes to man a mirage, a mere piped dream. The devil
presents the fallacy that sin liberates humans to freedom of choice and liberty
to act outside human and divine restrictions, but the consequences are not
good. In pursuing sin man realizes that
the freedom he yearns for is elusive.
Unity that is based on
the faulty foundation of sin divides instead of uniting. Whether acting from
the family, business, social, political or spiritual domain the consequences of
sin is obviously death that initially manifests through a stream of broken relationships.
This is so because where sin is, Gods judgment follows. Sin shattered the
perfection we see in the beginning chapters of Genesis which unveil the beautiful
relationship man enjoys with God and his wife.[2]
Whereas some people
tend to underestimate the power of sin and its effects on human society, the
severity of sin is seen in that the fall of man was not followed by a series of
minor sins that gradually worsen over the generations distant from the perfect Adam
and Eve. Sin reaches a peak in Genesis 6. Prior to that, Cain kills Abel in
Genesis 4. The flood sweeps across the entire universe, and the tower of Babel
provokes Gods judgment against the post flood generations. In the patriarchal
age God told Abraham that the sins of the Amorites had not yet reached its
peak. The homosexual behavior in Sodom and in Gomorrah brings another judgment
on the two cities (Gen 18-19).
