November 2, 2025 | Lorain Fellowship
NKJV Genesis 3:16-24
Disciplining Man through Suffering
vv. 16-19
16 To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.”
17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.
18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field.
19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”
Redemption Anticipated
vv. 20-21
20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
21 Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.
Closing the Way to the Tree of Life
vv. 22-24
22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— 
23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 
24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
Footnotes:
Gen 3:161a childbearing - 1 Tim. 2:15; cf. John 16:21
Childbearing with suffering and pain (1 Tim. 2:14-15; 5:13-14) and the ruling of the husband (1 Cor. 11:3; 1 Tim. 2:11-12) were ordained by God as a restriction and protection for the woman, who took the lead in man’s fall.
Gen 3:171b toil - Eccl. 2:22
Or, pain. The ground’s growing thorns and thistles (v. 18), man’s enduring pain, toil, and sweat all the days of his life (vv. 17, 19a), and his returning to the ground, i.e., dying (v. 19b), were all ordained by God to restrict and protect fallen and sinful man.
Gen 3:201 Eve
Meaning living. God’s announcing of the glad tidings in v. 15 concerning the seed of the woman destroying the serpent was the first instance of the proclaiming of the gospel in the entire Bible. After hearing the glad tidings, Adam believed that he and Eve would live and not die (cf. John 3:14-16); thus, he called his wife’s name Eve, living. Hence, God was the first preacher of the glad tidings of the gospel, and Adam was the first believer.
Gen 3:211 skin
Probably the skins of lambs sacrificed as substitutes for the sinful Adam and Eve, with the shedding of blood for the forgiveness of sins (Heb. 9:22). The killing of the lambs by God foreshadowed the substitutionary death of Christ as the Lamb of God, with the shedding of His precious blood for the accomplishing of redemption, based on which God justifies the believing sinners (John 1:29; Rev. 13:8b; 1 Pet. 1:18-20; 3:18a; Eph. 1:7; Rom. 3:24). God’s clothing Adam and his wife with the coats of skins means that God justified them through their faith (Rom. 3:28). The coats are a type of Christ as God’s righteousness to cover us that we might be justified by God (Jer. 23:6; 1 Cor. 1:30). They were made by God and replaced the coverings of fig leaves sewn by Adam (v. 7). See note 225 in Luke 15.
Gen 3:212a clothed - cf. 2 Chron. 6:41; Psa. 132:16; Isa. 61:10
Genuine substitution is based on union. After being clothed by God with a coat of lamb skins, Adam became one with the lamb. Thus, the sinner became one with the substitute. This is union. Union brings in the effectiveness of substitution. When we believe in the gospel, Christ is put upon us as our covering righteousness (cf. Luke 15:22), and we are put into Christ (1 Cor. 1:30), making us one with Christ. Since we are one with Christ, whatever He has accomplished on the cross becomes ours. To believe in Jesus Christ is to be one with Him, to enter into a union with Him (see note 162 in John 3). In such a union, whatever Christ is, whatever He has, whatever He has done and will do, and whatever He has attained and obtained are ours. See notes 143, par. 2, in ch. 6; 181, par. 2, in ch. 8; 222 in Exo. 12; and 22 in 1 John 2.
The main items of the gospel are seen in vv. 15 and 21, which indicate that God, the Creator of man, became man’s Savior after man’s fall by becoming a human seed to die in order to destroy Satan, to redeem fallen man, and to become man’s righteousness before God that he might be justified and be in God to be one with Him.
Gen 3:221 lest
Although Adam and Eve had the anticipated redemption, they did not yet have the actual redemption, which was accomplished by Christ on the cross. They were still sinful in nature. If they had eaten of the tree of life while in that condition, they would have lived forever with their sinful nature. God did not allow that. The tree of life, signifying God as life to man, must not be touched by sinful man. Thus, before the actual redemption was accomplished, God had to close the way to the tree of life. Once the actual redemption was completed to take away man’s sin (John 1:29) and terminate man’s sinful nature (John 3:14 and note; Rom. 8:3 and note 3), access to the tree of life would again be possible (Rev. 22:14).
Gen 3:241a cherubim - Exo. 25:18-22; Psa. 18:10; cf. Ezek. 28:14
God closed the way to the tree of life by means of three items: the cherubim, the flame, and the sword. Cherubim signify God’s glory (cf. Ezek. 9:3; 10:4; Heb. 9:5), the flame signifies God’s holiness (Deut. 4:24; 9:3; Heb. 12:29), and the sword for killing indicates God’s righteousness (cf. Lam. 3:42-43; Rom. 2:5). These attributes of God placed requirements on sinful man. Since sinful man was unable to meet these requirements (Rom. 3:10-18, 23), he was not permitted to contact God as the tree of life, until Christ fulfilled the requirements of God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness by His all-inclusive death on the cross to open a new and living way for us to enter the Holy of Holies and partake of the tree of life (Heb. 10:19-20 and note 202; Rev. 22:14 and note 4).
A Sketch of Genesis
God’s Discipline
The second way God deals with man’s fall is through discipline. God told the fallen man, “By the sweat of your face you will eat bread” (Gen. 3:19). When God dealt with man’s fall, He was very severe with the enemy but full of mercy toward man. He indicated man would still have bread to eat, though it would now be by the sweat of his face.
We can trust ourselves to God. Although we are weak and fallen, we don’t need to be afraid. We are in God’s merciful hand.  He knows our need and how to take care of us. Sometimes after we proclaim, “Where, O temper, is your power?” our temper comes back. We don’t need to be afraid that God will give up on us. He is faithful to come to us and discipline us. His discipline is related to our intuition in our spirit. According to our reasoning we would choose to hide from God, but deep within we feel to come to God under the covering of His blood.  This feeling is God’s discipline, making us strong and useful in His hand. The more we are under His discipline, the more we can meet His desire.
As we follow the Lord, we gradually discover that, though our spirit is free, that very freedom brings discipline. If our freedom of the spirit doesn’t bring discipline, our freedom is abnormal. The freer and stronger our spirit is, the more we should experience God’s discipline. Through His discipline He deals with our fall and recovers us into His will. Those who don’t recognize God’s discipline are useless before Him. Those who do recognize His discipline but are not willing to be subject to it are also useless. On the one hand God deals with Satan through our weaknesses; on the other hand, He makes us more useful through His discipline.
Partaking of Life and Living in Resurrection
The third way God dealt with man’s fall was by causing man to partake of life and live in resurrection. Man became dust after his fall and lost his value before God (Gen. 3:19). However, God told man that he would eat the plants from the ground (vv. 17–19). These are life from the dust, representing resurrection. What man needs today is resurrection life. The more we live in the resurrection life, the more we are valuable in the eyes of God and meet the requirement of God’s will. The more we experience this life, the richer we are. It is truly God’s wisdom that He would cause us to partake of life and live in resurrection.
Joined to God
The fourth way God dealt with man’s fall was to join man to Himself. “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them” (Gen 3:21). God killed the animals for Adam and Eve’s sin, made garments of skin to clothe them, then drove them out of the garden of Eden (Gen 3:21, 23–24). The spiritual meaning of God’s clothing man with garments of skin is that He clothes us with Himself and joins Himself to us (Rom. 13:14; Gal. 3:27).
According to God’s plan, He desires the fallen man to deal with the enemy who is the root of man’s fall. He also disciplines man and supplies him with resurrection life. Eventually, He is joined to man. This joining puts man under His covering. When man put on the garment that God made, his reproach was taken away completely. The garment indicates that God has covered man and man is in God. God has dealt with man’s fall step by step and eventually recovered him to the point that he is joined to God in life.
We were away from God. Now, through God’s dealing with our fall, we are joined closely to God. This joining happens gradually. The more we fail and receive God’s discipline and His resurrection life, the more we are blessed and joined to Him. Our life before God is a history of failure. If we dare to boast that we have done something for God, our boast itself is a failure. No matter how long we have been saved, we can boast of nothing but our failure (2 Cor. 12:9). However, it is amazing that the more we fail, the more we are in God, and the more we overcome. This will be our history. When the Lord returns, we will only be able to bow before Him and say, “O Lord, I praise You. My life has been a life of failure. I have nothing to offer You but failure. However, through my fall I overcame and entered into Your glory.”