Why Your Most Important Relationships Are the Most Painful | Genesis 3

The first pages of Genesis are filled with powerful word imagery. Written more than 3,000 years ago, Genesis remains ahead of our time in its picture of the deepest realities in your life. And Genesis 3 explains why your most valued and important relationships are also your most painful ones. Genesis 2:8–9 NIV 8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:15–17 NIV 15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Genesis 2:25 NIV Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. Genesis 3:1 NIV Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. Genesis 3:7 NIV Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Genesis 3:14–19 NIV 14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,  “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”  16 To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”  17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it