The consequences of the fall of man affect every husband and wife. God told Adam, "Because you listened to your wife," and He told Eve, "Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you" (Genesis 3:16-17). Adam lacked spiritual leadership, and Eve controlled her husband. Read or listen to this material from Your Marriage God’s Way or watch the message from the Your Marriage God's Way Conference to learn which temptations are most common to a husband and wife.

https://youtu.be/5I_moXXHWkc

Consequences of the Fall of Man for a Husband and Wife (Genesis 3:16-17) is my first message at Your Marriage God's Way Conferences.

Table of ContentsConsequences of the Fall of Man for Every Husband and Wife"Because You Listened to Your Wife," and "Your Desire Will Be for Your Husband, and He Will Rule Over You"A Wife’s Temptation to Control Her HusbandA Husband’s Temptation to Dominate His WifeA Husband’s Temptation to Fail to Be a Spiritual LeaderWhen a Controlling Wife Took Her Husband Out of ChurchThe Need for Spiritual LeadershipThe Consequences of a Lack of Spiritual LeadershipAbraham’s Failure to Demonstrate Spiritual LeadershipAhab’s Failure to Demonstrate Spiritual LeadershipA Husband and Wife Are Empowered to Resist the Consequences of the Fall of Man

During college, I participated in Army ROTC, which means I was just like other students on the university campus, except that I also received leadership training and took military science classes. Upon graduating, I was commissioned as an armor (tank) officer. Because I was in a combat arms branch, one of the most likely to engage in battle, I was trained to look for an enemy’s weaknesses. After the military, I taught elementary school and coached wrestling and football teams. I tried to train my athletes to determine their opponent’s weaknesses during this time.

I mention all this because the devil used this same approach when he successfully convinced Adam and Eve to sin! Mankind’s first temptation involved the serpent attacking Adam’s recently established headship in his relationship with Eve. Genesis 3:1-4 says:

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.”

Note an important contrast here between the creation account in Genesis 2 and the fall in Genesis 3:

In Genesis 2:16, “the Lord God commanded the man.”

In Genesis 3:1 and 4, “[the serpent] said to the woman.”

God spoke to Adam, but the devil spoke to Eve. Why? The devil saw a weakness. He knew Adam had received the command from God, but Eve had received it from Adam. Part of the reason God placed Eve under male headship was for her protection.

When the devil tempted Eve, she had two choices:

She could trust her husband, who had given her God’s command, and submit to him.

She could trust the devil, which meant submitting to him.

Genesis 3:6 reveals her choice, which, as we now know, had severe consequences: “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.”

At this point, Adam also had two choices:

He could obey God, who gave him the command and submit to Him.

He could obey his wife, which meant submitting to her instead.

Consequences of the Fall of Man for Every Husband and Wife

We all know what happened, and Genesis 3:9-12 details for us the devastating outcome of that wrong decision:

The Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”So he said,