Who Am I?
A Biblical Study of Humanity
Today we will look at the aftermath of Adam and Eve’s fall, especially the curse handed down by God (Gen 3:7-19). As the title of our post would indicate, work is one of the areas affected by the Fall. God declared the ground would not be as productive as before. Thorns and thistles will hamper our efforts. It will be by sweat that we will seek to produce a living. But what does this mean for us, especially for those of us who are not farmers? There are a lot more than difficulties in agriculture in this passage for us, as we will see as we take a look at Genesis 3:7-19.
The last time we saw Adam and Eve, they had done just what God had told them not to do: they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Well, they had knowledge now. They knew evil now, and it was them. They knew their own nakedness and hid from God. This was after they made themselves some fig-leaf clothes.
They certainly didn’t get smarter from eating the forbidden fruit, for when they heard God walking in the garden, they hid. They hid? Yes, they tried to hide from the omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent God. It is interesting that God asks them questions. It seems He wants them to come clean about what they have done. At first, God plays along with their hiding, calling out to Adam as if He didn’t know where he was. At least Adam answers honestly—well, almost. He tells God he was afraid because he was naked. He was really afraid of meeting God in his disobedience. God calls Adam on this half-truth and directly asks if he had eaten of the tree. Adam, being an upright and godly man does the same thing we generally do about our sin, he blamed others. He blames Eve and God. He blames God for giving him Eve and Eve for giving him the fruit. Per Adam, none of this was his fault. God then asked Eve what she had done, to which she, like Adam, blamed another, the serpent. She says she was deceived, so she ate. Yes, it is true she was deceived and did eat, but she takes no responsibility.
It is interesting God judges the serpent first. There is a lot here about serpents in general. We won’t get into that. What we want to see is the well-known prophecy about Jesus at the end of verse fifteen, “he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” While Satan will attack Jesus, Jesus will have the ultimate victory. I wish we could spend more time here, but we must move on. The key point to get is before God pronounces judgment on humanity, He gives a message of future hope and a coming savior!
He then goes to the woman. What would have been a completely wonderful part of her life is now a grueling and exhausting process. It is not that childbirth would have been simple or easy, but now the pain and discomfort will be multiplied. One wonders if this goes beyond the delivery to include the whole reproductive process: monthly pain, difficulties in conceiving, trouble carrying a baby to term, and then the actual pain and difficulties in giving birth. The first responsibility given to men and women was to be fruitful and multiply, which is now going to be much more difficult.
Then, on top of this, another of the purposes of humans would be corrupted. From then on, our relationship as husband and wife would never be as God intended. While the husband was to have headship in the family, his wife was to be right by his side working together to raise a family, subdue the earth, and have dominion over all living creatures. Together, in harmony, they were to tend and keep the garden. Not now. Husband-and-wife relationships would often be more confrontational than harmonious. Instead of a meeting of the minds, it would be a butting of heads.
Before we move on to Adam’s judgment, note the effect of the declaration against the serpent and the woman goes beyond them. In the case of the serpent, there would be enmity between the woman and her offspring and the serpent. The human race was affected here. Then, with women, husbands are certainly affected by the reproductive issues of their wives. She does not suffer in isolation. On top of this, their relationship in marriage and the relationship between men and women in general have been distorted from their original intent. Again, the whole human race has been cursed.
Now to Adam: In verse seventeen, he is judged not only for eating the forbidden fruit but also because he listened to his wife. Clearly, this is not an injunction against taking advice from one’s wife, or a sanction against listening to women in general. That attitude itself is a sinful view of women. The issue is Adam chose to listen to his wife rather than God. He knew what God had commanded. He was not tricked by the serpent, as Eve was (I Tim 2:14). Yet he stood by, said nothing, and ate “of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it’.”
This time it is the earth which is cursed. While the passage clearly says, “the ground,” we see the whole world’s environment is affected. The ground is just one example of the change sin has brought to God’s “very good” creation. Women will have pain in the procreative process, but everyone will have pain in trying to get food from the earth. While this would affect men mostly in early society, it still affected women. It was not like women would have it easy as farmers. The point is while the curses are directed specifically at the serpent, Eve, or Adam, the whole of the human race, until the end of time, is affected by them.
Man will have to fight against nature—thorns, and thistles—to eat. Thorns and thistles are symbolic of all the struggles of agriculture, be they weather, pests, weeds, or countless other issues. Also, rather than just going to the plants in the perfect garden, they now must work the plants in the field. Work, even good work, can be sweaty. It feels good to put in a good, hard, sweaty day of work. This “sweat of your face” in the curse is different than that. The idea is not simply working hard, but nature working against you—frustrated work.
Finally, as a reminder, Adam is told this is the way it will be until they die and return to dust. A reminder they are dying. They are now spiritually dead, separated from God, and day by day they are slowly dying physically. Each day, they are getting older and feeling the effects of age. Aging is hard, even when you live over nine hundred years.
Christ has come and paid the debt for Adam’s sin and ours, but many of the consequences of sin are still a part of our lives. Women still deal with incredible difficulty in bring forth a new little image-bearer, and husbands still feel the sting of it. Producing food is still a fight against the odds as evidenced by the starvation worldwide. Yet work itself was not part of the curse. Yes, work—all work, not just agricultural work—is troublesome, but work is not the problem.
I routinely reminded my kids work was not a four-letter word. Look back at Genesis chapter two, before the Fall. Adam and Eve were given work to do. They were to subdue the earth, have dominion over the animals, multiply, and fill the earth. Any parent will agree raising kids is challenging work. Even more particularly, they were put in a garden, a home, where they were to “work it and keep it” (Gen 2:15). Yes, work was part of the “very good” creation before the Fall. Work is not sin; it is not a curse put on us. No, work is a blessing, something given to us as part of the “very good” creation.
Sin is where work went wrong, just like childbearing, the environment, weather, relationships, and so much more. Sin is the cause; the curse is the just result of sin. Work went from a God given blessing to a laborious task. Not only did it become problematic and challenging to farm, but all work was affected. All work is now counterproductive. Whether it is because of difficulties with nature, getting others to cooperate or because of sinful acts by other people, work is often a drudgery. It has become arduous. Oh, blessed are the people who find work they love and get to make a living at it. Most of us find it toilsome to go day after day like cogs in a wheel to a mere job, feeling totally disconnected from any meaningful production. We try to find hobbies and interests to make up for the lack of satisfaction in our careers. For many, it is not a career but just a job we have while we hope to find something better.
But one day, in a new heaven and a new earth, we will work as God intended. We will work in harmony with nature and each other. Work which is fulfilling and satisfying. We will work in cooperation with one another, not in competition or envy. Those over us will be supportive and helpful, seeking to train us and to give us the freedom to be the absolute best at using the gifts and skills God has given us to glorify Him. The groups we work in will be designed to facilitate the work we are seeking to accomplish. We will work as teams seeking to accomplish a mission together, not as rivals trying to get individual credit. We will enjoy teaching and training those we supervise, seeking to instill in them the skills we have been entrusted with. We will have work which is meaningful and satisfying. We will see the purpose and an end for all we do—a mutual and meaningful end.
Can you imagine it? Work you love so much you wish the workday would never end, and as you leave for the day, you long for the next, not the weekend. But until then, we must find the joy in the work God has blessed us with in this life, for we are to do all to the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31).
Labor is the curse; work is the blessing!
Until the next time we see you here at CultivatingFaith.org, God Bless! #CultivatingFaithOrg