“Life wouldn’t be so hard if we didn’t expect it to be so easy.”
I’m unsure when I first heard this, but it stuck with me. We can be guilty of thinking life is supposed to be easy and then get upset when it isn’t. We expect the perfection of the Garden of Eden, but we live a long way from there.
As we have worked through this painful piece of human history in Genesis 3, we continue in Genesis 3:14-19.
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. 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.”
Genesis 3:14-19
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.”
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,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
New International Version
After the crime of rebellion had been committed, the Lord hands down the punishment.
To the serpent: he would crawl on his belly and be hated. Whereas before the serpent stood out, he would now be cursed to crawl for all his life. This doesn’t necessarily mean the serpent was walking upright before, but rather he would “eat dust,” which is symbolic of defeat.
But in his punishment to the serpent, there’s also the first of the Messianic prophecies. Satan would nip at the heels of Jesus, but Jesus, the offspring of a woman, would crush his head. The plan of God is never detoured, delayed, or deterred.
To the woman: her pain in childbearing would greatly increase. She would also have a desire to be in charge but would have to be subject to her husband. Genesis 1 and 2 portray a perfect marriage with the perfect promise of children. Now, these blessed events would be tainted by the curse. Originally, the woman was a blessing to the man, but her rebellion against the Lord has made her a burden for him.
To the man: the ground was cursed. It would be through painful work that he would get his food. Now, he would contend with thorns and thistles. Ultimately, death would be the result of sin.
He was no longer able to eat anything in the garden freely. Now, he would have to work for it. It was over the issue of food that created all this, so it’s a fitting punishment that food would be brought by labor.
The Lord then made the connection of his name (“Adam” which is the Hebrew word for “man.”) and the ground from which he was made. In Hebrew, “ground” is a form of the same word, “adam.” Adam was made from the ground, and he would eventually return to it.
Whatever life was supposed to be in the birthplace of humanity, it was over now. Life would not be easy.
Humanity’s rebellion broke the relationship with the Lord, each other, and all of creation. Life would now be hard. And in the end, we would die.
The Devil tempts us with what we want but never tells us the consequences. We end today with the sad aftermath of surrendering to temptation. We now understand why life isn’t easy.
But never lose sight that even during the punishment to those involved, the Lord gave us the hope of our ultimate salvation in Jesus.
Life Meets Theology 