Review of Chapter 3
- after eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve realized for the first time that they were naked.
- Adam realized that his relationship with God had been shattered.
- When they heard the sound of God’s voice, they ran and hid for fear of being in the presence of a holy God.
- When confronted by God, Adam did not confess his sin.
In this article, we will examine the consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin. Sin always has consequences, whether we want it to or not. Sometimes those consequences are immediate, and sometimes they are time-lapsed. Sometimes it affects only us; other times it affects many people. Repentance does not remove the consequences, but it does restore the relationship with God.
Adam and Eve have now experienced shame and are currently awaiting God to announce their sentence. Keep in mind that God had told them that if they disobeyed the command, the sentence would be immediate physical execution. So, you can imagine what they are expecting God to say and do.
Genesis 3:14-19
14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
16 To the woman he said, I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”
17And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
1818 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.
19By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
The first 13 verses in chapter three are prose, whereas verses 14 -19 are in the form of poetry. Prose is structured in complete sentences, whereas poetry is written in lines and stanzas. Prose tends to be simple, clear, and straightforward, whereas poetry is artistic, using imagery and figures of speech. It is also interesting to note that God only cursed the shining one (verse 14) but did not curse Adam or Eve. Adam's sin caused the ground to become cursed (verse 17). In these verses, God never cursed the animals, birds, or fish.
Genesis 3:14a
The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field.
Verse 14 begins the sentencing portion for the devil. The verse starts with the Lord God, who is YHWH Elohim. God didn’t question the shining one about what he did. He didn’t engage in any conversation with him or give him any occasion to speak. He simply pronounced the sentence upon the devil. The word cursed (Strong’s H779) means to bind, thwart, restrict.
1 Cursed
is about powerlessness, and powerlessness in the ancient biblical world is about being separated from purpose or community.2 But what exactly is this curse? The English wording makes it somewhat challenging to understand what God is doing with this curse. Our history of thinking of the shining one as a "snake or serpent" has also closed our eyes to what God did. So let’s take a look at what God said.
The word above (Strong’s H3605) means the whole, all, everything.
3 It has the prefix (מ), which means from.
Essentially, in English, this would translate as more than all.
Cursed are you more than all livestock and more than every beast of the field. The Hebrew text does not say that God cursed all of the animals and then cursed the shining one even more. In Hebrew, it is not so much a comparative term as a selective term.4 The use of a selective term means that of all the creatures on the land, the shining one was singled out to have a curse placed upon him, and him alone.
The word field (Strong’s H7704) designates the open field, country, or a definite portion of ground.5 Placing a curse on the ground does not necessarily mean that the animals are cursed. Adam's sin would have a detrimental effect on the animal kingdom, but God did not place a curse directly on them. What God did with this curse was to lower the devil's position in God's kingdom to one of being (positionally) underneath the animals. You can't get any lower. Animals are more important in God's kingdom than the devil is. God's curse on the devil was the ultimate smackdown.
Genesis 3:14b
… on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.
I’m going to deviate off course in this paragraph. Let me give you the definition of the Hebrew word for worship. It is shachah
(pronounced shaw-ha Strong’s H7812), and it means “to bow down, to prostrate oneself.”6 There are two steps you take in worship: 1) bow down, then 2) prostrate yourself (lie down flat on the ground, on your front, arms stretched forward). It is to place yourself in a position of total subservience to God. What does this have to do with God’s curse on the devil?
On your belly you shall go. And now God will cause the devil to be in a position of worship forever. While the devil will never have an attitude
of worship, he will always be prostrate before God. Ever wonder why the devil hates God so much? Ever wonder why the devil does his best to prevent Christians from worship? The devil’s position is also why he tries his best to turn church worship into a performance, so that it does not lead people into the presence of God.
And dust you shall eat. As a spiritual being, the devil does not require food to sustain itself. This phrase is an image of the result of the first part of the curse. It presents us with a picture of the shining one's low, despicable, abhorrent, and degraded position. The devil is the lowest of the low. Do you know what dust does to light? It diminishes it. The now degraded position of the shining one has caused his light to become significantly diminished.
Let’s paraphrase verse 14 back together again piecing together what we have learned. And the Lord God said to the shining one, you alone are cursed, you are positionally below all the livestock and animals of the land. You shall be in a position of worship and your light shall be diminish all of your days.
Genesis 3:15
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
The word enmity (Strong’s H342) means hostility, hatred, loathing; malice that leads to violent acts against another.
7 Enmity has the idea of ill will, hatred, and a mutual antagonism.8 The language denotes the initial spirit of antagonism between Eve and her adversary (the devil), together with the suggestion that there would be a spiritual hostility developing between the woman’s seed, Christ (along with his people), and the devil and his followers.9
The word between (Strong’s H996) means an interval, space between
(like a wall is between 2 rooms, separating them from each other).10 Eve trusted the shining one. God’s curse was going to shatter that trust and replace it with loathing. This hostility would act like a wall, preventing the two of them from coming together.
But then God inserted a prophecy into the curse. This hostility will not only be between Eve and the shining one, but between the shining one’s offspring and Eve’s offspring. The word offspring
(used regarding the shining one) is a 2nd person masculine singular word. The word offspring is pointing right back at the shining one himself. The word offspring (used regarding Eve) is a masculine singular construct in a 3rd person feminine singular word. Rather than pointing back at Eve, it points forward toward the future. Because the shining one went through Eve to ultimately take down Adam, God is going to go through Eve to take down the shining one ultimately. Here’s an interesting nugget: this prophecy also gives the first hint of the virgin birth, declaring the Messiah – the Deliverer – would be the offspring of the Woman, but not of the man.11
He (Eve’s offspring) shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. The second part of the prophecy reveals the outcome of the hostility. The word bruise (shuph - Strong’s H7779) in Hebrew has a different definition than its English counterpart. The English definition is: an injury involving rupture of small blood vessels and discoloration without a break in the overlying skin: contusion.
12 The Hebrew definition is to crush.
In English, bruise is a minor injury but the Hebrew word carries the action of pounding, which is much more violent.13 The word translated as bruise (shuph) is used twice in this verse. The word also signifies an ongoing action. It's like Eve's offspring will continually be bruising his head, and the devil will always be bruising the heel of Eve’s offspring. While it is true that on the cross, Jesus bruised the devil's head and the devil bruised his heel, that action continues today through us, Jesus' disciples. This curse does not end until time comes to an end.
Then God mentions a He.
God doesn’t say I
or We,
but He.
And who is He?
He is an individual within the line of Eve. Within that seed, within the believing people, there will be a He – an extraordinary man who is going to deliver the fatal blow to the devil.14 The devil will go after that one man and bruise Him on the heel. But the man will inflict a death blow, literally crushing the devil’s head. We know who He is, don’t we? It’s Jesus. He is Eve’s seed. And when did the devil bruise Him on the heel? It happened at the cross:
Isaiah 53:5 (English Revised Version)
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
It was at the cross that Jesus was bruised. Yes, it was part of God’s purpose and plan. Yes, it was God letting His Son be punished for our sins. Yes, it was the righteous wrath of God. But at the same time, it was the devil who was inflicting these bruises. The sufferings of Christ on the cross were His bruise. This bruise served the purpose of God. Sure, it was inflicted by the devil, who was the source of sin. The devil was the tempter who plunged the whole human race into sin. So, in a significant way, the devil is responsible for all of this. Therefore, he’s responsible for the bruising of Jesus, even though it's within the framework of God’s judicial purpose. But it was also there at the cross where Jesus crushed the devil’s head.
Why? Because Jesus conquered sin. Jesus reconciled sinners to God. Jesus satisfied the justice of God. He paid the full debt for sin. He conquered death. He opened Heaven. Everything that needed to happen redemptively happened at the cross. It was an absolutely crushing blow to the devil. And those who are in Christ participate in that victory.
Jesus carried out God's plan to crush
the devil’s head in stages.15 The first stage was through Jesus’ death and resurrection, when Jesus crushed
the devil’s head and broke the power of sin and death. In Romans 16:20, Paul makes an interesting comment, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” Did you notice whose feet God would use to continue to crush the devil’s head? It is your feet, which is the next stage. Every time a person gets saved, they bruise, crush
the devil’s head. The final stage will be when God throws the devil into the lake of fire.
Let’s paraphrase verse 15 back together again piecing together what we have learned. I will place a wall of hostility between you and the woman, and between you and her offspring, he shall crush your head, and shall bruise his heel.
Genesis 3:16
To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.””
The poetry of verse 16 is divided into four lines:
a) To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing
b) in pain you shall bring forth children
c) Your desire shall be contrary to your husband
d) but he shall rule over you
The phrase in 16a, I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing, would be preferable to be translated as: I will greatly multiply your sorrow in pregnancy. The word pain (Strong’s H6093) is a type of emotional pain associated with sadness and grief that Eve will experience during pregnancy. Not being a female, I have no idea what emotional stress women go through while they are pregnant. I imagine that there are many things to worry about. That would especially be true in ancient societies where infant mortality was a clear and present danger.
The phrase in 16b, in pain you shall bring forth children refers to the emotional pain that can often continue after childbirth, as any woman who has experienced postpartum depression can attest. In accordance with patterns of poetic parallelism, verse 16b is the second line of a couplet; it develops 3:16a by revealing the desired result of the multiple pregnancies.16 The word pain (etseb - Strong’s H6089) is a different word than is used in 16a, and refers to hardship, anguish, or toil.17 In its Semitic root it has the idea of hard labor, slave labor, labor that will break you.18 The phrase bring forth (Strong’s H3205) refers to both childbirth, and to the raising of children. As all of you who are mothers know, motherhood is a demanding job and exhausting work.
16c Your desire shall be contrary to your husband. This section of the verse consists of three Hebrew words. The first word is the preposition el
(to
or toward
), which orients the word toward
the something or someone being referred to in the sentence.19 The second word, ish,
is the generic word for man or husband.20 The third word, desire is only used three times in the Old Testament, which can make it challenging to translate accurately. This lack of usage means that there is no further context from which to define it. The Hebrew word teshuqah (Strong’s H8669) means a craving, desire, urge.
21 The term desire has a decidedly romantic nuance, more like devotion.22 The term has also been described as devotion, as in a devotion to be loyal to her husband.23 I don’t know why the ESV inserted the word contrary. It is not in the Hebrew text.
16d but he shall rule over you. This section of the verse also consists of only three Hebrew words. The first word is the pronoun hû’
(he
) attached to letter waw (and
and), which translates as and he.
The second word, rule (mashal - Strong’s H4910), means to govern, have authority.
24 This is the same word that is used in Genesis 1:16, And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars.
The sun and the moon have no authority over the planet. They act as the vehicles by which God orders creation. Mashal is used to describe circumstances where a hierarchy implies control (like a king over a country or God over His people). But the emphasis is less on the controlling agent than it is on control itself.25 Keeping this portion in context with 16a, b, and c, 16d is more than likely referring to the male control of the woman’s sexuality, given both the poetic context and world behind the text.26 The third word is bak, which consists of the preposition over
attached to the pronoun you
and translated as over you.
Basically, this section of the verse does not allow the wife to refuse sexual relations with her husband. Why? Because bringing forth children is important.
Another thing to note is that Adam should have ruled over
Eve during the temptation, telling her not to eat the fruit, and then walked her away from the shining one and the tree. But he did not do that; he did not rule over
Eve to prevent the catastrophe. He was supposed to do that before their sin. He didn’t. So here, God reminds Eve of how it is supposed to be, and how it must remain from here on out. Just as Adam was always supposed to have dominion over the garden and over the animals, he is now told that he must have dominion over his wife, not in a harsh way (any more than he would be harsh with the animals), but in a way that ensures her actions are up to the standard God has set.27
Please note that, unlike Adam and the shining one, God did not tell Eve that what was going to happen was because of her sin. God used the word because when he addressed both Adam and the shining one. They knew their judicial sentence was a result of their actions. But Eve’s actions did have consequences. Verse 16 is about the consequences of her sin, and consequences are a form of punishment.
Let’s paraphrase verse 16 back together again piecing together what we have learned. To the wife he said, “I will surely multiply your emotional grief and sadness in pregnancy, in hardship and anguish will you birth and raise children, your devotion will be to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”
Genesis 3:17
And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
The poetry of verse 17 is also divided into four lines:
a) And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree
b) of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’
c) cursed is the ground because of you
d) by hard labor you shall eat of it all the days of your life
In this 17a, God turned his attention to Adam to address his sin. The reason God punished Adam was due to his disobedience of God’s command, thereby disobeying God himself. Adam had placed the “voice of his wife” above the voice of God. He had placed Eve on a level above that of God. Essentially, Adam was willing to obey Eve rather than God. When Adam had to make the choice of whom to follow, he made the wrong choice. Adam had not forgotten God’s command; he chose to ignore it.
We need to learn an important lesson from 17b. Many voices are trying to get our attention, urging us to do things we know go against God’s command. We will listen to the voice that is the most important to us. Our actions will tell us which voice we are listening to. Concerning the tree, God commanded Adam You shall not eat of it.
God held Adam responsible for his own decisions. It didn't matter that Eve had handed him the fruit and urged him to eat; Adam chose to eat it. Adam was responsible for himself. He knew better. Adam’s curse is, therefore, centered on eating. Please keep in mind that this verse is not stating that it is wrong to respect a woman’s desires or intuitions.28 A wise man will take a woman’s suggestions seriously, but they must weigh those against God’s commands and will.
17c states, Cursed is the ground because of you.
Ouch. How would you like to live with the knowledge that your sin cursed the entire land? Up to this point, Adam had not had to work to get his food. Now it would require physical labor. It was going to need a lot of hard work. We can also learn an essential lesson from this. The consequences of our sin can be passed down to future generations. Our sins can have a direct impact on our children. Unfortunately, we seldom, if ever, consider that sin has consequences. If we did, we might choose to obey God more often.
17d states In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life.
The word pain (Strong’s H6093) is the same one used to describe the emotional pain that Eve would experience. There was a parallel consequence for the sin. Another thing I want to point out is that previously, Adam could easily provide food. But now it would require work, hard work. This verse describes the work of providing food with the word ‘pain’. In this reckoning, both man and woman are equally pained, but in ways specific to them.29 We can’t cast all the blame on Eve because God didn’t. The major share of the responsibility fell on Adam.
Another thing to note is that because Adam’s sin of disobedience centered on eating, so did his curse. Adam would be kicked out of the garden and sent into a world where the ground was his enemy. Previously, Adam did not have to “work” to get food. But now food would only come after painful toil. What previously was easy work, would now require hard labor.
Another thing to point out is that the “sin nature” didn’t get passed down to humanity because of Eve; that happened as a result of Adam’s sin. It was Adam who received God’s command, not Eve. It was Adam fulfilling the role of king and priest. Adam, as king, represented the entire human race that God created on day 6. If Adam continued to worship and obey God, so would all of humanity. If Adam stopped worshiping and obeying God, so would all of humanity. Since the devil was able to get Adam to fall from grace, so did all of humanity. Once Adam had sinned, the entire human race fell with him, losing the original righteousness of creation in God’s image (Genesis 6:5), sharing Adam’s guilt (Romans 5:12, 18), and becoming corrupted by sin so that, henceforth, each person originates as a sinner (Psalm 51:5).
My point is that we should not put too much blame on Eve. At the same time, don’t put too little blame on Adam. The work that Jesus came to do was to undo the consequences of Adam’s sin, not Eve’s. But we’ll get more into that in a later lesson in this series.
Let’s paraphrase verse 17 back together again piecing together what we have learned. And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life,”
Genesis 3:18
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.
Verse 18 continues the consequences of Adam’s sin and the results of the curse on the ground. Adam had lived in a world without weeds, but the curse changed all of that. Rather than the earth being a cooperative partner, it would now be an uncontrolled landscape.30 The land would have to be cultivated to plant crops, and in addition, weeds would grow in the cultivated fields. The land would have to be plowed, planted, weeded, and harvested. All of this would be hard work.
Humanity would need to eat the field’s plants to live, so that the painful work would continue generation after generation until the end of time. Instead of man and nature united in productive labor, the situation became man versus nature, a competition for dominance. Now, man would have to use all his physical and mental powers to subdue the earth.31
Let’s paraphrase verse 18 back together again piecing together what we have learned. Thorns and thistles shall spring forth from the ground; and you shall eat the plants of the field.
Genesis 3:19
By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
The phrase sweat of your face is interesting. The word face (Strong’s H639) is often translated as nose, nostrils,
and many times as anger.
32 When one becomes very angry, the nostrils start flaring. Sweating is a natural process that your body uses to cool down. Adam had never sweated before. He had also never experienced anger before. According to WebMD, when you're angry and reaching your boiling point, your body releases stress hormones that boost your heart rate and blood pressure and raise your body temperature, which can lead to sweating.33 Is Adam’s sweat a result of hard toil and labor, or anger? Probably both.
The phrase till you return to the ground emphasizes humanity’s mortality. The fact that man will die as a consequence of sin reminds us that life is fleeting. We cannot escape death. The phrase also connects back to the creation account in Genesis 2:7, where Adam was formed from the dust of the ground. This return to the earth signifies the full circle of life and death.
There is an ominous tone in the phrase for you are dust.
God had never referred to Adam as dust
before this point in time. God had always referred to him as man, or husband, but never as dust. But right now God is angry, and that anger is evident in the way he is talking. I imagine that, as God is pronouncing Adam to be nothing more than dust, which is about how low Adam is probably feeling.
The Good news is that even though Adam fell from grace and disobeyed God, God never abandoned Adam. Rather than abandon him, God still sought him out, even if it meant confronting him with his sin This action demonstrated God’s love for them. Even though their relationship would never again be what it was, God made provision to eventually restore it. He would restore the relationship (in time) through the seed of Eve. God could have wiped them out and started over, but he did not. God is still seeking and calling out to humanity to restore the relationship with him. But we must answer the call.
Let’s paraphrase verse 19 back together again piecing together what we have learned. . By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
Final thoughts
1) We need to understand that our sin has consequences. Sometimes those consequences only affect us, but sometimes they affect our children, and subsequent generations. I only wish we could keep that in perspective before we commit a sin against God.
2) By accepting Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior, God lifts the curse of sin off of us to restore our relationship with him. According to Galatians 3:13. God tells us that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us
– and that his physical act of hanging on the cross is where our curse was lifted and placed on him. You are forever removed from the curse of sin and the law. God accomplished that plan through Jesus Christ's death and resurrection.
3) Don’t keep this good news to yourself, spread it around to other people who need to hear it.
Here is my paraphrase of the 3 verses we covered:
Genesis 3:14-19
14 The Lord God said to the shining one, “Because you have done this, cursed are you more than all livestock and more than all beasts of the field; in a position of worship you shall go, in your low, despicable, abhorrent, and degraded position in life, all the days of your life.
15 I will put a wall of loathing between you and the wife, and between you and her children; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.””
16 To the wife he said, “I greatly multiply your sorrow in pregnancy; in pain you shall bring forth children. You shall yearn for your husband, but he shall govern over you.””
17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
18 thorns and thistles shall spring forth from the ground; and you shall eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
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