“And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ So he [Adam] said, ‘I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.’ And He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?’ Then the man said, ‘The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.’ And the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ And the woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’ So the Lord God said to the serpent: ‘Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.” Genesis 3:8-14
God now turns to the one who spoke through the serpent and though it appears as though He is still speaking to the serpent, it becomes evident that it is Satan whom He is addressing.
“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” Genesis 3:15.
Satan hates women. There is not a place on earth today or throughout time where this hatred is not shown by the despicable things his stooges do to women, and the contempt in which they are generally held.
Satan has good reason to hate them because right here it is prophesied that the Seed of the woman, Jesus, will crush Satan’s rebellion. Which Jesus Christ did through His sacrifice on the cross.
Satan was humiliated and completely defeated at the cross. In time he will be destroyed and cast into the lake of fire forever. Until then he intends to wreak havoc, to steal, kill, and destroy.
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” John 10:10-11.
God says that He will put enmity between the woman and Satan, He also says there will be enmity between “…your [Satan’s] seed and her Seed [Jesus Christ]; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” Genesis 3:15b.
If you bruise the head of a serpent, you kill it, but to bruise Jesus’ heel, by having Him crucified, would be horribly agonizing (an understatement) but not destroy Him, because Jesus rose from the dead.
“…knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.” Romans 6:9-10.
God now deals with the woman.
“To the woman He said: ‘I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children; your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.’” Genesis 3:16.
The Amplified Old Testament, The Lockman Foundation translation, published by Zondervan Publishing House, states part of this verse in this manner, “…I will greatly multiply your grief and your suffering in pregnancy’. And the New American Standard Version renders this, “…your pain in childbirth”.
This point is being stressed because the words quoted in the New King James Version earlier renders this, “…I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception” which can lead someone to feel that it is a reference not only to pregnancy but the sex act itself; causing them to miss the meaning altogether.
Conception is the beginning of pregnancy and the child is viable at conception regardless of the fairy tales the pro-abortion crowd likes to spout about viability. It is after conception that the curse really kicks in, “…in pain you shall bring forth children”, often pregnancy is extremely uncomfortable with many miserable side effects, and dangers.
Sometimes the birth can come quickly and fairly easy, while some may be in agony for more than 24 hours. This is certainly no walk in the park, and women should be given more credit for their strength and courage in enduring a pregnancy.
“Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.” 1 Timothy 2:15.
So why did God put this horrific curse on women? Perhaps the reason is highly symbolic; a woman brought sin into the world and the misery that everyone born of a woman will endure throughout their lifetimes, so it is a reminder to all women that it began with them.
By the same token it is the privilege of a woman through her Seed Jesus Christ to crush the devil who so enslaved mankind.
It was Eve who brought sin into the world, and it was her daughter Mary who bore Jesus into the world to end it. Both death and eternal life has come through the woman.
Finally, “…your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” verse 16b. This difficult phrase has been explained as a deep attraction a woman would have for her husband, something I have found to be true in many woman.
However, we often find that the woman desires to rule over her husband, but he will rule over her.
This characteristic is evident in many women today when they either attempt to run the household independently from their husbands or use devious methods to cause their husbands to do things their way.
Many women gain power when they divorce their husbands because he does not give them their way in everything. They then have the running of the household to themselves. The chaos in families today is testament to how well this works out.
Divorce comes for many reasons, abuse, infidelity, alcoholism, gambling, and men are responsible for much of this misery, but selfishness should not be one of these reasons.
But this is actually a two-edged sword, the woman desires to rule, but the man, however lazy, is unwilling to let her do so.
The idea behind the word macho which in Spanish means male animal is that of a strong domineering man lying around in a hammock while the woman waits on him hand and foot.
This is the opposite of what God is saying in this passage. He is forcing the man take responsibility as the head of the family, which is generally against his nature.
God is not playing favorites with anyone here; both male and female are expected to carry out their God ordained responsibilities.
“Then to Adam He said, ‘Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, “You shall not eat of it”: Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.’” Genesis 3:17-19.
“Cursed is the ground for your sake…” this can either mean cursed is the ground because of you, or it could mean cursed is the ground for your benefit.
C.I. Scofield’s note on this in his Scofield Reference Bible, agrees with the latter of these two interpretations: “The earth cursed (v. 17) for man’s sake. It is better for fallen man to battle with a reluctant earth than to live without toil.”
When his wants and needs come too easily for sinful man, he begins to take things for granted and indulge in his sinful ways, forgetting all about the God who created him.
Without adversity men become fat and lazy and start filling their time with degenerate activities. A world filled with people like this would just slide into hell.
Much as I hate to say this, hard work and adversity build character, while indolence destroys it.
God said this to Jerusalem shortly before her fall to the Babylonians:
“Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter [probably Gomorrah] had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty and committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as I saw fit.” Ezekiel 16:49-50.
The land on which the cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, and three other cities were situated was a bountiful agricultural area making for an easy rich life which left plenty of time for the evil pursuits that finally doomed them, Genesis 18 and 19.
Pride, fullness of food, abundance of idleness, ignored the needy, haughty, and committed abomination; a factory that makes hell-bound sinners; this is why God cursed the ground for our sakes.
“Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am. Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my age is as nothing before You; certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. Selah” Psalm 39:4-5.
“And Adam called his wife’s name Eve [life or living], because she was the mother of all living.” Genesis 3:20.
Scripture plainly states that we all come from a common ancestor, Eve. It is also clear by this statement that we did not evolve; evolution is a man made fiction.
“Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.” Genesis3:21.
For God to have made these tunics of skin an animal had to die. This is the first indication that sacrifices were made for sin.
This sacrifice was not of a fruit, vegetable or fig leaf, an animal shed its blood to atone for Adam and Eve’s sin, and the skin was made into a covering for the couple.
God assuredly would have explained the purpose of all this and the practice would then be passed on to their children.
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.” Leviticus 17:11.
“And according to the law almost all things are purged [cleansed] with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission [forgiveness].” Hebrews 9:22.
Adam and Eve must have looked on in horror as God performed this grisly task; it is unlikely that they had ever seen an animal killed up to this time, and to think that it was their fault must have filled their broken hearts with regret.
God clothed the first man and woman covering their sin and in time the Lord Jesus came into the world to expunge sin altogether for those who will accept His sacrifice as their own.
It has always been God both to set a penalty for sin and God who pays the penalty.
“But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and Prophets, even the righteousness of God which is through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth to be a propitiation [an appeasement or expiation] by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” Romans 3:21-26.
“Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever’ – therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.” Genesis 3:22-24.
The man has become as one of Us. The Us referred to here is the trinity, the entire Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The knowledge of good and evil becomes a problem when it is combined with the sin nature because the flesh will always descend into evil. The tree of life would then become a temptation, greatly adding to the disastrous results of eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for then those who ate would live forever with their sin natures.
With the cherubim and the flaming sword the way is shut to all men. It is likely that the garden of Eden with it’s cherubim and flaming sword remained until it was destroyed by the flood of Noah’s day, a period of 1,656 years or more.
Perhaps the gate to the garden with the cherubim and the flaming sword became a tourist attraction seen by the entire population of the earth before the flood; reminding all who saw it that God judges sin, just as Adam and Eve had told them.
Death of Life, Genesis 3:15-24 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 8-7-14, updated on 10-19-21.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.