Episode238 "Listen to God's voice!" - Genesis 3:17-19

Gen. 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;

18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; 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 out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Once again, let’s quickly review where we’ve been in this story so as to interpret this Scripture in its immediate context. When the serpent tempted Eve and she ate the forbidden fruit, she gave it to Adam, who also ate it. But the LORD confronted Adam first. He reminded him of the command he had given Adam not to eat of one specific fruit in the garden. (Gen. 3:9-11) He then interrogated Eve before addressing the serpent and pronouncing the curse upon it.

As we read last week, the LORD then backtracked to Eve to explain that the blessing of bearing children would be experienced with greater pain because of her disobedience, and the harmony designed by the LORD between her and Adam would suffer. She had been formed from Adam’s flesh and bone and received the LORD’s command through him. Yet, she listened to the lie of the serpent and brought her husband to participate in this act of disobedience. The LORD’s pronouncement to her that “he (Adam) shall rule over you” seems to suggest that she will even experience a measure of forced subjugation to Adam, something that would not have occurred or have been necessary in their pre-fallen condition.

NOTE: My opinion is that these people, made in the image of God, would have conducted themselves toward each other as do the members of the Trinity. In the New Testament, we often read that Jesus only does what the Father wants him to do. As God himself, he submits to the Father. Yet we see other Scriptures in which the Father gives all authority to the Son. In short, there appears to be mutual submission within the divine Godhead. This is important for us because we often think that submission to others makes us less important and is a negative thing. That clearly isn’t true with God. I believe what we see here is that because of sin, there will be resistance to a harmonious mutual submission and conflict within human relationships. There would be a sense of competition instead of perfect cooperation within marriage relationships. The cooperation will not be so natural now that they have acted out of accordance with God’s will and character.

In verse 17, God returns to Adam to explain the consequences of his sin. Adam will also experience pain. His work is going to get more difficult. In Genesis 2:15, Adam’s responsibility was to tend to the garden. What appeared to be easy and pleasant work will now be painful and troublesome.

Notice that this curse on the ground was not because Adam had listened to his wife. It was because he obeyed his wife’s words contrary to the LORD’s command. Adam ought to have recognized that Eve’s invitation to eat was in contrast to what the LORD had commanded, and he should have refused. In fact, he should have even tried to stop her from eating it.

The LORD cursed the ground so that Adam’s survival would be toil. The ground would produce thorns and thistles, and he would experience pain when harvesting food to eat. Finally, he would die, just as the LORD had said would happen if he disobeyed.

The most obvious takeaway from this section seems to be the importance of discerning and obeying the LORD’s words. Sometimes, people close to us may attempt to encourage us to do something that doesn’t seem right. Regardless of the relationship, we need to trust and obey God’s voice first and foremost.