“Genesis 3:14-19”

Saturday, October 19, 2019

The Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you will go, and dust you will eat all the days of your life; and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.’ To the woman He said, ‘I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, in pain you will bring forth children; yet your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.’ Then to Adam He said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. ‘Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you will eat the plants of the field; by the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’”

---End of Scripture verses---

“God passes sentence; and he begins where the sin began, with the serpent. The devil's instruments must share in the devil's punishments.” (Matthew Henry) God didn’t interrogate the serpent as He did the man and woman. Its guilt was undeniable and inexcusable and the Lord just issued judgment. The serpent and its descendants were cursed to go on their “belly” and eat “dust” all their days. This suggests that prior to the curse the serpent’s original condition was walking upright or semi-erect. And while it is true that humans are overwhelmingly repulsed by serpent-kind, and as they slither along the ground, encounters frequently result in wounds to human heels and crushing blows to serpentine crowns, there is a much deeper meaning and spiritual fulfillment to the prophecy in verse 15 than that.

The “enmity” or “animosity” that the Lord pronounced was to be between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. No sooner than the curse had been pronounced, the cure was announced. This was a direct prophecy of the miraculous future birth of the Savior of the world to a virgin (Isaiah 7:14). The Apostle Paul wrote of it this way in Galatians 4:4: “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” The “bruise…on the heel” was to be delivered to Jesus with His death on the cross, and the fatal “bruise…to the head” was unleashed on Satan when Christ arose from the grave to defeat the great adversary of mankind and the sting of that very first and every subsequent sin committed.

The “enmity” between mankind and Satan is warfare waged by the Devil and those he influences against the children of the Lord who endeavor to keep His commandments and reverence His holiness. Matthew Henry further observed: “War is proclaimed between the Seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. It is the fruit of this enmity, that there is a continual warfare between grace and corruption, in the hearts of God's people. Satan, by their corruptions, buffets them, sifts them, and seeks to devour them.” Even though Satan has been defeated and he knows that his days are numbered, he continues his attempted onslaught against those created in the image of the One he detests the most. He knows he has lost but he is in a desperate frenzy to “devour” as many people as he can (1 Peter 5:8), and to condemn them to the anguish and misery of an eternity in hell with him.

James Burton Coffman wrote concerning the prophecy of Genesis 3:15 the following – “Thus, this 27-word promise of healing for the sins of Adam's race conveyed limited information, but the significance of it is unlimited. In the light of subsequent events, it comprises as comprehensive and definite a statement of God's Plan of Redemption as could have been devised in so few words. Here is a summary of what was included:

1. it outlines the doctrine of the Incarnation;

2. and of the Virgin Birth;

3. has a prophecy of the crucifixion; and

4. of the final overthrow of Satan in hell;

5. announces the ultimate overthrow of evil;

6. the long agony of the human race; and

7. provides a message of hope and salvation for fallen humanity.”

“I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth…” (verse 16) This possibly suggests that the punishment decreed to the woman, and the consequences passed on to all women thereafter, is that some modicum of pain would have been a part of giving birth even in the perfection of paradise. “Multiplying” seems to imply “increasing” something that is already present and many Bible versions use that very word. It seems more likely, however, that this punishment is directly tied to God’s command for Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.” (Genesis 1:27) The “blessing” of multiplying the population of the earth would henceforth be accomplished through the multiplication of pain. Nahum Sarna commented, “Intense pain in childbearinig is unique to the human species and generally unknown to other female mammals.” While the woman was taken from the man’s body painlessly, women must endure agony in bringing forth offspring from their own bodies.

“Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” (verse 16) “Historically, the woman was wholly dependent for her sustenance upon what her husband could eke out of the soil, in striking contrast to the situation in Eden where her food was readily and independently available at all times. It should be noted that the ‘curse’ is used in connection with the judgments on the serpent and the man, but not in relation to the woman. It is quite clear from the description of the woman in 2:18, 23 that the ideal situation, which hitherto existed, was the absolute equality of the sexes. The new state of male dominance is regarded as an aspect of the deterioration in the human condition that resulted from defiance of divine will.” (Sarna)

“Cursed is the ground because of you…” (verse 17) As is always true with the infinitely just Creator of the universe, the punishment is appropriate for the crime. Adam sinned by eating forbidden produce from the ground, and subsequently the earth would no longer yield up its fruit apart from his sweat and toil. The man’s backbreaking physical labor is regarded as the male equivalent of the labor of childbearing.” (Sarna) “God simply re-ordered this physical world in such a way that man would never be able to make himself too cozy in his state of rebellion against his Creator. There was a further destruction of the earth in the Great Deluge; and that also would appear to be an extension and development of the principle visible in these verses.” (Coffman)

If the punishments seem to be overly harsh, it is good to consider the magnificent love and care that God displayed for the first couple with their splendid living arrangement. The Lord brought Adam into a world that was formed and furnished specifically with his needs in mind. He brought all the animals to him to delight in and have dominion over. He fashioned a perfect compliment suitable for love and companionship to complete any possibly emotional need and desire for intimacy that had not been previously supplied. He placed the first couple in a garden paradise that He lovingly created specifically for them. He supplied them with a lush variety of nourishment that was tended to and harvested with very little effort on their part. He gave them a vocation to keep their bodies and minds occupied and their need for enterprise fulfilled. He also was ever actively, personally present in their daily lives. And still, they were dissatisfied and forsook their blessed Creator and Provider. But even from the foundation of the world, God anticipated and provided for a plan to save fallen man (Ephesians 3:11), and left the disgraced couple with a message of hope for better things to come.

Please read Genesis 3:20-24 for tomorrow.

Have a blessed day!

- Louie Taylor

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