Genesis 3 tells us about the fall of mankind into a sinful state and the resulting curse on the planet and on humans.
1 Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, “Yea, has God said, ‘Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
The serpent is not classified as a creeping thing here, but as a beast of the field. This coupled with the curse later in this chapter leads me to believe the snake had legs at this point, just as other beasts of the field do.
“Subtle” means “crafty, prudent, cunning (usually in a bad way)” The snake itself is evidently smarter than the other animals. But, because of the curse later on, it appears that Satan possessed the snake. That is probably why it spoke, though I suppose it is possible that Eve’s un-cursed brain could understand all animals before the Fall. Some people come pretty close to understanding them today.
The Satan/snake begins by questioning God’s word; “Did He REALLY say that?” Satan still does this today.
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
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3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.’ ”
There is no record of God saying “Neither shall ye touch it.” It is possible that it simply wasn’t recorded, but most scholars think Adam and/or Eve added this. Things always go wrong when we start adding to God’s word.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, “Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
The serpent directly contradicts the word of God; he calls God a liar. He is also saying God’s commands are for God’s benefit, not her’s.
Many today are repeating this same lie; “You will be gods, choosing good and evil.” This is the promise of evolution. “You are the highest, most intelligent, closest to divine form of life. You have the right to decide right and wrong for yourself, and society has the right to set its own rules. There is no God to answer to.”
6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat.
Eve was fooled by the serpent’s words and the fruit was pretty, so she ate it.
2 Corinthians 11:3 "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."
1 Timothy 2:14 "And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression."
Adam, however, was not fooled. He chose to eat the fruit knowing full well he was rebelling against God and choosing death. This is why we call it the “Adamic Curse” instead of the “Eve-ic curse.” Adam went into sin willingly, as we all do at some point.
7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
They became aware of their nakedness. They now understand right and wrong.
Fig leaves covered them partially, but not completely. They were not sufficient. Man’s solutions don’t fix the problems. They just cover them up for a while.
8 And they heard the voice 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.
9 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, “Where are thou?”
God knew where they were and what they had done, of course. You can’t hide from God. But He wanted them to admit their guilt.
10 And he (Adam) said, “I heard Thy Voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
We so often miss the point. Adam says he was ashamed because he was naked when he should have been ashamed because he disobeyed and ate the fruit. He was focusing on the surface matters, on appearances, instead of acknowledging the heart issue.
11 And He (God) said, “Who told thee that thou was naked? Have thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou should not eat?”
I have done this to my children; asked them leading questions trying to get them to admit when they have done wrong, even though I know the truth. Until a sin is admitted, the heart-cause can’t be dealt with.
12 And the man said, “The woman whom Thou gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.”
It is a good thing there wasn’t a bigger population at this time or Adam would have found a way to blame them too. “It’s the woman’s fault for giving me the fruit and it’s Your fault for giving me the woman.” Everyone’s fault except the sinner’s.
Many try this tactic today. We try to blame genetics, upbringing, society in general, our parents, even the victims of our sin for what we do. But when it boils right down to it, we are the ones at fault. We are the ones who choose to disobey God.
13 And the Lord God said unto the woman, “What is this that thou have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.”
Now she decides to follow her husband instead of leading him as she did when she gave him the fruit. She tries to pass the blame too.
14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, “Because thou have done this, thou are cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shall thou go, and dust shall thou eat all the days of thy life:
15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise his heel.”
God begins handing out judgment at the least responsible and moves to the most responsible.
Again, the serpent is compared to legged creatures when he is told he will crawl on his belly. This means God took his legs away and, as snakes still do today, he crawled away. And most humans appear to have a special hatred for the snake’s descendants. Snakes are often the symbol of pagan religions.
Yet there is more to the curse here. There is a prophecy; “[Her Seed] will bruise your head and you (not “your seed”) will bruise His heel.”
This is a promise, a prophecy to Satan that, though he will hurt the woman’s Seed, her Seed will crush him. This scene is depicted over and over in the stars; the constellation with a snake under his foot while the snake is biting his heel. The names from antiquity for the stars representing the feet are variations of “The One that is bruised” and “The One that Crushes.”
This is a promise that, though Satan will hurt Christ, Christ will defeat and destroy Satan. This prophecy was fulfilled on Calvary, when Satan led the Jews to demand Christ’s crucifixion and Christ willingly gave Himself to pay for our sins, thus defeating sin, death, hell and the grave.
He crushed Satan and his entire domain.
16 Unto the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shall bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
Women are more susceptible to depression than men. God made us more prone to sorrow.
He also “increased our conception.” I believe this is why we have our children two to three years apart (when we don’t use birth control) instead of fifteen or so years. Most animals do not birth new babies until the old ones are grown and ready to fend for themselves. Not true with humans. We often have little ones in several different stages of growth at one time.
The word “sorrow” is from the word “’itstsabown” which means “worrisome, labor, pain, sorrow, toil.” Makes you wonder what childbirth would have been like without The Fall.
However, this isn’t just talking about birth. It is also talking about the whole child-rearing time. This is a promise that we will not always be happy to be pregnant, that birthing will be work, and raising children will not always be easy or pleasant.
It is not a promise that all women will always have unbearable pain in birthing. Some women have even reported painless childbirth (One of my mine was almost that). And the fact is that women in other countries, where they are not bombarded from the time they are little kids by images from TV and movies of birth being unbearably painful, rate birth much lower on the scale of pain than American women do. It seems we make it a self-fulfilling prophecy. We expect it to hurt like hell and it does. Other women don’t and it doesn’t. It still usually hurts, but not nearly as bad. Even American women who have had conditions like kidney stones say that the stones are far worse.
Anyway, I believe this is talking more about child-raising. God intended the woman to be the primary child caretaker from the beginning. That is why He gave her the ability to nurse her young and the intuition to know what someone who can’t speak her language and can’t communicate, needs. This is a special gift. The curse is that we won’t always be happy about our role as mothers. We will bear children “in sorrow.”
The second part of this curse is “Thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee.” Or directly from the Hebrew; “Thy stretching out after and longing will be towards your man and he will have dominion over you.” I have heard this explained in two different ways:
The first says this means the woman will always want a husband even though it means he will be the boss. The second says this means the woman will want to be the boss but the man will still be the head of the household. Both have valid points.
I have known women who wanted a hubby so bad they were almost nuts, willing to take the first bum who looked cross-eyed at them. These were women who I know would be happier alone (even though they were lonely) and in charge of their own lives. What they really needed was a dog. Yet they still “needed” a man. Very illogical.
On the other hand, feminism is nothing new. It crops up in any peaceful society in history. Women want to be in charge. They all too often resent the man being the boss.
But the fact is that God made man to be in charge even before The Fall. Woman was made to be the Man’s Help Meet, not the other way around. Man’s headship is the original design. Women being annoyed about it is the curse.
17 And unto Adam He said, “Because thou have hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and have eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, ‘Thou shall not eat of it:’ cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shall thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
“Because you didn’t take the authority in your own home, because you weren’t the man, because you let her be the boss instead of Me…”
This is the reason for man’s curse; he didn’t act like a man. He chose to follow his wife instead of God. The word “sorrow” here is the same one used in verse 16 when speaking of the woman’s curse. God gave Adam work from the beginning. Now the man’s work would be “worrisome, labor, pain, sorrow, toil.” Work would be hard and often unpleasant.
18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shall eat the herb of the field;
God cursed the ground. The earth began to die at this time. Weeds cropped up. Thorns sprouted.
He also added the “herb of the field” to their diet. Evidently they ate fruit before The Fall and now have veggies and grains added to their diet.
19 In the sweat of thy face shall thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it were thou taken: for dust thou are, and unto dust shall thou return.”
“You are going to have to work hard enough to sweat until the day you die. When you die, you will rot and become dirt.” Adam began to die at this point. To be sure, it took a long time for him to finish, but he began at this point.
20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
Eve means “Life-giver.” Remember, she hasn’t had any children yet. In fact, neither of them has ever even seen a child or a baby. But Adam (prophetically?) names her “Life-giver.”
This is what a woman is; she gives a reason for life to her man and physical life to her children. Life itself is not possible without her.
And her calling in life, her purpose, was to be a mother. There is no higher, more important calling. Our society downgrades this role, but how could anything be more important than training a Legacy of Warriors to Worship at the Feet of The King? And Eve was the mother of all mothers. Wow!
21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
The fig-leaf apron wasn’t sufficient to cover their nakedness. An animal had to die and give its skin to cover their sin. Blood must be shed.
22 And the Lord God said, “Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live for ever…”
Notice that this is the second verse out of 78 verses that uses a plural word for God. All the others use singular. Again, this sounds like Royalty speaking.
Adam could still have eaten of the Tree of Life and lived forever. I think there must have been some nutrient in that tree that totally prevented aging and all illness.
23 Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
24 So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the Tree of Life.
God kicked the humans out of the garden and put guards in front of it to keep them out.
We don’t know where Eden was or what became of the Tree of Life. I would assume it was destroyed in the flood, but the Bible doesn’t say. We know we don’t have it available to us today.