To the woman he said, I will greatly increase thy travail and thy pregnancy; with pain thou shalt bear children; and to thy husband shall be thy desire, and he shall rule over thee.
God turns from the serpent to the woman with a sentence in two parts: pain in childbearing, and a husband who rules over her. Writers ask whether this is a curse at all, and how much of it still stands today.
Her sentence lands where her sin happened. She had a place beside Adam, and she stepped out of it.
True and righteous indeed are His judgments! Where she had sinned, there she was punished. Her lust had conceived and brought forth sin. So her sorrow and her conception were to be greatly multiplied, and she was to bring forth children in sorrow. She had forgotten her place as Adam's "helper." Taking the lead, she misled him into that terrible first sin of disobedience against God.
The word "cursed" is spoken over the serpent and over the ground — not over the woman. What she receives is described as God's ordering of life on earth from now on, and it stands against the plain contrast of what she had before.
As with the serpent, Jehovah Elohim speaks to the woman of the present governmental effects of her sin. Woman, more than any other female, was to have sorrow multiplied in pregnancy and in giving birth. Woman, not man, is the one who suffers this sorrow again and again. It was righteous, however sad. She first listened to the enemy, despising God and His word; then she drew her husband after her into the ditch. From now on she was to be subject. Like a younger brother to an elder, her desire was to be to her husband, and he was to rule over her. The fall would make this hard. How different the original position of companionship! Sin made God a judge: before it, He simply blessed.
A writer takes the pain of birth as a witness about the child, not just the mother. He then asks what happens when people try to overturn the order this verse sets for marriage.
But this sorrow underlines that every child is born with a sinful nature. David says in Psalm 51:5, "I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." Her desire would be to her husband, and he would rule over her. This is the normal condition of the marriage relationship now. Many people have tried, and still try, to change this. The result is a state of things that is not normal, and it only causes more confusion and dissatisfaction everywhere… When people ignore God's word, no wonder the troubles of the world multiply. People cannot sidestep the consequences of sin so easily as they think.
Both halves of the verse are picked up in Paul's letter to Timothy — and the second half comes with something Genesis never mentioned.
Genesis 3:16 is explicit in naming two results which were to follow for the woman as a consequence of her sin. The second of those two results is alluded to in the verses we have been considering, while the first result is alluded to in verse 15 of our chapter, and in connection with that a gracious proviso is attached, no mention of which is found in Genesis 3.
Another writer calls this same order part of the curse, and then shows what Christian teaching does with it. Older translations read "your desire shall be to your husband"; the ESV renders it "contrary to your husband."
Part of the curse pronounced on the woman at the fall was, "Your desire shall be to your husband, and he shall rule over you." Christianity confirms this order, but so remodels it that all trace of the curse disappears. When a believer submits to the Lord, or the Church to Christ, that is no curse and no bondage. These are now the patterns for a wife's submission… How beautiful to see a human relationship — one that takes part of its character from the fall — turned into a picture of the mystery in which God displays His "manifold wisdom."
Her pain does more than remind her of her sin. It also points her forward.
In her sorrow and pains the woman is always reminded of her sin. She is also reminded of Him who will deliver her from the results of her evil, through a deeper sorrow and pain. So from the very beginning, the desire for the promised Deliverer is planted in her heart.
One writer sets God's word to the woman here beside a later word spoken to a woman in tears.
Self-will had brought forth its full harvest of sin and sorrow. To the woman He says, "I will surely multiply your pain." But now, to the woman, "Woman, why are you weeping?" Sorrow has taken the place of joy in this world, because self-will came in, and death followed it. But now the old things have passed away… death has given place to life, and sorrow to joy.
- Sin. She was punished where she sinned — she left her place, took the lead, and drew her husband after her.
- Sentence. Writers differ on calling it a curse. God sets the terms of her life on earth now, in place of the companionship she had before.
- Sorrow. The pain of birth witnesses that every child enters a fallen race. Efforts to overturn the marriage order only multiply trouble.
- Order. Christianity confirms the order, but remodels it on Christ and the Church, so that no trace of the curse is left.
- Joy. The same sorrow keeps alive the desire for the promised Deliverer, and the later word to a weeping woman turns sorrow back into joy: "Woman, why are you weeping?"
And to Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee saying, Thou shalt not eat of it cursed be the ground on thy account; with toil shalt thou eat [of] it all the days of thy life;
God speaks to Adam last, and He gives His reason before He gives His verdict. Why the ground and not the man? How far does the curse reach, and does it ever end?
Adam had tried to shift the blame onto the woman, and onto the God who gave her to him. God answers by naming that very act as the cause of judgment, and by aiming the sentence at Adam himself.
Was Adam's guilt lessened by his wife's sin? Far from it! He offers his wife as an excuse: "the woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate." God declares that very thing to be the reason for Adam's judgment: "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife… cursed is the ground because of you" [not because of her].
The words fall on the soil, not on the pair standing before God. Later, after the flood, God set a limit to it.
Man was not cursed. The curse fell on the serpent and on the ground. In sorrow man was to eat of the fruit of the ground all the days of his life, and in sorrow the woman was to bring forth children (Gen. 3:17). After the flood, the Lord smelled a sweet aroma from Noah's sacrifice. He said in His heart, "I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth" (Gen. 8:21).
The verse speaks of ground, food and pain. It says nothing about what becomes of the soul, and that silence is deliberate.
Scripture says nothing here about his soul and spirit. The consequences in view belong to God's government of this life, not to eternity. Men scheme to get rid of the sweat and toil, and they may think they are going to achieve it. But already we have heard the slogan, "We work or we want." To that we may add, "We sweat or we starve." We can no more dodge that part of the curse than we can escape death.
Did work itself begin as a punishment here? Adam was already tending the garden before the fall.
That there was no "work" before his fall is not stated. Man placed in the garden "to work it and keep it" shows it was not God's will that His creature should be idle. But there was no "toil" or "sorrow" connected with such occupation. Now thorns and thistles were to appear, and man was to eat bread by the sweat of his face… Labour here is good for all, and there is profit in it. Out of evil God can and does bring good.
The same sentence that burdens man also steadies him.
In a certain sense mercy mingles with these consequences too, as usually happens, I think, in God's government. Man in his present state is just that much less happy when he does not know what it is to work in a world like this. It is not only what he is doomed to, but the wisely ordered place for fallen man here below. There is no one more miserable than the man who has no object before him.
The thorns of Genesis 3 appear again as a crown on Christ's head.
The world belonged to Him, for He made it… but it was under the curse. Man's disobedience had brought the curse upon it, and thorns were the product and lasting evidence of the curse. He had come to redeem the world, to remove the curse and bring in the blessing, and to do this He must bear the curse… the original curse fell upon Him, and the sign of this was the crown that He wore.
The ground took the curse, and the ground will share in its removal.
Creation was made subject to emptiness, not by its own choice, but because of man when he fell. It groans and waits for the day when it will be set free from its bondage to decay, into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. We read in Genesis 3, "Cursed is the ground because of you… thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you." But of the day of its renewal: "instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress, instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle."
- Cause — Adam's excuse became the charge against him. He listened to a voice other than God's, so God sentenced him — for his sake, not hers.
- Curse — The words fall on the ground, not on the man. God cursed the serpent and the soil, and after the flood He promised never to curse the ground again.
- Cost — Work was there before the fall; sorrow and sweat were not. Thorns and thistles are the new element, and no scheme of ours escapes them.
- Care — Even this judgment carries mercy. Labour keeps fallen man from the misery of having no object before him.
- Cure — Thorns crowned Christ, the sign that He took the curse to remove it. The ground still waits for the day when myrtle replaces the brier.