Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“To Adam he said,
“Because you have listened to your wife’s voice,
    and have eaten from the tree,
    about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’
    the ground is cursed for your sake.
You will eat from it with much labor all the days of your life.
It will yield thorns and thistles to you;
    and you will eat the herb of the field.
You will eat bread by the sweat of your face until you return to the ground,
    for you were taken out of it.
For you are dust,
    and you shall return to dust.””
Genesis 3:17-19

The second human of our group of four miscreants is also NOT cursed – neither the male nor the female is cursed by God. The male has consequences for his actions and because of him the ground was cursed (the infection of Creation by Sin and its babies: death, fear, entropy, etc). The cause of Adam’s sin was that he did not listen to God’s voice (only the male is singled out as having been intentionally disobedient). He chose to listen to his wife, and THAT was the moment he rebelled. Listening and not interfering was foolish, but it wasn’t rebellion. It became rebellion when he idolized her, putting her opinions and ideas in God’s place. She was deceived, he listened to her deception, and acted according to that deception. We ARE to listen to our partners (Abraham was commanded to listen to his wife in Genesis 21:12). They have GOOD ideas. They are our HELPERS and EQUALS (no matter if we are male or female). But only GOD is to be obeyed. If God doesn’t say yes, then no matter HOW good the idea is, you don’t do it. Adam put the woman before God and chose to disobey. When he ate after being commanded not to, he fell and the nature of the human beings who came after him were sinful. From Adam we got our fallen nature (Romans 5:12-19). From Jesus we get our holy nature (2 Corinthians 5:21).

The female had sorrow added. So did the male. For the male it was sorrow added to work. Work is a godly thing (Genesis 2:8; Proverbs 10:4; Galatians 6:9). But now the male had to TOIL. It became worrisome (the word used for toil means sorrow and pain) because now that was the ONLY way he could provide for himself and his family. If he didn’t do it, the ground would produce nothing but thorns and thistles. Where before he could command the goodness God impregnated the Earth with, now he had to work to get it to produce. Work to get a harvest. He would not get to eat if he did not work, expending his energy and sweat. Toiling because he would always be concerned that it wouldn’t be enough. Thankfully, Jesus broke this evil altar and although we still WORK, we do not TOIL and we do NOT have to WORRY. Adam suffered consequences for having accepted his wife’s urging without checking with God OR simply following what God had previously told him. He had greedily indulged his desire, and as a result he would forever more remain in a state of sadness that he could not earn his livelihood without hard work. He would now eat produce of the field instead of the fruit of the trees of the garden for which he did not have to toil – even fruit trees now had to be ‘worked’ to produce for him. Initially, working the land was presented as creative and satisfying labor, and now will become a hardship.

This curse in its full force was a temporary thing. After the Flood, God eased it back in order to enable Noah and his family to survive (Genesis 8:21). But there was still a need for work to produce fruit. Thankfully, Jesus LIFTED the curse COMPLETELY and in HIM, we can have all the produce we ever need (a continual feast – Proverbs 15:15). He is what enables us to have an ABUNDANT life lacking NOTHING we need (John 10:10; Philippians 4:19).

Thorns and thistles were NOT created on this day – God had RESTED from His period of creation (Genesis 2:1-2). However, there was a dominance that they gained. Without the intervention of humanity’s PHYSICAL efforts, the trend would now be toward thorns and thistles, not fruit and abundance of food. In fact, if you look at the global tree population there are now more trees which do NOT produce edible fruit.

Sweat is the byproduct of humanity’s decision to rebel. It is the physical reminder of our fall. The priests wore clothes that prevented their sweating, showing a visible sign of the difference between holy life and life in the Earth. A visible reminder that in God, we rest (Hebrews 4:9-16).

Before the Fall, our immortal spirit (the breath of lives God breathed into us) was so much a part of us that we could not die. Death was not a thing. Because of the Fall, our bodies were separated from our immortal spirit. Our immortal spirit DIED. We got a sinful nature. In JESUS, we have HIS Spirit. Until we reunite with our own, which is sealed in Holy Spirit and in heaven like Jesus’ was (Ephesians 1:13; John 3:13). Until we get there before the Throne, these meat suits are going to perish. They age and when we give up our life they will return to the ground. Then we will get a new body that will be perfectly joined with our immortal spirit, and we will be just like Jesus is. An eternal and physical, spirit.

The sage Sforno writes: ‘כי שמעת לקול אשתך, by attributing to G’d such negative characteristics as lying and jealousy. ותאכל מן העץ, thereby rebelling and causing yourself death as you had been warned about. Because you listened and accepted the argument to think of G’d as imperfect, ארורה האדמה, the earth will not continue to put its potential at your disposal without your having to exert yourself by hard labour. Furthermore, also because you rebelled and violated My command, אל עפר תשוב, you will revert to dust, just as I had told you “on the day you eat from it you will surely become mortal.” (not that he would actually die on that same day).’