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READ: Gen. 3:16-24 … Therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim … to guard …
God reveals Himself in Genesis as a faithful and gracious Covenant God: the LORD, I AM WHO I AM. God desires to save His creation by restoring it, for our redemption and His glory. He will not abandon the work of His hands. The LORD remains faithful and intervenes even after Satan has led humanity into sin. At the same time, He upholds His justice.
For the woman, this means punishment regarding the task of multiplication: great pain in childbirth and labor. She also faces the consequences of her sinful initiative in the fall: her husband will rule over her. Thus, the harmony of marriage is disrupted.
Adam, too, receives punishment, as he should not have listened to his wife and violated God’s command. God’s punishment falls upon the work of tilling the ground: it is cursed for as long as man lives. Thorns and thistles will overrun the good crops and laboring in the field will be arduous. And ultimately, man will experience death and decay. “Dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
Thus, God upholds His punishment over man, his labour, and the environment in which he must live and work. Everything within and around him displays the harsh reality of God’s curse: disruption, brokenness, misery.
Yet, even in all this, we still see grace: death does not come immediately. There is still temporary life, the same tasks of life continue, the earth still yields food, and children may still be born! And man can live with the promise to the mother, that everything will be different someday. God will use the Offspring of the woman, the second Adam, for this purpose. Adam understood this and named his wife Eve, the mother of all living.
Do you recognize God’s punishment for sin in your own life?
Singing: Ps. 38:2,5