Genesis 3:17 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Genesis 3:17

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It is the same with the judgment upon Adam. Matthew Henry puts it very beautifully: ‘For man, it was to be a place of toil, not a place of torment. To the ground he would go, not to the grave. To the workhouse, not to the dungeon. He would be sent to hold the plough, not to drag the chain.’ That is a beautiful description of the judgment upon man, tempered with mercy, opportunity, hope, time to repent and to turn – a way of salvation. Things would be hard, but it would not be instant hell.Adam’s is the more formal judgment . ‘Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles’, not to mention fierce and hostile animals, and stones, and all kinds of other ills. Stones and thistles in every area of life – in your agriculture, in your family life, in your social life, in your physical wealth, and health and well-being. Everywhere will have its thorns and thistles from now on. That is clearly how we are to understand it. ‘And thou shalt eat the herb of the field;’ verse 19, ‘In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground.’ There will be always be hardship and trial and difficulty. ‘For out of it was thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.’ So death is the new reality; there was no death in the pre-fall biology of the earth. Previously there was no destruction of any kind, but now death has come in, and man is under sentence of death.These words tell us that there was a profound change in the nature of biology at this point. The principle of death and decay entered the world through sin. The world was cursed and that curse is to remain over the world until all things are renewed at the coming of Christ. Christ cannot return in his glorified state to this world until the curse is removed, but that must wait until all things are fulfilled. Until then, ‘For the creation [has been] subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Romans 8:20-21)’. When Christ returns he will remove the curse forever.

Application

From whatever source temptation comes to us, we must reject it. In Adam’s case, Satan chose to reach him through that creature who was closest to him, for whom he no doubt already had a strong affection. She was the one whom God had made specially for him, to supply his keenly felt need. Adam was more likely to listen to her than to any other creature. There was also an element of deception in his eating of the fruit of the tree and in thinking the tree would give him what God had withheld from him, but he was persuaded to follow this path because his wife had led the way. She had gone down a path which he too must follow if he was to remain with her. Eve had taken the role of leader of them both when she ought to have followed Adam’s lead. Paul gives this is the reason why the woman should receive instruction and not teach or exercise authority over a man in the church (1 Timothy 2:11-15). The strategy that Satan has used before, he will use again, if allowed.

Questions

Why did God curse the whole creation and not just man who alone was guilty of sin? Because Adam could not continue to exist in a perfect world while he himself was subject to death and his own soul was also corrupted. Could Adam Malone be mortal while all of the creatures continue to have life? No, if death came into the world, it came upon all: the animals as well as man. Creation had been made for man and now he must see in the creation around him a reflection of the corruption that had taken place inside his own heart. As Adam and Eve went from even inclined new hills and looked across new landscapes they saw that death had gone before them.

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Genesis 3:17 Commentary and Bible Study