What is The Curse?
A Lesson on God's Curse.
In the Bible, in the book of Genesis the 3rd
chapter we see that God curses the Earth.
We need to clarify what this is and what it is not.
Because there is a ton of truth that impacts our daily lives which stems from
this event.
Let’s lay down some facts before we get to the curse,
because you must understand some things in order to see what has happened.
First, God created everything good. Because God is
love and God is good. This is a fact. We might not understand it, because we
are fallen. We cannot understand God’s ways. But He is good and love. The
definition of love in Gods eyes can be found throughout the Bible. I
Corinthians chapter 13 is a good place to find it. Also, the fact that God left
a beautiful heaven and came to terrible Earth Himself, to die an awful death to
save people who hate Him. Is the paramount, vision of love.
You have to understand this in order to see what the
scriptures are saying. Accepting that God is good and that He is love and that
He loves us is very important. When Satan tempted Eve, he got her to doubt God’s
goodness and love.
So, He created everything good. And because of love He
gave us and the angels free will. In order to have free will you must have a
choice. God could have created everything to love Him, but that’s not truth or
real love. So, there must be free will. Forced love is not real love. There
must be the option to choose something else.
The choice for humans was the tree of the Knowledge of
Good and Evil placed in the garden with them. God warned them not to eat of it.
They had everything they needed. That’s God. He takes care of His creation.
There was nothing missing in the lives of Adam and Eve. They were also created
good. In God’s good creation.
God warned them, “On the day you eat of it you shall
surely die.” This shows that death existed, but was not in the world. There was
no death at this time. Understand that nothing God creates can be destroyed. He
is God. He is good. Death is not an end or destruction. It is a separation to a
different place and a different form. Death is separation from God and from
each other. (This is to stop the spread of Sin.) If we are made righteous by
God, then we go to Paradise to be with Him. If not, then we are separated to
the quarantine garbage dump of Hell or Hades. Then the Lake of Fire.
It needs to be said that time is different with God.
And that time is not fully explained in the scriptures. God created everything
in 6 days, then rested on the 7th. That’s a fact. But we do not know
how long things sat after creation.
We know that Satan fell because he desired to be as
the most high God. How long did that take? How long till he made that decision?
This fact proves that angels and other spiritual being have free will the same
as humans. Because they fell. Love requires free will.
Next, we see Adam and Eve in the Garden. How long were
they there before the fall? We know that Adam had time to name all the animals
before Eve was even created. How long did that take? Then, after Eve was
created, how much time did they spend together until the fall?
We also do not know what affect death had on the
Earth. Nothing died until death entered. Then, things started to die slowly.
People lived for hundreds of years.
Which brings us back to the fall.
***
So, Satan in the form of a Serpent/Dragon/Dinosaur
came to Eve and got her to eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of
Good and Evil.
The scriptures tell us exactly what happened. That is
what happened.
We have heard all kinds of speculation on what
happened and who was to blame and all of that. I’m not going to get into that.
What we can see is that Satan caused Eve to doubt
God’s Goodness and Love. He got her to think that God was withholding something
from her. That God was oppressing her in some way. He got her to doubt God’s
Word. This is the foundation and the blue print for false teaching.
Eve responded by trying to be morally superior. She quoted
God. “Do not eat of it” then added her own religion to it. “Or even touch it.”.
we do not know if the addition was from her or if it’s what Adam told her,
because she was not present when God gave the initial warning.
Anyway, we see false teaching and religion on display
here.
So, she eats, and gives it to her husband to eat. Now
we don’t know how this actually worked. We envision that they were together,
when this happened, but Adam could have been somewhere else doing the job God
called Him to do. We don’t know.
The Bible says that Eve was deceived by Satan but Adam
was not deceived. This will be explained by God at the curse, despite all the
accusations given by preachers over the years.
So, they both ate.
And their eyes were opened and they saw they were
naked.
Now understand some things. Before they ate, they did
not see a problem with the state they were in. They were happy. All their needs
were met, they were in relationship with God and they did not see a problem.
But after eating they discovered they were naked, and
were ashamed and covered their nakedness with leaves.
God created nakedness. There is nothing wrong with
nakedness. The story is speaking of spiritual truth. It is a picture of our
fallen state. We as humans see our problem. We see our failure, and we create
rules and religions to cover it.
When they ate of the fruit they died spiritually and
became separated from God in spirit. This is the state of all humanity. We are
separated from God and the things of the Spirit realm beyond the veil. God
removed them from the Garden. They and us no longer had access to Him or real
spiritual things.
Remember, God said… “On The Day you eat of it you
shall surely die.” But Adam did not die
that day. He died 900+ years later. This is why Peter says that God’s days are
a thousand years. (2 Pet. 3:8)
***
So, God comes to find his children who have fallen. He
knows they have fallen but He wants them to confess. This is very important,
because our confession to Him and our admission of our state is part of our
salvation. We must be real with God, and let Him take care of us.
So, God covers them with coats of skins. The Bible
does not say where these skins came from or what they are. But it is a picture
of God covering us with Christ. Not our man-made religions.
So, all of this was said to set us up to look at the
curse. I’m going to post the verses here, then put commentary within.
First, realize that this is what the curse says. Death
and Sin is not part of the curse. Disease is not part of the curse. Poverty is
not part of the curse. God did not do that to us. Those things are the results
of living in a world ruined by Death, Satan, The Plague of Sin and the Fallen
world. Not the curse. The curse is very specific, and was designed by God to
save us and bring us back to Him. This is important to see.
14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art
cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly
shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
Have you seen any dragons or dinosaurs lately? No. All you
see are reptiles, that crawl mostly on their belly. Not massive proud beasts.
Humans lived with dinosaurs in the garden and after, when we were run out of
the Garden of God. Dinosaurs existed up to and a little after the Flood. This
is the curse on the Serpent, or Hisser in Hebrew. The next part of the curse
transitions from physical to spiritual to prophetic.
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 shalt bruise his heel.
We see the physical aspect. There is a feeling of dread
between reptiles and many women. This also goes on for generations. We see this
and it’s truth of what God’s Word says. But it transitions into the spiritual.
Because the Serpent is Satan, and the Woman is the Church. Or the believers
made righteous in Christ by God. We are at war with the forces of the fallen
angels. This war continues with every person who gets saved. The last part is a
prophecy about Christ. He will crush the head of the enemy. This happened at
the cross and will happen when he returns and ends it all. Remember, God is
speaking to the Serpent and Satan here. The message is to him.
Next God speaks to the Woman.
16 Unto the woman he said, I will
greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring
forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over
thee.
Now understand that we again transition from physical to
spiritual. This is very important to catch. First, the physical is plainly
speaking of a woman’s concern for the family and the things of the family. She
is a nurturer and has a heart that strikes her differently. Remember she was
created to be a help meet for Adam. (I realize that in this day and age we want
to avoid saying “All Women” do this. But, yes, in this fallen world, things do
get confused). Then, we see the pain in child birth and the suffering of
motherhood and caring for children. The heart breakings that go with motherhood.
The concern for the children. Then, we see that she will desire to help her
husband, she is his help meet. But her sinful nature will cause her to desire
to rule over him, and he instead will rule over her. It’s the battle of the
sexes. Both men and women have corrupted natures that cause us to be prideful,
angry and not listen to each other. Before the Fall it was not this way.
Ok, now we transition toward the spiritual, because why
would God do this? He’s God. He is Good and Love. His nature doesn’t change.
So, this is not punishment, as some like to believe. It serves a loving
purpose.
This was designed by God to cause her to seek help. Help
from who? Well, hopefully help from God. The woman’s desire to protect her
children and family was designed to cause her to turn to God and be saved and
pray for her children and to get them saved as well. And to try to minister to
her husband. See? As it says in first Timothy chapter two; that she is saved
through child rearing. (1 Timothy 2:15) We know that we are not saved by works (Eph
2) so, being saved through child bearing must imply that some aspect of raising
and having children will draw the mother to God. In context this seems to be
accurate.
Now we look at the spiritual, because the woman is the
Church. We struggle in our battle between flesh and spirit and Satan. While we
work to bring more people into salvation. We will try to create religion, to
replace Christ. But He will still rule over us.
17 And unto Adam he said, 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;
18 Thorns also and thistles shall it
bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou
eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for
dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Again, we will have a transition from physical to spirit.
First, God plainly states what Adam did wrong. He listened to his wife instead
of listening to God. God warned him not to eat of the fruit. But he chose to
listen to his wife instead. Adam was not deceived, he willfully ignored God.
This is why our corrupted nature and the plague of sin comes through Adam. This
is why Jesus was born of a virgin in a pure womb without the works of man.
Jesus was without Sin. He did not even have our corrupted nature. He was
tempted like us, but succeeded, because there was nothing in Him to draw Him
into sin. (James 1: 13-14)
Notice that God does not curse Adam. He curses the Ground.
It’s my belief that when the Flood came, it washed away the perfect world, that
existed at this time and left us in a world where the ground does not produce
like it once did. It’s very possible that the former world was so fertile that
you could plant one seed and gain a harvest, and eat one fruit and it would
sustain you for a week or more. And nobody got fat. We could eat whatever we
wanted and not get fat. Maybe?
But, because of the curse our world is now in competition
with itself. Everything struggles for the meager resources available. Course,
if we all lived within our means we would be fine. But, because we fear death
and do not trust God or others, we struggle and strive to always have more than
we need. This goes for all of creation. This a response to death and the fear
of it.
Man will work and struggle to survive. He will fight to
protect and provide for his family. While everything constantly decays and
falls apart and must be repaired and replaced.
But, like the woman this curse was designed to get Adam to
seek help. Help from who? To reach out to God for help. That is the reason for
the Curse. It is designed to get us to turn to God and be saved by Him. We live
in this world of death and evil, ruled by Satan, but if everything went well,
we would never turn to God. We would just continue in our fallen state. But,
the hardship of the curse causes us to wake up and realize we need help. Then
God presents Himself as the help. He comes running when we call out to Him.
This is why the love of money and wealth causes problems
with salvation. As Jesus said, “its easier for a camel to go through the eye of
a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven” (Matt. 19:24) Why? Not because
of wealth. We are not saved by works. But because wealth insulates us from the
problems of life designed to cause us to need God. If you can throw money at
all your problems, you have less need to throw yourself on God for help.
From the physical we transition to the spiritual.
We as believers shall eat the bread of the Word of God as
we struggle in our battle with the enemy and our flesh. Till we die physically
and until we finally kill off the fleshly man and bring forth the new spiritual
man. The old life, must pass away as we grow into the new in Christ.
20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve;
because she was the mother of all living.
The woman is the Church. Christ declares that she is the
mother of all those who are saved. We are saved by hearing the Word from other
saved people, who follow the Spirit.
Notice in Genesis 2:20-23, right after she is created Adam names her Woman,
because she came out of man. There was no need for salvation at this time. She
was a living spirit. But, after the fall she is renamed and becomes; ‘Eve” the
mother of all living. Because now there’s a need for salvation after the fall.
She is a picture of the Bride of Christ, the second Adam; Jesus.
21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did
the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
We are hidden in Christ, and with Christ. We are washed in
His blood and covered with His righteousness. This is the salvation of all
those who are saved.
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 forever:
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.
Why?
First, remember that Adam was created from the dust of the
Earth, then taken somewhere else to live and serve.
It’s my belief that the Garden was in the city of God. Adam
saw God. He spoke with Him, he walked with Him in Paradise. He had a
relationship with Him. But the Fall severed that relationship and made it to
where Adam and Eve could no longer live in the Garden.
In their fallen state they had become more fleshly and of
the world. Not Paradise. Their eyes were opened and they were no longer in a
state of Goodness. They had fallen.
This fallen state would have been made permanent if we had
eaten of the Tree of Life. If we had eaten of it then heaven and everything
would be corrupted forever. God could not save us and bring us into His
kingdom. We would be filled with evil and the plague of Sin and death forever.
The way of salvation is blocked. Unless we go through
Christ. He is the Gate. Robbers and thieves try to come in another way. But the
right way is through Christ.
So, that is the reason for the Curse, and what is going on
in this world. Turn to Jesus and find life.
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Bio:Chris Bunton is a writer, poet and blogger from
Southern Illinois. He has published in several magazines, and has
written a poetry eBook called “Against the Man” and an Addiction Recovery eBook called “Made Free: Overcoming Addiction“ His newest book is called “The Future is Coming” and is a collection of dystopian short stories.
Follow Him on Medium: https://chris-bunton.medium.com/
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