To the Man – Genesis 3:17-19

TheologyofWork.org is a robust source of Christian theology of work, including Bible Commentary, Key Topics, Devotionals, Small Group studies, Workers’ help, Help for Pastors, Resources for Scholars, and Podcasts.  We saw that work was a part of pre-Fall life in the garden, but with Adam’s fall into sin a futility has been added to work that might make us think of work itself as a curse.  It is not.

17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.  19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:17–19, ESV)

Yahweh scolds Adam for listening to the voice of his wife.  He should have challenged her and not eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  He should have been a leader, but instead was passive.  The consequence for the man, whose main job will not be childbearing but farming, is a curse on the ground.  Whereas before it always responded correctly to human work like planting and growing, now undesirable plants will spring up with edible plants and fight against man’s efforts.  Work will become more difficult and sweatier than before and man’s years will be spent fighting to live, only to eventually die physically.  That is futile and frustrating.  That is not how life was meant to be.

God has instituted with both men and women this futility to life on earth.  Paul mentions this in Romans 8:20 and the entire book of Ecclesiastes is devoted to this subject.  Life is not meaningless (a wrong translation of Ecclesiastes 1:2) but futile or frustrating as a means of finding meaning and blessing.  God has made it this way to keep us from thinking all we need is this perfect life on earth without Him.  Because life is so challenging and unfulfilling in any ultimate way, we are driven to seek an answer to life in God.  Frustration in relationships, illness, hard and unending work that doesn’t produce as it should, and finally death, should motivate us to look for life in the God who made us and our Earth.

Solomon shows us in Ecclesiastes that no area of life we choose to find perfection and blessing in will ultimately yield that blessing, and we will all eventually die, death being the ultimate futility.  We were made with eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11), not for dying.  We were made for a quality of life the Bible describes as eternal life, not just unending life, but beautiful and fruitful life with not frustration.  We lost that for ourselves when we disobeyed God’s command.