Some put forth that the special curse that was pronounced on
Adam because of his sin in the Garden of Eden, has not been
lifted and is still with us today, that mankind is still fighting
a great battle with "thorns" and "thistles" every time he plants
a garden, puts in a farming crop, just a sweating, a hard
toiling, a difficult laboring, a constant fight against thorns
and thistles that make working the land just about impossible, or
very difficult.
Is this really the case? Is all mankind, everywhere, in all
nations, having to fight and battle the ground that is constantly
putting forth thorns and thistles, as some perpetual curse from
God, that makes trying to work the soil a constant sweating
hardship?
Let us be willing to look at this once upon a time popular
teaching of many religious leaders and Bible commentators, let's
look at it a little closer, within the Bible itself, and
also from historical facts as some nations migrated over the last
number of centuries into the new world to process and work some
very rich and fertile land that they inherited.
BIBLE COMMENTARIES
Some well noted, if not famous Bible commentators over the
last 400 years have espoused in their preaching and in their
Bible Commentaries (still available today) that the curse put
upon Adam for his sin, is a curse that was never lifted, and is
still with us to this very day.
Now, I have some Bible Commentaries in my library. I use, from
time to time, the popular Bible Commentaries, but I use them VERY
CAREFULLY, realizing that the writers of such works were merely
human beings as I am, as you are. Often they were raised with
pre-conceived religious ideas, from their parents or church or
religious college they may have attended to earn their
theological degree. I use and read these Bible commentators with
the realization they do not all agree among themselves, and that
in fact they are wrong in their teaching and comments MANY times.
As a member of the Church of God, that observes the 7th day
Sabbath and annual Festivals of the Lord as outlined in Lev.23, I
must remember that nearly all these Bible commentators of popular
Christianity, are from the Roman Catholic and Protestant
religious faiths. And as such, we in the Church of God that
observe the 7th day Sabbath, would immediately claim such
Catholic and Protestant commentators are very wrong on
some very fundamental doctrines of the Bible, hence their Bible
Commentaries must be taken and used with great care.
It should be held by all those who hold the Bible as their
only foundation of truth, that NO DOCTRINE should be founded upon
Bible Commentaries. The Bible can stand on its own two feet, or
shall I say TWO COVENANTS, the Old and the New covenants,
Genesis to Revelation. And that the Bible INTERPRETS ITSELF!
Putting scripture with scripture, searching the Scriptures,
studying to show ourselves approved unto God, together with the
help from the Holy Spirit, will LEAD into all truth, just as
Jesus promised.
To be sure the Bible Commentaries can be a help at times, they
do often give us some technical information on the meaning of
Hebrew or Greek words, or some historical facts that help us
understand a certain passage of the Scriptures. And that is the
MAIN use and function they have.
Once more let me state, the comments by the popular and well
known Bible commentators, are just that, their comments. No
doctrine should be based on their comments alone, sometimes they
are correct and sometimes they are very incorrect.
Use their books and their writings with CARE.
LET'S BACK UP
Adam was placed in a garden IN Eden, according to the first
chapters of Genesis. Notice what is stated under inspiration, in
chapter 2 and verse 15, "And the Lord God took the man, and put
him into the garden of Eden to DRESS it and to KEEP it."
Now, I submit to you, that these words entail that Adam was to
do some WORK! He was not just to sit around, put his feet up, lay
in the sun, and watch the birds fly around all day. He was not in
some holiday resort, having it all brought to him on a platter,
just lazing away his time. God obviously created the garden in
such a way as that it needed to be worked and tended, cared for,
and looked after, otherwise it would run wild, not look like the
Eternal intended it to look. Some WORK by Adam was needed to
keep it looking good, as God created it and wanted it maintained.
When later on, after Adam sinned, and a land curse was
pronounced upon him, I think it should be clear to us that that
curse was a special curse from God that meant his work in keeping
the land he was to be given (outside Eden, as Adam and Eve were
driven out, not able to return, as the narrative shows) was not
going to be anywhere as easy work as the work of keeping the
garden in Eden. But the fact remains some form of work was
required while in Eden. God made man to do work. Life is full
of work in one way or another.
Keeping a garden does take some work. A farmer seeding and
harvesting crops from off his land, a fruit tree grower caring
for his trees and harvesting the fruit they produce, does take
some work. Man was made to WORK!
Now, go over and read Adam's curse in chapter 3. Oh, Adam was
still going to have to work, but this time the ground was going
to yield thorns and thistles, as never before. His work was going
to be so hard, for all the work on the ground he would do, it
would still bring forth thorns and thistles in a special way, a
real battle indeed. This was a curse on the ground that would
translate into the kind of work Adam could never have imagined.
Many years ago, while living in southern Ontario, near
Toronto, my wife and I rented a house at the edge of a town, a
country house with land, that according to my landlord
had never been used, virgin soil. I asked him if we could plant a
garden. He had no objection at all, and so a section of this
virgin land with its wild grass was rota-tilled and vegetable
seeds and corn seeds were planted. The land contained no thorns
and no thistles. I remember doing nothing at all to the corn
patch, it just sprouted corn and grew and grew. Corn grows 5 or 6
feet or more and could care less about wild grass that may
grow under its feet so to speak. Wow, that corn was the best
and sweetest I've ever had. There really was very little work to
do in order to produce that wonderful tasty corn, not much
toiling, and no sweating, and no thorns or thistles.
The vegetable garden was just about the same. Oh yes, a few
weeds and wild grass to pull now and then, but no thorns or
thistle fighting, they just were not there. A little more work in
that garden compared to the corn patch garden, but certainly no
sweating, really just some pleasant evening dressing and keeping
of that garden, and only now and then at that, not every evening,
only once and a while.
In that and other garden experiences I've had over the years,
I have never felt I was under Adam's curse of fighting a land
that seemed to only want to produce thorns and thistles. Maybe I
happened to live in areas where thorns and thistles did not live,
I think there are tens of thousands of other families and farmers
around the nations of the Western world, who have and are still
experiencing what I so vividly experienced on that virgin soil in
southern Ontario those many years ago.
THREE CURSES ON THREE BEINGS
The three curses pronounced on the Serpent, Eve, and Adam,
were specific and only for them as individual beings, with the
expansion of Adam's personal curse to extend to his offspring
because the curse effected the LAND they all would work, to sweat
upon as they struggled to produce food to eat among the thorns
and thistles God said it would now produce.
Let's look at each curse somewhat.
The verses that cover the first curse are found in Genesis
chapter 3:1, 14-15. From these verses many have taught (and it
may be correct) that Satan used and talked through some kind of
creature the Eternal had created, to tempt Eve to disobey the
command of God not to eat from a certain tree in the garden. It
would seem that Type and Anti-type slip back and forth in these
verses. Whatever may be the case about the possibility that the
serpent the Devil (Rev.12:9) used a physical creature to manifest
himself to Eve, or used some other form to talk to her, we do
find that the curse was on ONE being. Read verse 14. There is
nothing in this curse to say MORE than one being, whatever it may
have been, was given a curse. This curse was for this being, no
more and no less.
To say that "snakes" are from this curse, hence a curse still
with us today, is purely of human conjecture, from the fancy
ideas of the imagination of the human heart. Many other creatures
move around on their belly besides snakes. And I do not know of
any snake that eats dust, dirt, or sand, in order to live, or
because they have some curse upon them.
This curse was upon ONE being, and from the words "all the
days of your life" the indication is that this being who was
cursed, was a physical creature of some kind, that would
eventually die, and in so dying the curse would also die.
Nothing here to indicate that the curse of verse 14 was going
to last all the way down to our time today.
The second curse is found in verse 16. It was a curse upon
the woman. Notice it, "And unto the WOMAN He (God) said....."
Nothing in this verse to say ALL women from the time of Eve were
under this curse.
Oh, I know, I know, what has been taught by some preachers of
the Bible, and some Bible commentators over the centuries, some
still teaching it today. The teaching has been from many
religious quarters that ALL women from Eve on, will have PAIN,
physical pain in childbirth, and that they are under the THUMB of
their husbands, as their mighty ruler.
NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH!
The pioneer of modern natural pain free childbirth, in the
Western world, GRANTY DICK REID, in his book called CHILDBIRTH
WITHOUT FEAR (out of print, but possibly your local Library will
have it, very educational and informative), completely,
scholastically, from the Hebrew words used in this verse, proves
without a doubt this teaching, widely promulgated and believed in
his day, is utterly FALSE.
Of course the simple way that this teaching can be found to be
an error, without a knowledge of the Hebrew (which Granty Dick
Reid does carefully and technically expound in his above
mentioned book) is the fact that MANY women have PAINLESS
childbirths, maybe hard work (then again some do not even have
much hard work even, I've known and talked to such women) but NO
PHYSICAL PAIN. As Reid brings out in his famous book, many
Oriental women, before the modern age, just went out into the
field when it was time to bring forth their baby, squatted,
pushed as if having a bowel movement, and gave birth, no hard
work, and no pain.
I have known a few ladies in my life that when close to their
due date for childbirth, they thought nature was calling, and
needed to go to the bathroom for a bowel movement, and....you
guessed it, the bowel movement was their baby coming, no pain,
no hard work. They never made it to the hospital needless to say,
their baby was born in the bathroom.
Many thousands of modern women today disprove the idea that
God placed a curse on all women from the time of Eve, a curse
that says all women will have physical pain during childbirth.
It is not the intention of this study to expound all the truth
concerning this verse. What I do want you again to notice is that
this so-called curse is given to the woman, to Eve. Nothing is
said here that what God told Eve He was going to give her was to
be passed on to ALL women for ALL time, as long as women were
giving birth to children.
The third curse is found in verses 17-19. Like the above two
curses, it is given to ONE being, in this case to Adam. Once
more nothing is said that it will be passed on to ALL persons,
ALL over the world, for ALL time, until the Kingdom of God is set
up on the earth, at the glorious coming of the Messiah Christ.
Now, this curse on the ground, was something OUTSIDE of Adam,
that could and would effect others of his offspring, as they also
had to work this same land. Adam lived close to a thousand
years, so the effect was long and would have effected an
eventual large population.
I submit, these three curses were upon single BEINGS only,
with Adam's curse or punishment being on the physical land, and
hence so effecting numerous others that would come via Adam's
offspring.
I submit that nothing in these verses state the curses would
forever continue on the earth as long as there were physical
person on the earth, or for as long as the Messiah is yet to
come to establish the literal Kingdom of God.
THE SPECIFICS OF ADAM'S CURSE
Genesis chapter 3 and verse 17 tells us that Adam's punishment
for disobedience was that the ground would be cursed. The
following verses get more specific and bring out the main details
of this curse upon the ground and the resultant effect it would
have on Adam. As we have noted, not only Adam would be effected
in his manner of life from this ground curse but also those of
his offspring.
Here, we see that God was going to MAKE AND PERFORM A SPECIFIC
circumstance on the ground that was not there in the beginning.
It would be an intervention on God's part with what we call
"nature." He would bring about certain phenomena as related in
verse 18 (which we shall look at in detail shortly) that would
make Adam's working of that land, a SORROW, or more specifically,
a TOIL, as this Hebrew word would better be understood as
meaning. It is number 6093 in Strong's Concordance for those who
may want to research this word in more depth. It is used in
chapter 5 and verse 29, where the context is clearly indicating
that the WORK and TOIL mankind was now experiencing with
producing food from the land was NOT A COMFORT, hence the work
and toil not of the garden of Eden, of easy pleasure, but
HARD SWEATING TOIL of DIS-comfort.
Here is what MATTHEW HENRY says concerning this in his Bible
Commentary:
"Cursed is the ground for your sake; and the effect of that
curse is, Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth unto
thee. It is here intimated that his habitation should be
changed; he should no longer dwell in a distinguished,
blessed paradise, but should be removed to common ground,
and that cursed........His business shall from
henceforth become a toil to him, and he shall go on with it
in the sweat of his face,v.19. His business before he
sinned, was a constant pleasure to him; the garden was then
dressed without any uneasy labor, and kept without any
uneasy care; but now his labor shall be a weariness, and
shall waste his body; his care shall be torment, and shall
afflict his mind. The curse upon the ground, which made it
barren, and produce thorns and thistles, made his employment
about it much more difficult and toilsome....."
ADAM CLARKE'S Bible commentary has this to say:
" Cursed is the ground for thy sake - from henceforth its
fertility shall be greatly impaired; in sorrow shalt thou
eat of it, be in continual perplexity concerning the seed
time and the harvest, the cold and the heat, the wet and the
dry......"
Once more notice the last words of verse 17, "....all the
days of YOUR LIFE." A specific curse or punishment on ADAM for
all the days of his life, and Adam lived, as some chronologers
have worked out, to just BEFORE THE FLOOD, close to the time of
NOAH, which we shall come to and study later on in this article.
For now, keep in mind Genesis 5:29, and that the word Noah means,
rest or comfort.
This was a curse upon Adam, a single person, just as the other
two previous curses were upon specific personal beings. Yet,
Adam's curse or punishment was on the ground he would work, and
so effect also his offspring, the rest of mankind that would come
via the children Adam and Eve would produce. Certainly Adam would
die before the curse ended.
Before we study in-depth verse 18, I want you to re-read what
I have written about verse 17 above. Now, I want you to meditate
on the vast majority of households and farmers in the Western
world. I will specifically meditate upon the lands I'm familiar
with, England, Wales, Canada, and the USA.
Most in those countries who plant gardens and who work the
land in growing various grain crops (and I've lived in all the
above countries, seen it all first hand, even been part of it at
times, making my living in the agricultural/animal world) have
been blessed with fertile soil, richly producing mountains of
food stuffs that the rest of the world often envies. The land
workers of those four countries, though often working long hours
at times, do not call their work a discomfort, but in the most
part a joyful pleasure, and they are not out in the fields
constantly having to fight a running battle with thorns and
thistles. The grain farmers of Western Canada and other parts
who are organic farmers, some I have lived near, are not fighting
a battle against thorns and thistles, and just a puffing,
groaning, pulling and sweating in hard laborious toil as they
work their land. I have known and talked to organic fruit
orchard owners in the Okanagan Valley of B.C. where I lived for
three years, and they told me they had to do a little more work
to keep their fruit trees healthy by not using chemical sprays to
ward off the bugs and the birds, but they were not fighting
thorns and thistles, nor did any of them think or believe they
were under some terrible hard sweating discomfort that made their
life miserable. They thought is was a pleasure to have such a
natural working relationship with the produce of the land.
The punishment on Adam via the curse God would place on the
land "all the days of his life" would be no such pleasure. God
would specifically send thorns and thistles, a deliberate
intervention in the land, on the soil, outside of the garden of
Eden, Adam would be driven from, which would be a very real
DIS-comfort, for all, until someone by the name of Noah would be
born, and whom his father prophesied would COMFORT the
land and people, which the Lord had cursed (chap.5:29).
Now to the specifics of verse 18.
The JAMIESON, FAUSSET, BROWN, Bible Commentary in three
volumes, gives the GREEK word used for "thistle" in the
Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament by 70
Jewish scholars around 200 B.C.) and then states:
".......the calthropy of botanists, a kind of thistle armed
with long spines. This latter word is supposed to be
derived from a root which signifies 'round,' in reference to
its spherical form, or its being surrounded by a downy
circlet, which makes it capable of easy and rapid revolution
along the surface of the ground. The seed is furnished
with means of quick and extensive dissemination, for it has
a wing to waft it from place to place, and a hook by which
it can fasten on any object that is in the way of its
transit. Botanists have reckoned that a single seed of the
common thistle will produce in the first crop 2,400 and
576,000,000 in the second, and so on, in the same
extraordinary ratio of increase........
.......'The sweat of the face' was to be substituted for a
light and pleasant pastime;'the herb of the field' for the
delicious fruit trees of Eden......"
ADAM CLARKE in his popular Bible Commentary has a long
detailed factual comment on various thistles and thorns. I will
quote most of it:
" .......In the curse pronounced on the ground there is much
more implied than generally appears. The amazing fertility
of some of the most common thistles and thorns renders them
the most proper instruments for the fulfilment of this
sentence against man. Thistles multiply enormously; a
species called Carolina sylvestris bears ordinarily from 20
to 40 heads, each containing from 100 to 150 seeds.
Another species, called the Acanthum vulgare, produces about
100 heads, each containing 3 to 400 seeds. Suppose we say
that these thistles produce at a medium only 80 heads, and
that each contains only 300 seeds; the first crop from these
would amount to 24,000. Let these be sown, and the crop will
amount to 576 millions. Sow these, and their produce will
be 13,824,000,000,000.......and a single crop from these,
which is only the third year's growth, would amount to
331,776,000,000,000,000.......and the fourth year's growth
will amount to 7,962,624,000,000,000,000,000.......A progeny
more than sufficient to stock not only the surface of the
whole world, but of all the planets of the solar system, so
that no other plant or vegetable could possibly grow,
allowing but a space of one square foot for each plant.
The Carduus vulgatissimus viarum, or common hedge thistle,
besides the almost infinite swarms of winged seeds it sends
forth, spreads its roots around many yards,and throws up
suckers everywhere, which not only produce seeds in their
turn, but extend their roots, propagate like the parent
plant, and stifle and destroy all vegetation but their own.
As to THORNS, the bramble, which occurs so commonly, and is
so mischievous, is a sufficient proof how well the means are
calculated to secure the end. The genista,or spinosa
vulgaris, called by some furze, by others whins, is allowed
to be one of the most mischievous shrubs on the face of the
earth. Scarcely anything can grow near it......It is very
prolific; almost half the year it is covered with flowers
which produce pods filled with seeds. Besides, it shoots out
roots far and wide, from which suckers and young plants are
continually springing up, which produce others in their
turn......it is extremely difficult to clear the ground of
its roots once it has got proper footing......"
AAAHHH!! Such is the nature of many species of thorns and
thistles. With such comments is the usefulness of Bible
Commentaries, a lot of interesting facts and figures already
studied and written for us.
God was now going to punish Adam (and his offspring who would
automatically reap the sweating hard toil by the curse on the
land) for his sin, by lifting His hand, or shall we say planting
with His hand, the choking, land grabbing THORNS AND THISTLES,
that mankind would have to constantly battle against in the sweat
of his brow. Adam, all the days of his life (verse 17) and until
he returned unto the ground, and was once again dust(verse 19).
Stop and think. If this curse was STILL on the earth and all
mankind everywhere was still having to battle and fight this
curse in the sweat of their brow, then when the white man
discovered North America and the Indians (a part of the offspring
of Adam), he should have discovered a land just FILLED with mile
after mile, acre after acre, of nothing but thorns and thistles
(given what Adam Clarke has revealed to us about the swift
multiplication of the same), and only some acres that the Indians
would have cleared and managed to keep under control, by the
sweat of the brow. But the white man found no such overrun land
of thorns and thistles, and there sure were not enough Indians in
North America to have kept those nasty fellows in the deep blue
sea of the Atlantic or Pacific, if God was still punishing man
with Adam's curse on the land.
This curse for Adam, put on the land, was very
SPECIFIC......it was a curse of THORNS and THISTLES! It was not
a curse of wild grasses, as found in many nations of the earth,
such as North America when discovered, grasses that the abundance
of wild life thrive upon.
Adam's curse had very specific words within it. And PART of
those words most have forgotten or most choose to ignore, but
those words are also part of the whole total curse that was to be
the punishment for Adam, until he returned to the dust, until
"all the days of thy life."
To be continued
Adam's Curse, is it with us Today? #2Is the Curse put on the land because of the sin of Adam still with us today? Adam's curse had very specific words within it. And PART of
those words most have forgotten or most choose to ignore, but
those words are also part of the whole total curse that was to be
the punishment for Adam, until he returned to the dust, until
"all the days of thy life."
The overlooked words of Adam's curse:
"......AND YOU SHALL EAT THE HERB OF THE FIELD" (verse 18).
Matthew Henry in his Bible Commentary has this to say:
" .....His food shall from henceforth become (in comparison
with what it had been unpleasant to him. (1.) The matter of
his food is changed: he must now eat the herb of the field,
and must no longer be feasted with the delicacies of the
garden of Eden:.......(2.) There is a change in the manner
of his eating it; in sorrow, (v.17)and in the sweat of his
face, (v.19) he must eat of it......."
Indeed, Matthew Henry could see that in the garden of Eden,
as chapter 1:28-30 shows, Adam and Eve had all the blessing of
the seed bearing herbs good for food and ALSO every tree in which
there was a fruit bearing seed. All this was their food. I can
just imagine the wonderful variety of fruits and vegetable there
must have been in that garden. It makes my mouth water as I think
about what it surely was like. And the pleasant easy work it was
for them to have "dressed and kept" that garden paradise.
Now the curse of Adam meant not only a constant battle with
thorns and thistles,but the food of Adam and his offspring as
they were now to live outside of the garden(chap.3:22-24) and
prevented from ever again entering, was to be ONLY herbs. The
delicious fruit bearing trees of the garden were not a part of
the land outside of that garden. And further more, the work to
produce what herbs they would cultivate for food, would be
fraught with hard toil, laborious labor, and much sweating of the
brow.
Is it possible to live without fruits? Yes, of course it
is. So God was giving a punishment here that some others down
through the centuries have found themselves in. People have and
still do, live in parts of nations and land areas where no fruits
trees grow. It takes a certain climate for fruits tress to
flourish.
The North American Indians have lived in many parts of that
continent for thousands of years, and only certain parts have the
climate to produce fruit trees.
People can live without eating from fruit trees, but fruit
does make eating that much more pleasant and enjoyable.
From Adam's sin, the enjoyment of the wonderful variety of
that part of eating made up of fruit from the trees that produced
those fruits, would be denied him and his offspring, until he
returned to the dust from whence he was taken (v.19).
This must be the meaning here, just as Matthew Henry could
also see, because eating the herb was part of this curse. Maybe
it is also intimated here that ONLY herbs, that produced from the
soil, was to be their food, with no meat or animal eating. We do
know from 1 Timothy 4 and from the animals Noah brought into the
Ark, that God created the animals clean and unclean from the
beginning, hence with the full intention that mankind was to eat
animal flesh as part of his diet.
The curse of Adam being in part, herb eating, would, by
saying such a pronouncement, mean that a part of this punishment
was that fruits and animal flesh eating was to be taken away
during all the days of Adam's life (v.17, 19, last parts).
The IMPORTANT thing to note here is that the specific NATURE
OF THE CURSE was TWOFOLD. 1. Thorns and Thistles so profuse the
working of the ground would be very difficult. 2. Herb eating
(and herbs were eaten in the garden of Eden), meaning ONLY herbs
would now be the food supply.
If ONE part of this curse is still in effect today, if it
was given to be in effect until Jesus would establish the Kingdom
of God on earth at His glorious coming, then the OTHER part of
this curse is also still in effect!
This, I submit, is the correct theological use and
understanding of verse 18. It is theologically sound to have both
parts of this curse fully in tact as a whole, IF the curse was to
extend to the coming of the Messiah in glory.
One part cannot be in effect and the other not. The first
part of the curse cannot be still in effect and the second part
not. The second part cannot still be in effect and the
first part not.
Selecting one part to be in effect while believing or
teaching the other part is not, is what I call "selective
theology." You select your theology by selecting what parts you
want to select your theology from, while ignoring other parts
that would show your selection may be on thin ice.
Now, look around, look at the world, study some history,
even from the time of after the flood of Noah's day. Has man, is
mankind today eating MORE than herbs for food? Oh, indeed so!
For those who especially know how to grow organic fruits.....wow,
what a taste, what a delicious part of eating. Being a fruit
eating fanatic myself, after living for three years in the
wonderful fruit belt that is the Okanagan Valley of British
Columbia, Canada, after living for three years in southern
Florida, among all the citrus fruit of oranges and grapefruit,
with many mango trees as a bonus, I surely know a little
of what the garden of Eden must have been like, but that garden
was even more delicious than anything we have today.
The point is, the second part of Adam's curse has never been
in effect since the days of Noah's worldwide flood. So, I
submit, sound and true theology must then see that there is no
other recourse but to admit that the first part of Adam's curse
has also never been in effect since the time Noah came forth from
the ark and set foot on dry ground to plant his vineyard.
NOAH, THE COMFORTER!
"And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years and begat
a son. And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall
comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of
the ground which the Lord has cursed" (Genesis 5:28,29).
Verse 29 as translated from the Hebrew by the scholar Jay P.
Green reads this way: "And he called his name Noah, saying, This
one shall comfort us from our work and the toil of our hands,
from the ground which has cursed Jehovah."
How was Noah going to comfort them, by inventing some
chemical spray that would kill all the thorns and thistles they
had to fight against ? I speak of course foolishly.
By reading back you will see that Lamech was from
Methuselah, who was from Enoch, one of the great righteous men
presented to us in the Bible. Verse 29, is more than just
interesting, its words are prophetic in nature. We are given
nothing else to go on, so to speak, but the words of this one
verse, kind of coming at us out of nowhere. We have to do some
reading between the lines. Somehow Lamech was given this
prophetic insight concerning the life of Noah, his son. Did God
speak directly to him? Was and angel set to tell him about
something to happen to the curse on the ground in the days of
Noah? Did Lamech discover this through a dream from God?
Perhaps his grandfather Enoch had passed this prophetic news on,
which he had received from God. We are not told, neither does it
really matter. The fact is that Lamech called the name of
his son NOAH, because it means comfort or rest.
And what we can understand from this verse is that the
comfort would be to do with the working and toil of the hands as
it pertained to the ground which the Lord had cursed. Now, I
submit that something was going to CHANGE so there would be
COMFORT to the workers of the land, which had a curse upon it.
I submit that in the days of Noah, the curse on the ground was
going to be changed in such a way as COMFORT would be the working
of those who toiled on the land.
The comfort that would take place in the life time of Noah,
was to do with the working of the ground and the curse that God
had placed upon it from the time of Adam's sin. I submit that
the only comfort from that curse on the land, would be to LIFT
that curse, do away with that curse, abolish that curse, so
mankind could find comfort in the work and toil of his hands upon
the ground which up to the days of Noah had a curse upon it, and
which God, in the days of Noah would do something about, which
would bring comfort to mankind.
I submit, that it was to be in the days of Noah that this
curse on the ground was to be ABOLISHED, cast away, taken away
from the ground, and once more comfort was to be the order of the
day as mankind tilled the ground.
Can we find the time during the life of Noah when this
situation came about? Oh yes, indeed we can.
THE CURSE ON THE GROUND IS LIFTED
"And Noah build an altar unto the Lord......And the Lord
smelled a sweet savour, and the Lord said in His heart, I will
not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the
imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I
again smite any more ever living thing, as I have done. While the
earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and
summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease"
(Gen.8:20-22).
Some say the curse spoken about here is the curse of the
worldwide food in Noah's day. Wellllll, we shall see from the
Bible, letting the Bible interpret itself, this is not the case.
The compilers of my KJV Bible's centre reference point you
to TWO verses concerning this "curse the ground" phrase. The two
verses are Gen.3:17 and 6:17. Interesting that they saw this as
in a DUAL application, the curse of Adam and the destruction of
all flesh wherein is the breath of life, through the food of
Noah's time. But, if we take one of the keys to correct Bible
interpretation, that is, let the Bible interpret its own words
and phrases, then we find rather simple the interpretation of the
meaning of the phrase "curse the ground."
Does this phrase as God used it in that part of verse 21 of
chapter 8, really have anything to do with Noah's flood and the
destruction of all flesh wherein was the breath of life?
Take a concordance such as Strong's Concordance of the
Bible, and look up the words "curse" and "cursed" and see where
they are used in the chapters of Genesis. Read the chapters to do
with the great worldwide flood that Noah and his family were
spared from, chapter 6 through 8. God uses many words to
describe the evil of those days and what He intended to do about
it, WHAT He intended to destroy from off the earth, and HOW He
would go about to do it. Yet you CANNOT FIND ONE WORD where
God said the flood He would bring upon the earth, upon the ground
of the earth, was a CURSE! That word "curse" or "cursed"
together with the word "ground" or "earth" is never used in
chapters 6 through 8. IT IS JUST NOT THERE! God never called the
flood of Noah's day "a curse on the ground" or "cursed is the
ground by a flood I will being."
The word "destroy" is used in chapter 6:17 but not the word
"curse." Oh, yes, men can say it was a curse, all flesh being
destroyed by a flood of waters, but the fact still remains
that using only the Bible to interpret itself, the words "cursed"
and "curse" in these early chapters of Genesis, in connection
with the word "ground" is ONLY used in chapter 3:17 and here in
chapter 8:21.
So, Bible interpreting Bible, the PLAIN and CLEAR meaning of
Chapter 8:21 using the phrase "curse the ground" and that God
"....WILL NOT AGAIN curse the ground for man's sake..." can only
mean ONE thing, God will REMOVE the curse on the ground from the
time of Adam when he sinned, and that particular and specific
curse will never again be on the ground.
This curse was then REMOVED from off the ground in the
lifetime of Noah, thus fulfilling the very prophecy of Lamech,
the father of Noah, that his son was called Noah, meaning rest or
comfort, because that in his days mankind would find rest and
comfort from the "work and toil of our hands, because of the
ground which the Lord had cursed" (chapt.5:29).
By the time of the flood, the Lord God had come to see the
full depths of what He had created in creating mankind with human
nature, the free will and the ability to do either good or evil.
God was now resigned to this fact of the human heart, hence was
saying to Himself, "Because the imaginations of the human heart
that I have created, is to do evil from their youth, I will do
two things, and one of them is to NOT curse the ground any more."
After the flood the ground was in effect CLEAN, cleansed and
ready for a fresh start. That fresh start would NOT include any
curse of the ground imposed upon it after the sin of Adam. This
is what God was saying as one thing He would not again do as
long as the earth remained.
Then there was a second thing God would promise that He
would never again bring on the earth........."neither will I
again smite any more every thing living, as I have done."
Now, THIS part of the two fold sectional promise from God is
the part to do with the flood of Noah's day that killed all flesh
in whom was the breath of life. The Eternal was here promising
that He would never do this again, destroy all that He had
destroyed in the worldwide flood.....well destroy all WHILE, the
connecting word in the next verse, with the words to follow
explain, for the plan of God IS THAT the earth will one day be
BURNT UP and all that is therein, by a FIRE! That fact is
recorded a few times in other parts of the Bible. Then will come
a NEW heaven and earth, together with the prophecies of
Revelation 21,22.
But, "WHILE the earth REMAINS" mankind would never again
be destroyed as in the days of Noah, for God has promised, "seed
time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and
day and night shall not cease."
BOTH the curse on the ground imposed for Adam's sin, and the
destruction of all flesh in whom was the breath of life, WAS
REMOVED BY GOD AT THIS TIME, NEVER TO HAPPEN AGAIN WHILE THE
EARTH REMAINED, IN THAT SAME MANNER.
The contention of TWO Hebrew words
It is sometimes contended that because a DIFFERENT Hebrew
word is used in Genesis 8 (for "curse") and chapter 3 (for
"cursed is the ground") that chapter 8 is only referring to the
flood in Noah's day (it, the flood, being a curse) and not to
Adam's curse on the ground in chapter 3.
Here we get into certain technicalities, that really do not
have a bearing on the overall truth of the matter. I have spent a
lot of time studying the Lexicons on this, such a one as "Vine's
Old and New Testament Words" and "The Theological Wordbook of the
Old Testament" and "Strong's Concordance of the Bible." I will
not endeavor in this study to do a full and detailed expounding
of the subject, for it is not needed, but the basic points will
prove useful, together with some comments on a certain aspect of
"word" studying in the Bible used by some to uphold a doctrine
that the words in context(coupled with other Scriptures) do not
support. This will prove I hope edifying and useful to the
reader.
The KJV translators chose to use basically ONE English word
- "curse" or "cursed" or "curseth" whereas in the Hebrew there
are at least SIX Hebrew words used - arar, qalal, ala, qabab,
naqab, za'am.
The THREE MAIN ones as Vine gives are: qalal, arar, ala.
A study of these words shows they are really "nuances" of
each other - a shade of expression, meaning, feeling etc. The
bottom line basic meaning of all of them is to "slight" or bring
down from a higher elevation, or as the Theological Wordbook
says: "of intending a lowered position, technically, to curse."
The aforementioned Wordbook has a lot to say on the Hebrew
words for "cursed" and "curse" as in Gen.3:17 and 8:21. Strong's
Concordance number for those words are respectively: number 779
and 7043.
These two root words are used in Gen.12:3 and the
Theological Wordbook says on this: "As God said to Abraham: 'he
who curses (qalal) you' (pronounces a formula), 'I will curse
(arar) him' (put him in the state)."
You may also note Malachi 3:9 and two words used for
"cursed" and "curse." In Strong's their numbers are 779 and
3994.
Trying to make a little more nuance sense of these three
words Vine says this: "On distinction from arar ('to curse by
laying an anathema on someone or something')and qalal ('to curse
by abusing or belittling'), ala basically refers to 'the
execution of a proper oath to legalize a covenant or agreement.'
......The 'oath' was a 'curse' on the head of the one who broke
the agreement......So ala functions as a 'curse' sanctioning
a pledge or commission, and it can close an agreement or
covenant......."
The Hebrew and the Greek of the Bible are full of many words
meaning basically the same thing but with nuance differences, and
often are given as but ONE word in the KJV translation.
I can give you the example of the words "coming" and
"appearance" as in the Greek NT. Look at "Vine's Dictionary of
Old and New Testament Word" and see ALL the different Greek words
used in the NT under those two English words, kind of blows your
mind.
Now, the Jehovah Witnesses teach Jesus Christ will NOT
literally, bodily, return to this earth. And they try to prove
and uphold their teaching by getting somewhat "technical" with
these Greek words for "coming" and "appearance." Here it's this
one used, there it's that one used, and over in another passage
yet another of these many words may be used. The words alone
sometimes fit what the Jehovah Witnesses want to teach and want
you to believe.
Their arguments come crashing down to earth in a million
bits, when the CONTEXTS and the PHRASES of the use of these words
are taken into consideration. Then it becomes very clear that
Jesus and the NT writers BELIEVED and TAUGHT that Christ would
indeed return to this earth in a LITERAL and BODILY way. That His
literal bodily feet would one day stand on the mount of Olives,
just as prophesied in Zechariah 14.
As I've tried to show above, from the context and from
letting words within a PHRASE (in this case the phrase uses the
word "ground") our phrases of Gen.3:17; 5:29; and 8:21 even using
two Hebrew words for "cursed" and "curse" is TALKING ABOUT
THE SAME THING - the curse placed on the ground for Adam's sin.
There is just a nuance difference from Gen.3:17 and 5:29 with
Gen.8:21.
As I've stated, the LAST HALF of Gen.8:21 is God talking
about not destroying every living thing "as I have done" - that
being the part in the verse where the Lord is speaking about the
worldwide flood of Noah's day. A rainbow covenant is then given
to Noah and his offspring as to the promise and oath from God
that a flood of waters will never again cover the earth to
destroy all living creatures (chapter 9).
But while the earth remains God would promise that seed time
and harvest, cold and warmth, summer and winter, day and night,
would continue. We have them to this day, not all summers are
pleasant (some too hot), not all winters are pleasant (some too
cold and stormy), and some seed times are not the easiest, just
as some harvest times take some diligent work......BUT what I say
is that God at this time LIFTED the terrible backbreaking,
running battle, constant brow sweating fight mankind was having
with thorns and thistles clogging up and overrunning the ground
(not that sin was lifted, not at all, and with physical and
spiritual sin comes various curses. Man has been polluting
the air with his industrial smog for a few hundred years now, and
we are destroying the ozone, which is resulting in more harmful
and deadly rays of the sun reaching us to curse us with more skin
cancers. We pollute our rivers and streams and even the sea with
all kinds of chemicals, and we reap the cursed after effects) and
when the Eternal was ready to give His chosen people Israel the
land of promise, it was a land so free from Adam's curse that God
called it a "good land" one that flowed with "milk and honey."
ISRAEL AND THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY
As we read through the books of Moses (first five books of
the Bible) we learn that the land that God intended to give to
the people of Israel was "a good land" and "a land flowing with
milk and honey." This promised land was ALREADY a bountiful
physical land of wonderful fruits and seed crops of many
varieties. If Adam's curse on the ground was still in effect,
would this land of promise really have been described as flowing
with milk and honey? If the people of that land were still
having a running battle against thorns and thistles, and toiling
in the sweat of their face to scratch out some food from the
ground, I doubt God and the those sent out to spy the land (as
they did before entering) would have spoken with such excitement
about it flowing with milk and honey. Also there was plenty of
fruit in that land, not just herbs, and Adam's curse as we have
seen indicates only herbs (no fruit) was to be part of the
penalty, the fruit being only in the garden of Eden, from which
Adam and Eve were driven, not able to re-enter (remember God
placed great Spirit Beings at the east of the garden and a
flaming sword to "keep the way of the tree of life" -
Gen.3:22-24).
In passing let me add that Adam's punishment may also be
telling us that "herbs" for him and his offspring, not only meant
no fruits, but also no meat eating for food, somehow the Eternal
keeping the animals way from the family of Adam. If this be the
case, then it will answer as to why God later instructs Noah
about all mankind now, after the flood, having all moving things
that live, for food (but qualifying it by saying "as the green
herb have I given you all things" - certain restrictions on all
moving things, just as there was on green herbs, for not all
green herbs are good for food, in fact some green herbs can kill
you if eaten) - see Genesis 9:1-4. The law of clean and unclean
flesh was from the beginning (Noah took pairs of clean and
unclean animals into the Ark, seven pair of clean, one pair of
unclean. More clean animals possibly for Noah and his family to
kill and eat while in the Ark during the flood, then possibly
just to have more clean animals to produce more, after the flood,
as mankind was now allowed once more to eat flesh, returning to
my comment on Gen.9:3-4) for the Lord created them clean and
unclean from the beginning to be received by those who know the
truth, that such as were sanctified (set apart) by the word of
God (those created to be fit for food "as the green herb") could
then be eaten (1 Tim.4). But the punishment on Adam for his sin,
may have taken this flesh eating away from mankind, until it was
restored to mankind after the flood, in the days of Noah, whom
his father Lamech said would "comfort us concerning our work and
toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord has
cursed." Part of that comfort may have been the restoring of the
law of eating animal flesh "as the green herb" law.
Now, back to my main comments about Israel and the land of
milk and honey.
I suggest, and I believe I have proved, that the promised
land was a "good land" because the curse on the ground from the
time of Adam's sin had been removed, hence indeed it could be a
land of milk and honey just from the NATURE of things. The
Eternal seeing this wanted to give His chosen people an
inheritance within some of the very best productive land on "the
good green earth" as we often call our planet.
Then I submit we have at least one section of Scripture that
in its very wording would clearly tell us that Israel, if they
would serve and obey the Lord with all their heart, with all
their soul, and with all their mind, they as a people in the
promised land WOULD HAVE NO CURSES OF ANY KIND UPON
THEM.......JUST HAPPY PLEASANT PHYSICAL UTOPIA.
Most of us in the Church of God have heard and read these
words expounded MANY TIMES from the pulpit, and in magazine
articles for decades.
" And it shall come to pass, if you shall hearken diligently
unto the voice of the Lord your God, to OBSERVE and to DO
ALL His commandments which I command you this day, that the
Lord Your God will set you on high above all nations of the
earth:
And all these BLESSINGS shall come on you, and overtake you,
if you shall hearken unto the voice of the Lord your God.
Blessed.......shall you be in the fields.......
Blessed.......the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of
your cattle.......Blessed shall be your basket and your
store.......The Lord shall command the blessing upon you in
your storehouses, and in all that you set your hand unto;
and He shall bless you in the land.......And the Lord shall
make you plenteous in goods.......in the fruit of your
ground.......The Lord shall open unto you His good treasure,
the heaven to give the rain unto your land in his season,
and to bless all the work of your hand......."
(Deut.28:1-14).
Nothing here about Adam's curse still being on the ground,
and Israel having to constantly wage a battle against thorns and
thistles in the sweat of their brow, to attain these blessings.
What we see is that if they would diligently serve the Lord God
in obeying all His commandments, then they would have a society
and a land that could only be described as a veritable "utopia" -
the envy of all the other nations on the earth.
I submit to you that God could only offer these blessing for
obedience to Israel, because He had already (from the days of
Noah as we have seen) REMOVED FROM THE EARTH, the curse on the
ground because of Adam's sin.
NEW WORLD INHERITANCE
One of the famous fathers of the now new world land called
the United States of America, said words to the effect that the
people who settled that land, found themselves, as if given a
gift, the receivers not through great hard work, but as it were a
gift, the recipients of some of the most choicest and rich land
that the earth has to offer. Probably the people of Canada could
say the same thing.
The tens of thousands of Bison or Buffalo roaming the vast
plains were well looked after with the wild grasses covering
thousands of square miles. No thorns and thistles to worry about,
to any large degree, sure they are part of nature, so some are
here and there, some in more areas than in other areas. The new
settling farmers of the new land just had to turn the soil and
plant, and yes, do some long hours of grass, weed, stone removal,
bring in the cattle, bring in the sheep, in some areas plant the
fruit trees, and blessing upon physical blessings was and still
is the result from what is probably the richest large land area
on the globe. God never promised mankind would not have to
"work" to "dress and keep" things, that was given to him way back
in the garden of Eden, but once dressed and kept, it takes not
much hard toiling to keep it, if doing a little each day.
Now, this does not mean to say there was no thorns and
thistles to contend with in parts of North America. I do not mean
to say the farmers and fruit growers and vegetable producers back
in those early days did not have to toil to make a living on the
land. Some areas did have to be cleared of thorns and thistles,
where they grew, but North America was not covered with a blanket
of thorns and thistles. Some areas do not have them. I have
related already the experience of planting a garden on virgin
soil in southern Ontario, where I did not have to pull any thorns
or thistles, and very little work was needed to produce a
wonderful garden.
Yes, those early settlers had wild grass and weeds to pull,
even stones to clear from their land, some had trees to clear in
order to make productive land for themselves and their farming
enterprise, but wild grass, weeds, stones, and trees, were NOT a
part of the curse on the ground when Adam sinned, the curse was
only to do with thorns and thistles, and the eating of herbs
(which subject of only herb eating I've covered above).
Apparently the Province of Alberta (where I have recently
move to, as I write this in 1999) has a good share of thorns and
thistles that workers of the land have to contend with, but even
then the landscape is not covered as like a blanket with them,
for God has seen fit, since the Noachian flood to make sure
enough wild grass and other natural phenomena covered the land
areas of North America and the world, to hold back thorns
and thistles from taking over and choking out all plant life on
the earth (remember Adam Clarke's comments above about how
greatly thistles can spread and multiply). Some areas of some
land masses are very easy to "dress and keep" while others take a
little more work, and still other areas harder work still. But it
can be hard work to build a house, especially if you live in the
heat of the State of Florida, where I lived for three years.
All of North America is one of the greatest proofs that the
curse placed on the ground in Adam's day has long disappeared
from the face of this good green earth.
Let me go back for a while to the Old world, and especially
to my home country where I was born - WALES. The Welsh
country-side, with its valleys, its hills and dales, is noted as
being some of the prettiest in the whole world, especially North
Wales. It is still (I was back there for three months in the
summer of 1997) mostly a farming and sheep raising country.
Sheep farming is all over those Welsh hill sides, and so it has
been for centuries, as well as the other types of farming. What a
peaceful, lazy, quiet, friendly, country it is to this day, and
the Welsh are still singing away. It is known as the "land of
song." Those lush green hills and valleys are free from thorns
and thistles, the people just do not have to worry about them.
My contention is that the curse on the ground after Adam
sinned, a curse from God sending thorns and thistles like this
world has never seen since the time of the worldwide flood, was
like no other in the history of man on this planet. I contend
that the amount of work today needed to combat thorns and
thistles as we work the land, is in comparison to what mankind
had to battle with, and toil and work at, in the days before
the flood, just no comparison at all, another ball game
entirely, like trying to compare a coconut with a tomato.
To be continued
Adam's Curse, is it with us Today? #3
Is the Curse put on the land because of the sin of Adam still with us today? A FEW VERSES LEFT TO ANSWER
Before I get to those few verses, I do need to talk a little
about wild grasses and weeds. The Hebrew words for those are not
in Gen.3:17. Not there because the curse never included them,
they are a part of God's natural plan for the face of this earth,
and in many ways actually stop the spread of thorns and thistles.
God knew that man in this age since the Noachian flood would take
many centuries to spread around the world and settle all land
areas on the earth. It was in His plan to give to the people of
Israel (especially the 10 tribes of Samaria) many of the most
fertile and productive land areas on this round globe. Until the
time would arrive for those peoples to inherit those lands,
the wild grasses and weeds preserved those rich top soil
surfaces. They say the healthy fertile top soil is only about 12
inches in depth or less. Grasses and various kinds of weeds have
been of great value to the earth that was within the lands God
had before planned would be given to the children of Israel.
Without those grasses and weeds, open top soil is eventually
blown away and the land can become a desert. History tells us
that many of the deserts of the world were once very fertile
productive areas. Often it was the sin of man, wrong farming
practices, that produced many of those deserts we have today.
Yes, physical sin is still very much a part of human life,
and with those physical sins comes physical curses.
With effort, some a lot, some not so much (my experience in
that garden in southern Ontario, and elsewhere I have lived) man
can till the ground, remove the grasses and weeds, and find
relative ease in producing from the land.
This was NOT the case for Adam and his offspring, as I
maintain they had to fight constantly for every inch they tilled,
with thorns and thistles coming up every hour of every day. And
that is where the HUGE DIFFERENCE lies between their cursed
ground before the flood and our relative comfort since the
flood.
What then about the prophecy that the day will come when the
"plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him
that soweth seed" (Amos 9:13) ?
First, notice that Amos in this context as well as his whole
book says not one word about "Adam's curse." Amos never quotes or
mentions Genesis 3:17.
Secondly, Amos does not say that this can never happen
today. He does not say that such a thing will never be able to be
performed on the earth, somewhere, until that new age comes that
he is speaking about, when Israel will be gathered and planted
and the tabernacle of David that is fallen is again raised.
He simple tells us that at that time of the things he speaks
about in his context, the harvests and seeding times will flow
one into another.
Is this type of thing happening today? Do not be too swift
to answer with a NO! For you will be WRONG!
Many a year ago, I lived for about 15 months in that part of
England known as East Anglia, north of London about one and a
half hours. It is the driest part (year round) of England, and so
most of the grain crops are grown there. Usually there is no
winter to call a winter, so much so that my next door neighbors
(an old couple who had lived there for decades) had a winter
garden, which just continued into the spring and summer garden.
What a wonderful climate was that part of England. A little
foretaste of that prophecy in Amos 9.
Then, we have those parts of southern California where all
the fruits and vegetables grow year round, that feed most of us
constantly who live in North America. Once more an area of the
world where the sower overtakes the reaper.
I would imagine there are parts of New Zealand and Australia
where there is such moderation and climates conductive to an all
the year around productivity from the land.
So what does Amos 9 mean? It means that when much (not all)
sin, physical and spiritual, is no longer running rampant on this
earth during that time known as the millennium (the 1000 year
rule of Christ after He returns - Rev.20), when man is living
in harmony with nature, no more polluting the land, sea, and air.
When God works some miracles to restore things as somewhat closer
to as they were in the garden of Eden, when the lion shall lay
down with the lamb, and when there will be much more temperate
climates for all nations, then the reality of the sower
overtaking the reaper (as parts of southern California experience
even today) shall be just that much MORE abundant and widespread.
What Israel shall experience as foretold by Amos will be the
general pattern for all nations during that age to come.
That is what Amos chapter 9 is all about, and has nothing
really to do with Adam's curse. It has nothing to do with Amos'
time, or our time today and what is going on, but has everything
to do with the coming age and how things will be just that much
better under the rule of Jesus Christ, because sin in general
will be greatly eliminated.
What about Romans 8:21-22? Is not the whole earth groaning
in pain and under heavy bondage because of the curse given to
Adam? What did Paul mean in those verses?
Notice, once more, the context never alludes to, never
quotes from, never comes close to saying anything that is
contained in Genesis 3:17. Paul does not use any phrase
that resembles "the curse on the ground" or "the ground that God
cursed because of Adam's sin." The book or letter from Paul to
the Roman Christians is full of doctrine, and citations from the
Old Testament that Paul uses to back up his theology and
statements. The apostle Paul was fluent in proving his doctrinal
positions by quoting whenever he could, some verse or verses from
the Scriptures they had back then, namely what we call the Old
Testament today. To believe that Paul in chapter 8 and verses
21-22 would NOT have quoted from or used Genesis 3:17 (if that
verse proved his thought and in fact inspired his thought)
together with his statement that we do find in those two verses,
would be completely out of character for him and the way he
dialogues his points as he moved along in his theological
communications.
In fact we do not find Paul or any apostle of the NT in any
of their letters mentioning anything about this curse on the
ground from Adam's sin, if that curse was still on the ground.
To think that such a worldwide, century after century, nation
after nation, battle with the ground to make anything grow
because of thorns and thistles sprouting up everywhere, and
someone, at some time, inspired to write NT books, would
not bring up the subject and refer to Genesis 3:17, is just very
improbable to say the least. And, surely such a phenomenal curse
in nature would have given the preachers of the Eternal one of
the greatest tools whereby to prove to the world there was a
literal being called God and that the Jewish Scriptures were His
inspired word, yet not one writer of the NT ever resorted to
proving this assertion by that means. The subject is just
not brought up or talked about anywhere in the NT. And further
more, come to think of it I have never found (in 50 plus years of
reading the whole Bible) any passage after Genesis 8 to the last
verse of Malachi, that discusses or even mentions the "curse on
the ground and eating herbs in the sweat of your brow" being
still with us because of Adam's punishment that God gave him.
Truly, Paul had a wonderful opportunity in his 8th chapter
of Romans to have added to verses 21-22 something along the lines
of: "For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth
in pain together until now, because the curse on the ground from
the days of Adam is still with us." But Paul did not add those
words to verse 22, and for one very good reason. HE WAS NOT IN
HIS TRAIN OF THOUGHT THINKING ABOUT OR TALKING ABOUT THE PHYSICAL
GROUND OR PHYSICAL PLANT LIFE OR ANIMAL LIFE AT ALL! HIS
CONTEXT WAS ONLY CONCERNING PHYSICAL HUMAN BEINGS, AND THIS I
SHALL NOW PROCEED TO EXPLAIN.
The KJV translation is SOMEWHAT confusing to many, yet if
read carefully, even the KJV gives us the truth of WHO Paul was
talking about in Romans 8:18-25. The word "creature" and the
phrase "the whole creation" is where many are taken off track and
led astray, but then even with those old A.D. 1611 words the
logic of the context gives us the correct interpretation as to
what those old Greek words are standing for.
To answer and expound this section of Romans would take many
pages, for it is one of the most argued over, as to its meaning,
in the NT, by the Bible commentators. I would refer the reader
to VINE'S DICTIONARY OF NT WORDS (under the words
"Create....Creature" - Strong's Concordance number 2937), THE
ENGLISHMAN'S GREEK CONCORDANCE, where every place in the NT is
listed that contains the Greek word (#2937) as used in Rom.8 for
"creature" (KJV), and BARNES' NOTES ON THE NT.
It is Albert Barnes who goes into great detail expounding
what he considers the truth of the matter on Romans 8:18-25. I
especially refer the reader to Barnes' Bible Commentary for the
in-depth details. I would agree with Barnes except on verse 22,
yet I can see his understanding of this verse could be the
correct one, it is possible. But in this study I will remain
with what I consider is the more likely contextual truth as to
what Paul was saying, but will comment later on Barnes'
understanding of the verse in the light of our overall subject of
Genesis 3:17.
I will quote each verse and in very brief form, give you the
teaching on that verse from Albert Barnes, while using my own
words. If you have studied VINE'S and the ENGLISHMAN'S
CONCORDANCE, you will readily see that this Greek word (number
2937 in Strong's Con.) is often used in the NT for human persons.
Romans 8:1-18
Paul is talking to Christians about walking in the Spirit
and not the carnal flesh, and the Spirit in them will mean they
kill the carnal desires of living or practicing sin. The Spirit
also bear witness that Christians are the children of God,
joint-heir with Christ, and if Christians suffer through trials
and troubles for Christ, they will be glorified with Him one
day.
Paul's mind is now focussed for a while on human suffering
and human frailty that Christians partake of in this physical
life, often for the sake of Christ Jesus, but tells his readers
that what sufferings Christians now may have, cannot be compared
to the glory they shall have (verse 18).
For(a connecting word, going on to explain verse 18 more)
the earnest expectation of the creature(the Christian) waits for
the manifestation of the sons of God.
Christians are in the world, subject to trials, calamities,
sufferings of many kinds, and although they have here and now
evidence that they are the sons of God, yet they are still
waiting for the time when they will be delivered from all the
problems and sufferings of this life and be free from them and be
in the glory that Christ now has.
For(once more connecting with the above to explain even
further) the creature(the Christian) was made subject to vanity,
not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected the same in
hope.
The renewed creature, the Christian, has been placed on this
earth with all its trials, troubles and problems, not because
Christians chose it for themselves and prefer it so, but it was
the wise reason of God to have it so. The word "vanity" here
means the Christian is frail and dying, physical, hence exposed
to all kinds of trials, temptations, and sufferings. It is not
of their doing as such (Paul is not talking about silly things we
may do to bring problems on ourselves), but it is the way God has
set up this physical life that Christians must continue to abide
in until death. But the hope the Christian has is to one day be
in glory with Christ Jesus, when all the cares of this physical
life will be gone forever.
Because(going on to explain the hope Christians have) the
creature(the Christian) itself also shall be delivered from the
bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children
of God.
This is the ground for the hope. The soul that is renewed,
the Christian creature, shall be delivered from that which
corrupts in every way, and tends to pull down, be hard to bear,
gives sorrow, produces difficulties, and finally physical death
and the final corruption. The Christian desires and hopes for,
longs for that glory that will bring liberty from all corruptions
of the mind, soul, and body, for the day the Christian will be
the glorified eternal child of God, eternally free from all the
various corruptions and sufferings of this present physical life.
For(connecting and explaining the previous thought more)
that all the creature(original Greek, see Green's or Berry's
Greek/English Interlinear, it's the same word # 2937 in Strong's
Con. as used above) groans together and travails until now
(original Greek, see the above mentioned Interlinears).
Here is where I would disagree with Albert Barnes. Paul now
proceeds to expand on his thought that Christians are subject to
the problems, trials, cares, sufferings, and ultimate death that
physical life produces, and is now telling or reminding the
Christians to whom he is writing, that their sufferings of
whatever kind, is not peculiar to just themselves as Christians,
but that ALL MANKIND, ALL HUMAN CREATURES, are subject to the
same often sufferings and trials and cares of this life. It is
just a part of the human plane of existence. They did know this,
as Paul said, "for we know." Every person, every human creature,
that lives long enough will have sufferings and problems
to face at some point in their life. They knew it from the
experience of life and they knew it from reading the book of
Ecclesiastes!
And not only they(the word "they" is not in the Greek but it
is implied) but ourselves also (Christians) which have the
first-fruits of the Spirit, even we (Christians) ourselves groan
within ourselves, waiting for the sonship (as the Greek
should read) to wit, the redemption of our body.
As other human creatures are subject to sufferings, as it is
a part of physical life, then we Christians should not feel we
shall escape from such sufferings that all others must have from
time to time. We also have times of sorrow and groaning for one
reason or another within ourselves, and so because of it, we long
and desire with waiting patience for the day we shall be the
glorified sons of God, when our bodies shall be redeemed from
this corruptible moral flesh to immortality (see 1 Cor.15:35-58).
I submit, as Barnes does except in verse 22, that the whole
CONTEXT is talking about physical human beings, carnal or
spiritual, walking in the sin of the flesh or in the light of the
Spirit. Christians being children of God through the Spirit, a
joint-heir with Christ, so suffering with Him now, which
sufferings are not unusual for all mankind have them in one way
or another way, but we Christians have a hope they, the rest of
humanity does not have, we long for that hope and that day when
we shall be free from all sufferings, and be immortal glorified
children of God, which we are not as yet, so we patiently wait
for that day, and hence we then realize that the present
sufferings in this physical life cannot be compared to the glory
which shall be revealed in us.
Albert Barnes and verse 22
For the sake of the argument, and because Barnes' view on
this verse may be the correct one. Let us look at what he says,
and then I will answer in the light of our subject - Genesis
3:17, and the curse on the ground.
Quote: "......That the whole creation, Margin, 'every
creature.' This expression has been commonly understood as
meaning the same as 'the creature' in verses 20,21. But
I understand it as having a different signification......It
refers, as I suppose, to the whole animate creation; to all
living things; to the state of all created things.......It is
just an argument from analogy.....The whole creation is in just
this condition; and we are not to be surprised, therefore, if it
is in the condition of the believer.....in a state of bondage,
imperfection, sorrow, and sighing for deliverance......."
Note, this is he says, "ARGUMENT FROM ANALOGY." My dog does
not groan with "Oh, poor old me, this is such a dogs life, I'm
suffering so, just waiting for the age of glory to come." She
knows nothing about that age to come, nothing about Jesus
Christ, nothing about the promise of immortality. As long as I
feed and water her, take her for walks, pet her some, she is
perfectly happy. My dog would be no different if the Kingdom of
God was on earth at this moment, my dog would not know the
Kingdom of God was on earth. The birds outside are taken care of
by the Lord, they are quite happy. remember what Jesus said about
the birds? "Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not,
neither do they reap, nor gather into barnes; yet your heavenly
Father feeds them...."(Mat.6:26). I doubt that Jesus thought they
were in sorrow, or under a curse, unless it was coming from
mankind in some way. The birds in my neighbourhood seem quite
content and well looked after by the Lord, I doubt it would be
any different if the Kingdom of God was already here. The trees
grow and bloom, they seem quite happy and healthy where I live,
and so did all those trees in the South American "rain forests"
until man started to cut them down and mess them up. The rivers
flow to the sea, the wind and air do their jobs, so does the sun
and the moon. The flowers bloom and blossom, and the bees
"buzzzzz" around quite content for the most part. Remember what
Jesus said about the "lilies of the field"? ".....Consider the
lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do
they spin; And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his
glory was not arrayed like one of these" (May.6:28,29). I see
here in what Jesus said no thought on His part that the lilies He
knew of in Palestine were under some curse, groaning so to speak
in hardship, and longing for the Kingdom when they would be
happier and healthier. Some lilies in some parts of the world
today where MAN has polluted the ground and the air, probably
would tell you if they could speak, that they are under a curse,
but a curse from the hands of man not God. In the time of
Christ, He thought the lilies where He walked were just fine, nay
more than fine, He said Solomon with all his glory was not
"arrayed like one of these." Physically those lilies had more
glory than all the physical glory Solomon had. Now, that tells me
the ground where they were growing was pretty good for them.
Now, man comes along with his sin and carnal fleshly desires
that can unsettle just about anything. If I kicked my dog she
would not be happy, she's let me know more than once in no
uncertain way when I by mistake, nearly stepped on her. If I spew
poisons into the air the ozone above the clouds is not happy and
gets sick, and we suffer more harmful rays from the sun getting
through to our skin, and we are not happy, for we get more skin
cancers. On and on it goes as sin from humans, those that are in
the flesh, as Paul said earlier in this chapter, who are not
subject to the laws of God and neither indeed can be, as they
pollute themselves and the physical world, THEN IN ANALOGY....all
creation, in a FIGURE so to speak, CRIES OUT IN PAIN, SORROW,
SUFFERING, and GROANING.
As Paul looked at the carnal mind, not being able to be
subject to the law of God, as he looked at the result of this
carnal flesh living, the sin it brought, as he looked in
CONTRAST, IN PLACING THIS BALANCE SCALE ALONG SIDE THE BALANCE
SCALE OF THE GLORY AND THE AGE TO COME, that Christians were
waiting patiently for, he saw a VAST DIFFERENCE ! As he saw the
world under overall sin and carnality, and what the world needed
to escape that corruption, what the world WOULD BE LIKE in the
future, what all nature would be like, unscarred, unpolluted,
sweet through and through, then with that in contrast to each
other, in a FIGURE OF SPEECH, in ANALOGY, this world of physical
creation.....was crying out in sorrow and groaning with
sufferings, also wanting and waiting, for that day when the
children of God NOW, would be made IMMORTAL, and Jesus would be
back on the earth to bring to pass all the promises in
the Word of God concerning the removing of MOST spiritual and
physical sin, and so a nearly full perfect utopian world and age.
ALL OF THE ABOVE I HAVE NO TROUBLE ACCEPTING, BUT THIS
PASSAGE IN ROMANS 8 HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH GENESIS 3:17. OH,
INDEED, IT HAS MUCH TO DO WITH SIN PER SE AND SUFFERINGS, BUT
NOTHING DIRECTLY WITH GENESIS 3:17 AND THE CURSE ON THE GROUND OF
THORNS AND THISTLES AND EATING ONLY HERBS.
NO MORE CURSE - REVELATION 22:3 ?
Notice, nothing is added after the word "curse." So we have
no alterative but to "come and let us reason together, says the
Lord" concerning what maybe the curse here spoken about.
The CONTEXT may help and give us some clues. The old
physical earth along with all physical human sinners who have not
REPENTED and come into the immortal glorified family (sons and
daughters) of God the Father, have been BURNT UP in the fire
that shall engulf this earth, before the New heavens and New
earth comes into being (end of chapter 20 into chapter 21).
Chapter 21, 22, is the New earth wherein dwells ONLY
immortality and perfect holy righteousness, when no more
suffering, pain, sorrow, and no more DEATH will exist.
Looking up the word "curse" in Strong's Concordance of the
Bible, we find it used MANY times, under various situations and
within different contexts. The readers are asked to study those
verses for themselves.
Then we have a curse that the law brings on all people, as
shown in Galatians 3:10,13, from which we can be redeemed by
Christ Jesus and His sacrifice of death on the stake.
Paul in the book of Romans tells us that the law of God
shows us that we are sinners, held under the death penalty. That
is indeed the curse of the law, and holding us under death for
being sinners. Paul goes on to show that through the perfect
sinless life and death of Christ, we who have faith in that
sacrifice can be forgiven of our sins and made at-one with the
Father, justified, be declared righteous, and have the death
penalty removed. The curse of death on our heads from the law of
God showing us we are sinners is removed by Christ Jesus taking
our sins upon Himself in His death.
This is a very real curse on all mankind. It is the ultimate
of all curses the Bible speaks about, for Paul tells us in the
book of Romans that ALL have sinned (except of course Jesus
Christ). Without this curse being lifted from us, all mankind
would die, would never attain to eternal or immortal life. DEATH
is a very real ENEMY for sure. It is the GREATEST curse mankind
faces. And Paul was inspired to tell us in 1 Corinthians 15
that of all our enemies, the LAST enemy, DEATH, will finally be
destroyed.
It is the book of Revelation that tells us WHEN death will
be NO MORE! Death will finally come to an end, when this present
physical earth and all therein is burnt up (2 Peter 3:7-10;
Rev.20) and then the NEW earth appears, wherein God the Father
comes to dwell, and only immortal perfect holy righteousness
shall exist. The curse of SIN and DEATH will have been
destroyed.
This, sin and death, is I submit, the CURSE that is spoken
about in Rev.22:3.
IN SUMMARY FORM
The Eternal God placed Adam and Eve in the beautiful garden
of Eden, and they were without sin. He cerated them to do work,
for He told them to "dress and keep" that garden, it would take
some work to keep it looking nice, otherwise if the natural
plants and grasses, herbs, and fruit trees, could look after
themselves and everything look like some wonderful price winning
English country garden, then God would not have instructed them
to "dress and keep it." I deduce from that that the garden in
Eden would have soon been over-run with wild grasses and weeds
and other things, making it look far from what God intended it
look like under the working hands of His new created humans,
although under such conditions wild animals and birds would have
thrived. But the Lord wanted it to look "dressed and kept" for
humans to live in. A lesson being taught here from God. Mankind
is not to live in a wild, sloppy, uncared for environment, in his
immediate home living circle.
The Devil entered the garden, deceived Eve into disobeying
God, and she got her husband to disobey also. Sin was there and
had now come to humans.
Eve was to be punished in her life time, and so was Adam.
His punishment was a curse on the ground with thorns and thistles
to such a degree that for him and his offspring it would be a
running battle to ever get anything to grow. And his curse also
included herb eating, indicating no fruits of the garden and
possibly no animal flesh was going to be allowed in their diet.
Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden and not allowed to
return.
Somehow Lamech, the father of Noah, was told that in the
days of his son, comfort would come from the sweating hard toil
because of the ground which the Lord had cursed.
All was destroyed by the worldwide flood, and God had
resigned Himself to realize the heart of man was evil from his
youth. And so the Lord would no more curse the ground, nor
destroy all in whom was the breath of life as He had done. There
would always, while the earth remained, be seed time and harvest,
summer and winter, day and night.
The Eternal placed a rainbow in the sky as a covenant that
no more would He kill all breathing creatures with a worldwide
flood.
Eventually, in the process of time, God chose a people to be
His light to the world for His laws and to show nations how to be
happy, peaceful, bountiful, prosperous, fruitful, and blessed
beyond imagination.
He would bring them into a land, a "good land" and one that
was so physically splendid, that it could be termed a "land
flowing with milk and honey."
The people of Israel, like all other nations of people,
sinned, disobeyed, went astray from the laws, commandments,
precepts, statutes, judgments of God, both mentally, spiritually,
and physically. The natural result was sin in the body, mind,
family, persons to persons, and even in some natural physical
elements of the earth.
Much of the earth and its ground not yielding bountiful
blessings to mankind is the result of mankind's physical sins
that he has continued to practice most of the time from
the days after the Noachian flood, and not because God has
continued to cast a cursing spell on that ground.
Sometimes, even today, pockets of individuals through the
study of the Bible, or just through logical common sense, get in
full harmony with the Lord's physical laws of nature and the
land, to produce crops, herbs, vegetables, fruits, and
animals(that God created to be eaten, the law of the clean
animal) that just make the mouth water as they say, and do so
with minimal effort, only with a dressing and keeping, as first
given to Adam and Eve.
When, during the coming 1000 year age of Christ ruling this
earth, when the law shall go forth from Zion, and the word of the
Lord from Jerusalem, when much of sin is put away from off this
earth, then mankind will be in harmony with physical nature. So
for ALL nations in that age, the ground will blossom and bring
forth its bounty as does those famous English country gardens
today, when they are dressed and kept by the work of
human hands, who continue to follow that law first given to our
parents, in the garden of Eden.
........................................................
Written July 1999
All articles and studies by Keith Hunt may be copied, published,
e-mailed, and distributed as led by the Spirit. Mr. Hunt trusts
nothing will be changed without his consent.
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