We have covered 2 key issues thus far. The first key issue was: (#1) Men and Women are equal in Value, Dignity, & Personhood. That truth is essential when building a Biblical foundation for manhood and womanhood. When one accurately interprets the second chapter of Genesis a second key observation should be made: (#2) Men and Women have different roles that are part of God’s creative order. In other words, God created us equal yet different. We are equal in essence, but we have different gender-defined roles. Last session I provided Biblical evidence to support this conclusion. We started our study in Genesis 1 and then spent our second and third sessions in Genesis 2. We’re now going to spend some time looking at (you guessed it) Genesis 3.
So what about the whole curse thing? What changed after Adam and Eve sinned? How does Genesis 3 fit into our understanding of this very topic?
In some regards, the curse did distort the roles that God set in place in Genesis 1-2. Remember now, God created Adam and Eve as equals yet He also designed them with gender defined roles (read Genesis 2). In other words, The curse did not introduce new roles per say rather it distorted God’s original roles.
Let’s observe Gen. 3:16-19 together. Genesis 3:16-19, “To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” 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; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 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.” Both Adam and Eve were judged by God for there roles in the fall. Both Adam and Eve sinned. Yet no matter how intense this Divine judgment appears to be it was actually very gracious. God said in Genesis 2, “In the day you eat of it you shall surely die!” (Gen 2:17) Man did not deserve to live another day or to breathe another breath. God allowed Adam to live some 800+ years on the earth. He allowed Adam and Eve to have a family and learn more about the way of redemption. We serve a merciful and gracious God. For believers even in God’s judgment we see His love and grace (Hebrews 12).
It’s not an overstatement to say the following: “Childbirth equals pain.” If you’re a father you sort of know what I mean. If you’re a mother you really know what I mean. All women suffer during child birth especially those who had children during those days when modern medicine and epidurals were not yet invented. Talk about punishment! The physical pain women endure during this process a result of the fall. Genesis 3:16a, To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children.”
To be continued
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