It's different now

DEVOTION

GENESIS

IT’S DIFFERENT NOW

Gen 3:16-20

16 To the woman he said,

"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."

17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about  which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."

20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.

NIV

Apparently God did not expect as much from the woman as he did from the man as his judgement upon them is exceedingly different both in length and in harshness. We certainly should not dismiss the fact women have pain, some a great deal during that time of giving birth to a child. But we have to also see that not every woman experiences that pain. Surely in the days of the past, without the great medical procedures of today many women experienced this pain God was speaking about. Yet today women who do give birth, at least in this country, have the choice to receive local pain dulling medication. Others simply choose not to give birth at all and never have to feel any of the pain God told the woman she would have to endure. God also told her that she would desire her man, she would long for her husband. There is a great mystery in this, as she would long for, desire intimacy with her man, yet in doing that she would bear children with pain. Her desire, her longing would cause her pain.  Today we have surely interfered with that plan. Some women do not desire a man at all. Some women have the desire but choose never to have children the natural way. In addition to this desire and the pain he told her that the man would rule over her. We have departed far from this in so many ways it simply cannot be expressed in this small amount of words. In essence we see so many women today, at least in our country, who absolutely refuse any of the judgement God placed on the woman. But as for the man, God metered out a very strict and harsh judgement because he listened to the woman. God had commanded the man not to eat from that tree. Just one command, just one thing not to do, and instead of being the man he was supposed to be and instruct his woman correctly making sure she understood the command completely he listened to her and ate from that tree. So all the days of the man’s life he was going to have to toil for his food. The man would have to painfully toil the ground in order to produce food for himself and his family all the days of his life. God did not intend for him to ever be able to store up enough for himself and his family that he would be able to retire from his painful toil of producing the sustenance needed to live. What a departure we men, again at least in this country, have made from what God judged upon the man. Maybe this judgement was just for those two and we have nothing to be concerned about. But then we would have to make that kind of interpretation throughout all of scripture and that simply would not stand. We have to see the truth for our lives within all the scripture as this is the point God had it recorded for us. If his judgement was just for those two and it had no bearing on our lives today, there would be no point in having it recorded for us to read and discover the truths we are to live by. Seeing his judgement in this manner we men are to work all the days of our lives to produce the sustenance of life. This would mean we should not store up anything and retire from our labor. But that is far from what happens in many cases to men in this country. We have been indoctrinated by someone that if we are good upstanding men, we will store up as much wealth as we can so that we can retire in comfort, having enough to continue to provide for our lives and that of our family, in fact leaving as much of it as we can for our offspring. By doing this, are we interfering with what God intended for both us and them? If we leave enough then they will not have to labor for their food, but will be able to sit back and enjoy the fruit of our labor. When we search all the rest of scripture we cannot find any place God relented from this judgement and tells us to store up for our future so we will not have to work all the days of our life. In fact we can find so many places where he instructs us not to store up wealth on this earth. Surely God has no problem with wealth, but it is with the attitude we have in thinking we can store enough up so we do not have to labor all the days of our lives. We merely have to see that in the narrative of the rich fool with all his new barns. It is by the sweat of our brow we will have to produce our food until we return to the ground. No sweat no food. It is that simple, unless we ignore God completely and live according to the way someone else decided was better. We also see one more truth within this portion of the beginning. God intended the man and the woman to live forever, this is the reason he put the tree of life in the garden and had they eaten from that tree instead they would never have to return to dust. But because he listened to someone else other than God, in this case the woman, he will not be able to eat from the tree and life and he will now experience death, his body will return to the ground from which he was formed. There is not one of us men today who has been able to escape that judgment he placed on Adam, the first man. We all have to return to the ground, and so we also have to accept the first part of this judgement as well for all men, and all women. This is our lives. This is the way God ordained it to be until he returns for those who choose to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. We will rise again, we will be united with our Lord. One more thing, Adam now gives this woman a name, Eve. This word means giver of life, she is the bearer of children. Adam heard the judgement God placed on her in having pain in child birth. Maybe this was the first time Adam considered that he would father children and it would be through intimacy with the woman and that would cause children. So he gave her the name, giver of life, Eve. From this moment on things were going to be different. Life would be different.