God Promises Hard Labor

Genesis 3:17-19 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.”
 
GOD promises judgment on the man he entrusted to uphold his image in the perfect Garden of Eden – heaven on earth. As with the previous lesson, this scripture is not a direct promise of Jesus to come. But it points to the need for Jesus to come.1 Corinthians 15:22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
   Because Adam sinned, God cursed the ground and he cursed Adam with painful toil. “Painful” is the same word to describe the woman’s pain in childbearing. The marriage partners equally shared God’s justice.
   How tragic to disregard God’s goodness. God created the plants and gave them to Adam and Eve for their food and pleasure: Genesis 1:29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.”
   The fruit became thorns and thistles. Bountiful food delivered with God’s hand became bare subsistence living by Adam’s hand. Hard work and an unyielding ground would remind Adam of his fatal desire to be as God.   
   Then comes the judgment to plague all our lives: “For dust you are and to dust you will return.” Death will come to mankind. God warned of this in his command to Adam: Genesis 2:17 “But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” God’s Word is true. If we ignore or reject the truth, we will suffer.
   God’s punishment on Satan, Eve and Adam is God’s avenging justice. “Adam and Eve sinned by eating. They would suffer in order to eat. Eve manipulated her husband. She would be mastered by Adam. The devil destroyed the human race. He will be destroyed.” (from Bible Knowledge Commentary)
   Adam and Eve sought to be as God. The Bible marks them forever as Satan’s agents to destroy God’s perfection. Adam and Eve’s desire for glory caused the Son of God to depart from his glory to the suffering cross to save us.
     The LORD is good to promise a Savior. The world has no hope without him. Revelation 22:3 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.