Adam and Eve in Fur Clothing Under a Dark SkyBible World
3:18Genesis 3:18
Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
Spoken as God's sentence on Adam for listening to his wife and eating from the one tree forbidden to him, the word cursed the ground for his sake to bring forth thorns and thistles and weeds, and appointed him to eat the plants of the field in sorrow by sweat until his return to dust. It was spoken to Adam and to all his descendants, that the earth must henceforth be worked under the drawback of transgression, with happy labor replaced by anxiety, toil, disappointment, grief, pain and death as a continual reminder of sin's results. Work itself was not the curse, for tilling the soil in Eden was pleasant and invigorating blessing, and only after sin did labor become difficult, attended by weariness and pain and greatly multiplied by weeds. That life of toil and care was appointed in love as discipline made needful by sin, to relieve sorrow, guard against temptation, check appetite and self-indulgence, and develop industry and self-control in God's plan for recovery from the fall. After leaving Eden man was permitted to live on field crops earned by cultivating the earth, for to the original fruits and grains were added the plants of the field, making grains, fruits, nuts and vegetables the appointed diet to be prepared simply and fitted to season, climate and occupation. The word of judgment was spoken only after God first gave the promise of a Deliverer to bruise the serpent's head, so hope and the offer of pardon through Christ preceded the curse, and even the thorn and thistle were appointed for man's good as training to lift him from ruin until the earth is redeemed.
Setting and Meaning
The sentence was spoken to Adam because he listened to the voice of his wife and ate from the tree that had been forbidden to him, and his blaming of Eve for giving him the fruit did not save him from the result of disobedience. No excuse remained, for every need had been generously supplied and only one prohibition had been laid upon him, so the judgment teaches that the divine word is to be sacredly respected and its requirements implicitly obeyed. Through misrepresentation of God sin entered the world and death by sin, opening the floodgates of woe upon the world. The opening of their eyes brought Adam and Eve to see their own shame and ruin, to realize the garments of heavenly light that had protected them were gone, to know nakedness as the fruit of transgression, and to anticipate condemnation, so that when they heard God in the garden they hid themselves from Him.
In its plain sense the ground was cursed for his sake to bring forth thorns and thistles, briers, briars and weeds for him, and he would eat the herb or plants of the field in sorrow all the days of his life. He was to obtain food by sorrowful, toil-filled cultivation, in the sweat of his face until his return to dust, passing at last through death to dust again. What had been happy labor was thus replaced by hardship and lasting consequences, a life of perpetual toil and anxiety under the curse of sin. After forfeiting all right to Eden he was expelled from it and remained exposed to temptation in his life outside.
The word was spoken to Adam and to all his descendants, that from henceforth the earth must be worked under the drawback of transgression, bringing forth thorns and briars so that bread is eaten in the sweat of the face. By following his own way in harmony with temptation and against known will, in a vain attempt to elevate and bless himself, man gained an experimental knowledge of disobedience to the commandments and came to know good and evil. He lost fidelity and loyalty to God and opened the floodgates of evil and suffering to the whole human family, so that all nature feels the effects of sin. Instead of the happy labor first appointed, anxiety and toil became the lot, and from that time the race would be afflicted by temptation and subject to disappointment, grief, pain, and finally death, continually reminding humanity of the results of sin. Yet God did not leave Adam without a ray of hope.
The sentence belongs with Adam and Eve being shut out of Eden and driven from the garden, with cherubim and a flaming sword guarding the way of the tree of life. This guarding was lest the disobedient pair should again put forth the hand and eat of the fruit which perpetuates immortality and become immortal sinners, making transgression immortal. The curse followed the promise made before the world was created to bear the penalty of transgression if created man fell. The garden itself, which had been planted and blessed, was preserved from that curse and withdrawn from the earth until restored in greater glory, remaining free as a specimen of perfect creation until withdrawn before the Flood and to be returned more gloriously adorned. In humility and unutterable sadness they bade farewell to their beautiful home and went forth to dwell upon an earth where rested the curse of sin, where the atmosphere was no longer mild and uniform but subject to marked changes, and where merciful provision was made for them in garments of skins as protection from extremes of heat and cold.
Food Appointed After Eden
After leaving Eden and under the curse of sin, permission was given to eat the plants of the field while earning a livelihood by cultivating the earth. Dependence henceforth was placed on field crops for food, gathered from ground that would meet cultivation with resistance in thorns and thistles. The earth can still yield its blessings, but they must be gathered with courage, willingness and perseverance.
The original plan was for subsistence on fruits and grains as the natural products of the earth, with the plants of the ground added for food after sin. Field plants were thus added to the original Eden foods, so that grains, fruits, nuts and vegetables together form the diet appointed by the Creator. God's original purpose was to provide simple fruits, grains and vegetables for food, even though the promised land like a second Eden still bore the marred condition of the curse. Prepared in as simple and natural a manner as possible, these foods are the most healthful and nourishing, giving strength, power of endurance and vigor of intellect not afforded by a more complex and stimulating diet. Even among foods wholesome in themselves, choice must fit season, climate and occupation, since hard physical labor, sedentary pursuits and intense mental application require different foods, and each person must choose from the ample variety what experience and sound judgment prove best suited to personal necessity.
The original food of man was vegetation, not the flesh of dead animals, which was permitted only after the Flood because all vegetation had been destroyed. The curse pronounced upon man and the earth and every living thing made strange and wonderful changes, with human life shortening since the Flood and physical, mental and moral degeneracy rapidly increasing in the latter days. Death and suffering among humans and animals, including the taking of animal life for food, belong to the curse that followed sin, when the ground would produce thorns and thistles and people would eat the plants of the field, and are results of transgression rather than part of the original plan.
Labor Under the Curse
Work itself was not laid on as a curse, for in Eden tilling the soil and caring for what God had planted was employment given by God Himself as Instructor, pleasant, invigorating, and regarded not as degrading but as a great blessing and pleasure. The curse only changed the conditions of labor, so that what had been pleasure must now be done in toil and hardship against a stubborn soil to gain daily bread, attended by anxiety, weariness and pain. The decree that man should earn his bread by the sweat of the brow was therefore not given as a curse, but through faith and hope labor was still to be a blessing to Adam and Eve and all their descendants, because God never meant that man should have nothing to do. The deeper the curse of sin the more God's order is changed, so that the burden of toil rests heavily on one class while the curse of idleness rests on others in possession of God's money through the false idea that money increases moral worth, and labor becomes to human beings what they make it. When made into constant drudgery relieved by liquor-drinking and exciting amusements it makes men little better than brutes.
This life of toil and care was appointed in love as discipline made needful by sin, to relieve sorrow and remorse, to occupy the mind, strengthen the body, and develop the faculties for happiness and prosperity. It was God's purpose to lighten the evil brought into the world by disobedience, to remove that evil, to make Satan's temptations ineffectual, and to stay the tide of evil. Though now joined with anxiety, weariness and pain, labor remains a source of happiness and development and a guard against temptation, since its discipline checks appetite, temptation and self-indulgence and builds self-control, industry, purity and firmness. So it is part of God's great plan for recovery from the fall, for while obedience made work a pleasure with the earth yielding abundance for every want, disobedience doomed man to battle in toil against the power to which he had yielded his will and to wrestle against the seeds of Satan's sowing.
From henceforth the earth must be worked under the drawback of transgression by Adam and all his descendants, bringing forth thorns and briars and field crops for food, and eaten in the sweat of the face. The soil yields its strength only through human labor with God's blessing to produce its good things, requiring proportionate use of limbs and muscles in physical labor in the early morning and cool of the day joined with study in the heat of the day. The earth can still yield blessings, but they must be gathered with courage, will, willingness and perseverance in diligent, timely and thorough cultivation, while neglect and idleness increase the harm.
The curse greatly multiplied the work of tilling, for ground that at first produced only good began to produce weeds, thistles and tares, calling for continual warfare. The soil has grown barren under a curse lying more and more heavily on the land, so cultivation has grown harder and demands double labor to make it productive, with decay in nature such as the first fallen decaying leaf before the Flood as evidence of that curse. Because the cursed, groaning land requires heavier work, God has raised up men with inventive faculties to build implements to lighten labor upon it, though God is not in all inventions, for Satan has controlled minds and hurried men to new inventions that lead them to forget God. Tilling the soil was not given because of sin, for God had already blessed it as a means of useful work, true education and a school where man learns spiritual lessons, seeing reflected as in a mirror God's work upon the human soul to defeat Satan's plans after man by disobedience gave Satan opportunity to sow seeds of evil in the human heart, working against man's own present and eternal good.
Curse Upon the Earth
The earth was cursed, seared and marred for man's sake because of transgression, bringing forth thorns and thistles and requiring man to eat the plants of the field. The curse was felt lightly at first and did not immediately strip the earth of abundance or beauty, leaving the world still rich, fruitful and very beautiful with great trees, plants and fruit. Yet even then it showed sure signs of decay and dissolution, no longer as it had been before, as Adam saw in trees losing leaves and decaying and mourned the breaking of the beautiful natural world made for humanity. Its surviving beauty and fragrance show that mercy has not been wholly withdrawn, and the damaged world still bears witness to goodness and love.
The thorns, thistles, briars, brambles, tares and weeds came by the curse, sown by the enemy, and are the seeds of Satan's sowing. Until transgression Satan had no control of any part of the Lord's vineyard, but when man fell by listening to him and believing his lying promise of higher perceptions and likeness to angels, Satan began sowing seeds of evil in the earth and in the human heart, and was permitted to work out his principles until the whole earth was corrupt. Ground that in the beginning produced only good began to produce tares, whose growth calls for continual warfare, and man is doomed to wrestle against the power to which he yielded his will. In itself creation has nothing useless in it but is a reservoir of means ready for instant use, while the noxious growths are the intruded result of disobedience working against man's present and eternal good.
The curse did not come all at once but increased in stages. At first it rested lightly, but after Cain killed Abel a double curse rested on the ground. It greatly increased at the Flood, when continued ingratitude, disobedience and turning gifts into forgetfulness of God brought further judgment that broke up the fountains of the deep, swept away forests, groves, gardens and cities, threw buried rocks and rubbish over lovely places, and turned the fruitful home into a broken, uneven, frightful solitude marring the glories of Eden. Since the Flood it has rested heavier and heavier as the human family have forgotten God, followed disobedience and transgressed His commandments, with exalted blessings promised on condition of obedience and curses threatened for disobedience through inspired history.
Under the curse poverty, sickness, suffering, sorrow, pain and death became the portion of Adam's children, and the man made sovereign in Eden became a slave in a cursed world whose glory had departed because glory cannot cover disobedience and sin. By indulgence of appetite and passion came woe, anguish, disease, deformity, decrepitude of body and feebleness of mental, moral and physical power, accumulating from generation to generation as parents transmit corrupted blood, evil inclinations and imbecility, leaving the race groaning as in a lazar-house compared with man's original completeness in perfect soundness and health. The later weakness of the race is not its created condition or appointed lot but the consequence of the Fall and of continued violation of the laws of life, with intemperance in almost every form, appetite controlling reason, and steadily increasing disease as effect follows cause. With stubborn soil, barrenness and extremes of climate came troublesome vermin, insects and reptiles that multiply and destroy crops, degeneration of animals in size and years, disease in cattle and fish making flesh unsafe, decline in human strength and length of life, and pain and infirmity felt in the body.
Marred and defiled by sin, nature no longer reveals character perfectly nor gives perfect knowledge, but only a faint and imperfect conception of Eden's beauty and an imperfect testimony, bearing the law of condemnation and traces of the enemy's work. Transgression intervened between nature and nature's God, so that man deprived of heavenly light can no longer discern character in the works of the hand as man in innocence could. Yet the earth still speaks of its Creator and retains signs of His power, love and care, with flowers growing among thistles and roses concealing thorns.
The diseased, cursed land is not final. When people obey requirements and directions for tilling the soil and cooperate in caring for it, the diseased land is restored to health and brought back to a prosperous and beautiful condition, producing its treasures to be a praise and glory, just as a heart controlled by God reflects character. When in selfishness and covetousness men try to manage the land by their own wisdom and refuse to give it its sabbath, the land loses vigor, and barrenness and sickness testify to disobedience. Thus the earth's fertility and beauty restored through following instruction illustrate the spiritual fruit of obedience to moral law by obedience to the land's natural laws.
Mercy and Hope Given
The sentence of thorns and thistles, of eating in sorrow all the days of life and by sweat until return to dust, was spoken only after God first gave the promise of a Deliverer to bruise the serpent's head, so that hope was heard before thorns and thistles were heard. Because Adam disobeyed, the ground was cursed to produce thorns and thistles and to yield food only in sorrow, opening the floodgates of woe so that all nature feels the effects of sin, yet the fallen race was not left without a ray of hope. At creation Adam and Eve had knowledge of the original law of God imprinted upon their hearts, but by transgression they fell from happy innocence and became sinners, leaving the future without hope with gloom and darkness hanging like the pall of death and ending immediate communication with God except through Christ, to whom their case was committed in a special sense. In connection with the curse came the promise that through Christ there was hope and pardon for transgression of God's law, the gospel first preached to Adam by Christ as the star of hope lighting the dark future, and Adam and Eve in sincere sorrow and repentance believed the precious promise and were saved from utter ruin. Christ undertook the work of redemption by Himself bearing the guilt to maintain the full honor and fully vindicate the holiness and immutability of His Father's law, and to redeem from its curse all the obedient who embrace the offer of mercy by accepting the atonement so wonderfully provided, showing that all that was lost by yielding to Satan can be regained through Him.
The curse brought upon the earth by sin, that it would produce thorns and thistles and that man would eat the plants of the field, will be undone through the Son of God's work of salvation, and the earth will be redeemed. Even amid the suffering that results from sin God's love is seen, for man was made perfectly holy and happy and the earth came from the Creator without decay or curse, but transgression of God's law of love brought woe and death and the ground was cursed for man's sake. The thorn and the thistle, with the difficulties and trials that make human life one of toil and care, were appointed for man's good as part of the training needed in God's plan to lift him from the ruin and degradation sin has wrought. Though the world is fallen it is not all sorrow and misery, for nature itself still gives messages of hope and comfort, with flowers upon the thistles and thorns covered with roses.
The curse seared and marred the earth, causing it to produce briars, thorns, thistles and tares in which is discerned the law of condemnation, so that the present natural world gives only a faint conception of Eden's beauty and glory. Yet God did not destroy every opening bud and blooming flower nor take away their grateful fragrance, but in delicate color and perfume gives unmistakable expression of His love for fallen man, teaching that He still loves and that His mercy is not wholly withdrawn from the earth. God is love is still written upon every opening bud, upon the petals of every flower, and upon every spire of grass, testifying that all things in nature speak of the Creator's love and tender fatherly care and of His desire to make His children happy by supplying daily needs, and that His prohibitions and injunctions aim at their well-being and not merely at displaying His authority. While the earth's signs of decay testify to that curse, nature's renewal also offers hope, for its recurring signs of life point to the possibility of being created anew.
Christ entered this cursed and corrupted world, disloyal to God and seared and marred by Adam's disgraceful failure and fall, to meet Satan's work and redeem that fall. Sin had brought loss of God's favor and misery to the human race and loss of Eden, with the ground under a curse because of human disobedience, and with the sentence of death whose full execution God delayed because Christ undertook to redeem humanity. Christ passed over the same ground where Adam fell, in the wilderness of temptation resisting where Adam failed and gaining the victory, and by that victory He places the human family on vantage ground with God. Through obedience He redeemed humanity's fall and makes it possible to overcome in their own behalf through the merits of the crucified and risen Saviour and to regain what Adam lost.
Warning Against Transgression
Disobedience brings real punishment, and the sentence of thorns and thistles stands as proof that divine justice never fails and that violation of commands carries consequences. The record of Paradise shows that eating the forbidden fruit was not a small matter unworthy of notice, but a venturing to transgress prohibition that brought bitter experience and awful consequences, opening the floodgates of woe, followed by fall, loss of Eden, and expulsion. The result proves the law sacred and exacting, not to be set aside by pleas of mercy, for mercy does not excuse the sinner in sin nor lessen guilt for transgression, but covers guilt only after sin is repented of and forsaken, with justice and mercy going hand in hand. The giving of the Son from heaven to die to pay the debt of transgression and save the fallen race, making it possible to be elevated by His merits and through His blood to keep the law, exalts the law and evidences its sacred character, so that breaking the Sabbath law placed in the bosom of the decalogue is as guilty as stealing or murder or adultery, and following the world in breaking it will not justify in the day of judgment. The sad result in Paradise is given as warning against disobedience, teaching that the wages of sin is death and requiring strict regard for the commandments, while the guilt and sorrow brought into the world warn against disobeying the law.
Even one apparently small departure opened the floodgates of woe upon the world, bringing loss of the beautiful Eden given to man and after which sin grew steadily worse. Adam's transgression is first in a succession of human falls, and his driving from Eden brought sin into the world with unutterable woe, so that if the race had ceased falling then its physical, mental, and moral condition would now be far more elevated. His violation of the express injunction stands as warning not to indulge appetite and passion in direct violation of the law, yet men deplore his transgression while repeating his disobedience in a succession of falls. Eve was intemperate in desire for the forbidden fruit, ate and led her husband to eat, and curse rested on them both and on the earth because of their sin, and since that fall intemperance in almost every form has existed with appetite controlling reason, as the family follow Eve in being beguiled to disregard prohibitions while flattering themselves the consequence will not be as fearful as warned. Violating the laws of health and running to excess in almost everything brings steadily increasing disease, with effect following cause. The bringing forth of thorns and thistles making food harder to obtain is one of the dire results of that disobedience, warning to choose between repeating transgression and walking in humble obedience.
The verse belongs to the authentic history of the early history of the world, of the origin of the earth, of the creation of man and of his fall, of the fall of the covering cherub, and of the introduction of sin, without which the mind is left to fables and conjectures, bewildered by false theories and human conjectures and unreliable theories, subjected to the tyranny of superstition and falsehood, with enfeebling of intellect as the sure result of entertaining error. For nearly a thousand years Adam lived among men to the ninth generation as witness to the results of sin and faithfully sought to stem the tide of evil. Commanded to instruct posterity in the way of the Lord, he carefully treasured what had been revealed, repeated it to succeeding generations, described the holy and happy estate in Paradise, told of the sufferings by which he had been taught the necessity of strict adherence to the law, and explained the merciful provisions for salvation, yet few gave heed and often he was met with bitter reproaches for the sin that had brought such woe upon his posterity.
Disregarding prohibition brings consequences through the laws of nature, connecting the first transgression with the penalty that followed. The fall and expulsion from Eden are connected with suffering, sorrow, and death in the fallen state, with sin estranging humanity from God and separating earth from heaven, and with loss and damage to human life including weakened physical powers and subjection to death. The experience of the first parents shows that disregarding command brings real consequences, for they ate the forbidden fruit and were driven from Eden.
Living Its Lessons
Thorns and thistles are the trouble, hardship, loss and lasting regret that follow going one's own way and will and seeking one's own pleasure instead of trusting God. In choosing a marriage companion this means uniting from covetous, selfish, short-sighted pleasing of self with what is pleasing rather than what is profitable, bringing a union regretted forever after, while distrusting one's own judgment, depending on God's judgment, doing His will submissively, humbling oneself before Him and trusting in Him brings peace and comfort and a humble heart to work for saving the perishing. The barren, thorn-filled condition is not unchangeable, for when Christ's message is received society becomes like a garden of flowers and fruit-bearing trees. Christ's own work was harder than Eden's dressing and keeping without noxious weeds, because He had to sow gospel seed in cursed ground bringing forth thorns and thistles where the enemy had already sown tares, where long separation from God had let rubbish of error accumulate in false ideas, and where leaders taught for doctrine the commandments of men.
Working the ground remains necessary not merely for bodily strength and health but also for the brain, under the difficult conditions of life upon the soil. Labor was apportioned in connection with the curse because made necessary by sin, and a life of useful labor remains necessary for physical, mental and moral well-being, so that no rich or poor person can glorify God by indolence. Those whose capital is time and physical strength are as accountable for using that strength in patient, persevering labor as the rich are for money, and by improving ability, avoiding ease and speculation, and practicing self-denial and economy they may have something to bring in tithes and offerings and to help others. The cursed earth brings vermin of every kind and troublesome, harmful insects and reptiles that multiply, especially in the last days, annoying and tormenting and even killing and destroying the work of hands and the fruit of the land, such as ants ruining woodwork and insects spoiling fruit. Faithfulness requires guarding against and destroying these pests, as by destroying ants and spraying fruit trees, and then leaving the rest with the Lord, yet even the best effort will not exterminate them while this life lasts, and there is no foundation for the extreme theory that not even ant or flea or moth should be killed, a teaching that dishonors God's law and makes important truths of none effect. Evil will cease only when Satan with the agencies he has employed to annoy and grieve God's people is cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, when Satan ceases to exist and sin is no more.
The curse rests upon the human body as pain, infirmity and physical weakness, and the duty is to press against it rather than sink under it. Giving up to every feeling of infirmity, repining, thinking and talking of infirmities, affectation and complaining pleases the enemy and magnifies infirmities until life is miserable and useless. Instead the duty is to bear up, make effort to overcome, exercise the strength the Lord has given, seek God earnestly for strength, talk faith, act faith, manifest courage, attend to daily duties, and those who so bear up even against greater infirmities receive the Lord's assistance. The verse belongs to the law given in Eden as the basis of all right conduct with reward for obedience and penalty for disobedience, whose violation was the greatest loss and deepest injury conceivable, costing beautiful Eden, opening the floodgates of woe, and bringing a curse upon the earth and the human race. By that disobedience Adam and Eve lost the right to their Eden home, proving that being once in grace does not mean always in grace, and continuing in the same disobedience forfeits the right to Eden restored, which is why Cain's murmuring against God over the cursed ground shows the same spirit. Fallen man has been granted another trial only through Christ's sacrifice alone, so the result must be repented of at once by leaving the great rebel's side, giving the whole soul to God, choosing good and refusing evil, avoiding sin and abhorring it as hateful, feeling that it is better to suffer loss of all things than to depart from the least commandment, since men and women have grown more and still more bold in disobedience.
After disobedience and expulsion the soil became stubborn and daily bread had to be gained by struggle and hard toil, bringing sorrow yet also relieving grief and guarding against temptation. The curse on nature was appointed to witness of the character and results of rebellion, for while man remained loyal to Heaven all nature and all living creatures under his rule were in subjection to him, but when he rebelled against divine law the inferior creatures rebelled against his rule, done in great mercy to show the sacredness of God's law and to lead men by experience to see the danger of setting it aside even in the slightest degree. Eating what God had forbidden lost the right to Paradise, so preparing for Paradise restored requires bringing perverted appetite under strict control, because indulgence of depraved appetite weakens power to resist evil and enables Satan to fasten evil habits upon man and ensnare him. The misery seen because of that transgression does not show God unmerciful, for people bring suffering on themselves through unwillingness to submit to His requirements, and from that day there has been continual departure from His wise arrangements, with indulgence of appetite and sinful desires bringing misery and disease of every type traceable directly to wrong habits bringing their sure result. Sin marred God's purpose for perfect happiness as at creation and brought all the care and anguish that rends hearts, so in contrast to Eden where nature gave beauty, fragrance, fruit and song for joy, it is not God's order to be crowded into cities huddled in terraces and tenements, but His purpose is for men and women to rejoice in nature's sights and sounds, for His image to be impressed anew, for hearts to be filled with heaven's peace, and for sinners to be converted, because He has not abandoned the earth.
Spoken as God's sentence on Adam for listening to his wife and eating from the one tree forbidden to him, the word cursed the ground for his sake to bring forth thorns and thistles and weeds, and appointed him to eat the plants of the field in sorrow by sweat until his return to dust. It was spoken to Adam and to all his descendants, that the earth must henceforth be worked under the drawback of transgression, with happy labor replaced by anxiety, toil, disappointment, grief, pain and death as a continual reminder of sin's results. Work itself was not the curse, for tilling the soil in Eden was pleasant and invigorating blessing, and only after sin did labor become difficult, attended by weariness and pain and greatly multiplied by weeds. That life of toil and care was appointed in love as discipline made needful by sin, to relieve sorrow, guard against temptation, check appetite and self-indulgence, and develop industry and self-control in God's plan for recovery from the fall. After leaving Eden man was permitted to live on field crops earned by cultivating the earth, for to the original fruits and grains were added the plants of the field, making grains, fruits, nuts and vegetables the appointed diet to be prepared simply and fitted to season, climate and occupation. The word of judgment was spoken only after God first gave the promise of a Deliverer to bruise the serpent's head, so hope and the offer of pardon through Christ preceded the curse, and even the thorn and thistle were appointed for man's good as training to lift him from ruin until the earth is redeemed.
Setting and Meaning
The sentence was spoken to Adam because he listened to the voice of his wife and ate from the tree that had been forbidden to him, and his blaming of Eve for giving him the fruit did not save him from the result of disobedience. No excuse remained, for every need had been generously supplied and only one prohibition had been laid upon him, so the judgment teaches that the divine word is to be sacredly respected and its requirements implicitly obeyed. Through misrepresentation of God sin entered the world and death by sin, opening the floodgates of woe upon the world. The opening of their eyes brought Adam and Eve to see their own shame and ruin, to realize the garments of heavenly light that had protected them were gone, to know nakedness as the fruit of transgression, and to anticipate condemnation, so that when they heard God in the garden they hid themselves from Him.
In its plain sense the ground was cursed for his sake to bring forth thorns and thistles, briers, briars and weeds for him, and he would eat the herb or plants of the field in sorrow all the days of his life. He was to obtain food by sorrowful, toil-filled cultivation, in the sweat of his face until his return to dust, passing at last through death to dust again. What had been happy labor was thus replaced by hardship and lasting consequences, a life of perpetual toil and anxiety under the curse of sin. After forfeiting all right to Eden he was expelled from it and remained exposed to temptation in his life outside.
The word was spoken to Adam and to all his descendants, that from henceforth the earth must be worked under the drawback of transgression, bringing forth thorns and briars so that bread is eaten in the sweat of the face. By following his own way in harmony with temptation and against known will, in a vain attempt to elevate and bless himself, man gained an experimental knowledge of disobedience to the commandments and came to know good and evil. He lost fidelity and loyalty to God and opened the floodgates of evil and suffering to the whole human family, so that all nature feels the effects of sin. Instead of the happy labor first appointed, anxiety and toil became the lot, and from that time the race would be afflicted by temptation and subject to disappointment, grief, pain, and finally death, continually reminding humanity of the results of sin. Yet God did not leave Adam without a ray of hope.
The sentence belongs with Adam and Eve being shut out of Eden and driven from the garden, with cherubim and a flaming sword guarding the way of the tree of life. This guarding was lest the disobedient pair should again put forth the hand and eat of the fruit which perpetuates immortality and become immortal sinners, making transgression immortal. The curse followed the promise made before the world was created to bear the penalty of transgression if created man fell. The garden itself, which had been planted and blessed, was preserved from that curse and withdrawn from the earth until restored in greater glory, remaining free as a specimen of perfect creation until withdrawn before the Flood and to be returned more gloriously adorned. In humility and unutterable sadness they bade farewell to their beautiful home and went forth to dwell upon an earth where rested the curse of sin, where the atmosphere was no longer mild and uniform but subject to marked changes, and where merciful provision was made for them in garments of skins as protection from extremes of heat and cold.
Food Appointed After Eden
After leaving Eden and under the curse of sin, permission was given to eat the plants of the field while earning a livelihood by cultivating the earth. Dependence henceforth was placed on field crops for food, gathered from ground that would meet cultivation with resistance in thorns and thistles. The earth can still yield its blessings, but they must be gathered with courage, willingness and perseverance.
The original plan was for subsistence on fruits and grains as the natural products of the earth, with the plants of the ground added for food after sin. Field plants were thus added to the original Eden foods, so that grains, fruits, nuts and vegetables together form the diet appointed by the Creator. God's original purpose was to provide simple fruits, grains and vegetables for food, even though the promised land like a second Eden still bore the marred condition of the curse. Prepared in as simple and natural a manner as possible, these foods are the most healthful and nourishing, giving strength, power of endurance and vigor of intellect not afforded by a more complex and stimulating diet. Even among foods wholesome in themselves, choice must fit season, climate and occupation, since hard physical labor, sedentary pursuits and intense mental application require different foods, and each person must choose from the ample variety what experience and sound judgment prove best suited to personal necessity.
The original food of man was vegetation, not the flesh of dead animals, which was permitted only after the Flood because all vegetation had been destroyed. The curse pronounced upon man and the earth and every living thing made strange and wonderful changes, with human life shortening since the Flood and physical, mental and moral degeneracy rapidly increasing in the latter days. Death and suffering among humans and animals, including the taking of animal life for food, belong to the curse that followed sin, when the ground would produce thorns and thistles and people would eat the plants of the field, and are results of transgression rather than part of the original plan.
Labor Under the Curse
Work itself was not laid on as a curse, for in Eden tilling the soil and caring for what God had planted was employment given by God Himself as Instructor, pleasant, invigorating, and regarded not as degrading but as a great blessing and pleasure. The curse only changed the conditions of labor, so that what had been pleasure must now be done in toil and hardship against a stubborn soil to gain daily bread, attended by anxiety, weariness and pain. The decree that man should earn his bread by the sweat of the brow was therefore not given as a curse, but through faith and hope labor was still to be a blessing to Adam and Eve and all their descendants, because God never meant that man should have nothing to do. The deeper the curse of sin the more God's order is changed, so that the burden of toil rests heavily on one class while the curse of idleness rests on others in possession of God's money through the false idea that money increases moral worth, and labor becomes to human beings what they make it. When made into constant drudgery relieved by liquor-drinking and exciting amusements it makes men little better than brutes.
This life of toil and care was appointed in love as discipline made needful by sin, to relieve sorrow and remorse, to occupy the mind, strengthen the body, and develop the faculties for happiness and prosperity. It was God's purpose to lighten the evil brought into the world by disobedience, to remove that evil, to make Satan's temptations ineffectual, and to stay the tide of evil. Though now joined with anxiety, weariness and pain, labor remains a source of happiness and development and a guard against temptation, since its discipline checks appetite, temptation and self-indulgence and builds self-control, industry, purity and firmness. So it is part of God's great plan for recovery from the fall, for while obedience made work a pleasure with the earth yielding abundance for every want, disobedience doomed man to battle in toil against the power to which he had yielded his will and to wrestle against the seeds of Satan's sowing.
From henceforth the earth must be worked under the drawback of transgression by Adam and all his descendants, bringing forth thorns and briars and field crops for food, and eaten in the sweat of the face. The soil yields its strength only through human labor with God's blessing to produce its good things, requiring proportionate use of limbs and muscles in physical labor in the early morning and cool of the day joined with study in the heat of the day. The earth can still yield blessings, but they must be gathered with courage, will, willingness and perseverance in diligent, timely and thorough cultivation, while neglect and idleness increase the harm.
The curse greatly multiplied the work of tilling, for ground that at first produced only good began to produce weeds, thistles and tares, calling for continual warfare. The soil has grown barren under a curse lying more and more heavily on the land, so cultivation has grown harder and demands double labor to make it productive, with decay in nature such as the first fallen decaying leaf before the Flood as evidence of that curse. Because the cursed, groaning land requires heavier work, God has raised up men with inventive faculties to build implements to lighten labor upon it, though God is not in all inventions, for Satan has controlled minds and hurried men to new inventions that lead them to forget God. Tilling the soil was not given because of sin, for God had already blessed it as a means of useful work, true education and a school where man learns spiritual lessons, seeing reflected as in a mirror God's work upon the human soul to defeat Satan's plans after man by disobedience gave Satan opportunity to sow seeds of evil in the human heart, working against man's own present and eternal good.
Curse Upon the Earth
The earth was cursed, seared and marred for man's sake because of transgression, bringing forth thorns and thistles and requiring man to eat the plants of the field. The curse was felt lightly at first and did not immediately strip the earth of abundance or beauty, leaving the world still rich, fruitful and very beautiful with great trees, plants and fruit. Yet even then it showed sure signs of decay and dissolution, no longer as it had been before, as Adam saw in trees losing leaves and decaying and mourned the breaking of the beautiful natural world made for humanity. Its surviving beauty and fragrance show that mercy has not been wholly withdrawn, and the damaged world still bears witness to goodness and love.
The thorns, thistles, briars, brambles, tares and weeds came by the curse, sown by the enemy, and are the seeds of Satan's sowing. Until transgression Satan had no control of any part of the Lord's vineyard, but when man fell by listening to him and believing his lying promise of higher perceptions and likeness to angels, Satan began sowing seeds of evil in the earth and in the human heart, and was permitted to work out his principles until the whole earth was corrupt. Ground that in the beginning produced only good began to produce tares, whose growth calls for continual warfare, and man is doomed to wrestle against the power to which he yielded his will. In itself creation has nothing useless in it but is a reservoir of means ready for instant use, while the noxious growths are the intruded result of disobedience working against man's present and eternal good.
The curse did not come all at once but increased in stages. At first it rested lightly, but after Cain killed Abel a double curse rested on the ground. It greatly increased at the Flood, when continued ingratitude, disobedience and turning gifts into forgetfulness of God brought further judgment that broke up the fountains of the deep, swept away forests, groves, gardens and cities, threw buried rocks and rubbish over lovely places, and turned the fruitful home into a broken, uneven, frightful solitude marring the glories of Eden. Since the Flood it has rested heavier and heavier as the human family have forgotten God, followed disobedience and transgressed His commandments, with exalted blessings promised on condition of obedience and curses threatened for disobedience through inspired history.
Under the curse poverty, sickness, suffering, sorrow, pain and death became the portion of Adam's children, and the man made sovereign in Eden became a slave in a cursed world whose glory had departed because glory cannot cover disobedience and sin. By indulgence of appetite and passion came woe, anguish, disease, deformity, decrepitude of body and feebleness of mental, moral and physical power, accumulating from generation to generation as parents transmit corrupted blood, evil inclinations and imbecility, leaving the race groaning as in a lazar-house compared with man's original completeness in perfect soundness and health. The later weakness of the race is not its created condition or appointed lot but the consequence of the Fall and of continued violation of the laws of life, with intemperance in almost every form, appetite controlling reason, and steadily increasing disease as effect follows cause. With stubborn soil, barrenness and extremes of climate came troublesome vermin, insects and reptiles that multiply and destroy crops, degeneration of animals in size and years, disease in cattle and fish making flesh unsafe, decline in human strength and length of life, and pain and infirmity felt in the body.
Marred and defiled by sin, nature no longer reveals character perfectly nor gives perfect knowledge, but only a faint and imperfect conception of Eden's beauty and an imperfect testimony, bearing the law of condemnation and traces of the enemy's work. Transgression intervened between nature and nature's God, so that man deprived of heavenly light can no longer discern character in the works of the hand as man in innocence could. Yet the earth still speaks of its Creator and retains signs of His power, love and care, with flowers growing among thistles and roses concealing thorns.
The diseased, cursed land is not final. When people obey requirements and directions for tilling the soil and cooperate in caring for it, the diseased land is restored to health and brought back to a prosperous and beautiful condition, producing its treasures to be a praise and glory, just as a heart controlled by God reflects character. When in selfishness and covetousness men try to manage the land by their own wisdom and refuse to give it its sabbath, the land loses vigor, and barrenness and sickness testify to disobedience. Thus the earth's fertility and beauty restored through following instruction illustrate the spiritual fruit of obedience to moral law by obedience to the land's natural laws.
Mercy and Hope Given
The sentence of thorns and thistles, of eating in sorrow all the days of life and by sweat until return to dust, was spoken only after God first gave the promise of a Deliverer to bruise the serpent's head, so that hope was heard before thorns and thistles were heard. Because Adam disobeyed, the ground was cursed to produce thorns and thistles and to yield food only in sorrow, opening the floodgates of woe so that all nature feels the effects of sin, yet the fallen race was not left without a ray of hope. At creation Adam and Eve had knowledge of the original law of God imprinted upon their hearts, but by transgression they fell from happy innocence and became sinners, leaving the future without hope with gloom and darkness hanging like the pall of death and ending immediate communication with God except through Christ, to whom their case was committed in a special sense. In connection with the curse came the promise that through Christ there was hope and pardon for transgression of God's law, the gospel first preached to Adam by Christ as the star of hope lighting the dark future, and Adam and Eve in sincere sorrow and repentance believed the precious promise and were saved from utter ruin. Christ undertook the work of redemption by Himself bearing the guilt to maintain the full honor and fully vindicate the holiness and immutability of His Father's law, and to redeem from its curse all the obedient who embrace the offer of mercy by accepting the atonement so wonderfully provided, showing that all that was lost by yielding to Satan can be regained through Him.
The curse brought upon the earth by sin, that it would produce thorns and thistles and that man would eat the plants of the field, will be undone through the Son of God's work of salvation, and the earth will be redeemed. Even amid the suffering that results from sin God's love is seen, for man was made perfectly holy and happy and the earth came from the Creator without decay or curse, but transgression of God's law of love brought woe and death and the ground was cursed for man's sake. The thorn and the thistle, with the difficulties and trials that make human life one of toil and care, were appointed for man's good as part of the training needed in God's plan to lift him from the ruin and degradation sin has wrought. Though the world is fallen it is not all sorrow and misery, for nature itself still gives messages of hope and comfort, with flowers upon the thistles and thorns covered with roses.
The curse seared and marred the earth, causing it to produce briars, thorns, thistles and tares in which is discerned the law of condemnation, so that the present natural world gives only a faint conception of Eden's beauty and glory. Yet God did not destroy every opening bud and blooming flower nor take away their grateful fragrance, but in delicate color and perfume gives unmistakable expression of His love for fallen man, teaching that He still loves and that His mercy is not wholly withdrawn from the earth. God is love is still written upon every opening bud, upon the petals of every flower, and upon every spire of grass, testifying that all things in nature speak of the Creator's love and tender fatherly care and of His desire to make His children happy by supplying daily needs, and that His prohibitions and injunctions aim at their well-being and not merely at displaying His authority. While the earth's signs of decay testify to that curse, nature's renewal also offers hope, for its recurring signs of life point to the possibility of being created anew.
Christ entered this cursed and corrupted world, disloyal to God and seared and marred by Adam's disgraceful failure and fall, to meet Satan's work and redeem that fall. Sin had brought loss of God's favor and misery to the human race and loss of Eden, with the ground under a curse because of human disobedience, and with the sentence of death whose full execution God delayed because Christ undertook to redeem humanity. Christ passed over the same ground where Adam fell, in the wilderness of temptation resisting where Adam failed and gaining the victory, and by that victory He places the human family on vantage ground with God. Through obedience He redeemed humanity's fall and makes it possible to overcome in their own behalf through the merits of the crucified and risen Saviour and to regain what Adam lost.
Warning Against Transgression
Disobedience brings real punishment, and the sentence of thorns and thistles stands as proof that divine justice never fails and that violation of commands carries consequences. The record of Paradise shows that eating the forbidden fruit was not a small matter unworthy of notice, but a venturing to transgress prohibition that brought bitter experience and awful consequences, opening the floodgates of woe, followed by fall, loss of Eden, and expulsion. The result proves the law sacred and exacting, not to be set aside by pleas of mercy, for mercy does not excuse the sinner in sin nor lessen guilt for transgression, but covers guilt only after sin is repented of and forsaken, with justice and mercy going hand in hand. The giving of the Son from heaven to die to pay the debt of transgression and save the fallen race, making it possible to be elevated by His merits and through His blood to keep the law, exalts the law and evidences its sacred character, so that breaking the Sabbath law placed in the bosom of the decalogue is as guilty as stealing or murder or adultery, and following the world in breaking it will not justify in the day of judgment. The sad result in Paradise is given as warning against disobedience, teaching that the wages of sin is death and requiring strict regard for the commandments, while the guilt and sorrow brought into the world warn against disobeying the law.
Even one apparently small departure opened the floodgates of woe upon the world, bringing loss of the beautiful Eden given to man and after which sin grew steadily worse. Adam's transgression is first in a succession of human falls, and his driving from Eden brought sin into the world with unutterable woe, so that if the race had ceased falling then its physical, mental, and moral condition would now be far more elevated. His violation of the express injunction stands as warning not to indulge appetite and passion in direct violation of the law, yet men deplore his transgression while repeating his disobedience in a succession of falls. Eve was intemperate in desire for the forbidden fruit, ate and led her husband to eat, and curse rested on them both and on the earth because of their sin, and since that fall intemperance in almost every form has existed with appetite controlling reason, as the family follow Eve in being beguiled to disregard prohibitions while flattering themselves the consequence will not be as fearful as warned. Violating the laws of health and running to excess in almost everything brings steadily increasing disease, with effect following cause. The bringing forth of thorns and thistles making food harder to obtain is one of the dire results of that disobedience, warning to choose between repeating transgression and walking in humble obedience.
The verse belongs to the authentic history of the early history of the world, of the origin of the earth, of the creation of man and of his fall, of the fall of the covering cherub, and of the introduction of sin, without which the mind is left to fables and conjectures, bewildered by false theories and human conjectures and unreliable theories, subjected to the tyranny of superstition and falsehood, with enfeebling of intellect as the sure result of entertaining error. For nearly a thousand years Adam lived among men to the ninth generation as witness to the results of sin and faithfully sought to stem the tide of evil. Commanded to instruct posterity in the way of the Lord, he carefully treasured what had been revealed, repeated it to succeeding generations, described the holy and happy estate in Paradise, told of the sufferings by which he had been taught the necessity of strict adherence to the law, and explained the merciful provisions for salvation, yet few gave heed and often he was met with bitter reproaches for the sin that had brought such woe upon his posterity.
Disregarding prohibition brings consequences through the laws of nature, connecting the first transgression with the penalty that followed. The fall and expulsion from Eden are connected with suffering, sorrow, and death in the fallen state, with sin estranging humanity from God and separating earth from heaven, and with loss and damage to human life including weakened physical powers and subjection to death. The experience of the first parents shows that disregarding command brings real consequences, for they ate the forbidden fruit and were driven from Eden.
Living Its Lessons
Thorns and thistles are the trouble, hardship, loss and lasting regret that follow going one's own way and will and seeking one's own pleasure instead of trusting God. In choosing a marriage companion this means uniting from covetous, selfish, short-sighted pleasing of self with what is pleasing rather than what is profitable, bringing a union regretted forever after, while distrusting one's own judgment, depending on God's judgment, doing His will submissively, humbling oneself before Him and trusting in Him brings peace and comfort and a humble heart to work for saving the perishing. The barren, thorn-filled condition is not unchangeable, for when Christ's message is received society becomes like a garden of flowers and fruit-bearing trees. Christ's own work was harder than Eden's dressing and keeping without noxious weeds, because He had to sow gospel seed in cursed ground bringing forth thorns and thistles where the enemy had already sown tares, where long separation from God had let rubbish of error accumulate in false ideas, and where leaders taught for doctrine the commandments of men.
Working the ground remains necessary not merely for bodily strength and health but also for the brain, under the difficult conditions of life upon the soil. Labor was apportioned in connection with the curse because made necessary by sin, and a life of useful labor remains necessary for physical, mental and moral well-being, so that no rich or poor person can glorify God by indolence. Those whose capital is time and physical strength are as accountable for using that strength in patient, persevering labor as the rich are for money, and by improving ability, avoiding ease and speculation, and practicing self-denial and economy they may have something to bring in tithes and offerings and to help others. The cursed earth brings vermin of every kind and troublesome, harmful insects and reptiles that multiply, especially in the last days, annoying and tormenting and even killing and destroying the work of hands and the fruit of the land, such as ants ruining woodwork and insects spoiling fruit. Faithfulness requires guarding against and destroying these pests, as by destroying ants and spraying fruit trees, and then leaving the rest with the Lord, yet even the best effort will not exterminate them while this life lasts, and there is no foundation for the extreme theory that not even ant or flea or moth should be killed, a teaching that dishonors God's law and makes important truths of none effect. Evil will cease only when Satan with the agencies he has employed to annoy and grieve God's people is cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, when Satan ceases to exist and sin is no more.
The curse rests upon the human body as pain, infirmity and physical weakness, and the duty is to press against it rather than sink under it. Giving up to every feeling of infirmity, repining, thinking and talking of infirmities, affectation and complaining pleases the enemy and magnifies infirmities until life is miserable and useless. Instead the duty is to bear up, make effort to overcome, exercise the strength the Lord has given, seek God earnestly for strength, talk faith, act faith, manifest courage, attend to daily duties, and those who so bear up even against greater infirmities receive the Lord's assistance. The verse belongs to the law given in Eden as the basis of all right conduct with reward for obedience and penalty for disobedience, whose violation was the greatest loss and deepest injury conceivable, costing beautiful Eden, opening the floodgates of woe, and bringing a curse upon the earth and the human race. By that disobedience Adam and Eve lost the right to their Eden home, proving that being once in grace does not mean always in grace, and continuing in the same disobedience forfeits the right to Eden restored, which is why Cain's murmuring against God over the cursed ground shows the same spirit. Fallen man has been granted another trial only through Christ's sacrifice alone, so the result must be repented of at once by leaving the great rebel's side, giving the whole soul to God, choosing good and refusing evil, avoiding sin and abhorring it as hateful, feeling that it is better to suffer loss of all things than to depart from the least commandment, since men and women have grown more and still more bold in disobedience.
After disobedience and expulsion the soil became stubborn and daily bread had to be gained by struggle and hard toil, bringing sorrow yet also relieving grief and guarding against temptation. The curse on nature was appointed to witness of the character and results of rebellion, for while man remained loyal to Heaven all nature and all living creatures under his rule were in subjection to him, but when he rebelled against divine law the inferior creatures rebelled against his rule, done in great mercy to show the sacredness of God's law and to lead men by experience to see the danger of setting it aside even in the slightest degree. Eating what God had forbidden lost the right to Paradise, so preparing for Paradise restored requires bringing perverted appetite under strict control, because indulgence of depraved appetite weakens power to resist evil and enables Satan to fasten evil habits upon man and ensnare him. The misery seen because of that transgression does not show God unmerciful, for people bring suffering on themselves through unwillingness to submit to His requirements, and from that day there has been continual departure from His wise arrangements, with indulgence of appetite and sinful desires bringing misery and disease of every type traceable directly to wrong habits bringing their sure result. Sin marred God's purpose for perfect happiness as at creation and brought all the care and anguish that rends hearts, so in contrast to Eden where nature gave beauty, fragrance, fruit and song for joy, it is not God's order to be crowded into cities huddled in terraces and tenements, but His purpose is for men and women to rejoice in nature's sights and sounds, for His image to be impressed anew, for hearts to be filled with heaven's peace, and for sinners to be converted, because He has not abandoned the earth.