1. Survival
a. Fruit of the belly (having children)
b. Fruit of the ground (having crops and/or cattle for food)
2. Preeminence
a. Getting most attention from dad
b. Getting most attention from the husband
When Adam and Eve fell, God filled all of these with pain, hardship and suffering.
THE WOMAN
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 (Genesis 3:16)."
I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. There is nothing that needs to be said about this. It is pretty obvious that giving birth is filled with pain and oftentimes death.
Your desire will be for your husband.
Genesis portrays women who hungered for and fought for their husbands' attention. They suffered for it. Some suffered because they bore no children and some because they were not their husband's favorite. Others were humiliated by competing with other wives for their polygamous husbands' love and respect.
He will rule over you.
Women were made subservient to their husbands, as they ruled over them. Women have suffered injustices in societies and in their own homes since the fall of humanity. It is not an absolute rule, but a general rule that has permeated almost all societies and families.
Genesis shares with us how this took place in ancient times. Sarah was told by her husband to give herself to Pharaoh and other leaders wherever they traveled. He did this to protect himself, because he was afraid that people would kill him and take his wife. Granted, the Bible says that God protected her from getting raped in one case, but the Bible is silent about all other places they visited. Her husband also had sex with a servant in order to have a child because Sarah couldn't have children. Sure, she gave him permission and even brought up the idea, but I'm sure there was a lot of pressure put on her to do so. There are plenty of other examples of how men ruled over their wives in Genesis, but I will leave that for now.
The fact that men rule over their wives is a curse that came about from the fall. Pain in childbirth is also a result of the fall; should we seek to make childbirth as painful as possible? Should we make sure work is more difficult than need be, because God cursed the ground? No in these things we do what we can to turn the curse around. We seek to alleviate pain and to repair what nature does to the work of our hands. Who would seek to increase pain in childbirth because it is God's doing at creation?
The point I am making is this - we should not use the bible to justify abuse of or domination over women or wives. It is a curse in Genesis, not a commandment.
THE MAN
Genesis 3:17-19
Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
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.”
The early chapters in Genesis are obsessed with the ground (IE: dirt). We are created from dirt and we will return to dirt, and the ground is our most needed natural resource. The dirt gives us life and the dirt will receive our lives.
The ground was cursed at the fall. Again, this does not mean that we should seek to make the ground terrible for growing crops, rather, we do what we can to help grow crops, to undo the curse placed on the ground and on the work it takes to get from the ground.
ONE LAST THOUGHT
The curse seems more directed to a settled community than a nomadic one. The curse relates most of all to those who were growing crops, it does not seem to relate as much to raising cattle. Granted, the cattle need vegetation to survive, but the vegetation they need is not the kind that needs cultivation.
By implication, we can say that the curse on the ground implies a curse on all of our work. IE: that we have to struggle and work hard in life to get the fruit of any labor.
The ground was cursed at the fall. Again, this does not mean that we should seek to make the ground terrible for growing crops, rather, we do what we can to help grow crops, to undo the curse placed on the ground and on the work it takes to get from the ground.
ONE LAST THOUGHT
The curse seems more directed to a settled community than a nomadic one. The curse relates most of all to those who were growing crops, it does not seem to relate as much to raising cattle. Granted, the cattle need vegetation to survive, but the vegetation they need is not the kind that needs cultivation.
By implication, we can say that the curse on the ground implies a curse on all of our work. IE: that we have to struggle and work hard in life to get the fruit of any labor.
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