The GENESIS CURSE is Not God’s Law, but Rather a Divine Curse

Those who teach/preach from the Holy Scriptures are instructed to “rightly divide” or “correctly handle” them (2 Timothy 2:15). If it’s possible to rightly divide God’s word it’s also possible to unrightly divide it; that is, misinterpret the Scriptures and spread error. The problem with error is that it cannot set people free; only the truth sets free, as the Lord said (John 8:31-32).

This is relevant to our topic because some sincere ministers have wrongly taught that the “Genesis curse” from chapter 3 of the book of Genesis is tantamount to God’s Law. In other words, they claim it applies to God’s commands to humanity (or, at least, some of it does). But this is not the case. The passage involves the LORD’s curse on humanity as a consequence of sin. Let’s read the account:

¹⁴So the LORD God said to the serpent:

“Because you have done this,

cursed are you above all livestock

and every beast of the field!

On your belly will you go,

and dust you will eat,

all the days of your life.

¹⁵And I will put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your seed and her seed.

He will crush your head,

and you will strike his heel.”

¹⁶To the woman He said:

“I will sharply increase your pain in childbirth;

in pain you will bring forth children.

Your desire will be for your husband,

and he will rule over you.”

¹⁷And to Adam He said:

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife

and have eaten from the tree

of which I commanded you not to eat,

cursed is the ground because of you;

through toil you will eat of it

all the days of your life.

¹⁸Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you,

and you will eat the plants of the field.

¹⁹By the sweat of your brow

you will eat your bread,

until you return to the ground—

because out of it were you taken.

For dust you are,

and to dust you shall return.”

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

Genesis 3:14-20

When God pronounced to Eve that “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you” (verse 16) the Creator was issuing a warning to Eve, not giving a command to Adam! In other words, God was not giving Adam (and men in general) permission to be tyrants over the women in their lives. The LORD was basically saying: “Beware, Eve, man is now going to try to dominate you and your female descendants.”

This tendency is in the flesh of all males. You can even see it in boys who naturally try to dominate their mothers (which they don’t do with their fathers, generally speaking, and wisely so). I know because I myself did this when I was a kid. Don’t get me wrong, the masculine spirit is good — God called it “very good” along with everything else that was created (Genesis 1:31) — but the flesh, the sinful nature, perverts all good things.

We must understand that this section of Scripture — Genesis 3:14-19 — is a divine proclamation concerning the result of humanity now being fallen. In other words it was a prophetic curse due to transgression — not a blessing or a command — which is why this section of Scripture is called “the Genesis curse.” Nothing in this proclamation is a moral law like “You shall not commit adultery” or “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:14-15), rather it’s a divine judgment — a curse — on the serpent/satan for deception and on Adam & Eve for their sin. The only sense that any proclamation in Genesis 3:14-19 is “Law” is that it is contained in the section of Scripture known as the Law or Pentateuch, aka the first five books of the Bible. The fact that some ministers refer to Genesis 3:16 as “Law” or a “blessing” is laughable. I can’t help but suspect they have issues with misogyny.

We’re going to focus on the LORD’s proclamation to Adam & Eve rather than satan since humanity has the potential for redemption whereas satan is incorrigible (you can read details here). God was conveying the general way it will be for them & their progeny — humanity — in a fallen world, not the way it should be or has to be. For instance…

The LORD said to Eve that he would “sharply increase your pain in childbirth,” but this doesn’t mean that a woman and those who are assisting her medically shouldn’t do everything in their power to ease her pain during childbirth.
The LORD said “in pain you will bring forth children,” but this doesn’t mean that a woman has to have children or will have children. What about women who can’t find a husband? What about women who have no interest in having sex with men? What about women who want to forsake marriage & children in order to devote their lives to God à la 1 Corinthians 7:34? What about women who can’t have children for one reason or another? What about women who simply have no desire to bear & raise children?
The LORD said “Your desire will be for your husband,” but this clearly doesn’t mean that every woman will desire a husband.
The LORD said “and he will rule over you,” but this doesn’t mean he ought to rule over her.
The LORD said to Adam “cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life,” but this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t improve agriculture quality and production, nor does it mean that people since that time have to limit their diet to fruits & vegetables.
The LORD said “through toil you will eat,” but this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t reduce the amount of needless toil in our work in order to make a living. The biblical book of wisdom says “The blessing of the LORD brings wealth, without painful toil for it” (Proverbs 10:22).
The LORD said “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread,” but this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t find ways to reduce the amount of sweat it takes to earn a living.
Lastly, the LORD said in the latter part of verse 19 that death is now a reality for humanity obviously because “the wages of sin is death,” but this doesn’t mean that there aren’t exceptions to suffering physical death, like Enoch (Genesis 5:21-24), Elijah (2 Kings 2:11) and those who will be raptured (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). Nor does it mean that we shouldn’t reconcile with God through the message of Christ to escape eternal death (Romans 6:23 & John 3:16).

In short, these statements are general truths about the way life will be in a fallen world due to Adam & Eve’s sin — called “original sin” by theologians — but they are not absolutes nor are they moral laws or blessings. They warn of the way it will generally be in this cursed physical reality, but not the way it should be or has to be or will always be. Are you following?

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