The Curse of Adam

The Curse of Adam

To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; 
through painful toil you will eat food from 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.” Genesis 3:17-19 NIV

Today, I am going to deal with the other third of this curse from the garden: Adam’s Curse. I first started looking at this upon preaching my second ever message in 2007 in which I discussed “The Family of God”. As I prepared I noticed a few things that seemed out of place in society relative to what God created. And I found myself constantly going back to Genesis to read and re-read chapter’s 2 and 3. There is so much here that if we can just meditate on these things for a while, we can probably change the world. And I feel especially strongly that the lives of men can change if they understand what the curse of separating from God actually yields.

First I will deal with the first portion of the passage regarding Adam listening to his wife. Some people blame Eve for the fall, but Eve never got the instruction from God. She got it from Adam, who got it from God. God said, “Because you listened to your wife . . .” To me, that tells me that God speaks to men and gives them instruction and holds them accountable for what they hear. Not to judge it, but to obey. That is, if it comes from God. If they obey other instruction, then they will have to suffer the consequence. Or, even more, the world suffers because men do not hear from and/or obey the commands of God. The first part of the curse, affected the ground because of Adam. Because Adam came from the ground, it was cursed because he was cursed. The whole earth suffers the consequences of a man’s separation from God.

Second, this separation creates an antagonistic relationship between men and the earth. There is always a battle. We see shows like, Man vs. Wild and marvel at what seems to be the crazy battles of man going against nature or animals. But that is not the picture that I get from the garden of Eden as to how things were supposed to be. Prior to the fall the ground must have cooperated with humankind in order to get food. Otherwise, the curse would just be a pronouncement of what already existed, not a consequence of disobedience. He was always to get food from the ground, but all things worked in harmony. So that tells me that part of Adam’s curse is to have to painfully work to get his food and the ground that he gets it from will be resistant.

Third, the effect of the curse describes the type of work that Adam would now have to pursue. That word toil means laborious labor. The type of work where you just slave away all the days of your life. The type of work that adds no value to your life. Meaningless work. Slave labor. Never enough reward to equal the labor involved. Always feeling like you are playing catch-up. Never ahead. Always feeling like the world is against your advancement. The third effect of the curse is for a man to constantly work without purpose. Toil was not God’s design for your life. You were created to have purposeful work. The effect of the curse is for you to constantly feel like you “Gotta do what you gotta do”. “Gotta make this money”. The third effect of the curse will cause you to disregard the pull of purpose in your heart in favor of making money the quickest way you know how.

Gentlemen, you are called by God to work in this world in a way that is redemptive and life giving. Yet, because of your separation from God, you have settled for making money by any means necessary. Totally disregarding the desires that God has placed in your heart for you to go out and fulfill. You probably have this nagging feeling all the time that you were created for more. Good. You are supposed to when you are not where you belong. That nagging feeling is God tugging at your heart, trying to get you to finally stop and realized that you now have an opportunity through Jesus Christ to connect to your source again. You can finally stop living under the curse and start living on purpose. You can finally stop trying to hustle your way to feed yourself and your family and learn how to let the ground work for you instead of against you. It is possible. There are people doing it. There are people who have responded to the call of God and ignored the voices of anyone who speaks against what God has already said. It is possible to live life on purpose. It is possible for you to have the life that God called you to and not live is this constant toil. If you are reading this, then consider this a tug at your heart by God. He is planting a seed, or watering what has already been planted. You know that you are not where you want to be, but you are not sure what to do about it. My advice: Learn how to connect to your source and obey His voice. In that type of life you will find purpose and meaningful work. Without it, the curse prevails. The life you desire is already yours. It’s up to you to respond.