1B31
© Jeff Stacey | Last updated: 12 February 2017
1B31. God responded to Adam:
(a) God had first approached Adam, interrogated him and exposed his guilt
(b) God cursed the soil so that Adam could no longer get food easily
(c) God stated that Adam would rule over Eve
1B31(a) God had first approached Adam, interrogated him and exposed his guilt
When God had approached Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden they initially tried to hide from Him Gen 3:8b. God then called them to account for their actions. Although God is all-knowing, He asked them four questions about their responses to the acute challenges by God’s Enemy Gen 3:9,11a,11b,13a. This was the first recorded dialogue between God and people.
Obviously God was interrogating them and began by questioning Adam. God was holding Adam primarily accountable for the responses of himself and his wife [1A10(sub-title)]. God’s questioning of Adam exposed his guilt Gen 3:11-12.
Although Eve had led Adam to eat the forbidden fruit, God twice decreed that it was “because of” Adam Gen 3:17that He had passed His judgments upon him, as follows.
1B31(b) God cursed the soil so that Adam could no longer get food easily
The God-given role for Adam was to live in and cultivate the Garden of Eden Gen 2:15. Abundant food had been available in the form of all seed-bearing plants and the fruit from the trees in the Garden Gen 1:29, 2:9,16. But after the FALL God passed judgment by drastically restricting their ability to get food. This was not only by cursing the soil Gen 3:17b,19a but also by banishing Adam from the Garden Gen 3:23 (and Eve could hardly have stayed there without him. She would have had only the hostile cherubim for company! Gen 3:24).
Adam could now only get food by working hard to cultivate the soil in competition with weeds Gen 3:18a. This would constantly remind him that he had disobeyed God and was personally responsible for the consequences.
Alternatively he could get food from “the plants of the field” Gen 3:18b. Presumably these were such things as native vegetables, fruits and grains. But they were probably less enjoyable food than the fruits in the Garden of Eden and would have to be strenuously sought and gathered.
1B31(c) God stated that Adam would rule over Eve
Adam should have taken the lead in resisting God’s Enemy. But instead of obeying God he was passive, listened to his wife and just followed her in not keeping God’s one requirement. Then when confronted by God he had initially blamed Eve for his own disobedience.
A major reason for Eve’s frustration and pain [1B29(c)] can be seen in the effect of God’s judgment upon Adam Gen 3:16c. Apparently their relationship became driven by his constant felt need to exert control over her. He would be forever trying to reassert his authority. So he would resent and react to any suggestion of her again taking the initiative.
But this would achieve nothing towards regaining his God-intended authority. Instead it would only distort it and make him domineering and unapproachable for Eve, further hurting her and alienating her from him. What he really needed to do was acknowledge his own failure and accountability, then begin fulfilling his primary responsibility to obey God.
Breaking their close relationship with God had alienated Adam and his wife from each other Gen 3:16b,c. This outcome was the opposite of what God had intended by giving Eve to Adam as “a suitable helper” Gen 2:18.
It seems that after the FALL, Adam and Eve each ached for one of the three lost aspects of their “image and likeness of God”. Eve longed for lost love and Adam for lost power. But neither apparently longed for their lost perfection. Yet that was the real reason for all of their losses!
Arrow 1B30 -> 1B31
This arrow indicates that in accordance with God’s warning, His judgments inevitably followed Adam’s and Eve’s responses of disobedience.