Exposition of the Scriptures).
So Eve ate and gave the fruit to her husband and he ate too. It is not known if Adam was deceived as Eve had been. There may be an indication that he loved Eve so much that he would rather have been cursed with her than live on alone in Paradise. Remember it was Adam’s intense loneliness that precipitated the need for Eve in the first place. In any event he too ate the fruit and suffered the same fate as his mate. Whatever the case his actions indicate a severe lack of trust and betrayal of his Creator.
When God found out what had occurred He became very angry. He sternly admonished the man, woman and the serpent (Gen 3:14-19). God spoke to the man: “Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil [sorrow] you will eat of it All the days of your life. “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return” By this He cursed the whole creation into a state of futility. He also introduced death which had theretofore been unknown. Death was the result of sin” (Gen 3:17-19). God also spoke to the woman: “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you” (Gen 3:16). Apparently Women were constructed in a way, before the fall, where childbirth was not painful. Also before the fall men and women were equal but now woman was subjected to her husband.
God also spoke to the serpent. Now the serpent was Satan moving through a snake. Revelation 12:9 says: “And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old [from the fall] who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world”. God said: “Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life” (Gen. 3:14). The first part of this discourse was to the serpent, not necessarily Satan. The serpent figures prominently in many pagan religions and rituals and thus God humbled him with this curse. It is also a reminder to humankind every time they look upon a serpent as to what he had done in becoming a channel of Satan in the Garden. It is also judgment against the serpent for having allowed himself to be used as an instrument of Satan.
The second part of the discourse is God’s word to man and for hope for the future. God says that mankind will not remain under God’s curse of futility forever. Now He speaks to Satan:
“And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise [crush] you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel” (Genesis 3:15). Here the seed of the woman is Christ the Redeemer. Satan will bruise Christ and humanity severely but in the end the seed of the woman (Christ) will crush the head of the serpent defeating him forever. As Paul said: “For the creation was subjected to futility, [cursed by God] not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:20-21). So what God expresses to the serpent is an abiding hope in the savior that the Kingdom of God will prevail over the forces of the evil one into the “freedom of the glory of the children of God”.
So man and woman are humbled and become the source of the futility that will afflict mankind until Christ and His Sons release creation from the divinely imposed futility. The futility to which mankind was subjected is the subject of King Solomon’s Book Ecclesiastes. In it he discusses the utter futility of life on all levels. An excerpt: “Futilities of futilities” says the Preacher, Futility of futilities! All is futile. What advantage does man have in all his work Which he does under the sun? A generation goes and a generation comes, But the earth remains forever. Also, the sun rises and the sun sets; And hastening to its place it rises there again…. All things are wearisome; Man is not able to tell it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, Nor is the ear filled with hearing. That which has been is that which will be, And that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:2-5, 8-9).
The compassion of the Lord continued with the birth of Eve’s two sons Cain and Abel. “So it came about in the course of time that Cain, the eldest, brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground [Cain was a farmer]. Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering; but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell” (Gen 4:3-5). The nature of rebellious man unfolds in the person of Cain. His gift lined him up with the curse that God had placed on the ground (soil). Abel’s gift however seems to be lined up with man’s original purpose, to have dominion over life (cf. 1:28); he kept flocks. These coincidental descriptions are enhanced with their actions in worship. Abel went out of his way to please God (which meant he had faith in God, Heb. 11:6), whereas Cain was simply discharging a duty. Abel’s actions were righteous, whereas Cain’s were evil (1 John 3:12). These two types of people are still present today.
There has been much discussion as to why Cain’s offering was unacceptable and Abel’s acceptable. As we said Cain brought offerings from the soil God had cursed. Abel brought the best of his flocks, probably a lamb without blemish. Abel’s offering is more closely related to God’s ultimate purpose. The Savior of the world was described as the “lamb of God”. The lamb was a symbol of Christ (Gen. 4:4; Ex. 12:3; 29:38; Isa. 16:1; 53:7; John 1:36; Rev. 13:8). Christ is called the Lamb of God (John 1:29, 36), as the great sacrifice of which the former sacrifices were only types (Num. 6:12; Lev. 14:12–17; Isa. 53:7; 1 Cor. 5:7). Not only that but the lamb was part of the Lord’s plan from the beginning. In the reality of the spirit, the Scripture expresses it this way: “Christ was the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). Somehow Abel was able to tap into that knowledge of God and present the correct offering, closer to God’s ultimate plan—the Coming of the Messiah.
God was gentle with Cain in giving him an opportunity to repent. “Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it” (Gen 4:6-7). However Cain, caught up in anger and jealousy, did not listen to the Lord and instead killed Abel his brother. Cain, when confronted by God, spoke those famous lines: ‘Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen 4:9). The answer to that question is of course “Yes, you are your brother’s keeper”.
The Lord reaction was probably to consider Cain’s response incredulous. “He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood [spirit, life] is crying to Me from the ground. “Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. “When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth.” Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is too great to bear! “Behold, You have driven me this day from the face of the ground; and from Your face I will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” So the Lord said to him, “Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord appointed a sign for Cain, so that no one finding him would slay him. Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden” (Gen 4:10-16).
Nod means a place of exile; wandering; unrest, a name given to the country to which Cain fled (Gen.4:16). There he built a city, the first city