THE WOMAN'S CURSE (kudos to michelle lee)

chagall

GEN 3:14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
GEN 3:15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."
GEN 3:16 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."
and so it came to pass that mankind fell from grace, from Eden to the reality that we, the descendants of adam and eve exist in today. michelle lee raised the value of this little passage of the curse, and i just thought that i'd add on to some of the things she mentioned, which i found very compelling.

imagine what each of the three accused parties must have felt as they stood before the Lord in judgement, upon reflection of their deeds. the serpent must have been pretty smug, amused and almost gleeful. as an agent of Satan, or perhaps Satan himself, nothing gave him greater delight than to hurt the King by forcing the Him to disown those He so dearly loved and treasured. any price would have been worth it for that snake, and he would have revelled in his misdeeds. after all, he had already been cast out of heaven once- he had lost his paradise, and now Man, Woman and God Himself would suffer the same fate he had.

for adam and eve, as the jewel of GOd's creation, the apple of His eye, they doubtlessly felt guilty, which was an awkward feeling to have probably, because they had never felt anything like sin or guilt. imagine the worst thing you've ever done- the dilating pupils, sweaty palms, heart palipitations, anxiety attacks and fear running amock and multiply that by 100 for the first man and woman's first guilty moment. adam was probably feverishly ill with worry and fear, unsure of what was to happen to him with god's punishment. adam was awaiting the first punishment ever. at the same time, he was probably mad at eve. hurt by her "betrayal" and ashamed of his own weakness, frustrated with his own greediness and trust in the woman and the serpent, he was no doubt, mad at his wife. similarly for eve, as she glared with fierce anger at the serpent, thinking of all the equivocation and justifications for herself, trying desperately to think of what to say to god to get herself and adam out of trouble.

god on the other hand, in His omniscience, probably knew all this and more. in His heart, there probably would have been nothing but infinite sorrow. traditionally, although we consider god as a Legislator and a Rule-Maker and Enforcer of the Law, almost as if He had no feelings of His own. perhaps one could reconsider the character of God. Here, God was also a hurt Father, a spurned Lover, one who had graciously poured out everything in love only to have everything slammed in His face. God was the sole victim of Man's sin. no wonder it makes sense when david cries out in psalm 51 "against you, and you only have i sinned," imagine the immense grief on the part of the Creator.


the curses upon the serpent don't leave much for discussion. instead, this writeup will consdier the implications of the curse upon the Woman upon the lives of women, and mankind at large.

for the woman, she was cursed threefold. firstly, she would have to suffer great pain in childbearing.
secondly, she would have an endless desire over her husband, and he would rule over her.
thirdly, she would live to see her children suffer the enmity of the serpent, both in the natural world and the unseen spiritual world. let me work through thoughts on each of these.

firstly, as much as the physical pain of childbearing would leave the woman with deep memory of her sin and role in original sin, we remember that the pain implied in birth was a cost for the woman in bringing forth life and continuation of the human race. in a metaphorical sense, wasn't this exactly what god experienced in bringing forth life to man? that as he "brought us forth", we did nothing but cause Him pain? the curse perhaps, was a ppainful reminder of the cost of sin, and the experience that god had in bringing each one of us forth. as much as we associate god with paternal imagery, we should remember that god has no assigned gender. however, as the one who formed us in our mother's wombs individually (psalm 139), it was His labour that we were brought from nothingness into being. and it is to His suffering account taht we charge our sins to, much like the pain that follows a mother throughout the life of her child when the child is wayward. likewise, our heavenly father is the same.

secondly, the longing of woman for her husband. as the seemingly "responsible" culprit for original sin, the tension in the man-woman relationship would forever be tainted. no more could man put complete trust in his co-labourer naturally anymore, and in his heart, the seeds of contempt and blame were taking root, even until today. doubtlessly, this feeds into modern day life, as we consider the idea that "hell hath no fury like a woman spurned", recognising the immense capacity for the woman especially for jealousy and possessiveness (quote michelle lee,) perhaps it would help our sisters if they learnt what they had been made significantly vulnerable to.

thirdly, the woman would have to suffer as a mother sees her child born with a enemy in the form of the serpent, a predator in the natural world, but worse, as a spritual adversary in the moral world. the bible speaks of the devil as a "waiting lion" stalking its prey and waiting to pounce. indeed, when god condemned the serpent to be the enemy of the woman's offspring, it was surely more than a natural enemy. we have always been enemies with the evil one, and we were born to struggle against his advances. and yet, genesis 4:7 says, "...sin is crouching at your door..it desires to have you, but you must master it"