Scripture
Genesis 3:17-19
[17] Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’ Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life.
[18] “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field;
[19] 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.”
This is 78th Lecture on Genesis.
In the last lecture, I finished explaining the curses that God put on Eve and the serpent.
Now lastly, it is time for Adam.
The words that God spoke to Adam can be found in Genesis 3:17-19.
First, Genesis 3:17 we find: “Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it:'”
This verse shows that God understood exactly what kind of sin Adam committed and how he committed It.
First off, God confirmed what kind of sin Adam committed by saying “(you) have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it.'”
And by saying ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife,’ He reminded Adam how he did it.
Our God is so precise like this.
He knows the hearts, thoughts, words, and behavior of each and every soul as clearly as if He were looking at His own hands.
Therefore, nobody can feel treated unfairly before the judgment of God.
God judges all things precisely according to justice.
Our Lord Jesus knows well this attribute of God the Father.
And so, He said in Matthew 6:4, “…so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”
He also said in Matthew 12:36-37, “But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Therefore, no matter where you are at any given moment, you should always pursue goodness.
I urge you to believe that God will reward you even for a small good deed, and I urge you to practice the truth not in fear or reluctance, but in joy.
Now, God continued to say in Genesis 3:17, “Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.”
It was not only Adam, but also the ground in the physical space of the First Heaven that was cursed due to Adam’s sin.
I mentioned some of the results of the ground having been being cursed when I explained Genesis 3:14.
Let’s briefly review them. First of all, the hidden attributes of the creatures began to be revealed.
It was at this time that poisonous animals and plants came into existence.
For some species, their outer appearances became ugly and some plants came to have thorns.
At this same time there was also the emergence of pathogenic microbes.
Until that time there had been no animals that harmed other animals on purpose.
Everything circulated beautifully and worked in harmony.
After the ground was cursed however, a fleshly law was established in nature.
It was the ‘law of the jungle’ that allows for the strong to prey upon the weak.
However, the population of the weaker became much greater than that of the strong.
When the ground was cursed the plants on it also changed.
A more detailed explanation about this will be given as we get to Genesis 3:18.
After the ground was cursed due to Adam’s sin, it was Adam who was most affected by its results.
Just as God said, “In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life,” without working for it, Adam couldn’t get food any more.
He didn’t to work at all to get food in the Garden of Eden.
As a living being, he didn’t really experience hunger.
Yet, when he did want to eat fruit to be filled, all he had to do was just pick it and eat.
It was possible because in every corner of the Garden of Eden are found beautiful yet sweet fruits.
There are so many different kinds of fruits that it is easy to get any kind of fruit that you might want to eat.
Adam once lived in an environment where food was abundant, but he fell into a situation that he couldn’t get any food without working for it.
Without the work of planting seed and cultivating it, he couldn’t get food at all.
Therefore, when God said, “In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life,” it means that true cultivation finally began in earnest.
All the descendants of Adam who are born on earth can eat only by working for it all the days of their lives.
By the way, when farmers harvest their crops each harvest varies from one harvest to another.
For some farmers, everything goes well, and their harvests are plentiful.
On the other hand, even though they worked hard other farmers harvests are meager due to natural conditions and disasters.
This scenario can be applied to all other fields as well.
As you live on this earth, all of you can get income if you work.
But some can work less while others have to really toil to get the same wage.
Among the worldly people, some have outstanding insight about the economic situation and earn great Incomes.
In the Lord, however, there is a secret that anyone can receive financial blessing even with just a little work.
It is to recover the status that Adam had before he committed sin.
It is because the curse that ‘in toil you will eat of it’ came upon man due to the sin of Adam.
Therefore, once you are forgiven of sin, to the extent you become a holy child who resembles God, you can eat with minimal toil.
This doesn’t mean you don’t have to work diligently though.
It rather means that you can work less to get the same amount as before.
So, how much more enjoyable could it be if you worked with this kind of diligence?
2 Corinthians 8:9 says, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.”
And 3 John 1:2 also says, “Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.”
As much as one’s soul prospers, his spirit becomes the master and it rules over his soul and body as in the case of Adam before he committed sin.
s a result, he may prosper in all respects and be in good health.
Many of our members are witnesses to this.
Some of them suffered a lot because no matter what business they ran, it didn’t prosper when they didn’t believe in God.
However, their situation changed completely after they accepted Jesus Christ, were forgiven of their sins, and became children of God.
As they lived by the word of God in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, they received overflowing blessings at work and in business.
When they were blessed tens of times more than what they once worked for, they gave glory to God through it.
I wish all of you could understand this principle of blessing.
May you not suffer or worry about clothes, food, or your homes, but live an abundant life while being cultivated on this earth, in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, I pray!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
Now, let’s take a look at Genesis 3:18.
God said in this verse, “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you.”
Here, ‘thorns and thistles’ symbolize two things.
First, they refer to the plants for which man has no need.
When the curse was put on the earth due to Adam’s sin, the ground which was originally fertile gradually went bad.
The unneeded plants also started growing.
When Adam cultivated the field and grew plants to eat, weeds began to come out again and again.
Adam had to pull them out so that he could get the produce that he wanted.
If Adam had planted a field before it became cursed, even if he didn’t particularly take care of the seeds, he still would have harvested 30, 60, or 100 times more than he had planted.
Of course, at that time, there was no need to farm.
That Is to say, the field would have been very fertile and there would have been no weeds.
After the earth was cursed, however, unnecessary scrub undergrowth and weeds came into being.
In order to get something to eat, he needed to cultivate the field.
‘Thorns and thistles’ symbolize these scrub plants and weeds that became hindrances to farming.
The ‘thorns and thistles’ spiritually symbolize the ‘evil’ that began to grow in the heart of Adam.
Before Adam committed sin, he had no evil and no untruth in his heart. There was only the knowledge of spirit.
After committing sin, however, ‘evil’ was planted in his heart and it grew up like ‘thorns and thistles.’
In a parable of the fields that Jesus told, a seed fell among the thorns and the thorns grew up with it and choked it out.
Likewise, when evil, which is similar to thorns and thistles, was planted in his heart, it choked his spirit.
When Adam was driven out to this earth, God took most of the breath of life from him, and left only a trace of it.
Then, as the forms of evil like thorns and thistles grew up in his heart, the breath of life could not work properly.
It is the same with his descendants that have been born on earth.
Even though they are born with the seed of life, it is surrounded by a fleshly force, and it cannot continue work of spiritual life.
Only after the acceptance of Jesus Christ, can we be forgiven of sin. Then the seed of life can awaken and sprout and we can be reborn by the Holy Spirit.
In order for the spirit to continue to grow and bear fruit, it Is necessary to get rid of all the ‘thorns and thistles’ from the heart field.
In other words, every form of evil should be removed.
Only then, can the fruit of spirit be born abundantly.
As explained, the process of removing spiritual ‘thorns and thistles’ is ‘spiritual cultivation.’
And this is the true believing life.
No matter how vast a field is, it will look worthless if it is full of weeds.
It is the same with a man’s heart field.
No matter how great the power, honor, or wealth a man possesses, as long as his heart field is full of untruth and evil, he is a worthless being before God.
Therefore, I urge you to diligently cultivate your heart-field.
Hosea 10:12 says, “Sow with a view to righteousness, Reap in accordance with kindness; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the LORD Until He comes to rain righteousness on you.”
I hope that you will own a blessed heart field that produces the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit abundantly instead of thorns and thistles.
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