The
Adamic Covenant
Gen.
3:14-19
14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent,
Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every
beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all
the days of thy life:
15 And I will put enmity
between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise
thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
16 Unto the woman he
said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou
shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he
shall rule over thee.
17 And unto Adam he
said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of
the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed
is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy
life;
18 Thorns also and
thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the
field;
19 In the sweat of thy
face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast
thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. – Gen. 3:14-19
Adam,
the “Red Earth Man” and Chavah (Eve), the “Mother of All the Living.” The First
Couple, Our Primordial Parents. The Pinnacle of God’s Creation; made in His
Image (Gen. 1:26-28) and yet, made a little lower than the angels (Psa. 8:5-9,
Heb. 2:6-7). Like angels we have reason, intellect and power, and like animals
we eat, sleep, defecate, reproduce and die. They were custodians and prices of
the earth (Gen. 2:15, 1:26-28), managers and co-rulers. They were the living
mystery of the Three in One (Gen. 2:21-24), God’s Image bearers,
representations and children on earth. They were free children who rebelled,
were captured by and came under the bondage of sin and came in need of
redemption and the necessity to be subservient and protected, as a vassal to a
king (Gen. 2:16-17, 3:6-11). And so, from the rebellion and Fall came the necessity
for this Covenant.
Due
to Adam and Eve breaking the Edenic Covenant by eating from the forbidden Tree
of Knowledge, they brought death upon themselves and their descendants to come
as stipulated by the Covenant (2:16-17). Because of satan’s participation in
this episode, by influencing Adam and Eve, the serpent became the symbol and a
reminder of the adversary of humanity, the fallen angel Hellel (Lucifer).
Animals are held responsible for their acts upon and against mankind and incurs
consequences such as death (Exd. 21:28-29) but in this instance the body of the
serpent was altered. We can deduce from the nature of the curse that the
serpent could speak, likely stood upright and had limbs as these were the very
things taken away from the snake in the curse pronounced by God.
Some
may question why the serpent was cursed, as if it were possessed by satan and
was an unwilling participant. But legend and tradition has it that the serpent
was a willing participant in the act and therefore was cursed. Satan himself
could not be cursed any more than he already was, seeing as he was stripped of
rank and position and booted out of heaven as a throne guardian angel, as we
explained in the Edenic Covenant regarding the Pre-Adamic earth.
A
bizarre aspect of the curse is regarding the serpent “eating dust.” This is not
literal, as we know snakes literally does not eat dirt as a worm does, so we
are to take this idiomatically. We use an expression today when we say in a
race, “Eat my dust,” meaning, “I’m going to run so fast that I will produce
such a dust cloud, that you’ll have to breathe it in.” The Biblical Passage
means that man will rule over the serpent and the serpent will be so lowly that
it will be left behind as man progresses. The serpent will never have the
advantage over man again.
Gen
3:15 is called in theological circles as the Protoevangelium. Meaning, it’s the
first prophetic revelation of the coming of the Messiah to redeem mankind from
the Fall.
“Protoevangelium
is the term for the first declaration of the Gospel, which occurs in Genesis
3:15. It is a prophecy that Christ will overcome the devil and redeem mankind.
The first proclamation of the Gospel comes immediately after the Fall of Adam
and Eve and shows God’s intention of saving man from sin.” – www.carm.org
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between
thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his
heel. – Gen. 3:15
The following is my own translation of the verse
from the Hebrew:
“I
will set hostility between you and between the woman and between your race and
between her race, he will make a gaping wound on your head and you will make a
gaping wound on his heel.”
Again, this is the first instance
of prophecy concerning the coming of the Messiah and His substitutionary,
sacrificial, atoning, death by crucifixion.
15a: Mankind and the fallen angelic race are eternal
enemies. It says there would be bad blood, hatred (enmity) and hostility
between the two races and the two kingdoms.
15b: The satanic seed attempted to wipe out the
human seed via the fallen angelic race cohabitating with human women, creating
this angelic human hybrid called the Nephilim (“giants”), so as to pollute the
human genome in an attempt to keep the prophesied Messiah from coming (Gen.
6:4). But Noah and his family were genetically and spiritually pure (Gen. 6:9)
and so the flood came, wiping out the Nephilim and preserving a pure human seed
that Messiah could come through. But the Messiah wouldn’t have to depend on a
male seed, it says, “her seed,” implying the Messiah would be miraculously be
virgin born.
15c: This virgin born Messiah of a genetically pure
human woman would “bruise the head” of the serpent/satan (Rev. 3:11-14, 20:10)
and the serpent/satan in turn would “bruise” the Messiah’s “heel” through the
nails of the crucifixion (John 3:16, 19:18, Rev. 5:6).
Unto
the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in
sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband,
and he shall rule over thee. – Gen. 3:16
As a result of disobedience of consuming the
forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge came consequence on all mankind
besides spiritual and physical death. Women would now experience great pain in
child birth. “Greatly multiply,” in the Hebrew carries the connotation to grow,
enlarge, excel, to increase, which implies child birth would have naturally
been uncomfortable, but now it would be painful.
The first word for sorrow in the text is
“itstsavon,” meaning hard, painful, toilsome, worrisome, and laborious. The
implication meaning that, the anticipation of child birth, one may worry
regarding the coming pain and risk of death. The second word for sorrow is
“etsev,” which the Hebrew gives the picture of the squeezing and molding of
clay by a potter, alluding to the labor and pain of pushing the child trough
and out of the birth canal.
“Thy desire shall be to thy husband,” carries in the
Hebrew a duel meaning. On the one hand the woman will desire to be under her
husband’s protection and receive his love and yet desire his position of
headship. Thus the reason for the last half of the verse, “and he shall rule
over thee.”
17 And unto Adam he
said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of
the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed
is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy
life;
18 Thorns also and
thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the
field;
19 In the sweat of thy
face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast
thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. – Gen. 3:17-19
Adam was God’s representative and mouthpiece on
earth; His Creative Image. He was the Divinely appointed head and Eve, seeing
as she came out of man was symbolic and representory of creation, she was
created from Adam’s side, NOT rib. The Hebrew says, side. Almost as if God
split Adam in two. Eve was in many ways his equal, but because she came out of
man and was created second, she was his subordinate. As we are with God; equal
in that we are co-managers of the created order with God, yet we are His
creation and are subject to Him.
Does God hearken unto and put Himself under
subjection to the orders and whims of man? No, in like fashion, Adam was not to
be under subjugation or give into the whims of the woman. He was to guard her
and the Garden against the likes of the serpent, but he just stood by and let
it all happen and then partook himself (Gen. 3:6)! As a result, work which was
originally designed to be enjoyable will now become laborious and toilsome.
Adam will experience the same satisfaction in his work, but it will be hard. It
will not be so easy to eke out a living as it was before. It will take constant
work and struggle to get the ground to produce. Adam will have weeds competing
for nutrients and space and will attempt to choke out the produce of the
ground. He now will have to stay on top of it, lest the thrones and thistles
take over. Prior to the Fall, Adam never broke a sweat while working, but now
sweat will be the hallmark of manual labor. Though hard and sweaty, work is
still enjoyable (Ecc. 3:13, 5:18).
Some Jewish commentators believe that the curse of
the ground also meant that the seeds you planted doesn’t mean you will get that
in return. If you planted wheat you’d get tares or if you planted a black berry
bush you’d get nothing but thorns instead.
When Noah was born (whose name means “rest”), was
said to be prophetic that he would bring ease to the curse of the ground
(5:29), and indeed it came to pass (9:11b). The Flood cleansed and refreshed
the land anew. It was still a fallen world, but the curse of the ground was
eased up a bit. Commentators say that now if you planted an apple tree you’d
get apples and not a barren thorny tree.
Verses 18b-19a Indicates that man was still
vegetarian. Animals now used for its hides, its wool, likely its bi-product
such as milk and for sacrifice to God, but not for food.
So as we see, women still experience pain in child
birth, mankind still sweats when we work and when we physically die our bodies
decompose back into the earth (19b) and thus this Covenant is still in effect
and has not been done away with. Although through accepting the atoning death
of Messiah Yeshua we can be regenerated spiritually and have the promise of
being resurrected and live for ever physically in the World to Come.
