The Covenant after the fall

The Covenant after the fall

Genesis ch 3 vs  14-15 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.

Adam ate of the fruit that was forbidden, and when God came he hid himself. The first covenant was filled with fruits, multiplication and domination. Well all that changed when Adam sinned. God has a new relationship with the serpent, Eve and Adam. Let us look into that.

A – To the Serpent

Genesis ch 3 vs  14-15 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.

• Serpent is a cursed animal. Today also we all think bad about a serpent. From the passage above, it seems that the serpent was a beautiful animal and only after the curse was it made to move on its belly. It has become the most hated animal.
• Enemity between the seeds. This is referring to Satan. The birth of Jesus is seen here when we read “her seed” mentioning virgin birth. When Jesus rose up from the dead , Satan was bruised on his head. Jesus became Lord over all things. Refer to Romans 16:20, where the same is mentioned God of peace shall bruise Satan.

This was the plan of God to redeem the people after the fall. The prophecy of the coming Messiah.

B – To the Woman

Genesis ch  3vs  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.

• Childbirth is painful. We don’t have to mention the pain a woman undergoes during childbirth.
• In sorrow you will bring children
• Ruled over by the husband.

C – To Adam

Genesis ch  3vs  17-19   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.

•  The ground is cursed. Till now he did not have to toil hard for the fruits etc. Now as the land is cursed, there will be thorns and thistles growing among the land.
• You shall sweat when you work .  When God created man on the last day, after completing all the other creations. Immediately after the creation of man. God rested Not because He was tired. It was because everything that man needed was already done. God placed him in the garden and said take care of it. God did not tell him to plow the land etc. The work given to man was simple only to take care. But look what happens at the fall. He is made to sweat for the food that he has to eat.  Hard labour was enforced on man. .
• All the days of life man has to work. Oh what a fall from just taking care to working hard not just for a few days but all the days that man has to live.
• Death  both physical and spiritual. Spiritual death  - he lost the connection with God. The time that he could just speak to God. He had to hide himself from God.   Physical death- to the dust you will return. I am presuming that initially God did not plan for man to die but to live eternally
• This also shows that our bodies will decay and have problems. Physical ailments etc  will happen to our body.

I am not sure how many of us actually feel the curse, the pain  when we commit Sin.  We feel so alienated from God when we commit sin. God in his rich mercy will forgive us our iniquities and wash and cleanse us from our sins. The Sin nature is within all of us starting from the time Adam sinned. That is why Jesus had to be born by virgin birth. But he lived tempted like us in every way, but did not fall into sin.  

I pray that as you read this May God bless you and forgive you. He loves you so much that He gave us His Son Jesus to bear our sins, our pain. When on that cross he lay bleeding, being ripped apart with the chords when the soldiers beat him up , He bled and died for us. May it give you peace and joy as He bore my pain and sickness to take away the curse which was on Adam. I know that His grade is sufficient for me. 

Be blessed 

(  Next topic - The covenant with Noah)