It’s been 42 weeks since we first visited Genesis 3 and saw the story unfold with broken trust. Though that is the heart of the chapter, today we look at this part of our story from the other half of it; what God said about the world after the fall and what that teaches us about reality and how it shapes the view we have of the world. There are three speeches at the end of the passage, and we can notice something interesting there about the word “cursed”.

To the serpent, God says, “You are cursed more than any livestock and more than any wild animal.” Then He turns to Adam and says, “The ground is cursed because of you.” The full weight of that verse fell sharply on both the serpent and the soil. Adam and Eve received an equally heavy consequence, but still a different one: pain in childbirth, sweat and thorns in their work, and a return to the dust from whence they came.

Creation was pulled into the fall right alongside humanity, which is precisely what Paul is describing in Romans 8 when he says the creation was subjected to futility and longs for freedom from “the bondage of decay.” (think back to week 41)

Seeing this properly can help us have the proper worldview regarding things around us. God looked at all He had made and called it “very good.” All the sweat, thorns, thistles, aching bodies, and graves only showed up after the garden; after the rebellion of Genesis 3. The text presents them as the real cost of rebellion rather than God’s ordained design. This means it’s ok for us to grieve what’s broken. We don’t have to call what’s in decay “normal” or tell ourselves that suffering is “just the way things are.” But through it all we shouldn’t despair because the God who called out the rebellion still hasn’t given up on our redemption.

I love the fact that right in the middle of pronouncing the curse, He speaks a promise that humanity will one day crush the head of the serpent. Then He makes them some clothes to cover their shame. Even being banned from the Tree of Life, which is arguably one of the harder moments of the passage, can be seen as merciful, not judgmental. Immortality in a broken world is really not a gift at all. That all by itself feels like a curse to me.

That’s why the curse has “edges”. Some might say it’s ‘prickly’. It was spoken over particular things in a particular moment, but God also spoke hope and redemption in the same breath. He, and He alone, is able to undo what He has spoken, and Revelation says He’ll do just that. Surely, the thorns came after the garden, but they won’t outlive the New City.

Where today do you find yourself shrugging and saying, “That’s just how life is”? How could realizing this is NOT how things were meant to be change your perspective?

Father, I’m glad you made a good world and that it grieves you what sin has done to it. Forgive me for the times I call brokenness normal and fail to hope for better things. Thank you that even in the midst of judgment, You spoke a promise and covered our shame. Teach my heart to see thorns and weariness for what they are, and to wait patiently for the day You make all things new. Amen.

“The thorn in this world I most wish God would pull out is __________________.”