Gen 3:14-24 · Read 10 min · think and write 15 min
In the last lesson, God asked the man whether he had eaten from the tree. The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it” (Gen 3:12). God asked the woman, and she said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate” (Gen 3:13).
God did not question the serpent. In this lesson, God speaks — to the serpent, to the woman, and to the man.
14The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed above all livestock, and above every animal of the field. You shall go on your belly and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.
15I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”
16To the woman he said, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. You will bear children in pain. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
17To Adam he said, “Because you have listened to your wife’s voice, and have eaten from the tree, about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ the ground is cursed for your sake. You will eat from it with much labor all the days of your life.
18It will yield thorns and thistles to you; and you will eat the herb of the field.
19You will eat bread by the sweat of your face until you return to the ground, for you were taken out of it. For you are dust, and you shall return to dust.”
20The man called his wife Eve because she would be the mother of all the living.
21The LORD God made garments of animal skins for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them.
22The LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever—”
23Therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.
24So he drove out the man; and he placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
Eat dust. God speaks first to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you are cursed above all livestock, and above every animal of the field. You shall go on your belly and you shall eat dust all the days of your life” (v. 14).
Her offspring. God goes on: “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel” (v. 15). These words are spoken in the middle of the sentencing, and they are spoken to the serpent.
To the woman. “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. You will bear children in pain. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you” (v. 16).
To Adam. “Because you have listened to your wife’s voice, and have eaten from the tree, about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ the ground is cursed for your sake” (v. 17). “You will eat bread by the sweat of your face until you return to the ground, for you were taken out of it. For you are dust, and you shall return to dust” (v. 19). In Lesson 1, God “formed man from the dust of the ground” (Gen 2:7); now God says that man will return to dust.
The mother of all the living. The next verse is: “The man called his wife Eve because she would be the mother of all the living” (v. 20). Having just heard ‘return to dust,’ the name he gives her speaks of life.
Garments of skins. “The LORD God made garments of animal skins for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them” (v. 21). In the last lesson, they “sewed fig leaves together, and made coverings for themselves” (Gen 3:7); this time, it is God who makes their clothes.
The way to the tree of life. God said, “lest he reach out his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” (v. 22). “Therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken” (v. 23). God placed cherubim at the east of the garden and a flaming sword, “to guard the way to the tree of life” (v. 24).
Israel’s psalms also speak of man returning: “You turn man to destruction, saying, ‘Return, you children of men’” (Ps 90:3).
Readers can see this: “you shall return to dust” (v. 19) is something Israel read from Genesis all the way to the Psalms. They knew that man would die, and they knew where those words came from.
Perhaps you, too, are bearing the consequences of something: words spoken that cannot be taken back, a decision that cannot be undone; or perhaps you are facing weakness in your body, growing old, or death.
This lesson does not say the consequences will disappear, and it does not explain every hardship for you. What it shows you is this: after God spoke those heavy words, he himself made clothes for them (v. 21); and after ‘return to dust,’ what Adam spoke was “the mother of all the living” (v. 20). The Psalms have this line: “For he knows how we are made. He remembers that we are dust” (Ps 103:14).
This week: Think of someone who is bearing the consequences of something and having a hard time. This week do one practical thing for them — bring a meal, walk with them for a while, or help them deal with one concrete matter.
Scripture: World English Bible.