Nothing Changes; Everything Changes: Genesis 3:16-19

God is God over all.  He reigns supreme.  Once He set creation in motion, nothing could alter His plan without His consent.

God turns to cursing Eve and then cursing Adam.  There is an interesting parallel between the two curses.  When God curses both Adam and Eve, the curse is about life getting more difficult.

There is something important here.  When God curses Adam and Eve, He doesn’t do anything that prevents creation from going forward in its original plan.  Men and women will still unite.  Children will still be born.  Food will still come from the ground.  Mankind will still be the caretakers of the planet.  When considering the big picture, it doesn’t feel like much has changed.

Looking into the details of creation, there are significant changes.  Children are still going to be born, but it is going to be a painful process.  Generations of human beings will fill the planet, but it won’t be quite the idyllic process that God set up at creation.

Furthermore, while men and women will still get married and come together, there will be strife in the relationship.  Every husband and wife team alive knows a marriage worth having is one of the hardest tasks around.  There are worries and concerns.  There are arguments and hurt feelings.  There are temptations and power struggles.  Instead of being the perfect union intended, marriages are filled with sinful human beings who must work hard to overcome their flaws.

We can also look at mankind’s relationship with creation.  Humankind still works with the ground to complete creation.  We will still get food from the earth.  The problem is that the work involved will be more substantial.  Instead of the perfect situation of walking into a naturally manicured garden and plucking fruit off a tree, we need to work the ground and keep the plants free from the thorns and briars that seek to squeeze out the plants we want to grow.  The amount of work involved in working with creation to produce a harvest will be dramatically different.

 In the final verse we find out that there is a significant change.  We will return to the earth because we are made of dust.  As sin enters through human rebellion, we deal with the reality that life on this planet is temporary.  Death is always coming.

Even in this, though, the big picture of God’s plan doesn’t change.  God desires to dwell with His creation, which still happens.  This passage doesn’t speak about how, but we know this happens through Jesus’ death on the cross.  Through Jesus, we have the path back to God dwelling with His creation for eternity.  In the end, even this change doesn’t change the big picture.  We will still dwell with God forever; the process of getting to eternal life with God got a bit harder. 

The details may change.  Life may get harder.  But God’s plan remains.  God is God over all.