Question about Garden of Eden story

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huck

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Hello
The following is from the king James bible.
GEN 3:17 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;
GEN 3:18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou
shalt eat the herb of the field;
GEN 3:19 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.
My question has to do with the boldened text. Why was it in the best interest of humanity that God cursed the ground?
 
It wasn’t in our best interest to die, either!

The idea that punishment intends the “good” of the punished ignores altogether the retributive intent of punishment.

ICXC NIKA.
 
huck said:
My question has to do with the boldened text. Why was it in the best interest of humanity that God cursed the ground?
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Not sure I understand your question, but I will try to answer. Who says it was in the best interest of humanity that the ground should be cursed? Genesis is not trying to make that case. It was in the best interest of humanity to obey God’s will, and the curse was the result of man’s disobedience.

The other thing that I would point out, is if you read Genesis 1, man was created after God’s image that he would exercise dominion over it. It was man’s purpose from the beginning to set as stewards of the earth in God’s place exercising dominion over the creation in accordance with his will. You might say that God cursed the ground, but is that what is really going on? My contention is that God is not necessarily decreeing that the ground be cursed, but stating the fact that the ground is cursed on account of Adam and Eve abandoning their role as stewards of God to be gods on their own terms.
 
It’s followed by the thing about the thorns and thistles, which are certainly a curse on the ground. The “for thy sake” might simply be one translation of something like “through your fault”.
 
Man’s whole reality changed the moment he “died”, the moment he became spiritually disconnected from God. Trust had been severed; God was no longer Adam’s God; Adam had no God above himself for all practical purposes. Life became hard by that fact alone.

Competition and strife and selfishness and sin came to rule the day in human life, with love taking a back seat. Just comments here but in general I think the flesh became weak as the spirit was wounded and weakened-and things became hard that weren’t necessarily hard before-just because man had lost his peace and harmony with God, himself, his fellow man, and the rest of creation as the Church teaches.

The bottom line message in any case: man needs God, in order to live and have “life abundantly”, in order to have well-being and happiness and satisfaction wherever he is, whatever he does. As trust in God is restored, we know that our fates are ultimately all good regardless-and grace operating in us continues to confirm that throughout our lives. While this world will never be Eden, it becomes more like it or even better in certain ways the nearer we draw to God.
 
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Can we really agree that the ground is cursed? Just because we have to work it to produce something? This is an example, I think, of taking Genesis too seriously.
 
Their food came from trees before the fall from the ground after.
 
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Adam and Eve found themselves naked and hid from God! God came looking for them! Awesome!
 
I agree! And while they presumably weren’t ready yet to be reconciled with Him at that point, He kept looking for man, never abandoning us until the time when He came in the flesh to bring full reconcilation. In the meanwhile He was preparing humanity, cultivating us so to speak, with education and experience until the time was ripe. Anyway unless God comes to man to save us from our hiding, we remain lost.
 
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GEddie said:
It wasn’t in our best interest to die, either!

The idea that punishment intends the “good” of the punished ignores altogether the retributive intent of punishment.
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interesting. Not sure retribution is right word, and for sure dying became in our best interest , after the fall. I would think any punishment is also the consequence itself.
 
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I agree. I think all the consequences of A&Es act of disobedience were/are ultimately aimed at helping man see his need for God- sort of the natural consequences of being out of sync with Him.
 
Retribution is a perfect word. Just as criminals are not imprisoned or executed for their own wellbeing, but as PUNISHMENT.

And death is in no way in a human being’s best interest, such a statement reads like a sick joke. Every other evil is Barbie-doll level compared to human death.
 
GEddie said:
And death is in no way in a human being’s best interest, such a statement reads like a sick joke. Every other evil is Barbie-doll level compared to human death.
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That’s true-the bible refers to it as the final enemy. But death isn’t really death for a Christian if our main fear of death comes from a fear of annihilation-discontinued existence. Either way continued existence in this life would eventually become a joke too, I think, after we’ve exhausted experiencing all it has to offer, for good or ill.
 
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Earthquakes. Hurricanes. Raging fires. Localized floods. Trees, plants and animals dying.

Sounds like a curse to me.
 
For every “curse” I can find a blessing.

Fresh buds in spring, summer flourishing, sunsets, sunrise, ecosystem, autumn harvest, ets
 
"Marriage is a three ring circus: the engagement ring, the wedding ring, and the suffering. "

UNKNOWN
 
Indee. I was addressing the poster who did not see a curse upon the earth. However, Christ is the blessing that tops all blessings, and was made manifest because of the curse.

So, yes.
 
I wonder if that is giving too much credit to "the curse’.

“All things were created through Him and for Him. He hold all creation together in himself.”
He is the alpha and Omega. No curse needed.
 
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