DWDP: Gen 3 17 -19 The Curse and its Cure

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The mysteries of human suffering and toil find their origins in Genesis 3, where God pronounces judgment on Adam after the first sin. Dr. Robert Jackson, known affectionately as Dr. Papa, unravels this pivotal biblical moment with pastoral wisdom and practical insight.

Dr. Papa begins by challenging a common misreading of Scripture—that men shouldn't listen to their wives. Rather than a prohibition against heeding female counsel, this passage warns against yielding to temptation regardless of its source. Our spouses are divine gifts who see our blind spots and speak truth when no one else will. Drawing from his medical practice, Dr. Jackson shares poignant stories of husbands and wives who regretted not listening to their partner's warnings about destructive behaviors.

Why does that abandoned barn gradually collapse? Why does work feel so tiresome? Why do we long for weekends and retirement despite finding our identity in our vocations? These "questions that teach" reveal the far-reaching effects of the Fall. The curse brought sorrow, painful toil, sweat, and ultimately death—yet paradoxically, these consequences contain hidden mercy. Death itself limits the unchecked spread of wickedness, while suffering can prompt repentance and righteous living.

Most powerfully, Dr. Papa places Jesus at the center of this narrative of curse and redemption. As the Second Adam, Christ bore our curse completely—experiencing the man of sorrows' grief, wearing thorns as His crown, sweating drops of blood, and entering the dust of death. Through His sacrifice, we glimpse a future where "there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain."

Whether you're struggling with life's hardships, seeking to understand suffering theologically, or wanting to explain these biblical truths to your children, this devotional offers compassionate wisdom rooted in Scripture. Subscribe to Devotions with Dr. Papa and join us next week as we continue exploring Genesis 3.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more
than enough for the ills thatplague our culture and our
country.
Hosted by author and physician,Dr Robert Jackson.

Dr.Robert Jackson (00:16):
Papa, can you tell me a story?
Do you really want me to tellyou a story?
Well, you go, get your brotherand your sisters and I will tell
you a story.
Well, you go, get your brotherand your sisters and I will tell
you a story.
Welcome to Devotions with DrPapa.
Gather around, grab your Biblesand let's look into the written

(00:37):
Word, which reveals to us theliving Word which is our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Today we're in Genesis, chapter3.
We're at verse 17 through 19.
Then to Adam, he said Becauseyou have listened to the voice
of your wife and have eaten fromthe tree about which I

(00:58):
commanded you, saying you shallnot eat from it, saying you
shall not eat from it, cursed isthe ground because of you In
toil.
You will eat of it all the daysof your life, both thorns and
thistles.
It shall grow for you and youwill eat the plants of the field
by the sweat of your face.

(01:19):
You will eat bread till youreturn to the ground, because
from it you were taken, for youare dust and to the dust you
shall return.
May the Lord add his blessingto the reading of his word.
Now let me ask a question Isthis scripture implying that men

(01:39):
should not listen to the voiceof their wives.
Because, you see, the versesays to Adam because you have
listened to the voice of yourwife and have eaten from the
tree about which I commanded you, saying you shall not eat from
it.
Well, of course not.

(02:01):
Adam listened to a voice of thetemptation and yielded to
temptation, both that of theserpent and that of Eve, his
wife, which resulted in thecurse.
However, god gives us helpmatessuitable to us, who love us and

(02:26):
will speak truth to us when noone else will.
Now you, men, your wife, willtell you when you are laughing
too loud at the office party,when no one else will tell you
what you need to hear.
Now you wives, your husband,will tell you when you come out

(02:49):
of the ladies room with two feetof toilet paper stuck to your
shoe, when no one else will.
And it's because God has givenyou a help me, who loves you and
will tell you things that youneed to hear when nobody else in
the world loves you enough totell you.

(03:12):
I have often heard wives say tome in my medical office he would
never listened to me, hewouldn't have lost all that
money at the casino or gottenentangled with those drug

(03:33):
dealers or ended up in prison orgotten himself addicted to
pornography.
How many times have I heardfrustrated and angry wives say
to me Dr Jackson, if only he hadlistened to me.

(03:55):
But trust me, it cuts both ways.
I've also heard husbands say tome Doc, she's a wild filly and
she runs with a wild crowd.
I've tried to warn her, but shewon't listen to me.

(04:16):
She scoffs at me when I try towarn her.
Warn her.
She's gotten herself addictedto drugs and she's been in the
county detention center threetimes.
Now I'm raising these childrenall by myself.
If only she would have listenedto me.

(04:38):
Brothers and sisters, god gaveus our helpmates to speak truth
to us about our conduct and ourcharacter and about our blind
spots.
Listen carefully to the wife ofyour youth, to the husband of

(04:59):
your youth.
They are a gift to you from God.
They are a gift to you from God.
The second half of verse 17informs us that even the ground,
the earth, was cursed becauseof Adam's sin.
The earth previously cooperatedfully as Adam tilled and

(05:21):
dressed the garden, but now theearth became stubborn and
reluctant to yield its fruit,even producing thorns and weeds.
Now it would require the sweatof his brow and tiresome toil to

(05:42):
entice the earth to yield itsproduce so man could eat of it.
The Bible says by the sweat ofyour face you will eat of it.
Now, men, here are a fewquestions that teach For you men
out there, questions that youmay ask your sons and grandsons.

(06:08):
How do men identify themselvesversus how do women identify
themselves?
When you men meet a man that'snew to you, someone you don't
know, what's the very firstquestion that you ask him?
Well, you already know thequestion you ask is what do you

(06:29):
do?
In other words, what is youremployment?
What is your vacation vocation?
Men are most identified withtheir work.
What do women ask each otherwhen they meet someone that is

(06:49):
new to them?
Well, they ask do you havechildren and what does your
husband do?
Because you see women identifythemselves with their connection
to their family.
Women most identify with theirfamily.
Now, if you identify as men andif your identity is so connected

(07:14):
to your work and youremployment, why do you complain
so much about working and howhard your work is, and why do
you long for the weekends?
Why do you so much long forvacations and retirement?
Well, I'm going to tell youit's because of the curse which

(07:37):
makes all work tiresome, and thecurse takes the joy out of our
employment.
These are questions that youshould ask your sons and your
grandsons and take theopportunity to explain Genesis,
chapter 3, verses 15 through 19.
Trust me, most folks nevercontemplate this meaning in life

(08:04):
, why work is tiresome, why it'sso hard and why work doesn't
really have the joy in it thatit should have.
Now let me ask you anotherquestion.
Why does the King James Versionsay Cursed is the ground for
thy sake, rather than because ofthee, like so many other

(08:26):
versions say?
Cursed is the ground for thysake.
It was because of the changedmoral climate and the ensuing
unchecked wickedness that wouldeventually lead to a worldwide
flood in Noah's day.

(08:48):
Can you imagine what wouldhappen if there'd never been any
death?
The folks before the floodlived 900 years and their
wickedness was undiluted andunchecked until the day of

(09:08):
Noah's flood.
You see, god blessed mankindand the plant and animal kingdom
with decay and then death.
Can you imagine what wouldhappen on planet earth if there
were unchecked wickedness andmen were allowed to proliferate

(09:30):
on planet Earth without thelimiting effect of decay and
aging and eventual death.
All of this the curse on theground, tiresome labor,
inevitable decay, the agingprocess and then death is
actually a blessing from God,designed for one purpose and

(09:54):
it's to produce repentance fromsin and righteous living.
When you and I understand thebig picture, one would think
that we would all embrace withgratitude the difficulty of our
work, the suffering and decay ofour physical bodies and our

(10:17):
eventual demise as a constantreminder to repent from sin and
walk in righteousness before ourGod.
But do we do that honestly?
Do we do that?
No, of course not.
We are affected by the fall,we're affected by the curse and

(10:37):
we are all blinded by sin.
We reject tiresome labor andour physical suffering and we
fear death and we don't perceiveanything redemptive in any of
that process because ourspiritual blindness.

(10:59):
It's because of our spiritualblindness that we reject the
tiresome labor, we reject ourphysical suffering and we fear
death and we don't see anythingredemptive in the whole process
because of our spiritualblindness.
That's why I'm asking you, dearlistener, to ask your children

(11:24):
these questions that teach, sothey will grasp the big picture
themselves, they will repent ofsin and they will turn to God.
Now here's the next question,the next question for your sons
and grandsons why does thatabandoned barn in the middle of

(11:47):
that field that you drive byevery day, year after year,
eventually become covered byweeds and then vines, and then
that barn begins to fall apartand then finally it just
collapses and falls down afteryears of time, even though

(12:11):
untouched by human hands?
Why does that happen?
Can you say the phrase thesecond law of thermodynamics?
You see, that's the law thatstates that all systems, if left
to themselves, tend to becomedegraded and disorganized.

(12:34):
All physical systems, whetherit's your watch or your clothes,
or even planet earth,eventually wear out.
The scripture says that theearth waxes old, as does a
garment, and ultimately shallperish.
That's Hebrews chapter one.
All things that were made inthe creation week are now being

(13:00):
unmade.
They're becoming disorganizedand decaying and eventually
dying.
Why is that?
It's the second law ofthermodynamics.
Here is the secret.
It's the secret that you wantyour offspring to understand,
the secret of all that is wrongwith the world, why we have not.

(13:24):
Well, it's the reason why wehave natural disasters and why
there's pain and suffering, andwhy there is injustice in this
world, and why little babies getleukemia and die, and why
grandpa died in an accident at ayoung age.
Man is a sinner and he broughtGod's curse on the earth.

(13:48):
And it all started with Adam inthe garden.
He sinned and he brought acurse not just on the earth but
on himself and all of hisposterity.
That's the secret and you haveto understand it, your sons have
to understand it and yourgrandsons have to understand it.

(14:12):
Jesus, in the middle of thisentire discussion of sorrow and
pain, suffering, sweat, tearsand physical death, and I just
want to read to you a couple ofpassages from the Genesis record
by Henry Morris, because hesums it up so very well the

(14:34):
curse on man himself wasfourfold.
So very well.
The curse on man himself wasfourfold.
Number one sorrow, resultingfrom continual disappointment
and futility.
Number two pain and sufferingsignified by the thorns which
intermittently hinder man in hisefforts to provide a living for
his family.

(14:54):
Number three sweat or tears,the strong crying of intense
struggle against a hostileenvironment.
And finally, number four,physical death, which would
eventually triumph over allman's efforts, with the
structure of his body returningto the simple elements of the

(15:15):
earth.
Now we're going to put Jesus inthe middle of it, but Christ as
the Son of man.
And the second Adam has beenmade the curse for us, as
Galatians.
Chapter 3 tells us.
He was the man of sorrows, asIsaiah the prophet instructs us.
Acquainted more with grief thanany other man, he was wounded,

(15:39):
bruised and chastised for us,and indeed wore the very thorns
of the curse as his crown.
In the agony of his labor, hesweat, as it were, drops of
blood and offered up prayers andsupplications with strong
crying and tears, and finally,god brought him into the dust of

(16:00):
death, as Psalms 22 proclaims.
Therefore, because he bore allthe curse himself for us once
again, the dwelling of God shallsomeday be with men and there
shall be no more death, neithersorrow nor crying.
And there shall be no moredeath, neither sorrow, no crying
, neither shall there be anymore pain, for the former things

(16:22):
are passed away and there shallbe no more curse, but the
throne of God and of the Lambshall be in it and his servants
shall serve him.
The first Adam brought the curseand, ultimately, death.
Adam brought the curse and,ultimately, death.

(16:43):
Jesus, the second Adam put anend to the curse and is the way,
the truth and the life.
Indeed, he is the resurrectionand the life.
Let me encourage you place yourhope and your trust in him.
You're listening to Devotionswith Dr Papa.
If you like what you hear, Iencourage you to follow, like,
share or even download.
Tell your friends about it.

(17:04):
We'll be back again next weekas we continue in Genesis,
chapter 3.
Until then, may the Lord blessyou real good.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
Thank you for listening to this edition of
More Than Medicine.
For more information about theJackson Family Ministry, dr
Jackson's books, or to schedulea speaking engagement, go to
their Facebook page, instagramor their webpage at
jacksonfamilyministrycom.
This podcast is produced by BobSlone Audio Production at
bobslone.
com.