Because of the curse, we are to work by the sweat of our brow until we cannot do it anymore, at which time we ourselves return to the ground. So, the curse actually makes us act as if hard work is a way to stave off death.

Soon after our second child was born, one night while holding him in bed my wife had an “incident.” Her heart froze in her chest, and she was suddenly gripped with fear. From out of nowhere, her mind began to race with horrifying scenarios of awful things that could happen to our newborn son. Then, she confessed that she saw a glimpse into the future–of all the pain and suffering he would go through in life, “from being teased on the playground to being caught in a twin tower as it came falling down to the ground.”

I remember lying there, listening to her, feeling pity for her. My wife looked at me, and said, “What is wrong with me?” In that moment the Holy Spirit gave me intense theological clarity as I’d never had before. I took my wife’s hand in mine, looked in her eyes, and said, “Because, Eve, you are experiencing the real pain of childbirth. You have brought a son into a fallen world, and he will die. There is nothing you can do about it, and you know it is not the way things should be.” It was such a moment of clarity, freedom, and thankfulness for the gospel for my wife that she said I must write it out for the benefit of the women in our church. Thus, the following:

If you say it often enough, it becomes fact. Seriously—try it sometime. How many wise men visited baby Jesus? Think you know? The text does not say three; it says three gifts. “A sucker is born every minute.” P.T. Barnum, right? Nope. His biographer made it up. Here’s the biggie… as part of the curse on Eve and all women God promised to make labor pains intensely horrible. Right? I think not. It is actually much more profound than that.

Genesis 3:16 literally reads, in part, “and to the woman he said, ‘I will greatly increase your sorrow in conception; in worrisome hardship you will bring forth children.’” That sounds a bit more profound than the physical pain, as intense as it is, associated with labor, doesn’t it? Here’s another piece of the puzzle. In Gen 3:17, when God curses the man, he tells him “cursed is the ground on account of you. In worrisome hardship (sound familiar?) you will eat of it, all of your life.” Then God explains in v18-19, “thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread.”

The curses actually hearken back to the original command for Adam and Eve in what is commonly called the “cultural mandate” as found in Gen 1:28: “And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” Together they were to create human culture, filling the earth with other people, primarily through the “fruits” of women, and subduing the earth, primarily through the fruits produced by the man. When the curses come, Adam and Eve get specific curses addressing their parts of the Creation Mandate.

In the Hebrew, the curses are parallel thoughts. Just as Adam no longer joyously gets to subdue the earth through his labor (note: work was given before the Fall), but instead must toil and worry over the incredible burden of weeds and thistles coming up with the food plants, so too Eve no longer joyously gets to bring forth children who will fill the earth, but instead must toil and worry over the incredible burden of conceiving and raising a child who will now die. She must now bring forth sinful children, under the curse of death, who are born spiritually dead and march steadily on toward physical death.

Have you ever wondered why women worry about their children so much? Nikki and I have four children, and I want to protect them, but Nikki struggles with worry about them—about what seems to me to be the most insignificant, unimportant things. It is neurotic! But it is not unique. Moms worry about how their daughters are going to be as mothers when they are still toddlers! They worry about if they are being good examples, or are they ruining their children for life? If the child does not do well at a piano recital, it is because the Mother is a failure; at least, that is what her mind tells her. Mothers of teens are scared to death (scared by death?) to let their children be emancipated and go on their own. Have they done enough? Are their children ready? Have they told them everything that they need to know? Will they follow after their parents values or abandon what they have been taught?

Mothers are worriers because they have had another life inside of them, felt it grow, absorbed its kicks, bonded with that other person, and brought them into the world. Because of the Fall, they are haunted by the knowledge that this child will die. Death is not a natural part of life. It is an invader into the created order, and it is the woman who feels this most of all, perhaps because she is the one who was first tempted and fell, but more likely because death more profoundly affects the filling of the earth, the part of the cultural mandate more focused on her. The net result is that women, out of the pain of knowing their offspring will die, live in the contradiction of bringing forth children that they both worship and stifle.

The men are just as messed up. Have you ever wondered why men are always so concerned with stuff? Why they measure so much of their self-worth on how they are performing in the marketplace? Why do men take it so seriously when they can’t work? Why are we so wrapped up in our careers? It is because of the curse. It is only through worrisome toil that we feed our families. Even if we enjoy and are fulfilled by our callings, there is never really enough money to have the lifestyle we want our families to have, because we measure ourselves by how well we provide. The curse ties men to bringing forth from an earth that resists them.

Because of the curse, we are to work by the sweat of our brow until we cannot do it anymore, at which time we ourselves return to the ground. So, the curse actually makes us act as if hard work is a way to stave off death. Men must accomplish something; men must conquer something—either another man in sports, a competitor in business, the environment with machines—anything just to show that we still can subdue, curse or no curse. The net result is that men, out of the pain of knowing that they will die struggling against the ground, live in the contradiction of toiling to bring forth validation from an earth that will only yield them thorns and bondage.

Thanks be to God that even before He pronounced these curses, He promised that a Redeemer would come from the woman to crush the Seed of the Serpent and restore what humanity had lost. Thanks be to God that in the fullness of time, He brought forth His own Son, a new Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was able to conquer death itself, and now builds His church, the redeemed community that will live with Him for eternity in a filled and subdued new Earth. What a day that will be!

Sean Sawyers is a Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church of America and serves as Senior Pastor of Heritage Presbyterian Church in Wildwood, Missouri. He blogs, occasionally, on the church website, where this essay first appeared. It is used with his permission.