The curse is the first roadblock we encounter on our journey to knowing God’s true nature. It is commonly understood to be God’s punishment for disobedience. The focus of this chapter is to determine if this is indeed the case. To do so, it is necessary to go all the way back to the garden of Eden and examine the truths found there. The garden of Eden, of course, is where we find Adam, the first human being to have a relationship with God. His story, even before Eve came into the picture, is obviously an important one—perhaps the most important one. Adam’s story is the creation of man and is found in Genesis 2:
Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living person. The Lord planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil … Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to cultivate it and tend it. The Lord God commanded the man, saying “From any tree of the garden you may freely eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat from it you shall certainly die” (Genesis 2:7–9, 2:15–17 NASB)
God created Adam and gave him every blessing. Soon He gave him a wife as well. But the multitude of blessings came with one condition: he must not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If he did, God said he would “surely die.” The crucial question is, why would God tell him this? What were His motives? There are few questions in Christianity as important as this one. Many if not most Christians have concluded that when God says, “You shall certainly die,” it is His punishment for Adam’s disobedience. It is not. Instead, “dying” was a consequence of his disobedience. There is a big difference.
To truly feel this difference, imagine once again being a child. Suppose your father took you to a playground and said, “Look at what I have built for you! It is all for you to enjoy, except that on the tallest slide, you must not play. For if you choose to play on it, you shall surely suffer.” Your father, of course, knows the tall slide is too dangerous for a small child. But you want to try it so badly. It looks so exciting. Besides, you believe you can decide for yourself and everything will turn out just fine. So you disregard your father’s warning and slide down. Sure enough, you land awkwardly. So awkwardly, in fact, that you are now crippled. You will never be the same again. This happened because of your disobedience. But it was not punishment. It’s not as if your father saw you on the slide, then came out and caused the injury because he was angry. On the contrary, even an earthly parent would be sad and concerned about your injury. They would be disappointed, yes, but their primary concern would be the healing and restoration of their child. The last thing they would want to do is curse them.
We can well imagine why the father built the tall slide. He knew that his child would grow and would soon be big enough to use it safely. Whether or not this is also true of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is only speculation. Perhaps Adam and Eve would have reached a point at which they could have safely eaten from it. We cannot know. What we do know is that like the father who was concerned for his child, God was concerned for Adam. It had nothing to do with punishment. He was simply warning him of what would happen. He knew that if Adam ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the consequences would change his life. And not for the better. Therefore, God warned him, saying he would “surely die.” One way we know this was true was that the relationship he had enjoyed with God changed dramatically. Before Adam disobeyed, both Adam and Eve had been totally innocent. They were in harmony with God and happily trusting in Him. This all changed when the serpent came along and created doubt in Eve’s mind. Part of us dies when we are not trusting in God and relying on Him, the author of life. The nature of living changes in a fundamental way. Because of Adam’s disobedience, their eyes were opened and life became hard. Trusting in God was replaced by trying to avoid Him. They now, for the first time, feared God. They felt guilt they had never experienced before, somehow feeling even their nakedness was an offense to Him.