Tag: ground

Binding and Releasing

Posted on by jovial_cynic
We toss around “cursed” and “blessed” like they mean “rejected” and “favored” or “evil” and “good,” but the words have a different function.

Though not linguistically connected, “cursed” is associated with “binding,” and “blessing” is associated with “releasing.”

When the ground is cursed and Adam is told he will return to it, we are given imagery of him being bound to the earth, unable to rise above it. He is mortal.

When Adam and Eve are blessed, they are told to be fruitful and multiply: to increase, to spread out.

When the serpent is cursed, we are told that he will crawl on his belly, also tying him to the earth. His head will be crushed.

When Noah and his sons are blessed in Gen 9, the next chapter is the Table of Nations, showing them released to be fruitful and multiply.

So what of Ham’s son Canaan? When Noah (not God) curses Canaan in Gen 9, what is being bound? What is restricted to prevent it from getting out of hand, like a weed in a garden?

I suspect what God is cursing is our shame.

This nakedness Ham sees in Genesis 9:22 is tied to the shame and nakedness Adam and Eve see in Genesis 3:7, when they covered themselves in FIG leaves.

The Gospels tell us something about FIG leaves on a tree that bears no fruit.

Now in the early morning, when He was returning to the city, He became hungry. And seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves alone; and He *said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.” And at once the fig tree withered.
Matthew 21:18-19

One day, God will curse and bind the Fig Tree that we keep using to cover our shame. He’ll cause that tree to wither so there are no more leaves to grab, and then we’ll have to stand face to face with God, who will cover our nakedness with something far greater.

God’s Sorrow

Posted on by jovial_cynic

So the Lord was sorry that He had made mankind on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. Then the Lord said, “I will wipe out mankind whom I have created from the face of the land; mankind, and animals as well, and crawling things, and the birds of the sky. For I am sorry that I have made them.”
Genesis 6:6-7 (NASB)

Twice in Genesis 6, the text says God was “sorry” He made humanity. The KJV renders this word as “repented.” Both work and are contained in this word “nawkham.”

But something no translation does is point out that this word also carries an implication of “comforting.”

I. to be sorry, console oneself, repent, regret, comfort, be comforted
I. (Niphal)
1. to be sorry, be moved to pity, have compassion
2. to be sorry, rue, suffer grief, repent
3. to comfort oneself, be comforted
4. to comfort oneself, ease oneself
H5162: נָחַם (nāḥam)

It strikes me when a word is use twice in rapid succession in the text, as though the author is drawing our attention to it. This isn’t a grammatical requirement; the text doesn’t have to say “sorry” twice… but it does.

And it’s this idea of “comfort” that seems to ring.

The other time we heard this word “comfort” was in the previous chapter, when we are told about Noah’s birth. Noah’s name is related to “comfort.”

And he named him Noah, saying, “This one will give us comfort from our work and from the hard labor of our hands caused by the ground which the Lord has cursed.”
Genesis 5:29 (NASB)

And what do we see? Comfort from what? From the work and hard labor from the ground God cursed.

If we jump back to Genesis 6, where God said he was sorry he “made them,” we have another fascinating connection to Noah.

While “awsah” does mean “make,” it also means… “to work.”

As in… “to work the man.”

I. (Qal)
1. to do, work, make, produce
2. to do
3. to work
4. to deal (with)
5. to act, act with effect, effect
H6213: עָשָׂה (ʿāśâ)

Consider this tie of Genesis 5 and 6 together:

Humanity cried out for COMFORT from their WORKS. God is “sorry” or “repents” TWICE, meeting their cry for COMFORT. He was grieved because their WORK led to their misery.

When God cursed the ground in Genesis 3, humanity had to toil and work, and this work became a great suffering and misery to humanity. They cried out once… and God responded twice: “nawkham, nawkham.”

Perhaps limiting their lives to 120 years shortens the suffering.

Cain and Adam’s Curse

Posted on by jovial_cynic
In Genesis 3, Adam is told that the GROUND is cursed, and he will RETURN to it.

In Genesis 4, Cain is told that HE is cursed FROM the ground; the GROUND accepted Abel, but it REJECTS Cain.

Perhaps the ground is humanity, and Cain has cut himself off from it. A vagabond.

To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
Genesis 3:17-19 (NIV)

Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.
Genesis 4:11 (NIV)

An Appropriate Sacrifice

Posted on by jovial_cynic
What did Cain do wrong? People have pointed to Abel’s “appropriate” animal sacrifice, pointing to God’s covering of Adam/Eve with animal skins in Genesis 3… but I think there’s something else going on here.

We are told that Cain “worked the soil” in the NIV. If you’ve followed along the previous weeks’ studies, you’ve heard this word “worked” before, but in a different form. And connected to a different man.

Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.” Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.

Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil.
Genesis 4:2 (NIV)

It’s Cain’s own dad, Adam. In Genesis 2, we’re told that Adam’s role was to “till the ground.” This word “till” is the Hebrew word “abad,” which means to “labor” or to “work.” And in Genesis 2, the work is GOOD.

Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground.
Genesis 2:5 (NIV)

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Genesis 2:15 (NIV)

But in Genesis 3, the ground gets cursed.

To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
Genesis 3:17 (NIV)

So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
Genesis 3:23 (NIV)

What does it mean that the ground is cursed? What does it mean that the work will result in painful toil, thorns & thistles? Why does this point to death?

Cain’s name means “acquired.” As in, “I worked to acquire this.”

This is death.

God’s acceptance of Abel’s offering is unrelated to his own accomplishment. He simply brought the best of what he had: the “fat” (or choicest/best part) of the “firstborns.” The best we have.

It’s the same thing God asks of us today. Not the sacrifice, but our heart.

Returning to the Ground

Posted on by jovial_cynic
God tells Adam: “cursed is the ground because of you,” and this word “ground” is the same place that Adam came from. It’s the same word that Adam came from.

And then God tells Adam that he will RETURN to the ground.

This “return” is also repentance. Dying… to self.

to return, turn back
to turn back (to God), repent

H7725: שׁוּב

By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.

Genesis 3:19 (NIV)