Where Do We Come From?预览

Punished, But Not Cursed

“By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19)

When God forbade man to eat from that one tree, He attached the warning: “In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” The point here is not that man would literally die that very same day; we must take this expression as a very strong warning. “If you eat of this fruit, it is absolutely certain that you will die.” And this punishment is indeed pronounced on man when he sinned. “To dust you will return.” Until that moment, life on earth will be arduous. The woman will experience pain in having children. The man will have to toil to provide for them. The perfect living conditions they were used to are gone forever.

And yet this punishment is actually quite mild. The earth is cursed because of man. Satan is cursed because he has tempted man. But man himself is not cursed by God. He is punished, but much blessing remains as well. As Psalm 103:10 wonders, “[God] does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.”

Do you agree with me that God's punishment for Adam and Eve's disobedience is actually quite mild? Or do you think the punishment is (too) severe?