The Curse on the Woman
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2019 · 20 January 2019
Let us open the Word of God and see a true and accurate understanding of origins. The origin of the physical world as well as the origin of the spiritual world and the moral world. All of those elements are unfolded to us in the early chapters of Genesis. Now in Genesis 3 we learn of the origin and impact of sin. Why there is evil in the world is all explained by God.
And in Genesis 3:16 we find the divine curse on the woman. It says, “To the woman He said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” I have seen the struggles of women in all the world. Throughout human history there has been little difference since ancient times.
In general, women are considered less than men. Men, in general, have little interest in their personal needs, in their feelings, their emotions, and their sufferings. In general, men have throughout human history used women for sexual fulfillment, for domestic duties and to take care of the children. And until recently, men still held the power of life and death over women.
This harsh treatment of women was not the original design of God. Sin brought it in and it therefore corrupted the original relationship between man and woman, between woman and her children and made life very difficult. And we all expereince a measure of suffering because of the curse of sin. Sin has brought about death and decay, decline and disintegration and we can see that.
We all live with accidents, illnesses and disasters. There are just those general matters in a fallen world that expose us all to harm and ultimately to death. But in a specific way, women have suffered primarily related to bearing and caring of their children and their dealings with their husbands. It is the unique burden for women to have to deal with children and with husbands who do not understand them.
There are dangers that are associated with being a woman. They have to carry a child for nine months and then they have to release that child into a world full of hostilities and threats, whether they be physical dangers or whether they be moral dangers. And because the child by nature is a sinner, that child is going to look for everything destructive to entertain itself and therefore a mother has a heart that never rests.
What we see in Third World countries today is what most of the world has endured through all of its history. I have been in the most poverty-stricken slums of Indonesian cities and I've seen mothers sitting with malnourished babies in their arms, drinking filthy water. And it seems the worst of it is borne by the mothers who are either pregnant or nursing babies or trying to control their children.
We all have seen whether on television or on the internet photographs of the terrible droughts and famines that occur so often in Africa. And we see these mothers holding little babies, the bones are exposed, and the flies are landing on their faces. And while they're holding the baby that's dying, there are others that are on the brink of death. And those mothers themselves know that they'll be pregnant again soon.
And childbirth throughout human history is dangerous. Many children die and mothers then lived with suffering and sorrow. Modern science has developed medicines, medical care, contraception and education and in the western world, mitigated the physical trauma of childbirth. But there's still that fear. You don't fear your baby will die, but you do fear that your baby will be influenced by evil in society.
What do rabbis believe about Genesis 3? Do you believe that when God cursed women it was it only about the pain of childbirth?" The rabbis have always taught that a mother's highest joy is to carry her baby because the baby is totally protected. So the rabbis have always believed that the woman is at her pinnacle of joy when she is pregnant. And then comes the birth.
And then comes the sorrow after birth, the post-partum blues. And the rabbis say that the woman is sad because her baby is not there anymore and there's a level of intimacy that is gone. And as the child gets older, that disconnect is more profound because the child is exposed to greater and greater dangers physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. And the mother's heart grows in fears.
Was this God's original intention? No, it wasn't. That's all part of the curse. That's what verse 16 is saying. That's not part of the original design. To the woman He said, "I will greatly multiply your pain and childbirth, in pain you shall bring forth children." And, "Your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you." So the curse was in her relationship to her children and her husband.
And to you women, do not be surprised that you have trouble with your children and that you suffer both physical and emotional pain and sometimes deep spiritual pain. And if you struggle with your husband, just know this, God didn't intend it that way in the beginning, that's a result of sin and you're bearing something of the effect of the curse that God put on Eve.
Genesis 3:16 explains this. In Genesis 2:16-17 God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Death was the sentence of God on man and woman. Death was the result of their disobedience. This is the judicial sentence of God.
But even though death was going to come, they would still fulfill the original mandate. Now what was that mandate? Go back to Genesis 1:27-28, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” Have babies, fill the earth. That was the original intent.
God created them in the garden originally in perfection and without sin, they had eternal life, they would never grow old, they would never be ill, they would never be harmed and they would never die. This was an eternal existence at that point in the garden and God said to them, "You will be fruitful and multiply, you'll have babies in this environment."
They would have had babies and the babies would have grown, but they never would grow old and decline. We now have babies and they grow and then they grow old and decline and they all go through the same cycle. But in that perfect world they would have babies that grew just like Jesus grew, right? In wisdom and stature and favor of God and man, they just grew to full maturity (Luke 2:40).
There will be conception, pregnancies which produce childbirth. You're still going to procreate. You're still going to populate the planet. So marriage hasn't changed: one man, one woman, cleaving together for life. Remember that was defined in Genesis 2:24, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh and produce children.
But now after the Fall, physical death exists. And that's going to make the whole thing different because along with physical death comes disease and accident, injury and sorrow and it's going to hit the woman naturally in the category where she has the most invested, in her relation to her children and her relation to her husband. The human race will survive and it will procreate.
That is why Paul in Titus 2:4 says, "You older women, train the young women to love their husbands and children." That's what God wants out of the woman. Forget your career, love your husband, and love your children. Stay in that category where the curse has fallen and by the power of God and the work of the Spirit you can transform it into something of paradise regained.
Every woman who experiences these difficulties has a constant reminder of the sin of Eve who sinned in the pursuit of personal enjoyment. It looked good and it would satisfy a longing that had arisen in her. She wanted a joy that she thought was being withheld from her, so she sinned. And now in seeking personal fulfillment with a man, she will find her greatest misery.
The curse on the woman falls into two areas. First, in relation to her children. “I will greatly multiply your pain” is an interesting Hebraic phrase. The idea is intensification. I'm going to bring upon you a great sorrow and that sorrow is going to come in the area of your children. “And I will multiply your pain in childbirth.'" In pain you shall bring forth children.
It is consistent with God to make trouble a consequence for sin. It's consistent all through Scripture. God isn't forcing someone to sin. God is not the author or the source of sin. Look at Deuteronomy 11:27-28 where God says to Israel, "Obey Me and I will bless you, if you disobey Me, I will curse you.” It isn't that God creates disasters, it's that God doesn't prevent them. Trouble is inherently linked to sin.
If you are a believer and you disobey the Lord, God will chasten you. And all the negatives consist of chastening, loss of blessing, maybe an illness, some trauma in your life. Divine chastening really are the withholding of blessing. 1 Corinthians 5:5 says, “Deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.”
God uses the effects of sin to chasten believers. God used calamity which is an effect of sin to chasten Israel. All the categories of negatives that God promises those that are disobedient are connected to sin. Any temporal judgment which inflicts punishment is inherently linked to the effects of sin. You are going to be exposed to the impact of sin in a greater way because of what you've done, so are all women.
Here God says, "I will greatly multiply.” When it's translated "greatly multiply," it sounds like she already had pain and sorrow. But before the Fall there wasn't any pain and there wasn't any sorrow. That's why that Hebrew explanation for “I will cause to be great your pain" is simply saying I will give you a great multiplied experience of pain, the likes of which you have never had.
The word "pain", literally is a word that encompasses the experience and the emotion. The word ‘Itstsabon’ means everything that is hard to bear which can include the pain of the actual birth, and all the suffering that goes with having children. And "I'll greatly multiply your pain and your conception," the Hebrew says. I'm going to give you multiplied conception.
Her fertility was increased. That's part of the curse. So the woman could have a baby every year. She could be pregnant, have a baby, nurse the baby, and as soon as the baby is weaned after a few months, she's capable of getting pregnant again. And before the Fall it wasn't like that. There were many other wonders to enjoy. Remember in the original creation they were told to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth.
But after the Fall, everything sped up and a woman's life becomes totally dominated by children and everything is much more rapid and the earth gets filled fast and then there's an earth wide drowning and then it starts over again. And today we are filling the earth in just a few thousand years. That's okay, because the world is going to be destroyed in a few thousand years anyway, right?
Pain which will come to her will threaten her life. She will almost die before her children come into the world. But it is not so frightening that it causes a woman not to want to have children. It is but for a moment. It's not just the physical pain of childbirth. That's why the drugs are necessary. Scripture is very supportive of the work of physicians. It is the suffering that children can cause later.
Jesus identified Himself as the Great Physician. Now what can a woman do to alleviate the sorrows of this curse? Not by taking an anesthetic at the time of childbirth, that's not it. Turn to 1 Timothy 2:13, where Paul is giving Timothy instruction for the church and he talks about how women are to dress in the church (verse 9), and how they are to live godly (verse 10).
Then he says in verse 13, "For it was Adam who was first created and then Eve." So in the original creation women were the helpers of men. They are equal spiritually. They are equal before God and certainly they are equal in Christ. In Christ there is neither male nor female, Galatians 3:28. But in the order of creation in the family, Adam was first, and Eve came created to be his helper.
And so as a helper Eve is not the head, she comes to help Adam. And she must adorn herself in a way that brings honor to him and attention to him and not honor and attention to herself. She is to be quiet and receiving instruction and not to usurp authority over a man. That's the divine order. Now he turns in verse 14 to the Fall and he says it was the woman who was deceived.
But, verse 15 says, "Women shall be preserved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.” What a great hope. Women have been given a hard load, but it can be changed. Women are not under God's permanent shadow of displeasure. Instead of the bearing of children being the point of the curse, it becomes the point of her deliverance.
How does she do that? Here it is. "If they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint." If a woman will live a godly life and continue in faith and love and holiness and self-control. If she will be what verse 10 says, a godly woman, then she will raise a godly generation and her children will continue in the same way. She will be blessed. Let us pray.