Millpond Musing – Of a Cursed Ground

In Genesis 3:17, God said to Adam, “Cursed is the ground for your sake.” I find that pronouncement interesting – don’t you? How can God’s cursing the ground be for our sake? Was it a lesser penalty? He could’ve cursed Adam and Eve directly… there to die… ending it all then and there, but, no, God instead cursed the ground. Yes, that did prolong Adam’s life, which resulted in a sentence of 930-years hard labor – working an unforgiving ground – but, on the other hand, God gave Adam two verses earlier, fertile grounds for hope: those grounds Jehovah Himself worked from all eternity when he told the Serpent who deceived Eve,

“And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.” Genesis 3:15

Huh. Despite the hard labor derived from God’s curse of the ground, God first gave Adam and his seed something to live for – a hope of a future redemption. God gave this hope as a matter of grace and a promise that Adam and all mankind could look for as the future unfolded. Yes, God cursed the ground, and it was for our sake… the sake of those who would find their eternal sentences pardoned, and earthly labors lifted in true rest.