The Creation, The Corruption, & The Curses

‘Then God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.’ ~ Gen 1:26,27&31

When we look around us, we can see that the world is quite a state of chaos. There are wars, famine, disease, pain, mourning, corruption, and death.

What was our creator’s original plan when he created the world and humans? What in the world went wrong? Why do we experience all the misery, pain, destruction and death?

Creation & God’s Original Plan And Desire For This World

Genesis 1:26-28&31 ~ And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.

In the beginning, God created a beautiful paradise world and then created mankind to be just like him and to rule over all the earth for him in a blessed state of happiness.

Genesis 2:8-9 ~ And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

God made everything in this paradise as wonderful as could be and placed his precious people in this perfect place for their ultimate enjoyment.
God also ensured that these creatures would be able to live forever in this paradise. He did so by giving these beings access to a special tree called The Tree of Life.

Genesis 3:8 ~ And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

Mankind had direct access to God who would often come walk and fellowship with them in this beautiful garden.

Genesis 2:16-17 ~ And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

God desired a wonderful relationship with mankind that was based on mutual desire and not on force. He did not want people to worship and fellowship with him because they had to but rather because they wanted to from the heart.
Because of this he gave them free will and a law, you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. His creatures could then through their own free will show their willing love and devotion by keeping this law or they could show they did not love and trust the creator by breaking this law
God also gave them the clear consequence of death for breaking this law in hopes that if under temptation they would fear and obey.

How All The Corruption Of The World Began

Genesis 3:1 ~ Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

In this garden there was an enemy, a tempter, one who did not desire mankind to continue being blessed in their relationship with their Father creator.
This serpent, later revealed as Satan, questioned the woman whether or not God had really given them a law that needed to be kept.

Genesis 3:2-3 ~ And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

The women clearly understood the law that God had given. She had no misunderstandings but knew full well what God had communicated to them, even repeating it back to the serpent.

Genesis 3:4-5 ~ And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

The serpent attempted to get the woman to doubt the integrity of her creator by planting the idea within her head that God had bad intentions towards her and was somehow keeping her from something wonderful.
Here it is that Satan started the lie that he has never stopped telling. He told the woman that breaking God’s law, sinning, would not result in death.
And here he began the lie that he has continued to teach throughout all the generations of mankind. It has never changed but only been taught in various ways.

Genesis 3:6 ~ And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.

We also see here the first instance of worldly desires spoken of in 1 John 2:6. The woman experienced the lust of the flesh in that the fruit of the tree seemed as if it would taste good. She experienced the lust of the eyes in that the tree looked very appealing. Lastly, she experienced the pride of life in that she wanted to be wise.
The woman then fell for the trap of the enemy. She not only broke God’s command and ate from the tree but she also influenced the man to break faith with God and sin against him as well.

The Horrendous Consequences That Resulted

God said there would be consequences to their sin and these here are the immediate and enduring consequences that came about because of their transgressions.

Genesis 3:14-15 ~ And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

God said that there will always be a battle between the tempter and mankind. The tempter will always be causing mischief [bruising our heels].
The wonderful thing here is that there is a glimpse of the great promise of victory to the woman’s offspring. Here God says that in the end her offspring will crush the head of this adversary.

Genesis 3:16 ~ Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

The punishment the woman would face was to be twofold. First, she would continue to be able to multiply but her child birthing experience would be exceedingly painful.
Second, because she was the instrument of deception to her husband she would now be in subjection to him and he would rule over her.

Genesis 3:17-19 ~ And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Remember what we learned earlier about entrusting our soul’s welfare to even our well-meaning spouses? Take to heart that this is how the first man’s sin came about.
The man, although he was listening to his wife, still sinned greatly and was to experience great consequences for listening to her and not God.
Man’s punishment was that the earth itself would be cursed. This cursed earth would no longer easily yield up produce without labor but men would have to work hard just to provide the basic necessities of life for themselves and their families.

Romans 8:20-22 ~ For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

When God cursed the earth the result was much more than simply making it a harder to get food. The creature [the creation / earth] was actually subjected to what is called the bondage of corruption.
This is why we now have many natural disasters and events that bring destruction. It is because the planet and world itself has been corrupted. It no longer works the way it is supposed to!

Genesis 3:22-24 ~ And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

At this point mankind entered a state in which they knew good and evil. The Scriptures do not clarify what is meant by this but there was a definite change in their inner being as earlier we saw earlier in Genesis 3:6 that they immediately knew they were naked.
The greatest consequence of all shown here was that of spiritual death and bondage. God kicked Adam and Eve out of paradise and by doing so also took away their access to his very presence and the tree of life.
God promised that they would die when they sinned. Now, having their source of immortality, the tree of life, taken from them, they surely would.

Ephesians 2:1-2 ~ And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.

In their sin, mankind had given themselves over to the influence of the Devil, the prince of the power of the air. It was at this point that mankind became dead in trespasses and sins and controlled by an evil spirit. They were surely in need of a savior!

1.4 The Snowball Effect & Increased Curses On Mankind

Sadly, the sin and rebellion of mankind did not stop but only continued to get worse. As the sin increased so did the curses that were brought upon mankind. Every tragedy known to mankind can be traced back to sin and the curses resulting from it.

Genesis 6:5-6 ~ And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

Just as the woman influenced her husband to disobey God, so mankind continued to rebel and influence their offspring to do the same.
This rebellion had a snowball effect and resulted in all mankind thinking only evil continually with no one seeking after God.
This caused the creator much pain and grief in his heart and also set into motion the horrendous curses we see in the following scriptures.

Deuteronomy 28:15-20 ~ But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee: Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out. The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me.

Being in a state of cursed misery is the direct result of failing to keep God’s commandments and live in right relationship with him.
Remember that in life there is no such thing as being lucky. God controls all things and we are either cursed or blessed!
Sin will cause us and everyone around us to be cursed in every way imaginable. The passage actually goes on into much detail about the ways in which we will experience these curses.

Deuteronomy 28:38-39 ~ Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it. Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them, but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them.

Here we see the curse of pestilence and poverty. This curse ensures that no matter how hard we work we produce little to nothing.

Deuteronomy 28:27-28&35 ~ The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed. The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart: The LORD shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head.

All painful sores, diseases, and physical ailments are a result of these curses. Can you think of what might be ‘the itch whereof you cannot be healed’?
All mental diseases of madness and chaos of the mind are also a direct result of the curses from disobedience.

Deuteronomy 28:65-67 ~ Among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life: In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.

Here we see the torment of great anxiety of the mind and spirit. This curse causes our minds to be in continual sorrow and powerful fear. There is never a moment of true peace for those under this curse.

Deuteronomy 28:18 ~ Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body.

Lastly let us notice that in these curses are included our children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and so on. These all are the fruit of our bodies and they too will experience either curses or blessings resulting from our choices in life.
This is the result of having free will. Our spiritual choices drastically affect the lives of others for good or for bad.
We understand this in the physical world. Take for example an expecting mother that drinks and drugs heavily. Her baby may now be born with severe defects even though they did nothing wrong. They are suffering from the choices the mother made. This same concept plays out in the spiritual world of sin and its resulting blessings and curses upon our offspring.

So this is how we ended up with the chaotic cursed world we now live in. It was never meant to be this way but because of our own choices and the choices of our forefathers we have brought all this corruption and cursing upon ourselves.

[Our focus here was on why things are such a mess but it is only fair to mention that Deuteronomy 28:1-14 describes awesome powerful blessings that will overtake the righteous man and the fruit of his body!]