When W. C. Fields was deathly sick his friend Gene Fowler dropped in on
him and caught him reading the Bible. Fowler was astounded, for Fields had
never found any use for the Bible other than to prop up his martini. Fowler
said, "Bill I am deeply touched." "Don't bother, muttered Fields, "I'm only
looking for loopholes." Unfortunately, a great many people only read the
Bible to search for loopholes. That is not our purpose in studying the
judgment of God upon the first sinners, but the fact is, there are some
loopholes to be found here, which are loopholes in the interpretation that is
often given to their judgment.
It is a common opinion which I always assume was true, until I looked at
the text carefully, that the judgment of verse 16 was a judgment upon all
women, and that the judgment of the verse of 17-19 was a judgment upon all
men. However, a little thinking upon the issue leads very quickly to some
loopholes in that common opinion. Many women have had their children
without pain with either a saddle block or by hypnosis. Other women, like my
sister and Lavonne's sister have had their children so easy and pain free just
naturally. My sister had her last child at home by herself and just called the
doctor the next day to see if everything was all right. The average person
suffers more just getting out of bed in the morning than she does in giving
birth to a child.
I could go on and on with stories dealing with people I know, and there
must be millions of examples that I don't know. The point is, not all women
suffer great pain in childbirth. The judgment here upon Eve, therefore, is not
to be taken as a universal punishment of all women because of her sin. This is
Eve's personal penalty for her sin. If you try and make it God's judgment
upon all women you have a great many loopholes to fill in. Not only do all
women not suffer in childbirth, but there are millions of women who never give
birth to children at all. If this is suppose to be a punishment upon all
women, then those who never have children get off the hook completely. This
would lead to the conclusion that childless women are being favored by God.
But all through the Old Testament a childless woman was to be pitied, for it
was a great honor to become a mother. All of this means that we have jumped
to a wrong conclusion if we have assumed that God's judgment upon Eve was
meant to pass down to all women.
All that this text says is that God was going to multiply the pain that Eve
would have in childbirth. This implies that there would be some pain even if
she had not sinned. It is normal to have some pain, and even Eve in her
unfallen state would have had some pain, but God said He would greatly
multiply it in her case. Many other women have great pain in childbirth, but
it is not because they are being judged for Eve's disobedience. If God was
going to punish Eve in a way that would be specific for her, and not include
Adam, it had to be in an area distinctively feminine, and it would be hard to
find anything more distinctive than child bearing.
God said to Eve that in spite of the pain she would suffer, she would still
desire her husband. The pain would not cause her to lose the desire for sex.
This also is not true for all women, but it was true for Eve, and she and Adam
had a great many children, and they got the human race rolling in spite of
judgment. She went through the pangs of childbirth over and over again with
no doctor or midwife. In 4:1 when Eve gave birth to her first child Cain she
said, as the Berkley Version has it, "I have gotten a man with the Lord's
help." God who passed the sentence of pain upon her was no cold-hearted
judge. He was a compassionate physician who gave Eve grace and strength to
enable her to bear her punishment and bring forth children successfully.
We notice that God says to Eve also that her husband shall have rule over
her. The implication is that in a state of perfection the male and female were
completely equal, but that the fall led to the male taking a superior position
over the female. Eve lost some of equality, and she had to summit to Adam.
This has come to be a principle that is almost universally accepted. The Koran
teaches it as well. The Bible alone, however, offers women the hope of
restored equality. There is no book on earth that promotes women's liberation
more than the Bible, for it makes it clear that in Jesus there is neither male or
female. And it teaches that in Christ people will again be restored to
perfection, and thus to the original state of equality. In God's eternal plan
there will be no weaker sex in heaven, but all will be equal. The more people
grow in Christ even in time, the more equality there is with men and women.
Meanwhile, there are many who feel women have the advantage. Goethe
said, "In my opinion it is a much more difficult task to become a perfect man
than a perfect woman." He says the woman has a mate to be submissive to,
and this leads to happiness, but man has to submit to God, which is much
harder. Without a doubt it is true that women find it easier to submit to a
master, and that is why Jesus has been able to do so much in history through
women. Billy Graham said, "I have traveled on every continent in the world.
I want to tell you, in every place of the world where the influence of Jesus
Christ has not gone, the woman is little more than an animal. It was Jesus
who lifted the woman to her place today. And every woman owns everything
she has to Jesus Christ."
God was good to Eve and did all He could to help her, and even turned her
punishment into a blessing. God has continued to be a God of grace toward
women, and one day will restore them to full equality with men. History has
been filled with men who have abused this text. They have argued that it is
God's curse upon women and that He demands that they suffer. Such men
have opposed all efforts to help women have easier childbirth, and they have
fault all relieving of pain as satanic. They were blind to their hatred of
women, and they thought they were being zealous for God's Word. Had they
been honest they would have gone out and quit their jobs as doctors, lawyers
and businessmen, and have earned their livelihood by the sweat of their brow
in the fields. If men apply Eve's judgment to all women, then Adam's
judgment should be applied to all men. I have never heard anyone trying to
do so, however, and so women leaders are right when they say there are man
women haters who hide behind the Bible and try to use God to keep women in
a state of suppression.
To oppose women's right to freedom from pain in childbirth on the basis
of this text is to oppose all professions for men but farming, and to even
oppose modern equipment, for that equipment eliminates the hard toil and
sweat that Adam was to endure. Just as it is obvious that Eve's punishment
was not meant for all women, so it if obvious that Adam's punishment was not
meant for all men. If it was, most of us have sure put one over on God because
we haven't sweat in the field for a good long time.
God cursed the ground so that nature suffered in man's fall, and his
whole environment was affected. There was no way to punish Adam without
altering his perfect environment. His punishment was the least personal, but
it had the greatest long-range effect on the whole of history in that the whole
balance of nature was thrown out of whack. This will be restored, as Paul
makes clear in Rom. 8, but all through history the curse on the ground has
been a problem. It was the main problem of man for centuries in that it took a
great deal of time for man to develop industry and to escape from total
dependence upon farming. Adam, of course, had to toil for his necessities all
the days of his life. He had to fight nature's negatives like thorns, thistles and
weeds in order to get a harvest. Eve had to suffer labor in bearing the fruit of
the womb, and Adam had to suffer in labor for the fruit of the land.
Labor-pains is what they both had to suffer because of their disobedience.
I wonder how often Adam stopped hoeing in the field, wiped his sweat
from his brow and said, "All this for one lousy apple." The easy pleasure of
sin always leads to the long labors of regret. In first 18 God told Adam that
farming would be one continuous struggle for him. This has not been true for
all men. Many have farmed in such fertile land, and with such good chemical
control of weeds and bugs, that they have made great riches without terrible
struggle. What God says here as Adam's punishment for his sin does not
apply to all men. Adam lost the fruit of Eden and had to eat the plants of the
field, but you and I can go to the story anytime and get delicious fruits without
labor.
People who thought God intended all men to suffer as Adam did oppose
industry and advanced machinery. They felt this was defined God's intended
curse. Much tragic nonsense has come from jumping to this false conclusion.
God intends for all who obey Him to live in the promise land flowing with milk
and honey, and to reap rich and abundant harvest. Verse 19 does not apply to
millions who eat well without sweating. Thoreau in Walden said, "It is not
necessary that a man should earn his living by the sweat of his brow, unless he
sweats easier than I do." Some tried to use this to justify slave labor, but
Lincoln pointed out that the text does not say that it is in the sweat of other
men's faces that we should eat bread. May God help us to learn from the
mistakes of others to avoid false applications of Scripture by recognizing that
the judgment upon Adam and Eve were personal, and though they have
influenced the rest of history, they were never intended to be universal.
