Genesis 3:14-19 & Genesis 8:21?

[William]

Genesis 3:14-19:

14 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:
15 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.
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.
17 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;
18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and
thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
19 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.

&

Genesis 8:21:

21 And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD
said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more
for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil
from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every
thing living, as I have done.

Now I was reading these, and what made me wonder is why was "part" of the curse on man removed, but nothing from the woman or serpent.

The man (All of mankind) will die and return to the dust. So that part of the curse is still in effect. However here after the flood when Noah and his family come out from the Ark the Lord lifts part of it. Now we all know the serpent represents Satan, so I can understand no curse being lifted from him. However nothing was lifted from the woman either. So why the special treatment to Man? Is it cause we didn't sin "first"? We still sinned. Now I'm glad that we don't have this curse, I'm just curious as to why God lifted it so early on.

Maybe it was cause Noah found a lot of favour in his eyes.

I can actually understand the curse not being lifted from the woman though. If you actually look at and think about what it involves. Its more for safety and for a good reason.

I was looking at the scripture, 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.

Now she brings forth children in pain. It hurts at least from what I hear (I'm not a woman so I wouldn't know what it feels like, but I'm sure a 5-10 pound baby coming out does not feel to great.) Also she will have more children, or at least faster. As her "conception" is increased.

And then I was looking at the other part. 1: Her desire shall be to her husband (I don't know if this means desire to just please her husband. Perhaps a sexual desire, or both?)
2: She is also ruled over by her husband now. Well if you think about it that can be a good thing I guess. Maybe because she was not under any leadership or rule that she sinned in the first place. So with rule over her it keeps her from going astray as we know she did, and women are more emotional and easily lead astray than men are (For the most part).

Maybe someone who is married could explain this out a little better. I'm just wanting to know why part of the curse was lifted though.

I know it also says in Revelation:

22:3 And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God
and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve
him:

So the curse will end. I believe that is in reference to the curse in Genesis. Also it won't matter once were in Heaven because there will be no marriage. We will be like the angels. There is a lot more scripture I'm sure that could be used with those verses from Genesis. Guess this is something I would need to search about.

Just my thoughts on this portion of scripture.

[Khazaq]

Interesting.  I hadn't caught that before.  Perhaps God lifted the curse on the ground because the world was changed and food was no longer so easy to find as it was before the Flood?

[William]

Interesting.  I hadn't caught that before.  Perhaps God lifted the curse on the ground because the world was changed and food was no longer so easy to find as it was before the Flood?

Yes that is a possibility. It would be hard I suppose to grow plants, herbs, etc. They would of had all the animals that they took on the boat with them, and these would of started to produce and fill the earth. Also all the fish in the sea.

There is also this scripture before verse 21.

Genesis 8:20 ¶ And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of
every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered
burnt offerings on the altar.

So this happened after he made sacrifice to God. Abel also made a sacrifice that pleased God, so why didn't it happen then?

[PeanutGallery]

And then I was looking at the other part. 1: Her desire shall be to her husband (I don't know if this means desire to just please her husband. Perhaps a sexual desire, or both?)

Not too sure how to respond about the curse.
However, in regards to wife's desire to her husband.
Gen 3:16 ... and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
Gen 4:7 ... sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

As with sin, the wife's desire is to control, but the husband will rule.

[Mark]

Im pretty sure that has nothing to do with the curses handed down in Gen 3. As roses still have thorns, and weeds still pop up in our fields.

Gen 3:18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
Gen 3:19 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.

All of that is still going on, so the Lord must be talking about something else. Lets look again at Gen 8:21 and see what it says?

Genesis 8:21:

21 And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD
said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more
for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil
from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every
thing living, as I have done.

We have almost the exact same passage in Gen 6,

Gen 6:5 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.

The curse that is being talked about is destroying the Earth with a Flood.

Gen 6:13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

I believe the Lord id talking about cursing the world with a flood. As he extends the original curse from Gen 3 in Gen 9 by adding animals to the curse.

Gen 9:2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.

Now granted until this point we couldn’t eat animals, still it remains that humans and animals got along until this curse. So we do not see a lifting of the curse from Gen 3 but infact an adding to it that continues to this day.