In Genesis Chapter 3:11-19 we read the dialogue that took place between YHVH, Adam, Eve, and the serpent (satan) after The Fall. The world could be filled with books written just on this topic.
The first thing that must be understood is that God never cursed the man and woman, He only cursed the ground and the serpent (satan).
As we read what YHVH spoke to the man, Adam, in verses 17-19 we should notice that the curse of the ground not only affected Adam but it also affected Eve and all living creatures; for now all living creatures must struggle for survival and all living creatures must die. Death entered the world for the first time.
I mentioned the conversation between God and Adam first although it was actually spoken last. God first spoke over the serpent and then the woman. I did this for a reason to bring out my point.
When we look at what God spoke over the woman we tend to make it only about her and how that now she will always be subject to her husband and have pain during childbirth. If what God spoke over Adam was also applicable to Eve, and all living creatures, then why do we always assume that what He spoke over the woman was just for her personal punishment?
There is a deeper meaning here than what we have always believed. When God spoke over the serpent we read:
"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"
While most understand this verse to be talking about Yeshua the Messiah they fail to connect it to what was spoken next over the woman:
"I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children; your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you."
Here we see the promise of Hope! God was not going to leave them in their desperate, sinful, lost, and hopeless state. He was telling them from the beginning that He was going to restore them, and the world, to its original state. He spoke “hope” first over the woman before He told them about “toil” and “death” when He spoke to Adam.
When God speaks, "He shall bruise your head" and "your desire shall be for your husband", He was speaking about something that was to happen in the future. This person was to come in the future and would crush the serpent's head and the woman was longing for Him, and He would be the one that would rule over her, (that was her desire-for Him to rule over her). God was not telling Eve that Adam was to rule over her. What was spoken over the serpent ties to what was spoken to Eve in that she will be the one to bring forth the "one" who will crush the serpent. The one to come would redeem them from the sin that had been committed.
The word "ish" was used for where English puts the word husband. While it can mean husband, (it can also mean brother), it is most often used in scripture for the male species.
The translators had to decide which word to use and they simply chose husband instead of "man". What God really told Eve is that she, representing all the women who would come after her, would continue to bear children until "she" finally brought forth the "man child" who would deliver them from the mess they created when they sinned. The female species would "long" and "desire" in "agony and pain" of childbirth over and over and over until "she" finally brought forth the one "they" (the male and female) longed for. The one who would deliver them and restore all things as in the beginning. This "man child" (ish) that she would bring forth would indeed crush the serpents head, but the children of this woman and the children of the serpent would have a lifelong struggle throughout the generations until all things were fulfilled in the "ish" that was to come.
The woman's multiplied sorrow in conception and pain in childbirth is in her desire for birthing this man child who will redeem them. It is this "ish" (third person - in the future) that her desire will be for and this "ish" (redeemer) will indeed rule over her.
Adam and Eve understood, in part, that God was speaking, not a curse, but hope over them. That is why when we read what Eve spoke over Cain when he was born that she thought she had brought forth the man child who would redeem them. However, she soon discovered that he was not the one. When Seth was born she once again spoke over him words that would prove that she thought he would be the one. While "the one" did come through the righteous line of Seth; Seth was not him. It appears that Adam and Eve believed that "she" would bring forth this redeemer sooner rather than later.
Down through the ages the female species, in pain, labored to bring forth the one she desired or longed after, the one that she wants to rule, not only over her, but over the entire fallen world; the one who will redeem not only herself, but the man, and all of creation.
Every Hebrew woman had longed to bring forth the MESSIAH, the one they heard was coming in the beginning. Miriam was finally the one when she brought forth Yeshua.
A great "multiplicity" of male children had been brought forth as women "desired", "longed", and in "pain" continued to conceive and give birth, in hopes that they would be the chosen one.
The words spoken over Eve were indeed for all of creation yet we have made them (traditionally) about the woman being subjugated to her "husband" because we failed to realize that it was tied to the verse about the serpent and the seed that was to come in the future.
The struggle between the two deserves another lesson.
Blessings,
Leisa
