Ronald Weinland

Adam and Eve: All Mankind
Although sin infects all human reasoning, it is manifested most in the thinking (thought) and actions concerning gender and matters relating to the subject of sex. There is a powerful pull or motivation toward such thinking that is bolstered by male and female hormones that directly affect the mind and the thinking of both. That thinking (as with all thinking and reasoning) is selfish, distorted, and unsound. Yet it is this area of human thought that affects human relationships more than any other single thing.

God created these hormones to exist in both males and females to give a specific identity to two different mindsets that produce a way that reflects masculinity in males and that which is feminine in females. These conditions in turn have a great impact on interaction and relationships between both sexes and even within the same gender. The affect of such hormones at work in the human body, and especially within the mind, also result in a kind of “power” that each sex is to learn to exercise properly. When this power that God has created to exist in the mind is used correctly it will produce great blessings and fullness of life. However, mankind has not been reaping those great blessings and fullness in life, but rather has misused this “power” in disobedience to fuel selfishness, lust, and pride. As a result, mankind has been reaping curses, sorrow, and bondage in life.

There are great and mighty lessons to be learned from all this. Satan misused the great power God gave to him, and mankind has also misused the powers God has granted to him. This is highly evident in this age of great technology. In the Millennium, technology will be used for the good, and great blessings will be reaped.

Men and women must learn the importance of obedience and unity to God’s true ways of life because God’s plan is to give His Family awesome power. Our mind has to become transformed to one of “faithfulness” in all power that God grants us. We are to seek to learn to control the thinking and power that God has given us so that it comes into full unity and agreement with how God instructs it to be used – in His “way of living” life. His way of living – His laws – are all about relationships. It is in this story of Adam and Eve that we can begin to see the importance of learning to think in unity with God’s ways by always rejecting “our ways,” even in one of the greatest pulls and powers that is exerted upon the human mind through sexual influences involving the differences in masculinity and femininity.

When God created Adam and Eve, He began teaching them about life, family, and relationships. They were created in full adult life and because of how God had created mankind, they were automatically drawn to each other. It was simply natural, right, and good. Quite candidly, each “liked what they saw,” as this is how they were created. God taught them about the purpose of the sexual relationship and how children would be born and how mankind would be multiplied, beginning from them.

“So God created man in His image, in the image of God (Elohim) He created him. He created them as male and female. God blessed them, and God said unto them, ‘Be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it.’” (Gen. 1:27-28).

God’s plan included the reproduction and multiplying of mankind. God purposed to teach mankind about proper decorum, conduct, and family structure. This included how they would also wear clothing and the reasons why this would be necessary as children and then families began to grow. Even after Adam and Eve had made a covering for themselves, God later went on to teach them about how to clothe themselves by making them clothing from skins.

However, after they sinned their minds (thinking) began to become unsound and “unnatural” in reasoning as they turned to self-consciousness in a negative manner. They began to think in terms of being ashamed, embarrassed, and uncomfortable before God. Adam and Eve covered themselves, as they did not want to appear before God “naked.” This was the very first evidence and negative experience from sin.

“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew (began to feel, developed an awareness and perception) that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together to make themselves coverings to wear” (Gen. 3:7).

They did not want their sexual organs to be seen by God. Even after they had made something to clothe themselves, they carried all this even further by hiding from God. Their mind and “relationship” with God had been made unsound and unnatural.

“Then they heard the voice of the Eternal walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Eternal God amongst the trees of the garden. The Eternal God called unto Adam, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ And he said, ‘I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, I hid myself’” (Gen. 3:8-10).

The Product of Sin
Sin produces an “unnatural” and unsound mind (from the way God created it to be). This becomes manifest in all human relationships and distorts the thinking of how people see themselves and others, especially in gender and in a sexual context. Such tends to permeate the human mind in a very great way as evidenced in today’s society through advertising, music, clothing styles, movies, other entertainment, etc.

The result of sin is the production of curses. To many, this matter of being cursed seems to be difficult to understand, as people tend to think of curses that are poured out by God in a similar manner as the plagues that were poured out upon Egypt. Although there are occasions where God directly intervenes and does pour out a curse for disobedience and evil being done, this is not what is being spoken of concerning what happened in the Garden of Eden.

God created mankind for the purpose that all will eventually be able to be begotten of His spirit so they can be transformed in the renewing of the mind in order to become Elohim. In the midst of the creation of human life, God has repeatedly revealed His desire – His will – to be able to bless mankind.

“You shall therefore keep the commandments, statutes, and the judgments (of God’s ways) which I command you this day, to do them. Therefore it shall come to pass, if you will listen to these judgments to keep and do them, then the Eternal your God shall keep with you the covenant and the mercy, which He promised unto your fathers. He will love, bless, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, of your grain, your wine, your oil, and the increase of your cattle and sheep in the land which He promised unto your fathers to give unto you” (Deu. 7:11-13).

As these verses clearly show, the receiving of blessings is inseparably tied to obedience to God’s ways. Blessings are the product of obedience. If there is disobedience to God (sin), then not only will blessings not be produced, but curses willbe. So what happened to Adam and Eve? They disobeyed God, and that produced the removal of God’s blessings, help, and favor in their life. It left them on their own, for they had rejected God. They wanted their own way and not God’s, so God gave them “their own way,” which only produces curses.

“He (God) said unto the woman, ‘I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. In sorrow you shall bring forth children, and your desire (longing for) will be for your husband, and he shall rule over you’” (Gen. 3:16).

This curse was the simple result of God’s blessings being removed because obedience to God’s ways is what produces the blessings. Mankind has always chosen “his own ways” and rejected God’s. The results – the products – are curses in life. No other way but God’s can produce “true and lasting” blessings in life.

So the woman was addressed by God and she was told that He would greatly multiply her sorrow and her conception. This is a rather awkward translation and it does not mean that God was going to multiply her pain in conception. This word for conception is just what it means – at the moment the sperm and egg unite. It has to do with becoming pregnant or can even mean the time of pregnancy. It is simply about bringing life into the world. This obviously is not about having the number of conceptions (pregnancies) greatly multiplied either. God is actually revealing that a woman’s sorrows in life, especially in the family, would now be greatly multiplied for rejecting God’s ways that regulate right human relationships – that produce blessings in the family.

Often in scripture, God states a reality and then explains it. This is one of those areas of scripture. For rejecting God’s ways to regulate and govern family life, the mother of the family would now experience far more sorrow in life in working with (teaching, caring for, raising, guiding, correcting, etc.) the life she conceives and brings into the family unit. In all societies, the responsibility has fallen far more upon the mother to carry the vast majority of the workload for bringing up children. By refusing God’s ways, the curse in life would be a highly increased level of sorrow compared to what it could and should be with God and His ways leading the family.

Next is the issue of the wife’s hurt (and obviously, a “mother’s” hurt), struggle, and sorrow in life because of her husband’s spirit and actions toward her. Because both men and women have rejected God’s rule, guidance, and instruction in how to live toward one another, the family has suffered mightily, starting first and foremost with the wife.

The statement of the wife’s desire or “longing for” her husband reveals a lack of fulfillment in the marriage relationship, and in particular, of not receiving the support, recognition, love, affection, and “sharing together” that she actually desires deep down inside. There are three areas of life that are the most prominent in all this.

Family and the Husband
The first area of prominence that has produced such a negative and damaging toll upon the strength, stability, joys, and fullness of what family life should be is because of the curse God said would be upon man.

“Unto Adam He (God) said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you by saying, You shall not eat of it, the ground is cursed for your sake. In sorrow you shall eat of it all the days of your life. It shall bring forth thorns and weeds as you seek to eat of the produce of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat your bread until you return unto the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are, and unto dust you shall return’” (Gen. 3:17-19).

How has this affected the husband and wife relationship and that of the family? You should easily be able to fill in the pieces. The husband (and father) through the centuries, as well as with the wife and children, have had to work much harder in life, as God’s care, direct provision, and abundance of blessings was removed. Such hard labor has taken away from precious time that a husband and wife could otherwise have together in order to share more of life (sharing more time) in building their relationship with the experience of greater joys such a life has to offer. Instead, time-consuming, demanding work, work related stresses, and other work related frustrations, problems, hardships, struggles, etc., have carried a heavy toll on family life.

Such frustrations, and how they effect the conditions in the home don’t even need to be elaborated upon. Just look at your life and the life others you know well with their struggles in life, and these matters of cause and effect become even more self-evident.

So one of the primary reasons for a wife’s desire being toward (a longing toward/for) her husband being fulfilled is because of the curse that came upon man to be the primary provider for his family. His workload and toil in fulfilling this role has taken much needed “time” away from family and marital life. The stresses, struggles, and toils of work have led men to shift their responsibilities for family away from themselves and have placed them upon the wife. As men have turned more inward, selfish, and impatient in life, the wife (and generally the children) grow more empty, feeling less loved and appreciated. It’s like the song “Cats in the Cradle” by Harry Chapin. Look up the words of that song and read them, or even look for the song and listen to it, as it is quite meaningful and true to life. It is because of this that a family so often grows more distant from each other and members of a family often develop emotional and psychological scars.

In today’s society, this matter has often become much worse as a wife (and mother) is to carry out the greatest part of the role of rearing and caring for the children. She often holds down her own job in order to “help” make ends meet. She tends to the cleaning and care of the house, clothing, shopping for groceries, and then is usually expected to do all the cooking – and much more. Yes, she has a longing for her husband and not that they just have more time that they can spend together, but a longing that he also “help” her with this vast load she carries and is expected to carry. She is not only in bondage; she is more like a slave than a wife.

“And the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to (Heb. – along side, with, before, beside, next to) him’” (Gen. 2:18).

God created the woman to be a help “along side” her husband, but the husband was also to be a reflection of the same – a help “along side” his wife. This goes together as a team who works together – along side one another in life. Look at how far society has strayed from God’s purpose and design in a husband and wife “team.” Those who do not grasp such a purpose and concept of “team work together” and working, planning, and fully sharing life in all things – side by side – rob themselves, their marriage, and their family of blessings, happiness, love, and of a far greater fullness in life.

(The next post will be part.7)