The third chapter of Genesis describes the fall of man into temptation and the resulting curse on the earth and its inhabitants. When God pronounced the curse on 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 they face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it was thou taken; for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return.” (Gen 3:17-19)
What comes to your mind first when you read this passage? The first word that pops out at me in verse 17 is “thorns!” You see, I love roses. We have five beautiful bushes in differing colors–red, white, light pink, dark pink, and peach. I admire their beauty, but loathe picking them because of the dagger-like thorns. I nearly always manage to prick my finger! But, those thorns are a reminder of the curse of sin and its dire consequence, death.
Death was what happened back in the garden of Eden, when the serpent, who was actually Satan, deceived Eve into eating the forbidden fruit, but something much greater was at stake. Now stay with me on this. The fruit itself was not the issue, but doubting God and rebellion against his commands was. Disobeying God brought on Adam and Eve a deep guilt and accompanying shame that resulted in the immediate death of their innocence as well as death of their unmarred relationship with God. As a result, they were separated from God by sin and shame. “And the wages of sin is death,” Rom 6:23 tells us, just as God promised. You see, because Adam and Eve had disobeyed God, they were now on different standing with Him. They no longer walked in perfect harmony with Him. They were no longer naïve about right and wrong. Their consciences were seared. Proverbs 22:5 says, “Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward; he that doth keep his soul shall be far from them.” In Biblical terms, “froward” means oppositional, willful, fractious, and (YUP) disobedient.
All through scripture, disobedience brings swift and sure consequences. The prophet Isaiah warned: “With arrows and with bows shall [men] come thither; because all the land shall become briers and thorns.” (Is 7:24) Because the Israelites had been disobedient, Isaiah was warning them of a guaranteed consequence—suffering and death of loved ones from conquering armies, and death of their homeland, which would become overgrown with briers and thorns because the inhabitants were gone.
Sin is always equated with disobedience, and disobedience is prickly and painful. God gave his law so that we might not sin and might avoid the consequences of sin. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warned of evil people such as false prophets, saying, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are raving wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” (Matt 7:15-16)
The answer to this question is, of course, that every type of tree or vine bears its own fruit, just as every prophet is known by the fruit he bears. A similar message is repeated in Luke 6:44 : “For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes.” That is to say, a good prophet bears good fruit, but a false prophet, as those who come in sheep’s clothing but are inwardly raving wolves, will bear bad fruit. And we will know the difference between them by their good or bad fruit.
The point of Jesus’s illustration may seem to refer to someone other than us, but look again. We are all sinners! As sinners we are guilty of bearing bad fruit—thorns and thistles, just as the curse proclaimed back in the garden. We have been disobedient, willful, rebellious, and we are all going to die as a result. Paul puts it this way in his epistle to the Hebrews: “But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.”(Hebrews 6:8) We are cursed by our sins and deserve death, rejection, a sure end. But God had other ideas!
Even though Adam and Eve deserved to die physically as a consequence for their sins, as do all of us, because we share in that sin, God showered us with mercy and grace. Yes, he pronounced a curse on man and on the earth, but he also pronounced a curse on the serpent, who represented the devil himself. “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.”(Gen 3:14-15)
The first part of the curse was addressed to the serpent, who led Eve into temptation by twisting the very words of God to cause her to doubt. It’s important to recognize that the serpent was described as “more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.” (Gen 3:1). Henry Morris comments that the serpent wasn’t just a talking snake, but was Satan possessing the serpent’s body, and it is particularly telling that he uses the same temptation on Eve that he fell into himself, which was wanting to be like God. (Henry Morris study Bible, p. 19) “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.” (Gen 3:5) Because the serpent was acting as Satan’s representative on earth, the curse was directed at Satan when God said, “…and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed…” warning Satan that he had not won the battle here. Moreover, God promised both the people and Satan that He wasn’t finished, saying, “…it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” (Gen 3:14). This was a promise of redemption for people as well as a promise of victory. God would provide seed (the “it” refers to the seed of the woman in the verse above) of the woman that would fatally bruise the head of Satan! No creature can survive without his head, so God was pronouncing that this promised seed would not only put enmity between Satan and men, but would put down Satan. This verse has historically been known as the Protevangel, or first gospel.
So, just as God promised, one spring morning two thousand years ago, a righteous man stood in our place. Not only was He without sin, He was the only One who didn’t deserve to die. “And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!” (Matt 27:29) He was tormented and spat upon, cursed, and crucified. And he died in our place naked and shamed and wearing a crown of thorns.
Praise God! Jesus, our righteous redeemer, has taken our sins upon himself and has become the curse for us. He suffered our rejection, our death, our sure end. But three days later, he arose, victorious over sin and death. He took our place and paid the price that we might not have to bear it ourselves, because we were unable to save ourselves.
That awful crown of thorns that left our Lord’s brow bruised and bleeding was not only symbolic of the curse He bore for us, bringing an end to its power over us, but also symbolic of his kingship over all things. The soldiers might have intended it to be a mockery, but little did they know that one day every living thing will bow to worship the One who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Rev 19:16). And wonder of wonders, “No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.” Rev 22:3 Praise be to Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
From Peggy's Pen 