I have decided to read through the whole Bible, from start to finish.

I was very excited to see that even as God created the earth, He had a plan for it. For example, as early as 1:11, He did not just create plants, but plants that yielded seeds — to continue a life process. He didn’t just create things to die. Same thing with the animals in 1:22 — He commanded the things that he created to “be fruitful and multiply”.

Although God had only just created Eve, He said, “For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall become one flesh”. This was while Adam and Eve were the only two people on earth! He had a plan for families.

God created man in His image (1:27 & 5:1). Something I hadn’t noticed before, though, was that men’s son’s are in THEIR likeness (not just an accident!) 5:3 – “When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.”

A part of the curse I can relate to: “I will great multiply your pain in childbirth, In your pain you shall bring forth your children; *YET* your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you.” What a horrible catch 22 –> A woman wants to be with your husband, as a result, she gets pregnant, and the result is pain in childbirth.

Also, it was noted that it was because Adam “listened” to the voice of his wife AND ate of the fruit — not just that he ate the fruit. Part of man’s curse is the vicious cycle of his work — that he has to eat, but has to work hard to provide for the food. By blaming his wife for his eating the fruit – deferring responsibility to her- and not taking responsibility for his own actions, God created a vicious cycle of responsibility for the man. (3:15-19)

It is interesting to me how God cursed the ground (3:17) , although the ground was not a guilty party, he cursed for the sake of man. Also, in reference to the ground, He could hear Abel’s blood crying from the ground.