Genesis 3
17Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’;
Cursed is the ground because of you;
In toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.
18“Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
And you will eat the plants of the field;
19By the sweat of your face
You will eat bread,
Till you return to the ground,
Because from it you were taken;
For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return.”
Hebrews 6
7For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God;
8but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.
Hebrews 6 talks about falling away and crucifying Jesus twice. We can lose our salvation and never get it back.
Verse 7 – “FOR ground that drinks rain”
We are compared to the ground here. I believe that God is talking about our hearts. Ground can be hard – unreceiving of the life-giving water, which simply causes the rivers to overflow and floods to occur. Or, the ground can drink mightily. Out of our bellies flow living water, but some of us have heard hearts and wont receive. We toil.
If your heart has been tilled, it can bring forth much fruit (God calls it vegetation in both passages) useful to these for whose sake it was tilled. This is a blessing from God.
But, if it yields thorns and thistles (no fruit), it is WORTHLESS and close to BEING CURSED, and it ends up BEING BURNED.
Go back to Genesis. God pronounced the curse over man. “You are cursed…” “Cursed is the ground because of you.” I believe that God is saying our hearts became hard that day. Our sin made our hearts hard. God didnt curse us. Cursed was the ground (hearts) because of us. That is different than God saying, “I curse you.”
And it will be a struggle (toil) to eat of it again – to taste and see that the LORD is good. The joy of knowing the LORD became work. We died – and our hearts became hard. But, cursed is He who hung on the tree. Jesus came to break off that curse so that we could be made right and have soft hearts towards God again. He gives us a heart of flesh in exchange for a heart of stone.
God said that it would produce thorns and thistles, we would eat its vegetation (“plants of the field”). I believe that He is saying the fruit we produce, we will eat. Out of our hearts comes words – words of death and life, and those who love it will eat its fruit. Proverbs 18:21.
Our hearts are soil. We can be receptive to the living water or we can be hard. Hardness turns to dust and blows away with the wind. We started with hard hearts, and we can return there if we wont let the Word water us.
And, that leads to burning by fire. Jesus spoke of the branches that bear no fruit and how they are thrown into the fire.
“By the sweat of your face, you will eat bread.”
Why bread?
Why not berries?
Or meat?
Or anything else?
God just got done saying that we would eat vegetation. Bread isnt vegetation.
No, I believe that it would now become work to gain life. Jesus is the bread of life. And, what was once effortless would now become toil. We would not be able to partake of communion with God w/o work or toil. God said that a curse was released that day. So, now we celebrate communion. We break the bread, and it isnt work. It is easy. Fellowship with Jesus is easy, and we can partake of the Bread of Life with little effort on our part.
God didnt say that He cursed us. Again, He said that the ground was cursed BECAUSE of us.
No, I thinnk that God said we hardened our hearts that day. But, He is bringing the rain. He said to ask for rain in times of rain (latter rain). We need to pray for rain – for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to keep us soft.
When God starts to watering, we need to pray hard for the hearts to be made soft. God, let the hearts be receptive to receiving the living water so that they may eat the bread of life with no toil. There is no peace in toil.
God, let not one soul perish nor one soul be burned.
And, may not one person return to dust.
Hosea 10:12 Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the LORD, till He comes and rains righteousness on you.