erpent had been exalted above the beasts of the field, he should be
degraded beneath them all, and be detested by man, inasmuch as he
was the medium through which Satan acted. “And unto 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 thy face shalt thou eat bread,
till thou return unto the ground.”
God cursed the ground because of their sin in eating of the tree of
knowledge, and declared, “In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy
life.” He had apportioned them the good, but withheld the evil. Now He
declares that they shall eat of it, that is, they should be acquainted with
evil all the days of their life.
The race from that time forward was to be afflicted by Satan’s
temptations. A life of perpetual toil and anxiety was appointed unto
Adam, instead of the happy, cheerful labor he had hitherto enjoyed. They
should be subject to disappointment, grief, and pain, and finally come to
dissolution. They were made of the dust of the earth, and unto dust should
they return.
They were informed that they would have to lose their Eden home.
They had yielded to Satan’s deception and believed the word of Satan,
that God would lie. By their transgression they had opened a way for
Satan to gain access to them more readily, and it was not safe for them to
remain in the Garden of Ed
