Have you ever heard people, especially women, say things like this or something similar: “Being a stay-at-home mom isn’t for everyone. Personally, I can’t stay home to raise my kids. I feel naturally inclined to work outside the home and contribute financially to my family. I feel suffocated if I stay home with my kids.”

After reading and studying the first three chapters of the Book of Genesis, when you hear a woman make statements like this, you might raise an eyebrow, tempted to ask, “Aren’t you a woman, or are you a man, or …?” Then you stop yourself, realizing there is no one to respond to such a question.

The spirit of this dark world today not only makes us question our gender but also leads us to question whether we are alive or dead while we are living and doing what we want.

Tragic!

Last time, we concluded the post by illustrating how Jesus took upon Himself our curse, including the curse placed on both men and women because of sin. The Word of God says,

“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”),” Colossians 3:13 NKJV

We also mentioned last time that the verse above does not suggest that we, as Christians, live in complete freedom from the effects and influence of the curse while on this side of heaven. Even Jesus promised us, saying, “In the world, you will have tribulation” (John 16:33).

However, when left to herself, a woman tries to mitigate the pain and sorrow of the curse on her own. One common way she does this, which is familiar to all women—since we all carry the seed of this curse, even if it doesn’t manifest in the same way or intensity in all of us—is by trying to control her husband.

Last time, we cross-referenced Genesis 3:16 with Genesis 4:7 and saw how the curse “your desire shall be for your husband” reflects a woman’s desire to control and supervise her husband’s life, making him do what she wants. For instance, she may want to choose his clothes, his friends, where he should go, where to get a job, where to work, which school to attend to enhance his resume, how to worship God, how to raise his children, and the list goes on and on.

We might ask, “Why? Why does a woman do that to her husband?” On the surface, we may be tempted to say, “She does it because her husband is color-blind and doesn’t know how to match his clothes to look like a gentleman.”

Or, we might say, “Unless his wife supervises everything, her husband is laid-back and forgets things.”

While those statements may contain some truth, the main reason is that a woman “desires” her husband to do only what she wants him to do, possibly because she believes this will minimize her fears and worries about the future. For example, she feeds her kids all organic foods because she believes that if they eat organic, they will be healthy and live longer. If her husband does what she wants, she believes her marriage will remain peaceful, and her husband won’t leave her for a younger woman. This way, she won’t end up raising her beautiful kids alone with the label “single mom,” a label she is terrified of having.

Okay. Will all those things she does alleviate the fear and sorrow the curse brought into her life? The answer is not only no, but her actions actually cause more damage to her life, marriage, and family, as she suffocates her husband and children. She makes their lives miserable. As the curse states, “he shall rule over you.” Consequently, her husband restlessly fights for his freedom from her control and does everything he can to take control and dominate her.

What do you call this home and marriage? A miserable marriage heading for its grave! Who among men would like to be controlled by his own wife? The answer is obvious, isn’t it? The things a woman does to improve her cursed life actually make it more sour and bitter.

Only the Gospel of Jesus Christ can lift God’s curse from a woman. Nothing else can!

Donald Grey Barnhouse, an American Christian preacher, pastor, theologian, radio pioneer, and writer writes,

“It is difficult for women in Christian lands to realize the miseries of their hundreds of millions of sisters in pagan lands, where the lot of women is little above that of cattle. Where the gospel has gone, the load has been lifted, and woman in Christ has become the reflection of the redeemed Church, the bride of Christ.” (Taken from Enduring Word)

Wow! Did you hear that?

Unfortunately, some so-called religions that claim to be under the umbrella of Christianity preach that women should be treated as second-class citizens by men because women sinned against God and caused the innocent man, who remains innocent, to sin. This is heartbreaking, especially for us women, because these very people use the same Bible we read, which heals us from all sorts of curses, spiritual sicknesses, and bondage, to back up their points.

Yes, only the Gospel is the remedy for the curse God pronounced on both women and men, but only when the whole counsel of the Word of God is preached, and only when the true Jesus Christ is preached! Many churches today worship an idol they call ‘jesus’ who is all about wealth, health and prosperity.

We will examine in detail how God cursed Adam, but for now, just know that man also had his share of the curse. Likewise, his curse affected the area of life where God called him to be happy and fulfilled and find meaning and purpose: his work.

Now consider a marriage between one man and one woman after the fall. What does it look like? A woman burdened by the curse, seeking a remedy and solution to her sorrow, pain, and fear from her husband. Meanwhile, her husband, weighed down by the curse God pronounced on him, seeks everything from his cursed wife while being unable to give her anything to improve her life.

John Fullerton MacArthur Jr., an American pastor, the pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church, as well as an author, conference speaker, chancellor of The Master’s University and Seminary, and featured teacher with the Grace to You media ministry said this:

“Given that a woman has all of that sorrow [referring to Genesis 3:16], given that a woman suffers so much, she’s in great need of some tender comfort. She is in great need of some understanding. She is in great need of some deference. She is in great need of some sympathy. She is in great need of some compassion. Ah, too bad. Too bad, because the fact of the matter is, historically husbands have very little of that to give. Little sympathy, expecting everything out of them [their wives], giving little in return, making sure the women do everything they want them to do and need them to do, but giving back very little in the area of compassion, kindness, tenderness, and sympathy.” (Taken from one of his sermons, title, “The Curse on the Woman – Part 2” preached on June 18, 2000)

This short paragraph accurately depicts the true and real picture of the marriages of millions of people in this dark world. Why? Why are men like that? Why don’t they help their wives? Why don’t they do their best to lessen their wives’ pain, sorrow, and fear?

Well, they are cursed too! They also have their own share of pain and suffering. Here is the curse God pronounced on Adam (and on all humanity because of Adam):

“Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: