Genesis 3:17-20
17And to Adam he said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
18thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
19By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”20The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
Finally, God turns to Adam. He begins by saying that the curse on him is due to the fact that he listened to his wife. This does not mean that Adam, or any husband should ignore what his wife says. Part of the reason she was created was to offer valuable counsel. The reason he shouldn’t have listened to her was because she encouraged him to disobey God. What Adam should have done, especially as the leader in this relationship, was grab her hand and high tail it away from the tree, the fruit, the serpent. But he didn’t. He listened.
The Bible is abundantly clear that the fall and its horrifying consequences is Adam’s responsibility. Romans 5:12 is the most plain:
12Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because(W) all sinned … death reigned from Adam to Moses …
This is part of what it means to be the leader. It was Adam’s responsibility to ensure that God’s commandment was obeyed and his responsibility to ensure that Eve be protected from the tempter, instructed in exactly what God had said, and assisted in fleeing from the temptation to evil.
Today, pray that Christian husbands and fathers everywhere will be the godly leaders and evangelists in the home that God calls them to be. Pray that they take their responsibility seriously, growing in their knowledge of God and passing on the faith to those God has entrusted to their care.
