Genesis 3:17-19 - "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree ..."

To Adam He said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." (Genesis 3:17-19)

Did God literally curse the ground?

Certainly this is not to be taken literally. If so, that would mean that God is cursing part of His own creation. Would God really create something and then turn around and curse it because of something someone else did?

Such a situation would indicate that the Supreme Being lost control. Does God really lose control over His creation?

No. Rather, He created living beings and then endowed them with free will. The Supreme Being also created a consequential world for these living beings to live temporarily. This was to enable the living beings to make their own decisions, but also to suffer the consequences - good and bad - of their free will decisions.

The purpose of this is to create an environment of learning.

Does envy have consequences?

In this case, the decision of Adam and Eve was to try to enjoy as the Supreme Being enjoys. This was represented by Adam and Eve by their eating the symbolic fruit following the statement by the serpent:

"For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:5)

Since Adam and Eve ate the fruit after the serpent said this, we can know that eating the fruit represents our deciding we wanted to be like God.
This is what attracted Eve - and then Adam - to eating the fruit. To "be like God" is the expression of envy. They were not satisfied with being who they were - they wanted to be like the Supreme Being. So they took the next step.

Such a decision comes from a consciousness of envy. And envy has consequences.

Genesis 3:17-19 is thus describing, in allegorical terms, the consequences for those of us who became envious of Him and wanted to enjoy as He enjoys.

And what form did these consequences take? It resulted in our taking on these temporary physical bodies and temporary identities within the physical dimension.

This is the meaning of the verse, "By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."

The Hebrew word אדמה ('adamah) means "ground" or "land", but more specifically, "earth substance, ground as earth's visible surface," and "land, territory, country." This is referring, allegorically, to the physical world: The material world, as opposed to the spiritual dimension.

Why does the soul have to leave heaven?

The consequences of envy do not occur in the spiritual realm, because the spiritual realm is a place of love. There is no envy in the spiritual realm. But when the soul does become envious, they must leave the spiritual realm and go to the physical world in order to play out that envious consciousness, along with the consequences. This is why we have a temporary physical body in a temporary physical world.

The physical body is like a vehicle that we, the soul or spiritual being, gets into and drives for a while. This might be compared to how a driver steps into a car and drives it for a while, and then steps out.

Once in this physical body, we become enmeshed in our temporary identity, and all the trappings of the physical world. We might compare this to how a person might become engrossed in a computer video game.

This is the meaning of "for dust you are and to dust you will return," Once within the physical world, we begin to identify with this physical body. Then the physical body eventually dies and decomposes, returning to עפר `aphar, or "dust." If we become ensnared by the physical world, we will return, taking on another body according to our consciousness and deeds of this lifetime. This is the meaning of "and to dust you will return."

Here in the physical dimension, we are functionally separated from God. As we assume these virtual, false identities related to the physical body, we can forget God, and seek our own enjoyment as though we were the center of the universe.

In this way, we utilize these physical bodies to seek out our desires. We use them to try to enjoy consumption, sex, wealth, admiration, attention and hopefully, complete fulfillment. Here we want everyone to love us. Here we seek sexual enjoyment. Here we seek to be the head of a big family. Here we seek to be famous and admired by all. Here we seek power and authority. What are we seeking with all of these ambitions? We are seeking to enjoy as God enjoys: We want to be the supreme being.

Are we God?

We were created to be God's eternal servitors. God created us to exchange a loving, caring relationship with us. We were made to care for Him and love Him. Yet love requires freedom, and we must have the freedom to truly love, so God gave us the freedom to love Him or not. And since He made us from Himself, we also have the capacity to become envious of Him.

For those of us who became envious, we had to have a place to exercise our envy. This is the physical world.

Yet God still loves us, and wants us to be happy. We will never be happy separated from Him, because our natural position is His servitor. Therefore, He also programmed the physical world to rehabilitate us.

This is why the physical world has, along with facilities for us to act out our desires, so many challenges. Here we have to work hard for our food and shelter. Here we have so many challenges, including disease, pain and old age. Here we struggle with environmental challenges of heat and cold. Here we struggle with the challenges of insects and wild animals. Here we struggle with each other for territory and governance. Here many of us struggle with starvation and thirst. This might be a world where we can seek out our plans to enjoy, but this comes with significant hardship. Why? To teach us that this is not our real home.

So is God cruel? God, in fact, is the most gracious and kind being. He is the most loving and caring person. This is why He gives us the freedom to love Him or not. While the verse says "I commanded you," we know it wasn't much of a command, because Adam and Eve ate the fruit anyway. So either God's commands have little power, or the command was actually a request.

The tellers of this ancient allegorical parable were trying to describe using symbolism, why we are here in this physical world. The fact is, God is the most gracious loving being, and while He certainly hopes that we would not become envious of Him, He graciously gave us that choice.

"If you love someone, set them free" was written by the musician, Sting, many years ago. It is appropriate here because God, who loves us, set us free. We can freely choose to love God or not.

Not only that but if we choose not to love Him - symbolized here by Adam and Eve eating the fruit - then He gives us a space where we don't even have to see Him. Here in this physical world, we can completely forget God. We can ignore Him and pretend that He doesn't exist. Now that is love.

Why does Adam listen to his wife?

What is the meaning of Adam listening to his wife? Remember that in this parable, each of us is individually symbolized by Adam, and the community of the spiritual world who partnered with Adam's decision - becoming envious of God - is represented by Eve. Thus, the meaning of Adam listening to his wife might be compared to peer-pressure. The fact is, part of the decision we made to become envious of God and separated from Him was based upon the encouragement of others who also felt envious. Each of us made the decision for ourselves - and are responsible for our decision - but we were also encouraged.

We can see this sentiment reflected throughout our physical existence, as people - and all creatures - tend to go along with our peers. Most people, in fact, wait until others are doing something before we feel comfortable doing it. Some call this "herd mentality." Why do we have such a "herd mentality?"

It is because by nature we are connected. We were all created by the Supreme Being, and as such, we are all one big family. While we do not like to think of each other as part of the same family, we are, and this is why we are always so interested in what everyone else is doing.

This is also part of why we strive so hard for the acceptance of others. While we might be seeking love and attention of others as part of our attempt to play God, we also need the love of others. It is intrinsic. We need love, because we come from a place - the spiritual world - where we are always being loved by the Supreme Being, and all of God's servitors - our brothers and sisters.

This love that pervades the spiritual world is hard to shake. It is part of us. Beneath our false identity that this body has created due to our envy, each of us needs love, and the care of our Best Friend, God.

And those of us who are trying to avoid God here, we instead seek to obtain this love and care from our families, our so-called friends, our spouses, our clubs, our churches, and/or other institutions that provide the illusion of love.

And these are illusions. We gain no real love from these people or groups: They are simply after their own satisfaction. What passes for love within most families and others is mostly sentiment. Love - caring for someone more than we care about ourselves - is different than sentiment.

There might be a glimpse of a little love mixed with a lot of sentiment in families. But for most people, sentiment is mostly all there is.

By God programming the physical world with "thorns and thistles," we are being told that this place isn't our real home. Just imagine if God made this a great place with no suffering. Why would we want to leave? Why would we question our (false) identity? Why would we want to go home?

But why would God ordain such a fate of suffering? Again, is God cruel? This question is often asked in another form, as people who see suffering around the world ask the question:

If God exists, why do people suffer?

The answer to this lies first in the fact that it is not us who are suffering. It is our temporary physical bodies. It is like driving a car with a bad engine that breaks down. The driver does not become sick if the car breaks down. The driver simply steps out of the car untouched.

In the same way, the spiritual being is separate from the physical body. We only suffer to the extent that we identify with the physical body. Outside of that, there is no actual suffering. It is only learning.

It is like playing a video game. Our game icon might be blown up or punched or shot many times. Are we shot when our game character is shot? No. We turn off the computer and walk away unharmed.

Now let's imagine that we are playing a computer video game, and the game is set up with a system of tests and challenges, with score-keeping. As we play the game, we are being taken through various lessons. Every time we do something that hurts another person in the game, our computer icon suffers in the same way and loses points. And when we do something that helps another, our computer icon gains points and experiences good things. What does this teach us?

This is what is going on the physical world. Our physical bodies suffer as consequences to our previous actions. Therefore, all the "suffering" of the physical world is caused by each of us, individually. We each cause our physical body's suffering by our past choices, either in this lifetime or a previous lifetime. This produces lessons - each teaching us.

God is not only the most lovable, giving and caring Person. He is not only our Best Friend and constant Companion (even when we are here, He is still with us, hidden from our physical view). God is also the most intelligent person. Just consider the intelligence to create this virtual world, the physical world, where we have the facility to seek out our own enjoyment while being able to ignore Him, yet with the facility to learn so many lessons. Such an intelligent and resourceful God!

And what do the lessons of the physical world ultimately teach us? How to love again. The consequence learning of this world is set up to first give us choices as to which path we want to take. Should we make the right choices, the world teaches us how to care for each other and love one another. This ultimately prepares us, if we so desire, to re-develop our love for God and return to the spiritual world.

Isn't this God's purpose?

This is ultimately God's purpose, because God wants us back. He is saddened that we are seeking our happiness outside of our relationship with Him. He is saddened that we are seeking our love "in all the wrong places."

Why is He saddened? Because He knows that we'll only be happy when we are back in His loving arms, in our natural position of exchanging an intimate relationship with Him. He knows our natural position as His loving servitor is the only thing that will make us happy. And He wants us to be happy because He loves us unconditionally.

This is why Jesus and Moses, and all the great saintly persons teach the same message:

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'" (Mark 12:30 and Deut. 6:5)

Consider another translation of this verse in Chapter Three of the New Book of Genesis.

Genesis 4:8-12 - Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." ...

Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" "I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?" The LORD said, "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth." (Genesis 4:8-12)

As this symbolic parable of Cain and Abel unfolds, we can see the deep messages being communicated from within it.

How do we know this is symbolism?

We know this is symbolic because along with the scientific problems, God does not need to ask Cain what happened to Abel. "The LORD" means Supreme Being, controller of everything. This means He knows everything. He doesn't have to ask Cain or anyone else where someone is.

And no one would be addressing the Supreme Being with such disrespect and sarcasm, as Cain says, "Am I my brother's keeper?"

But there is a symbolic meaning to Cain's disrespect and sarcasm.

Using symbolism to describe some of the complexities of spiritual reality is used throughout the teachings of the Bible, including Jesus, who used symbolic parables like the parable of the wedding banquet, the vineyard, and many others. While these are symbolic, they are still true. They are describing factual realities using symbolic characters.

While the conversation itself is symbolic, the exchange that takes place between God and Cain does actually occur - translated into events - between the Supreme Being and each of us who have fallen to the depths of the physical world.

In other words, the story of Cain and Abel is communicating what has taken place for each of us as we progressively fell from the spiritual realm.

What about our fall into this world?

The first phase of our fall came after we decided we wanted to be "like God" (Gen. 3:4) and we ate "the forbidden fruit" of self-centeredness and envy. We then were "cast out" (Gen. 3:23) of Eden (the spiritual realm), and we took on "garments of skin" (Gen. 3:21) - which are these temporary physical bodies.

Just after our fall to the physical world, we were still in a higher state of consciousness (relative to our current state). In this state, we still related to and recognized the Supreme Being, illustrated by Cain and Abel's making offerings to God.

But our envy and self-centeredness began to take further hold of us, as we became envious of each other. This is symbolized by Cain becoming envious of Abel (Gen. 4:5). His envy led to anger and violence, and Cain kills his brother.

Abel's death symbolizes how self-centeredness took hold within each of us to the extent that we were willing to kill others to achieve our goals. God explained the process earlier, as he told Cain, "But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." Obviously, Cain, like each of us, does not master it.

This illustrates how each of us has continued to fall into the depths of mutual envy, lust, greed and violence as our self-centeredness ("sin") has continued to grip our consciousness ("have you").

This envy and greed also color our declining relationship with the Supreme Being during this progressive fall, as we began to look to God with disdain - symbolized by Cain's disrespectful and sarcastic response to God's question.

As a result of this progression of self-centeredness, hostility, and violence, God then tells Cain that he will lose the ability to grow crops and that he "will be a restless wanderer on the earth." What does this mean?

This consequence Cain must deal with symbolizes the law of consequences existing within the physical world. We must each suffer the consequences of our actions, whether good or bad.

It also illustrates how we continued our fall into the physical realm through the different species. Being "a restless wanderer on the earth" symbolizes our wanderings from one physical body to the next, and even one species to the next - as we have descended into the depths of hell in a progression of one physical body after another.

What is consequence learning?

The design of the Supreme Being is that whatever self-centered action taken in the physical world has a reaction that is perfectly reflected back to us, either in this life or a future physical lifetime. This includes things that we do that might help others - which affect us positively in the future. The balance between the two, combined with the state of our consciousness (desires), determines our future fate.

This provides for what we might call consequence learning.

The Supreme Being's design utilizes the best way to learn. Child psychology research has even illustrated that 'consequence learning' is the best way for a child to be trained. This is because we learn best by experiencing the consequences of our actions.

The Supreme Being's consequential learning system programmed into the physical world has certain definitions. It only impacts us to the degree of our awareness and the awareness of those we affect. Thus humans will receive clear consequences because we humans have the awareness of how our actions can help or hurt others. Animals, fish, insects, plants, and microorganisms are generally in survival mode. They do not suffer consequences because they are not aware of how their actions affect others.

If we hurt another without realization then there is less consequence. But to the degree we know our actions will hurt another, there will be a corresponding reaction. This is also reflected in our justice system, which punishes crimes of premeditation (such as "murder") more than accidental crimes ("manslaughter").

Some have called this "as you sow, so shall you reap."

Others have called this consequence system the "law of karma."

Still others have referred to it as "going to hell."

What about 'going to hell'?

In fact, every scriptural reference to "going to hell" includes the concept of consequence. It is not as if a person "goes to hell" by accident. We "go to hell" because of our activities. "Going to hell" is 'consequence learning.'

But where is hell? Many imagine hell as an underground fiery cave with people chained to walls while a horned red devil beats them.

Sorry, but we are in hell right now. Hell is a place of suffering, with each of our bodies suffering precisely to the extent of the consequences of our prior actions.

The creatures around us - the animals, fish, insects and even microorganisms - are all living in hell. These bodies present relative degrees of hell to the person inhabiting that body.

Humans also experience hell. This is why one person can be living in Somalia, undergoing torture and rape at the hands of evil mercenaries (devils) while another person is living in Hawaii in a luxurious house on the beach. It is also why some children are born into wealth and inheritance while others are born into abject poverty.

This is precisely why many people think that God is not fair. They put forth an important question:

"If God exists, why does He allow so much suffering?"

The reason most of the organized sectarian institutions today cannot answer this is that their professional teachers do not know the answer. This, of course, leads to intelligent people straying from their faith in God.

There is a clear answer to this question, however. It comes in the form of understanding our identity.

Are we matter or spirit?

First, we are not these physical bodies. Our bodies are temporary vehicles, which we operate for a few decades. They are like automobiles that we get in and drive for a while and then get out. This means those things that happen to our physical body do not actually happen to each of us. It is like a car getting in a fender-bender. The car may be totaled, but we can get out and walk away. (Not the best analogy because people also get hurt in car accidents.)

Better yet, we might compare this world and these bodies to playing a video game. We can sit down at the computer, select an icon, and start playing a video game. Our icon can get shot at, run over or beat up by the virtual reality programming. Our icon might even be killed. No matter what happens to our icon, we can still turn off the computer and walk away, no matter what happened inside the video game.

Just as a person might start identifying with their video game icon, we also begin to identify ourselves with these temporary physical bodies. As we do this, we get immersed in the programming inherent in the physical world, just as a person gets immersed in a video game.

As we get immersed in the physical world, we forget our real identities as spiritual, where we came from, and the fact that our natural position is with the Supreme Being in the spiritual realm. This is, of course, by design, because we wanted to get away from the Supreme Being - which is why Adam, symbolizing each of us, ate the "forbidden fruit" in the first place.

This is also why we spend so much of our lives looking for that perfect mate who will love us, care for us and fulfill us. This is also why we all share this feeling that we belong in a world that is peaceful, where everyone loves each other. Innately it is the Supreme Being we are looking for, and it is the spiritual realm we are trying to return to.

In other words, we do not physically suffer - only our virtual, temporary physical bodies suffer. They suffer by design. Our bodies suffer - each uniquely, depending upon our past actions - during birth, when teething, when hungry, when sick, when hurt, when cold, and when hot. They also suffer from diseases, aging, and eventually death.

But this suffering is happening to the physical body, not us. We are each spiritual persons 'driving' a temporary physical body.

What does this world teach us?

Second, this system of 'consequence learning' is designed to teach us, in order to raise our consciousness. Should we ignore the opportunity to raise our consciousness, we are plunged into species of ignorance - precisely to the extent we want to ignore reality.

But if we embrace the lessons physical life teaches us, and we seek the wisdom from them, then our consciousness becomes raised, as we learn more and more about who we are and what our purpose for existence is.

And finally, most importantly, the Supreme Being has set up an escape hatch for us. We might compare this to the old cartoon, "Tooter the Turtle" - about the turtle who asks the wizard to get sent into different situations. Then, when the turtle gets into a tough situation, he shouts "Mr. Wizard, Mr. Wizard, help me!" and the wizard then pulls the turtle out of the situation and back home.

The Supreme Being has a similar escape hatch set up for each of us. At any time, at any place, regardless of our situation, we can call the Supreme Being and He will pull us out of this 'consequence system' and bring us back home to Him. This is His promise - His covenant - with each of us.

Plus He is always calling us back home through His representatives and through scripture.

We are like children who have run away from home. But in this case, our parent happens to control everything. So He designed a place - this physical world - where we could feel that we are really away from home. This place He designed gives us independence and the facilities to act out our desires.

He also programmed the physical world with facilities that teach us. We might compare this to a Dad who builds a tree-house for his son, so his son could get away from the house and pretend he has his own house. But like the good Dad who built the tree-house, the Supreme Being is always there for us, lovingly waiting for us when we want to return to Him.

But we must remember that we also have to be ready to return to Him. Most of us are not ready, because we are immersed in the depths of self-centered consciousness. This requires a purification process.

For anyone who sincerely asks the Supreme Being to return home to Him, He begins to guide us and prepare us for our return home. This is a personal training process unlike the consequential learning system, because it is custom-designed for each of us, to help us re-establish our lost loving relationship with Him.

And this is the purpose for all the spiritual teachers that God has sent through the ages. They have been sent specifically to help train those who have requested from God to help them return home to Him.

This is also why the "first and greatest commandment" as taught by Jesus and Moses, focuses on returning to our loving relationship with God:

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment." (Matt. 22:37-38)

Consider another translation of this verse in Chapter Four of the New Book of Genesis.