God’s Distribution of Labor in the Home
God has always commanded mankind to work in some capacity. He gave Adam the responsibility to care for the garden of Eden in the beginning. “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it” (Genesis 2:15). So, even before the fall, man was tasked with doing some work. When Adam and Eve sinned, God cursed the ground so that Adam would need to do harder work. Genesis 3:17-18 records God’s words:
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’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”
The fall brought consequences to Eve also. “To the woman He said: ‘I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you’” (Genesis 3:16). We do not know what the situation would have been like before the fall, but after the fall, God gave Adam and Eve very definite roles in relationship to the family. Adam was to be the “breadwinner” of the home by going out and working hard to provide for the family. Eve was to bear and take care of their children. These roles were the consequence of Adam and Eve’s sin against God, and the post-fall standard for the distribution of labor in the home.
God bless you, and I love you.
Kevin Cauley