Concerning the man, the ground grows thorns and thistles (Gen. 3:17-18). Many of you are not farmers and may think that you can escape from the ground. However, regardless of the kind of job or profession you may have, your job or profession is the ground. In the whole earth there is not one job or profession that is without hardship. In every occupation the ground grows thorns and thistles. Some may say then, "I will never be hired by others. I will go into business for myself." If you say this, after a few years you will not want to be in business any longer. You will feel like giving up your business because, instead of producing dollars, it grows thorns and thistles. In every kind of employment—in the schools, factories, markets, and offices—it seems easy for the ground to grow thorns and thistles. Several years ago I met a brother who is a fruit farmer. I thought that it would be wonderful to be a farmer, but the brother told me many stories about the difficulties with his farm. Such difficulties are ordained by God. Young people, you must realize that this is God's ordination. God told Adam that the ground would grow thorns and thistles and that he had to suffer pain and toil.
God has said that man must endure sorrow (pain), sweat, and labor during his entire life (Gen. 3:19). Thus, man must labor, sweat, and suffer. Yet, labor and suffering are a protection to fallen man. If a man is not occupied with certain labor, it is easy for him to fall into sin. All men need to be occupied with some form of labor that they may be kept from doing sinful things. For many men labor itself is not a sufficient safeguard; they need some sufferings. Hence, labor along with sufferings often prevents people from doing evil.
After the fall God also ordained that man should not live forever, but that he should die, returning to the ground. However, this does not mean that man must perish, because God, in His dealing with man, has afforded man the way of salvation. In God's dealing with both the man and the woman there are sufferings, but no necessary perdition. Nevertheless, if man will not take God's way of salvation, he surely will perish after death. Death is also a restriction that God has placed over fallen man.
Several years ago I gave a message which covered three subjects: suffering, sleeping, and dying. None of these items seems to be good, and I do not care for any of them. I would like to be a person who never suffers, who does not need to sleep, and who lives forever. But we must understand that suffering, sleeping, and dying are restrictions upon sinful people. If Hitler were still living and were to continue living another five hundred years, he would be the greatest devil that the earth has ever seen. While I was in Manila more than twenty years ago people spoke to me about a certain evil person. I told them, "Don't be bothered. Let him be as bad as he can be. I assure you that he cannot continue for another ten years. I do not expect him to change for the good, but I am quite certain that after ten years he will die." Soon afterward I read in the newspaper that this person had died. Suffering restricts people, sleeping stops people, and dying terminates people. If you go to Hong Kong, you will hear the Mah-Jongg playing. None of the Mah-Jongg players like to sleep; they prefer to play Mah-Jongg day and night for seventy-two hours without resting. However, after seventy-two hours there is no need for their wives to stop them; sleep conquers them. Thus, regardless how bad a person may be, he will first be stopped by sleep and then he will be terminated by death. Sleeping is a small dying, and dying is a greater sleeping. On this earth today there is not one evil person who is one hundred and fifty years of age. All the evil ones of the past one hundred and fifty years are dead and buried. God has used death to clear up the earth. In a sense, death is a suffering for man; yet, man does not realize that it is truly God's way of protecting him.