The earth was under man’s rule, and man was the head and representative of the earth. Therefore, after man sinned, the ground was involved and suffered God’s curse (Gen. 3:17). The thorns and thistles that the ground brings forth are the sign of being cursed, signifying that all creation under man and ruled by man is cursed because of his sin. Romans 8 says that all creation is under the slavery of corruption, groaning and travailing in pain (vv. 21-22), not of its own choice; it was implicated by Adam because Adam was its representative.
God determined that man would suffer in toil and labor, eating bread only by the sweat of his face. Today, all those who desire comfort, who desire to live an easy life, and who desire to have food without labor are against God’s principle. Regardless of whether we are a man or a woman, we all need some hardship for our salvation and protection. Man should labor day and night; ease involves danger.
Please forgive me for saying this: Some countries in the West put great emphasis on comfort and ease. They work five days a week and eight hours per day at most. Some even demand to work only six hours per day. The rest of the time they seek as much entertainment as possible and commit many sins as a result. The weekend is a time for them to greatly indulge in their lusts. The first day of the week should be the day for people to worship God in His presence, yet it has become the time for people to engage in entertainment and sins. From God’s perspective, man should not be at ease because sinful mankind with his sinful nature must toil to be saved from many sins. God has ordained that man should suffer in labor; this is for his salvation.
The length of man’s life is limited—just as he came from dust, he will return to dust (Gen. 3:19).
In His creation God did not make coats of skin to clothe man. When skins were needed, there was a slaughter and the shedding of the blood of an animal. This must have been a sheepskin, not a thick cowhide. There must have been a lamb that died and bled for man. When man sinned, he felt ashamed and sewed tree leaves together to make a loincloth to cover his body, but the loincloth could not cover him. After God made coats of skins to cover him, man could stand before God and not see his own shamefulness.
In this covenant God determined that a substitute had to die and shed its blood for man. This became man’s righteousness before God so that he could be accepted by God. The coat of skin signifies the Lord Jesus as our righteousness for us to put on so that we can stand before God, be accepted by God, and be justified by God. We can put on the Lord Jesus as our righteousness because He has become the Lamb of God; He died for us on the cross, shed His blood, and redeemed us from our sins. Therefore, this covenant also details how God accomplishes redemption. He became the seed of the woman and the Lamb who was slain to deal with our enemy, Satan, and to solve our problem before God. This covenant concerns the living and righteous solution for sinful people who have the sinful nature.
The Lord Jesus has a particular position in this covenant. The center of this covenant is the seed of the woman, and the seed of the woman comprises all who belong to God with the Lord Jesus, who was born of the virgin Mary, as the central figure. Both physically and spiritually, the Lord Jesus is the seed of the woman. He was born of a woman, and He bruised Satan’s head through His death on the cross. By shedding His blood, He solved the problem of our sins, and He has become our righteousness for us to put on before God so that we may be accepted by God.
Genesis 6:18—7:5 gives a record of the covenant God made with Noah when He was about to destroy mankind with a flood. First, when God decided to destroy mankind with the flood, He charged Noah and his family of eight to enter into the ark in order to preserve their lives. God wanted to destroy all the earth and preserve Noah and his family, but they had to enter into the ark. Second, God told Noah to bring some of every living thing into the ark to be kept alive. Third, God told Noah also to bring some of every kind of food into the ark to sustain them for a period of time. Fourth, once they did this, God was able to preserve their lives and the lives of the living things that were with them when He flooded the earth. This is the covenant God made with Noah and all living things. It was possible for man and every living thing to continue to propagate because of this covenant.