One God & One Lord

Every once in a while you’ll hear someone talk about the curse that God placed on the ground in Genesis 3:17 -

• Genesis 3:17 NASB
  (17) Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life.

Some are even convinced that the ground is still cursed today. But I’m not convinced of that. The following scriptures indicate that the ground is no longer cursed, that the Flood cleansed the earth and removed the curse.

• Genesis 8:20-22 NASB
  (20) Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
  (21) The LORD smelled the soothing aroma; and the LORD said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done.
  (22) “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, And cold and heat, And summer and winter, And day and night Shall not cease.”
  

If the ground is still cursed, what is the point of God saying that He will never curse the ground again… unless the curse had been reversed with the Flood?

Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD (Genesis 6:8). Since Noah and his family were the only ones saved through the flood, it would not make sense that God would send him out to freshly populate (Genesis 9:1) a cursed earth.

God brought the flood to destroy all of mankind “with the earth” (Genesis 6:13), so in God’s eyes it was a new (or at least a cleansed) earth onto which Noah stepped from the Ark.

Lamech, Noah’s father, prophecied of God’s plan for Noah when Noah was born and Lamech named him:

• Genesis 5:29 NASB
  (29) Now he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the LORD has cursed.”

The curse of the ground was cleansed from the earth by the Flood, after which God promised to never curse the ground on account of man again. God promised that as long as the earth remains, there shall always be seedtime and harvest. Yes, thorns and thistles still grow, but they do not prevent man from cultivating the land and producing crops.

I don’t believe that the ground is still cursed.

• Luke 8:39 NASB
  (39) “Return to your house and describe what great things God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.

Here’s another passage that might be construed in the same manner. This one is about Jesus healing the ten lepers:

• Luke 17:15-18 NASB
  (15) Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice,
  (16) and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan.
  (17) Then Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine–where are they?
  (18) “Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?”

And another, about the healing of the man born blind:

• John 9:24-25 NASB
  (24) So a second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, “Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner.”
  (25) He then answered, “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.“

For the context of why they say they knew that Jesus was a sinner, refer to a few verses earlier:

• John 9:16 NASB
  (16) Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, “This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” But others were saying, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And there was a division among them.

But getting back to the healed blind man:

• John 9:31-33 NASB
  (31) “We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him.
  (32) “Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.
  (33) “If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.“

When you do something good for someone, do you take credit for it yourself, or do you give the glory to God as you should? From the perspective of the recipient of the healing or other good deed, it is you who “did it.” You are glorified by it. However, anyone who knows God knows to whom the glory is due. Jesus knew that the glory for all of his deeds goes to God. Thus in Luke 8:39, Jesus acknowledged what God had done (through him), while the person healed told of what Jesus had done.

• John 8:54 NASB
  (54) Jesus answered, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’;

When you do the work of God, you are glorified (for doing God’s work) and God is glorified (for being the source by whom you were capable of doing it).

• John 11:4 NASB
  (4) But when Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.”
• Matthew 5:16 NASB
  (16) “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.