In our study of Gen 3; where we see Satan's propaganda that leads to the deception of the woman and the fall of mankind last time in Gen 3:16; we saw the judgment of the woman that involved a penalty for her arrogant desire to acquire knowledge that would enable her to break free from God's authority that would also result in breaking free from Adam's authority.
Arrogance is the opposite of humility. Humility is oriented to true authority. When a humble woman identifies her right man she has true love for him and her true love is manifest by respect for him. Eph 5:33b;
Loss of humility destroys the woman's respect for God and her husband and in arrogance she has a desire to usurp the power and authority that God had delegated to her husband as part of Divine Establishment.
Her expectation was that the knowledge provided by the forbidden fruit would enable her to become "like God" and give her the power to overrule Adam's authority.
Part of her curse addresses these motivations. The first part of the second phrase indicates that throughout the course of human history the woman would always have a lust for power over the man. This is conveyed with the Hebrew word "teshuqa ".
The second phrases however, states that even though she has a desire is for this power it will never be acquired because the husband will always have power and authority over his wife. The Hebrew word "mashal" conveys this.
The word "desire" in the English translations is taken from the Hebrew noun: "teshuqa that refers to a lust to usurp duly appointed legitimate authority.
Usually it is assumed that "teshuqa" is related in a positive way to the statement in the last line that the man shall have authority over the woman or in other words, she willingly desires to submit to his leadership and authority.
But this is antithetical. She is not cursed by a desire to submit, that would be a blessing. She is cursed by a desire to rebel. We can confirm this translation by referring to Gen 4:7; that has almost the same wording as Gen 3:16;
Gen 4:3-7; shows us why Cain became jealous, angry and resentful of Abel that resulted from Cain disobeying and Abel obeying a divine mandate related to sacrificial offerings.
Gen 4:3; It came about in the course of time that Cain brought his offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground.
Cain an unbeliever with OSN control of his soul is under satanic influence. 1John 3:12; His bringing of vegetables is an effort to acquire salvation by human works, not the recognition of salvation by innocent sacrifice.
Gen 4:4; But Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock (first fruits concept of sacrifice and worship) and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering;
v5; but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. Net note 16
Because of the satanic influence Cain did not agree with the use of animal sacrifice as a legitimate expression of worship and through the use of the arrogance skills he justified the substitution of vegetables.
Cain was very sincere, zealous and self-justifying for his way of thinking and he became very angry when God accepted Abel's sacrifice and did not accept his.
Gen 4:6; Then the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why is your countenance fallen?
The Lord did not need to hear the answer to the question because His omniscience already knew. The line of questioning was designed to alert Cain to his sins.
v7; "If you do well (orient and adjust to divine mandates) will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well (do not orient and adjust), sin is crouching at the door; and its desire (teshuqa) is for you, but you must master it (mashal) through the free will choice of faith alone in Messiah alone."
The Lord places a challenge to Cain's volition. Net note 17 If you do well and bring the correct sacrifice, then you will be accepted. But if you do not bring the appropriate sacrifice then you will enter into locked-in negative volition and fall under the power of satanic influence.
This is the opportunity for Cain to believe in the Messiah, bring the appropriate sacrifice and assume his rightful place as the first born and patriarchal priest designate of the family.
The options are brought out by the word "crouching that is translated from the Hebrew verb "rovets" Net note 19
The Lord challenged Cain's volition by emphasizing the consequences of the wrong decision. Cain is an unbeliever functioning under the three arrogant skills. If he makes the decision to continue bringing the wrong sacrifice then he will move into the area of intensified bitterness and become vulnerable to satanic influence.
The Hebrew word "chattah" translated "sin" can be translated negatively as a personal sin or positively as a sin offering.
The Hebrew word "rovets" translated "crouching" can be translated aggressively as "crouching," for example, a lion anticipating an attack, or passively, for example, a lamb lying down awaiting to be sacrificed.
The choice belongs to Cain. If he continues to bring vegetables then he continues to remain in rebellion against the divine mandate to offer a sacrificial animal and the sin crouching at the door has to do with the intensification of bitterness and the reverse process reversionism of the three arrogant skills.
The implied alternate choice is salvation through faith alone in Messiah alone. The offering of a sacrificial lamb upon the altar commemorates salvation. It is simply awaiting Cain's decision to present him to the Lord as the correct sacrifice.
If Cain does not do well, then OSN control of the soul and satanic influence is crouching at the door of his stream of consciousness like a wild animal and it will quickly move him into intensified bitterness, implacability, hatred, and murder.
The next word is the word is the Hebrew word "teshuqa' translated "desire," that same word that we have in Gen 3:16; This refers to OSN control of the soul and Satan's desire to capture the thinking of Cain, to influence him into murdering his very own brother in order to destroy the line of Christ.
1Peter 5:8; Be of sober spirit. Become vigilant. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Peter's observation refers to the danger faced by the believer under OSN control of the soul. The application to Cain is that he has been given an opportunity to believe in Messiah and he was forewarned that should he fail to do so, Satan will seize the opportunity to use him to kill his brother who at that point is the channel to the line Christ.
Gen 4:7; The issue before Cain can only be resolved by his own free will that is expressed with the phrase "but you must rule it." The word "master" is the Qal future of the Hebrew verb "mashal" the same word used in Gen 3;16; refers to the volitional choice to rule over or subdue the OSN that is desiring to take over. Net note 20
The only way that Cain can stop his rapid rush into the murder of his brother is for him to rule over his sinful nature and that can only be accomplished through salvation.
Cain has free will and therefore has the power and authority to make the right choice and in so doing rule over or master ("mashal") the desires of his sinful nature but Cain in his anger is about to fall under the evil influence of the devil himself.
But that does not need to happen because if Cain believes in the Messiah God will break the power of his sinful nature and he can take control over his own body, rule his sinful desires, and offer the appropriate sacrificial animal.
Cain had the option to assume rulership over his sinful nature and chose instead to submit to it, thus fulfilling its lust to control his life and manipulate his thinking.
The real issue is the need for a change of mental attitude toward the Messiah that will create the desire to bring the appropriate sacrifice Phil 2:13; NASB
In Gen 4:7b; the Hebrew word "teshuqa" refers to the OSN seeking to advance it's tyrannical control over his soul not only to maintain it's power but also to increase it thereby satisfying its lust for murder.
In Gen 3:16b; the same Hebrew word "teshuqa "refers to the woman's desire for power that drove her to eat the forbidden fruit.
Once she chose to eat she acquired a sinful nature and the authority over her soul was instantly switched from Adam to the newly created sinful nature that now enslaved her under its tyrannical control.
This becomes a trend for the woman and, as a part of the curse, for each woman in history. The woman has an innate desire to wrest control away from the man in marriage. This is the result of her submitting to the lusts of the sinful nature.
She may acquire control over her husband as often happens when he abdicates his authority, but at the same time she unwittingly submits to the tyranny of her sinful nature.
In her desire for power, the woman forsook the authority of her husband in a futile attempt to be like God.
By seeking to circumvent the authority system established by God she acquired a sinful nature and part of her curse was to fall under continual temptation from her sinful nature's lust for power.
However, regardless of her desire her husband will forever and always have Divinely established authority over her in marriage.
The correlation of Genesis 4:7;b with Genesis 3:16b; is corroborated in The Bible Knowledge Commentary by John Walvoord, and Roy Zuck. Wheaton: Victor Books, on pages 33-34:
In Genesis 3:16; the words translated "Your desire will be for your husband" mean that the woman would attempt to get her husband to sin. This may be compared with Genesis 4:7;
God's advice was that if Cain would please God by doing what is right, all would be well. But if not, sin would be crouching at his door, ready to overcome him. Sin desires to have Cain but Cain could have the mastery over it.
These words show God's interpretation of "desire," the same Hebrew word in Gen 3:16. Here is the perpetual struggle between good and evil. Anyone filled with envy and strife becomes easy prey for the evil one.
The desire to act independently of God is the motivating force behind all feminist movements including some of today's more popular manifestations of it including women's rights, women's suffrage, women in combat trained armed forces, the pro-choice movement, women in the pulpit, and even the blasphemous heresy that Mary is the "mother of God."
All of these ideas have at their base the woman's desire to break free from the curse imposed by God in Gen 3:16; In spite of her desire overthrow the divinely delegated authority of the man, she will continue to bear children in pain.
Part of her desire to be recognized as important includes the false notion that she is the creator and giver of life. This is a delusion. Women are incubators for fetuses, nothing more. Biological life is all they can produce and for that to happen a man is required.
When the child is born it is God who creates soul life and it is God who sovereignly chooses to impute that soul life to the biological life thereby creating human life. This is the manner by which the Messiah who would become Satan's ultimate adversary would enter into the world by miracle of the Holy Spirit.
Once Satan learned that the woman would be the conduit for the biological life of Messiah his strategy began to center upon destroying the entire human race. Satan had no idea when this virgin birth would occur.
As far as he knew it could happen with any woman at any time. After spending a millennium and a half assaulting the various individuals from Abel to Noah that appeared to be in the line of Christ he would concoct his final solution that would be a genetic assault on the entire human race that targeted all human women.
Because Adam is involved in fathering the children in Gen 3:16. But he is not mentioned in the Messianic passage of Gen3:15. Satan will figure out that that his ultimate antagonist will enter into human history by means of a virgin birth.
Just like he does today, Satan used duplicity, deceit, half truths, and innuendo to separate the woman from true authority and lure her into a trap and her rebellious tendencies caused her to fall and the man followed her bringing the first phase of the appeal trial to an end.
The argument of Satan's defense was that a perfect couple in a perfect environment with perfect life had sinned against God just as he had but we will see that the prosecution won the day because both Adam and the woman accepted God's grace solution by putting on the clothes of made of skins that God gave them.
Gen 3:16; To the woman the Lord said, "I will greatly multiply your pain in your pregnancy; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire "teshuqa" shall be to usurp your husband's authority; yet he shall rule "mashal" over you."
The three categories of the curse include: ovulation and resultant pregnancy; childbirth; and subordination to the husband. There are two kinds of pain mentioned: in pregnancy and in childbirth. God has used childbirth punishment as the grace means of turning cursing into blessing.
The man's authority must always be exercised in virtue love. But the authority is not fully operational until he reaches spiritual self-esteem. It becomes more effective as spiritual growth increases.
God never intended for the man to be abusive, evil, or a bully toward his wife. The man's authority can only be properly exercised under two conditions: there must be the integrity envelope of personal love for God and impersonal love for everyone; and he must have spiritual self-esteem.
In Gen 3:13; and 1 Tim 2:14; it is clearly stated the woman was deceived, but where sin is concerned, ignorance is no excuse. Where lawlessness is concerned, ignorance or even mental illness is no excuse. This is because human volition must take the responsibility for its own decisions.
1Tim 2:15; says that the woman will be saved through bearing children. The role of sex is redefined after the fall because in addition to being recreation in addition it becomes the means of procreation that ultimately becomes the channel of the Messiah's entry into this world.
Every pregnant woman is a reminder of the curse of the fall and the original sin of our first parents. Pregnancy is a reminder of the woman's revolt against God and her husband. Every birth is a memorial to divine justice. Physical life and spiritual death at birth is a reminder that every member of the human race must be born again.
If the man is to properly rule over his wife he is responsible to love her from virtue love. This means that the husband is responsible for growing in grace through daily perception of doctrine even more than the wife is.
The principle of the man's authority is restated in 1Cor 11:3; where the man is described as being the head over the wife.