Cheryl Schatz

Hi Michael,
Sorry to take so long to get to your questions. This one slipped outside my radar 🙂

1. Why does Adam blame God and the woman but not the serpent?
   The reason is because Adam was not deceived (1 Tim. 2:14) so he could not blame the serpent. Secondly because he blamed Eve, he chose to blame God who created her. He primarily blames the woman because she gave him the fruit. He was not deceived so he chose to eat the fruit with his eyes wide open. But other than the woman (who gave him the fruit) and God who gave the woman to the man, who else could he blame?

2. Why were all the animals cursed? I think that there were two reasons for why the animals were cursed. First of all the man and the woman were to be the rulers of the earth and so what happened to the rulers seems to have had an impact on the world. When sin came into the world everything was distorted. Secondly because Adam knew that God was the unique creator and because he saw God create the plants and the animals from the ground God chose to curse the ground that should have been a witness to Adam. After the curse God said that Adam would return to the ground that he (and the animals) were made from. The animals were cursed because they too came from the ground, but also because one of their kind (the serpent) deceived the woman. That is the best that I can do on this one because scripture doesn’t give us any more to go on.

It appears from the scripture that there was no animal death before sin entered the world, since death entered only through Adam’s sin. Whether they would have lived forever or not we are not told, other than death entered when Adam sinned. Before that there was no death.

Because God cursed the earth and the animals, this world is in a decay cycle. But one day God will remove the curse from both the animals and the earth and there will be no more death or decay. The lion will lay down with the lamb because the urge to kill will be gone. Perhaps God also gave a curse so that we could have a visible sign of sin. Without the curse, how could we see sin that mostly dwells on the inside? I think also that decay reminds us that we are sinners and that God is the only one who can make things right.

I hope this helps!
Cheryl