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"Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in
sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he
shall rule over thee."
The sexes were never "equal" even at creation, as I Cor. 11: 3-9 and I Tim. 2: 13
will make clear. Now since the advent of sin and death, a further subordination of
woman is instituted, echoed by the sweat and the toil that Adam now faced, as compared
with the labour of love which occupied his unfallen energies in the Garden. The words:
"Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee" (Gen. 3: 16) are
repeated, with the necessary alterations of gender, in Gen. 4: 7:
"If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted (margin have the excellency) and if not
sin (or the sin offering) lieth at the door. And unto thee (margin subject unto thee 3: 16)
shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him."
Cain, as the firstborn, had pre-eminence (see Col. 1: 18), a position which he forfeited
by sin. When Cain was born, Eve in naming him gives utterance to a strange expression:
"I have gotten a man from the Lord" (Gen. 4: 1).
"Gotten" is the translation of the Hebrew qanah, from which root the name "Cain" is
derived. Some, with Luther, render this passage: "I have gotten a man, the Jehovah",
referring to the promised seed of the woman. Subsequent events show that Eve was
mistaken. Cain was not the promised seed, he was, rather "of that wicked one" the false
seed (I John 3: 12). Nevertheless, Eve must have had good grounds for such an
expectancy, even though the advent of the promised Seed did not take place until nearly
4000 years had passed.
With these facts before us, we suggest (speaking always after the manner of men, for
God knew what He would do from the beginning) that the primal purpose was that the
Incarnation should take place by virgin birth in the Garden of Eden itself, that Christ
should be "made flesh" and tabernacle among men from the beginning. The intrusion of
the Serpent, the temptation and fall of the first pair, opened a door for sowing of the false
seed (Cain) and the murder of Abel foretold the agonizing conflict that ensure
culminating in the shedding of the blood of Him, Whose blood speaketh better things
than that of Abel. The virgin birth of the Son of God was postponed until nearly four
thousand years had passed, but in the fullness of time, He was born of a woman, entering
not into the full glory of the Incarnate Son, because the added complication of sin and
death, necessitated a sacrifice and an offering to deliver the heirs of promise from their
bondage. That being graciously accomplished, resurrection and change, provide the
appointed way in which both the innate frailty of sinless "flesh and blood" and the
inherited corruption consequent upon the fall, should be exchanged for immortality,
incorruption, and likeness to His body of glory.
This is "my judgment" and I believe I can in good conscience say: "I think I also I
have the mind of the Lord", even if I cannot say with Paul: "I think also that I have the
spirit of God."