It was no surprise the French books Joy and I read for childbirth emphasized breathing exercises. This was France, the country of Dr. Lamaze!
Joy was 6 months pregnant when we arrived in hot steamy Africa. Then, she finally gave birth to our first child in a mission hospital in the rain forests of northwestern Congo. Around sunset on a Sunday evening, after 36 hours of exhausting contractions and hard work, Joy was driven across the mission station grounds to the hospital.
A nurse and I were on either side of Joy as we timed her breathing. She received no medication of any kind. I admired her great effort, which was followed by exhilaration, as Joy gave birth to our wonderful baby girl, Christy!
“Was it a cursed experience?” I asked Joy as we looked back on it the next morning? “No. It wasn’t. But it certainly required a lot of effort.”
Exercise #1: Identify the bad news and the good news God gave to the woman.
1. Read Genesis 3:14-19, with the correct translation of Genesis 3:15-17 below.
a. What bad news did the woman hear?
· Genesis 3:15
· Genesis 3:16 (along with 3:17)
b. What good news did the woman hear (harbah ‘arbeh)?
· First, compare 22:17 (YLT) “that blessing I bless thee, and multiplying I multiply thy seed as stars of the heavens, and as sand which [is] on the sea-shore” with Genesis 3:16. What do you notice?
· Genesis 3:15
· Genesis 3:16 (compare with Genesis 1:28)
2. How will having a mortal body, experiencing ‘etsev, now affect the woman?
a. Genesis 3:16 (compare with Psalm 127:2, Proverbs 5:10)
b. Genesis 3:19
3. How does Genesis 3:16 describe change in the man, and how would this affect the woman?
Genesis 3:15-17
15 “I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her-offspring;
he will bruise you on the head,
and you will bruise him on the heel.”
16 To the woman he said,
(Line 1) “I will greatly multiply your-sorrowful-toil and-your-conception;
(Line 2) with effort you will give birth to children.
(Line 3) Your desire is for your husband
(Line 4) but he will rule over you.”
17 And to the man he said,
“Because you listened the voice of your wife and ate from the tree
about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in sorrowful-toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.”
God addressed matters of the woman’s heart in a particular way, revealing both the woman’s heart with regard to the man, and the man’s heart with regard to her.
Exercise #2: Understanding heart matters in both the woman and the man.
1. a. How might Genesis 2:23-25 inform how the word “desire” is to be understood in
this context? (Compare also with Song of Solomon 7:10)
b. Why is Genesis 4:7 not a good comparison verse?
2. a. Compare Genesis 2:23-25 with Genesis 3:16. What has changed in the man’s heart?
b. In what way does comparing Genesis 2:20 with Genesis 3:20 further reveal this change?
c. How had the man corrupted the meaning of God’s words to them in Genesis 1:28?
See below for links to resources for further research.
1. Diagram of Genesis 3:16. A favorite blog post item on Tru316.com/blog
2. Dr. Joy Fleming’s doctoral research: The e-book summary in 48 pages (https://www.amazon.com/Man-Woman-Biblical-Unity-Theology-ebook/dp/B0792MSWBP/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1546467124&sr=8-1&keywords=Joy+Fleming+Man+and+woman)
3. Bruce C. E. Fleming’s Workshop video summarizing Genesis 3 with slide presentation (https://youtu.be/g0_gvC28CdA)
4. Join the Tru316 Project! (https://www.patreon.com/Tru316Project)
5. Enroll in the Monthly Mentoring Program by subscribing at the Underwriter level! (https://www.patreon.com/Tru316Project)
5. Podcast weblinks: www.TheEdenPodcast.com or www.Tru316.com
[Dr. Fernand Lamaze | Lamaze International (http://www.lamaze.org)]
