Genesis 3:17-19
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
The third curse is spoken over men. Similar to the one against women, this curse directly disrupts and distorts their ability to fulfil their original purpose, so be fruitful, to multiply and to subdue the earth. For men it is their relationship with work that will be damaged.
It is extremely significant to see that the curse is built upon the language of soil. The ground is cursed… it will produce thistles and thorns…you will return to dust. The woman’s seed was cursed and the man’s soil was. This will become the central theme for the people of Israel throughout the whole of the Old Testament. Seed and soil. Both are cursed. (To be continued).
There is a problem with men. I was struck again this week with the challenge of mental health for men. The biggest killer of men under 40 is depression. Not guns, knives, drugs but hopelessness. So many men feel lost and that their lives are not what they expected them to be. They feel trapped and purposeless. They lose the desire to fight. We live in a society which seems to tell us that masculinity is toxic and that we need to be more sensitive - cry more. In direct opposition to this, we have the Andrew Taits of the world telling us that masculinity looks like control and power.
I think that under the surface, it is not a problem of strength or sensitivity, it is a problem of purpose. We want our lives to matter and our relationship with purpose is lost. So, we feel like we are working and working and that it doesn’t really matter. We wake up, go to work, have dinner and repeat. Even our greatest achievements will be forgotten. There must be more to life than this.
For a lot of men, work occupies our thinking all the time. It pulls us from our families. It consumes our ambitions. We can lose decades of our lives fighting for things and find ourselves completely alone. We can become overbearing and controlling in the office. Our relationship with work is broken.
When we look at the challenges of the workplace and pay gaps, it all flows from men’s broken relationship with their work. Last night I listened to a podcast that argued that all racism flows from our relationship with work. The Portuguese didn’t think that Africans were inferior. Rather, they discovered slavery and saw the potential for profit. They created racial narratives to allow them to feel morally ok while profiting front he abuse of others. We industrialised slavery due to our desire to be productive, rich and successful.
But the good news is that God wants to lead us to healing.
He has created us with strength and with purpose, and we get to fight for things that matter. The key is to discover what it means to serve others and to live for their benefit. Our purpose is not sex, salary or status. It is service. God created us to make a difference that echos into eternity.
If you struggle with depression and need someone to talk to, please reach out and we would love to connect.
