And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast
eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground
for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
Adam is also punished, although less severely. He now will have to work for a living because he
"hearkened unto the voice" of his wife. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of
the field;
But God is not done cursing yet. He curses
the ground and causes thorns and thistles to grow. Before this, according to the (false) Genesis story, plants had no
natural defenses. The rose had no thorn, cacti were spineless, and nettles had no sting.
Foxgloves, oleander, and milkweeds were perfectly safe to eat.
On the third day God commanded all kind of vegetables to spring out of the earth.... But among all these there were no
weeds, no useless plants, none that encumbered the ground; much less were there any poisonous ones, tending to hurt
any one creature; but every thing was salutary in its kind, suitable to the gracious design of its great Creator.
... The paradisiacal earth afforded a sufficiency of food for all its inhabitants; so that none of them had any need or
temptation to prey upon the other. The spider was then as harmless as the fly....
[John Wesley's Sermon 56: God's Approbation of His Works (12)]
