Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #20 of Genesis, chapter 3 and we are going to look at Genesis 3:16:

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.

We are all very much aware that there is physical pain and sorrow when a woman gives birth to a child and, certainly, God does have that in view here. He is letting the woman know that when she gives birth there will be sorrow, grief and difficulty in the birth process. That is true and it has been true all through history. Even today with modern medical science and all the drugs and helps administered during child birth, there are still periods of difficulty and much physical discomfort, pain and sorrow, since the fall into sin. There is nothing to indicate that prior to mankind’s sin the woman would have had sorrow or pain in childbirth. Actually, we can be sure there would not have been any problem of that nature because it was due to the curse that difficulty was brought into the whole creation – things just will not go easy for sinful man during their time in this cursed world that is under the wrath of God.

Of course, when God saved someone the curse is removed, but they are still living in a cursed world and their physical bodies are still cursed because they have seen corruption and it is not until the resurrection of the body when that curse is removed. Therefore, due to the effects of the curse on the creation, things just do not go smoothly or easily, but there is great difficulty in practically everything. The reason is because God created the world and He created man to rule over this world and to serve Him. When man serves God, then all things are in proper order and all things would work out for good.

Now I should add that for the elect, God has determined that all things do work together for good, even negative or sinful things that have happened in the lives of God’s people as they live in this sin-cursed earth. Yet, God is the one that has to turn it all for good. It is still painful and there are still very negative things that occur, but God works it out for good.

However, when the world was created and was in submission to God and His Law and as Adam and Eve obeyed God things worked perfectly. They worked in proper order as they were intended. There would have been no thorns or thistles in the flowers. All things were good and right and childbirth would have been a lovely and beautiful experience for Eve and all women thereafter. There would have been no pain or sorrow of any kind and this is what God says will be the situation in the new heaven and new earth, so we know there is a way that there can be life without pain. It says in Revelation 21:4:

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

This will take place when God has corrected all things. He has saved His people and He has dealt with man’s rebellion and the rebellion of the fallen angels. He then creates a new heaven and new earth and it is perfect, just as the Garden of Eden was in the beginning, and there is no sorrow and grief, and so forth. But, in a world that is cursed, there is pain in childbirth and many, many other things.

We are all aware of this and we all understand it. We have all been born into the world and many women have experienced childbirth and they understand exactly what God is saying with this language: “I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children.” This is very understandable in the natural realm and on a physical level, but this is the Bible and we also know that God has been using the woman as a picture of the elect, the bride of Christ. She is the woman that came out of Adam’s side as God took his rib and formed the woman and this relates to the bride and when Jesus was on the cross and His side was pierced, there came out water and blood and the Gospel went out into the world and formed the “woman,” comprised of everyone God would save.

Again, it says in Genesis 3:16:

Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception…

The word “greatly” is Strong’s #7235 and it is the same word as “multiply,” so there is the same word twice. In another place God uses this same Hebrew word two times when speaking to Abraham. It says in Genesis 22:17:

That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;

The same Hebrew word is doubled in this sentence. It says “And in multiplying I will multiply thy seed,” and this is exactly what is in view in the previous verse in Genesis 3:15:

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

We looked at this and we saw that the Gospel is the deeper spiritual meaning that can be understood in that sentence and, yet, it is continuing in the next verse as God is speaking to the woman. On one level, He is speaking on the surface level concerning physical birth and, yet, on the deeper spiritual level, He is speaking of the bride of Christ, the woman (elect) who would bring forth the man child and the remnant of her seed (the elect that are in Christ), as Christ is the seed and all the elect are in Him and counted as the seed.

Speaking to the elect, God says, “I will multiplying multiply thy sorrow and thy conception.” We could look at this word “multiply” a few more times and we will find it used in a similar way. For instance, it says in Exodus 32:13:

Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.

The multiplying seed relates to the salvation of God’s elect, as God had promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Again, in the first instance, it points to Christ, the seed, but all those Christ has saved are counted for the seed in Him. This is what God is saying in regard to the woman when He says He will multiply her seed and conception.

Before we look at the idea of sorrow in regard to the multiplication of seed (the salvation of the elect), let us look at the idea of the elect as children or babies. It says in Psalm 139:13:

For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.

David was moved by God to write this Psalm and he is a type and figure of the Lord Jesus Christ. All those that Christ saved are said to be of the body of Christ. We are members of His body and, here, David is going to recount his formation in his mother’s womb: “Thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.” That would refer to the child David coming together after he is conceived. God will multiplying multiply sorrow in the conception and bringing forth of children.

Then it goes on to say 139:14-15:

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

Here, we have to leave the idea of David being physically formed in his earthly mother’s womb because David was not formed or wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. That is not true of David. The womb is not the “lowest parts of the earth.” However, it is true of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us Christ was to spend three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Jesus was to come under the wrath of God and God spoke of this in a figure when Jonah was in the whale’s belly for three days and three nights. It was a figure of speech to represent being under the wrath of God. When Jesus was under the wrath of God from the point of the world’s foundation, He was making payment for the sins of all His elect or everyone He would save. Therefore, in a real way He was forming the “body” of Christ. And in this Psalm, we would say He is forming the body of David, as Christ is called “David” in the Bible. He was curiously forming this body and He was doing so in the “lowest parts of the earth,” being under the wrath of God. He was paying for all the sins of His people and cleansing them from all iniquity and they were being “baptized” with the washing away of their sins as Christ was “baptized” by the fires of hell, which is the grave or death.

Then it goes on to say in Psalm 139:16:

Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect…

Again, perfection for the body of Christ is when that body comes together in salvation (the first resurrection), but it also includes the completion of their resurrected bodies in the second resurrection which comes at the very end. At this point it is at the foundation of the world and the “body” is in the early stage of conception. This is when all those that would be counted among the elect would be conceived and it is “unperfect” because they have not yet been born into the world to hear the Gospel and experience the first resurrection, nor have they experienced the resurrection of their bodies in the second resurrection.

Then it goes on to say in Psalm 139:16:

…and in thy book all my members were written…

Here, we can see the reference to the Lamb’s Book of Life and we have spent some time on this when we went through the Book of Revelation because there was reference to this book where God wrote down the names of everyone that He would save. No, there is not a literal book, but in the infinite mind of God, He determined t0 save Jacob, Noah, Abraham and all the elect. These were predestinated to receive salvation, so all the “members” were written. Just to remind ourselves, let us go quickly to 1Corinthians 12:12-14:

For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many.

We are the body of Christ and “members” in particular. If you are truly saved, you are a member. If I am truly saved, I am a member and so is each child of God. We are members of the body of Christ. Again, it says in Psalm 139:16:

…and in thy book all *my members* were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

The word “fashioned” is the same word as “formed” in Genesis 2, verse 7 where God formed man from the dust of the ground. These were fashioned or formed when as yet there was none of them. Is this not a beautiful description of God performing His atoning work from the foundation of the world and predestinating all those to become saved and forming the body in Christ? They were formed when there was none of them. Remember it said in Isaiah 63:3: “I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me.” There was not a single individual with Him because there was no world as yet. There were no people as yet and there was no sin as yet.

Then it goes on to say in Psalm 139:17-18:

How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.

The thoughts of God toward the members of the body of Christ cannot be counted. They are more than the sand of the sea. It was always God’s plan for the “woman” to give birth to a child. Yes, there was a woman in Revelation 12 who appeared and she was clothed with the sun and gave birth to the man child; she gave birth to Christ in His earthly body and Jesus entered into the world and the woman would flee into the wilderness and Satan would pursue her all throughout the New Testament church age, but the woman was also to give birth to the “child” that was conceived from the foundation of the world – it is herself or all the elect together. As God did save these chosen individuals in every generation throughout the history of the world, it was as though the “child” was developing. The child was conceived from the foundation of the world, just as a baby is conceived in the womb, but it must then grow and form and come together until the birth. That is the picture.

It says in Isaiah 54:1:

Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith JEHOVAH.

This is picked up in the Book of Galatians along with an historical parable. Concerning Abraham and his two sons, it says in Galatians 4:22-23:

For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.

They were “born.” One was born after the flesh and one after the promise. It goes on to say in Galatians 4:28-29:

Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.

This all ties in and relates to God’s salvation program concerning the children born of these two covenants and God’s elect are born of the covenant of grace and the covenant of promise. We are born of Sarah, in that sense.

We do not have time to look at the “sorrow” aspect. Lord willing, when we get together in our next study we will see how God ties in sorrow with the sending forth of the Gospel. And when the Gospel was sent forth people became saved and they were “born” again by the grace of God and what God had done for them before the foundation of the world became evident.