“Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.” Genesis 3: 16

For Eve’s part in bringing sin into the world, the above judgment by God was pronounced upon her. It’s puzzling, though, because it doesn’t sound like a punishment. But since by context it is, we can get a better understanding of why the judgment is a curse by thinking about Eve’s relationship to Adam in the Garden of Eden before sin arrived.

Before their fall, Eve’s desire for Adam was of a loving nature. However, Eve’s desire spoken of in the judgment is one of an antagonistic nature. I found that out when it was explained to me that the judgment’s literal, Jewish phrase is “toward your husband, your desire.” Because the judgment is prophecy, the future-tense verb “will be” is added to make it more clear: “Your desire will be for your husband.”

In other words, the curse “toward your husband” is actually “against your husband.” The curse destroyed the harmonious relationship intended between husband and wife. The good desire that Eve originally felt for Adam was corrupted by sin into a desire to compete and even seize headship from Adam.

Of course, since then to today, this corrupt desire has been transmitted from Eve to all women in the marital relationship. But as usual, the Lord has provided a way of escape from the temptation of this sin. It’s in the ideal relationship between husband and wife that Christians are commanded to experience. We see that ideal expressed in Ephesians 5: 22-30, the gist of which is summarized in verse 21. It says that each spouse is to submit to one another out of reverence to Christ.

The proper love and respect that God intended between husband and wife can be achieved. If each is submitted to living Christ’s life that resides within, the marriage then has the means to be victorious over the curse.