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起初，神把遍地上一切结种子的菜蔬，全都赐给亚当和夏娃作食物。（参创1:29）然而，他们犯罪堕落后，神告诉他们，他们犯罪所带来的一个后果，就是必须要劳苦工作才有食物糊口。这个被翻译为“食物”的字（英文是“food”），是希伯来文的lehem，意思是“面包”。可见面包是非常重要的，它基本上代表一切维持生命的能量；它实质上是在指所有粮食，而不是单指面包。在这句严厉的判语中，粮食象征我们的脆弱，甚至包括我们生命的有限，因为我们本是从土而出的，我们的身体终必归回尘土。

在今天，人们仍然需要努力通过耕种和购买来获得食物——或在某些情况下，需要排长队，经过等待后才能得到食物。

不过，请留意，虽然地受了咒诅，虽然蛇受了咒诅，然而人类和粮食却没有受咒诅。尽管我们要因罪所带来的影响和后果而受苦，但我们在其中仍然会经历到某种程度上的福气：地仍然能长出粮食来。我们的肉身既不会永远活着，我们需要为食物劳碌的周期也是有限的，这也可算是隐藏在背后的怜悯。这个现存的困境也预表神赐充足的食物是何等丰厚的恩惠，毕竟归根结底，神自己就是我们生命的粮。

In the very beginning, God gave to Adam and Eve all the seed-bearing plants for food (Genesis 1:29). But after the fall into sin, God tells them that one of the consequences of their sin is that they will have to work hard for their food. The word translated here as "food" is the Hebrew word lehem, which means "bread." This means bread is so vital that it basically refers to everything that sustains life. Essentially this refers to all food, not just what we call bread. In the context of these sobering words, bread symbolizes our vulnerability and even our mortality as our bodies go back to the very dust we are made from.

Today people still have to work hard to grow and buy food—or in some cases, to wait in long lines for food.

Notice, however, that the ground is cursed and the serpent is cursed but that the people and the food are not cursed. Though we suffer the impacts and consequences of sin, we still experience some measure of blessing: the ground still produces food. And because our mortal bodies will not live forever, the time needed to work hard for food is limited. This is a kind of mercy in disguise. This difficulty also foreshadows the tremendous gift it is that God provides bread, and that in the end God himself is our bread.