“And God saw that it was good,” remember that.
The end of chapter one says, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” Six days in and all is good!
Now there is a heaven and an earth but no man yet to till the ground. We now have the story of Adam and Eve. There were no wild plants or grains growing on the earth so far. There was no rain. What watered the land so far were springs that came forth from the ground. God decided to make man to care for what he had made and so He formed a man from the dust of the ground. Keep in mind he made man in his likeness (like Him). The Lord breathed life into the man’s nostrils which created life and now we have a living person. A man named Adam. God then planted the Garden of Eden and put Adam in the garden. In the center of the garden the Lord placed a tree of life and He also put in a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Man was supposed to care and watch over the garden and He gave the man a stern warning, “You can eat of every fruit and tree in the garden except one- He told man that if he were to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that he would surely die.”
Then the Lord said that it was not good for man to be alone. The Lord caused the man to fall into a deep sleep and then took out one of the man’s ribs and made a woman out of the man’s rib. This process by God is the design of marriage. It is why a man leaves his mother and father and becomes joined to a wife with the two being united as one. (The institution of marriage.)
We have just finished the creation and origin of all things. It took six days to create and one, day seven of rest. We will now go through the stage of corruption.
The woman was convinced by the serpent who was the shrewdest of all the creatures that she should eat from the tree that God had forbidden. She ate some fruit from the forbidden tree and also convinced the man to have some. As soon as they ate it they realized they were naked and saw things they never saw. They hid themselves because they were naked and when God came walking through the garden He could not find them. God was not pleased with this outcome. He then cursed the serpent. “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.” (Genesis 3:15) You might think is about men and women hating snakes but it has a much deeper theological meaning. It could be interpreted this way, “And there will be intense hatred between Satan and Christ. Eventually, Christ will crush the head of Satan, while suffering a heel wound in the process.” This verse is known as the “Proto-Evangel,” the first Gospel.
He said to the woman, “I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.” Because the man listened to the woman and also ate from the tree the Lord cursed the ground and caused it to be a struggle to grow food from it because now it will have weeds and thistles. The lord declared that now man will sweat in order to eat and live and will one day return to the dust he was made from. This is where we had paradise lost and God’s judgment rendered, Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden and will need to cultivate the ground to be fed from the dust that he made them. It seems the Lord now have the first of a grieving at His heart. The subtlety of Satan has worked and Adam has sinned. Can you feel it? They were overtaken by the three deadly temptations that many centuries later the apostle John would warn us all to beware of. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Adam has been declared the first human sinner. In actuality, Eve ate first but because Adam was supposed to be the head of the human race he was responsible. (See Romans5:12)
We will now be introduced to God’s redemptive power and His holiness and grace. We see his holiness as he pronounces five judgements. The five judgements were on man, (Gen 3:17) on women, (Gen 3:16) on all of nature, (Gen 3:18) on the serpent, (Gen 3:14) and on the devil. (Gen 3:15) We see His grace, as God deals with sinners. He showed grace as he sought out Adam in Genesis 3:9, “And the Lord God called unto Adam.” This is where God took the first step to reconcile man back to himself. He showed grace in promising them a Savior in Genesis 3:15 as mentioned above. He showed His grace in clothing them. (Gen 3:21) He showed grace in removing them from the Garden of Eden. (Gen 3:24) This was an act of mercy and not an act of judgement. If God had not removed them from the Garden it would have been a situation where all of mankind would have eaten from the tree and lived forever in total immorality. The next time we read of the tree of life is not until the end in the first two verses of Revelation 22.
As we get into chapter 4 we know that Eve has given birth to two sons. And we witness the very first murder of mankind and the very first human liar. Yes, man killing man started way back then. This is nothing other than the effects of pure sin. We see the murder of Abel by his brother Cain, and Cain being driven from the blessings of God. Can you feel God’s heart grieving? Remember all the times God said, “It is good.”
Before we move on to condemnation and the Great Flood. I want to mention the ministry of Enoch in Genesis chapter 5. Enoch is one of only two men who walked with God prior to the flood. The other man was Noah who will be introduced next post. We know Enoch walked with God because God apparently had told Enoch that when his son Methuselah died the world would be destroyed by a terrible flood. This might be why Methuselah lived longer than any other human in the history of the world. Methuselah lived to be 969 years old before he died. That was a prophecy of God and the reason Methuselah lived so long may have been because God was not willing that anyone should perish. He was giving sinful mankind as much time as possible to repent. (See 1 Timothy 2:4 and 2 Peter 3:9)
Enoch was a man of great faith and he preached of God’s second coming centuries before even his first coming took place. He was the first recorded preacher and he was the first of only two humans that got to heaven without physically dying. The other man that was directly taken up to heaven by the Lord is Elijah. He was taken up in a whirlwind. Enoch was taken up by God at the age of 365, he just was not there anymore because God took him.
Depending upon your level of belief and faith that may sound strange. Someday however, millions of Christians will experience the very same thing as it is written.
Click here to jump to the next post when we will look at “The Condemnation of all Things.”
God bless you all;
The Tubthumper