On the 6th day of Creation, God created Adam and Eve. They were placed in the Garden of Eden to tend and care for the garden and the animals. They both were innocent. Sin had not yet entered the world.
God had planted a wonderful garden. It was full of all kinds of good plants that produced good things to eat. He also put two interesting trees in the garden. We can read about this in Genesis 2:9 where it says, “And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”
There were also rivers in the garden. Genesis 2: 10-14: And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
God did not leave Adam and Eve without any rules. At this time, they only had one rule. It was a very simple yet profound rule. This rule can be found in Genesis 2:16-17. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
God also gave man free will. He did not want man to be like a robot. He wanted to have joyful fellowship. God gave man the power to choice to obey him or to choice disobedience.
After the sin of Adam and Eve, God pronounced judgement. This came in the form of four curses and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden.
The Curse on the Devil
The first curse was on the serpent, the devil.
Genesis 3:14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
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.
This means that at one time childbearing would not have been so difficult. This is also where God placed the man over women. This does not mean that men are to be mean, hateful, or cruel.
Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Colossians 3:18 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.
Colossians 3:19 Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.
It is noted that husbands should love their wives as Christ loved the church. Recall the depth of Jesus’ love for the church, to the extent that He endured a brutal death on the cross for it. Likewise, wives are called to submit to their husbands’ leadership.
Curse on the Land
The third curse was upon the land.
Genesis 3:17-18 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; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
The curse rendered the cultivation of food more challenging. However, work itself was not a curse; from the outset, the man and woman were tasked with tending to the garden and the animals.
Curse on the Man
The fourth curse was on the man, Adam.
Genesis 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
The curse foretold a fate of mortality, proclaiming that all would one day turn to dust. It further stated that humans must toil diligently simply to sustain life.
Amidst the curses, not everything was lost. God provided a glimmer of hope, promising a savior who would ultimately defeat the devil. 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. One thing that is interesting to note about this scripture is that women don’t have seed they have eggs. To say that from the seed of woman would come anything is to say that she would be the vessel from which God would send forth the deliver. We now know that is how God did it. Luke 1:35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Later Jesus was crucified on the cross. Matthew 27:33 And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull,
Mark 15:22 And they bring him unto the place Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, The place of a skull.
John 19:17 And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha:
It is recounted that God proclaimed Jesus would crush the serpent’s head, while the serpent would bruise Jesus’ heel. Symbolically, placing a cross into a skull represents the crushing of the serpent’s head. Similarly, driving nails through Jesus’ heels would be akin to the prophesied bruising.
God showed mercy to Adam and Eve by instructing them on how to cover their sin. They hid themselves due to the shame of nakedness, which was a result of sin. To address this, God fashioned garments for them from animal skins, marking the first death. Genesis 3:21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them Hebrews 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. The animal’s death involved the shedding of blood, symbolizing the initial act of sacrifice.
Lastly, Adam and Eve is driven from the only home that they had ever knew. Genesis 3:22-24 And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. They were now separated from God. Cherubims prevented them from accessing the Tree of Life. Man has been trying in various was to get back to that tree ever since. Jesus in the only way. John 14:6
Jesus saith unto him, Iamtheway, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. We must except Jesus in order to get back to the tree of life. That tree is now in Heaven.
Revelation 22:13-15 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
Adam and Eve lived happily in the garden for a period of time. No one knows exactly how long they lived in the garden. However, most of us have heard about the fateful day when Eve was deceived. Let’s look at the fateful events of that day.
Eve apparently had gone near the Tree of Knowledge of Good and evil. The devil saw his opportunity to pervert the people that God had so lovingly created.
Genesis 3:1-7 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
The first thing that I notice is that Eve did not really know or comprehend the words of God. She added to what he had said by saying “neither shall ye touch it”. She also weakened what he said by saying, “lest ye die.” Lest means that it is possible, but not a certainty. When you turn to the New Testament, we see Paul’s writing. 1 Timothy 2:13-14 For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
Now let’s compare what Satan said to what God said.
Satan’s words: Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
God’s Words: And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Satan started with the negative. God started with a positive. Satan likes to point out that you are missing out on something. God shows what you the things that you do have.
This tactic works well with those who don’t really know the word of God for themselves. This is why we are commanded in 2 Timothy 2:15
Studyto shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Satan also attacked God’s motives. He made it seem like God was withholding good from Adam and Eve. “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
Adam messed up by not doing a good job of explaining the Word of God to Eve. She was deceived for lack of knowledge. The sad part is Adam knew that eating of that tree was in disobedience to God’s Word. Consider these scriptures:
Romans 5:12-19 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:(For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
God said, “Let there be light” and there was light. He then divided the light from the darkness. Even from the beginning, God made a distinction between light and darkness.
Day 2
God divided the waters from the waters. In other words, he put in the firmament (sky). This means that at one time there was water above the sky.
Day 3
On this day God caused the water on earth to be gathered together so that dry land could appear. At this time God gave boundaries to the water. “And marked for it My [appointed] boundary And set bars and doors [defining the shorelines], And said, ‘This far you shall come, but no farther. And here your proud waves shall stop’?” Job 38:10-11
Day 4
This rest of the solar system was created on this day. God created the sun, moon, stars, and what we now call planets. However, he even had a purpose for creating all of this. In Genesis 1:14-18 it says, “Then God said, “Let there be light-bearers (sun, moon, stars) in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be useful for signs (tokens) [of God’s provident care], and for marking seasons, days, and years; and let them be useful as lights in the expanse of the heavens to provide light on the earth”; and it was so, [just as He commanded]. God made the two great lights—the greater light (the sun) to rule the day, and the lesser light (the moon) to rule the night; He made the [galaxies of] stars also [that is, all the amazing wonders in the heavens]. God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to provide light upon the earth, to rule over the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good and He affirmed and sustained it.”
Day 5
This day saw the fish and birds being created. Then God said, “Let the waters swarm and abundantly produce living creatures, and let birds soar above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.” God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind; and God saw that it was good and He affirmed and sustained it. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
Day 6
This day was very busy. On this day all the other animals on earth were created. After God had created the various animals that live on land, he made man in his own image. Humans did not come from animals. To teach such is to degrade humans. When you teach that humans are just highly evolved animals, the results are going to be that humans start behaving worse than most animals. We are to be an image bearer of God Almighty.
At this time the animals and the humans ate plants. There was no death. All was good.
In the Old Testament there are 4 major time periods. These 4 time periods span a time period of around 3600 years.
Innocence
Conscience
The Patriarchs
Law and Prophets
1. The time of Innocence was the time that Adam and Eve lived in the garden of Eden.
2. The time of the Conscience spans the time from the fall of man to Abraham.
3. The time of the Patriarchs goes from Abraham to Moses.
4. The time of the Law and Prophets goes from Moses to Jesus.
Every event in the Old Testament can be placed into one of these 4 big time periods. Knowing these time periods can help us to organize everything that we are learning into a logical order.
Books of the Old Testament
There are 36 books in the Old Testament. They are organized into the books of the law, history, poetry, and prophecy.
Inspired by God
But understand this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of or comes from one’s own [personal or special] interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. 2 Peter 1:20-21
All Scripture is God-breathed [given by divine inspiration] and is profitable for instruction, for conviction [of sin], for correction [of error and restoration to obedience], for training in righteousness [learning to live in conformity to God’s will, both publicly and privately—behaving honorably with personal integrity and moral courage]; 2 Timothy 3:16
You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I am commanding you. Deuteronomy 4:2
Every word of God is tested and refined [like silver]; He is a shield to those who trust and take refuge in Him. Do not add to His words, Or He will reprove you, and you will be found a liar. Proverbs 30:6
I testify and warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book [its predictions, consolations, and admonitions]: if anyone adds [anything] to them, God will add to him the plagues (afflictions, calamities) which are written in this book; 19 and if anyone takes away from or distorts the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away [from that one] his share from the tree of life and from the holy city (new Jerusalem), which are written in this book. Revelation 22:19
All of God’s word is from God Almighty. All of it is useful for us to learn. None of it should be altered, changed, or taken out of context. All of it should be studied as the true word of God.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
articlesforchristians 