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CHAPTER ONE
CREATIVE INTENT
(PRIMARILY BASED ON GENESIS 1-3)
The creation of this earth was a well-devised plan by God to crown the works of His hands from time immemorial. He created worlds that our telescopes have never even come close to seeing. Beings clothed in all of the glory of heaven were formed and worshipped God both day and night. For some reason, God still wanted more--more companionship, more love, and more resemblance to Himself. This was a motive for the creation of this earth.
Who knows? It may well be that God was trying to repopulate heaven because of the fall of Lucifer and his followers. It may be that He wanted to make something unique and different from anything He had done until that point. Whatever the case, God began to create in the void of nothingness, the planet we now know as earth.
God looked out into the void of space and began to speak words pregnant with power. He spoke the light and it was so. He unfurled His radiant heat upon the void and it illuminated with the brightness of His glory. Days before He spoke the sun, moon, and stars into the sky, the true light of His majesty appeared, and it was good.
The sky and heavenly expanse were spread out far beyond sight. The beauty of God's ability to paint a portrait of vibrant blue with hues not yet imagined was clearly revealed and it was good.
The Lord began to manage His assets in ways that would prove to be a stroke of genius. He separated the waters and caused dry land to appear. Countless miles of godly real estate stretched out, both land and sea. God looked at what He had done, knowing of the great things to come and said, "It's all good."
The land God originated would not be complete except that He brings forth all manner of vegetation, profuse with colors and aromas. They were brought forth after their own kind and appeared in such rich contrasts that only the best decorator of the universe could produce. And of course, it was good.
Now, the seasons, days, years, as well as the governing heavenly bodies were summoned. God called the sun and moon by name and these incredible bodies in the sky would determine light and darkness, day and night. The stars and every other heavenly spectacle were good.
Even though the land already had some vegetation and the sky began to show forms of life, God was not finished yet. He made birds and all kinds of fish and water creatures, creeping things, mammals, and all of the other creatures to populate air, land, and sea. Yes, you guessed it; God saw that these too were good.
The crowning act of His creative work was about to commence. He made all types of creatures, heavenly bodies, land and sea formations, but His work was not yet complete. God carried His plan further and began an even more personal approach to creation. He began to form a man with His own hands from the dust of the earth. He perfectly molded him with the pride and satisfaction of heaven. His work was already perfect, yet He continued. He breathed, yes, God breathed, life into His new man; the life he needed to exist and poof, he was alive! God created a man in His own image. Every way that humankind could be like God began in God's man, Adam.
Adam was given the first job ever given to a human being. He was to be executive manager of all that God put within his reach. He gave names to the creatures just like the ones that were in the mind of God Himself. I mean, what did you expect? After all, Adam was perfect. He was freshly created directly from the Creator's hand with a perfect mind and senses.
It became clear to Adam after studying all of the creatures and perfectly understanding everything about them, that something even in his perfect life was still missing. I know that seems like an oxymoron, but it's true. He was perfect at the stage of development in which he found himself, but there was still room for further development. Now it was time. God caused Adam to fall into a blissful sleep. He took a rib from his side and formed an equally perfect specimen, but just a bit softer, and brought her to Adam as he awoke. Adam saw her and immediately said, "wo-man!" That's what she should be called, woman, because she came from man. Now the missing puzzle piece was in place. Adam had a companion named Eve who would be the mother of all the living and they would become fruitful and populate the earth with other human beings just like themselves. God saw all of that and said it was better than just good. It was very good.
The bliss of the Creator and fully satisfied creatures continued. God had one more thing to do. He rested. What? Yes, God rested. Not as though He needed a repose from labor, but as a memorial of His creative work God rested on the seventh day giving the first family and all of the future generations something to remember Him by. His signature was now indelibly printed upon the creation. The Sabbath was given to humankind as a gift. What a blessing it must have been that first Sabbath when Adam, Eve, and their new friend, the Creator, came together. All of this was good and God was responsible.
Because God loved His creation so much, he gave Adam specific guidelines to help him pass a necessary test that would certainly arise in the Garden of Eden. Right before Eve was created, 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. Genesis 3:16-17
This important test of man's fidelity was necessary because humankind needed to demonstrate faithfulness to God of his own free will.
One day Adam and Eve were in different sections of the creation and Eve went to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As she approached the tree, she heard a voice address her with a question, "Did God say that you should not eat of the fruit from every tree in the garden?" Eve looked and it was a serpent. A talking serpent addressed her. She should not have engaged the serpent at all, especially when it insinuated doubt concerning the clear directive of God. Well, she responded to the serpent by saying that God said that they could neither touch nor eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which was in the midst of the garden. If they did, they would die. The serpent, casting doubt, replied, "You will not die. God knows that you will be just like Him if you eat from the tree, so He's withholding it from you." The conversation was going down a dark road to destruction and Eve continued to follow it. Eventually, she succumbed to the temptation and did eat from the forbidden tree. She saw that the tree was good for food even though it was forbidden. Was it truly good for food? Though it was perfect and created by God, it was not intended for the holy couple to eat of it. God commanded that they abstain from it completely; therefore, it was not good for food.
After she sinned by eating of the forbidden tree, she went to her husband and offered him some. He realized that she sinned and chose to fall into the same pit along with her, because in that moment he loved his wife more than he loved God. What a sad commentary.
An incredible lesson is to be learned here. The first sin of humankind did not catch God unprepared. The plan of salvation was already devised in the event that man should sin. If God waited until sin was committed by Eve to come up with a plan, it would have been too late. "Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die" (Ezekiel 18:4). The blessing of God's grace, mercy, and foresight is that His brilliant plan of salvation always existed in His mind, and when the time was right He put it into action. Jesus is depicted in Revelation 13:8 as slain from the foundation of the world. God is never caught off guard.
After both Adam and Eve sinned, they realized that they were naked and because of their shame, they hid themselves. For the first time they experienced shame, guilt, fear, and vulnerability. It must have been difficult for them to process those emotions since they were foreign to perfect human beings. It must have been even more difficult for God to see them sin because He created them in His own image. He created them to live forever. God created them to have unbroken face-to-face communion with Himself and now it cannot be. If they were to appear before God in all of His magnificence, they would die immediately and lose their souls. This is where the love of God is clearly revealed. Although the relationship was broken and sin and eternal death entered, God chose to do something radical. His mercy as well as His justice would need to be equaled in a way never before seen. Stay tuned.
God came to the garden in pursuit of His children and called out to Adam saying, "Where are you?" God did not ask this question because He needed to know. Adam and Eve needed to come face-to-face with their situation. Adam said, "I'm hiding because I am naked and ashamed." God said, "Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat the forbidden fruit?" Again, God already knew the answer; He wanted Adam to go through this very important process of facing his sin and its consequences. Adam began to blame others including God for his sin instead of owning up to his responsibility. Eve did the same. Because of their shame and all that was related to it, they covered themselves with aprons hoping to hide the effects of their poor decision.
The story gets more interesting here. Did you notice who made the first step in this process? Did Adam or Eve go to God after they sinned and say, "Oh my Father, please forgive me, I have sinned against you!"? No. It did not happen that way. God came to them first for many reasons. God made the first move because He loved them and did not want to see them in the situation they caused. Because He knew that there was absolutely no way that they would have approached Him on their own, He extended His grace to arrange this critical confrontation. Isn't that the way it works with us? How would we know that we need the Lord except that the Holy Ghost reveals it to us (John 16:13)? "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9). God continued to pursue the pair by taking away their insufficient covering. They exerted their own effort to take care of the nakedness issue by sewing together fig leaves. The following consequences give a very clear insight into the cost of sin:
· Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them (Genesis 3:21).
· Clothing or garments in the Bible often represent righteousness (Isaiah 61:10; Zechariah 3:3-5; revelation 16:15).
· When we cover ourselves spiritually, we are attempting to cover sin with self-righteousness. This will not suffice (Isaiah 64:6).
· We need the righteousness of Jesus Christ to be our covering (Philippians 3:9).
The skins that God covered them with represented the death of the coming Messiah who would step in as their substitute. "And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission" (Hebrews 9:22). If humankind was ever to have a chance to live with God, someone had to pay our sin penalty. Jesus Christ who was greater than the law that was broken became a man and died the death that we deserve. All of this was to be communicated in God's treatment of Adam and Eve after they sinned.
The Tree of Life was a symbol of a right relationship with God and an eternal, untainted existence. This tree was to be eaten by Adam and Eve forever to sustain their lives. As a consequence of their sin, God needed to intervene with a gesture of love. "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" (Genesis 3:24). Can you imagine what would have happened if God did not bar them from the tree of life? Humankind would have become eternal sinners. God's love is incomprehensible. It would be easy to think that God banned them in order to prove a point or to punish them. While there must have been an element of punishment related to this act, it was infinite love that could not stand to see His creatures remain in sin forever.
We can learn a lesson in forgiveness and consequences here. God certainly did not tolerate their sin, yet He did not obliterate them. He forgave them, and yet He allowed the natural consequences of their sin to bear themselves out in their lives. God would not have demonstrated mercy if He just swept their sin under the cosmic rug as though it had never happened. Man must realize the enormity of sin and understand the cost.
In this life, we often must reap what we have sown, as was the case with Moses. He was given the commission to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land. He was faithful to God for many years, but at a critical point in their journey, he took God's credit for bringing the people out of Egypt and, in his frustration, struck a rock for water instead of speaking to it the way God instructed him. As a result, Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised Land; he only saw it. God needed to demonstrate to the people that He is not partial to anyone, that no human was responsible for the Exodus, and that He does not take sin lightly. In the flesh, Moses reaped what he had sown.
It would be terrible if we were bound eternally by our earthly consequences. While Moses did not enter the land of promise and had to die, God did not make that the final word.
Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee" Jude 1:9.
"And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. Matthew 17:3
Moses was resurrected and taken directly to heaven. The Lord honored the resurrected Moses so much so that many years later he had the privilege of encouraging Jesus Himself when He was glorified before a few disciples' eyes. The fact that we are allowed to face our consequences on earth does not mean that we cannot inherit eternal life.
And so it was in Adam and Eve's situation. Yes, God barred them from the tree of life. Yes, God removed them from their garden home, but He did not leave them to lose their souls. This is the same way in which church discipline or even child discipline should work. The same one who administers the reprimand for open, unrepentant sin must be the redeemer of the offender. God put the couple out, but He also gave them forgiveness, the righteousness of God as a covering, and the hope of eternal salvation. What a mighty God we serve! Individuals as well as church entities would be more inviting, even to the errant, if God's methods were followed.
In the creation of earth and the crowning act of making man in God's own image, He demonstrated His desire to build a relationship with us that would go uninterrupted forever. He creatively intended to have Adam and Eve pass through a test of their fidelity, be successful throughout the testing, and enter eternity where the enemy could not taint the relationship.
The holy pair lost focus of the God who was their friend and believed the enemy who insinuated that God was way up in heaven and not interested in their daily lives. As a result, they were susceptible to the deadly virus of sin.
God could have just let them drift into oblivion at the hands of the devil who was reserved for condemnation, but He instantly employed His blessed plan of salvation that would make it possible for them to be redeemed, unlike the devil who blew his chances ages before. God demonstrated His holy and unquenchable zeal to have companionship with His created ones. Redemption from sin would not be without pain or struggle, but God's plan would surely succeed in the lives of those who would implicitly trust in Him. Adam and Eve experienced the peace and assurance of a right relationship with God. They also knew what it was like to fall prey to self-trust, thereby trading that utopia of peace for the cold and listless life outside of God's will. The beauty of this story is that God did not turn His back on His loved ones. Instead, He employed a patient process of redemption by which humankind would be restored to their former state, and through this transition, they could again know peace within. This unique gift from God was not designed for them only. He extends this gift to all even until this day. Accept it for yourself. It's yours!
