Genesis 2
Peace be with you, listening
friends. We greet you in the name of God, the Lord of peace, who wants everyone
to understand and submit to the way of righteousness that He has established,
and have true peace with Him forever. We are happy to be able to return today
to present your program The Way of Righteousness.
We are continuing our study about what happened in the
beginning. In today's lesson we will meet Adam and Eve, and learn about their
first day on earth.
We already read in the Torah: "In
six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in
them." (Exod.
20:11) We also observed how God created the first man on the sixth day. God
created man with a body and a soul. God formed the body of
man from the dust of the earth, and then He placed in it an eternal soul. God
created the soul of man in His own image. This means that God placed in man's
soul a special mind (spirit), so that man
could know God. God also gave man a heart (emotions) with which he
could love God. And He entrusted man with a will (free choice), so that
he would have to choose for himself whether to obey
God or
to disobey Him.
After God finished creating the first man, He had
other things to do before He could rest from His work of creation. These works
are what we want to learn about today. Let us continue in the Torah, in the
second chapter of the book of Genesis. We begin with verse seven. The Scripture
says:
"The Lord God
formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life, and the man became a living being. Now the Lord God had
planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed." (Gen. 2:7,8)
The Scriptures relate to us how God prepared a
delightful garden for the man whom He had created. The garden was called Eden {Lit. delight} or the
Garden of Paradise. Some think that this garden in which God
placed the first man was in heaven. However the Scriptures show us that it was located
here on earth,
in the east, in Eden, probably where the country of Iraq is today. The Writings
of God's prophets never confuse the Garden of
Paradise (Eden)
which was on the earth, and the heavenly Paradise which is above, in the
presence of God.
In the verses that follow, the Scripture says:
"The Lord God made
all kinds of trees grow out of the ground, trees that were pleasing to the eye
and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river watering the garden flowed from
Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters…. The Lord God took the
man [that is Adam] and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and
take care of it." (Gen. 2:9,10,15)
Thus we see that God made for the first man, Adam, a
lovely place where he could live in true prosperity. God placed him in a
luscious garden full of trees that produced fruit beautiful to behold and
delicious to eat. In this enchanting place,everything
was perfect and wonderful. Adam's senses were alive; his eyes took in the
beauty, his ears took in the melody of birds singing in the trees, and his
senses absorbed the fragrance of the flowers that permeated the garden. God
gave Adam everything for his enjoyment. We also read how God, in His goodness,
entrusted Adam with a satisfying task: to take care of the
garden, so that he would be happily occupied.
The most wonderful thing that took place in Eden, was
that God Himself would come to the garden in the cool of the
evening so that He might talk with the man whom He had created in His own
image. (See Gen. 3:8) Why did God come visit Adam? He visited Adam, because, as
we have already learned, God created man for fellowship. God's intention was
that He and humans might fellowship together, talk together, rejoice together,
and spend eternity together with unified minds and hearts. Yes, God wanted man
{Lit. humans} to grow in a deep and wonderful
relationship with Him forever.
Now there is something else we need to know about the
garden into which God placed the first man. In the middle of the garden, God
planted two very important trees. One was called the
tree of life,
and the other the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil.
God placed the tree of life in the garden to remind
Adam that He intended for man to share His eternal life. As for the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God placed it in the middle of the
garden to test Adam. Listen to what the Scriptures say: "And
the Lord God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any
tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, for [in the day that] you eat of it you will surely
die." (Gen.
2:16,17)
Why did God forbid Adam to eat of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil? Is God stingy? No, He is not stingy! In fact, one
of His names is "the Generous One!" {James 1:5 in Wolof} God
told Adam, "You can eat of every tree …except one." Was that a
difficult command? No, it was not. God, in His grace, gave Adam everything he
needed to be happy. He did not withhold any good thing from him. However, God,
in His perfect plan, placed before Adam a simple test, so that Adam might
have the opportunity to show God that he loved Him enough to obey His command.
As the Lord God says in His Word: "If anyone
loves me, he will obey my [word] …He who does not love me will not obey my
[word]." (John
14:23,24) God wanted to test Adam's love and loyalty {Lit. in Wolof: to
see where his heart was}. That is why He gave him this simple command. God
did not create a mechanical man (robot). God created a man with a mind, a
heart, and a free will so that he could choose for himself to love and obey
God.
What did God tell Adam would happen to him if he ate
of the forbidden tree? Let us reread the Scriptures. God said, "You
must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for [in the day
that] you eat of it you will surely die!" Thus, God informed Adam
that disobedience to His command would produce death. God loved the man He
had created; thus He warned him in unmistakable words, saying: Adam, if you
disobey me, you will die because my holy law requires the death of "the
soul that sins." (Ezek. 18:20)
Perhaps someone is asking: What
is sin? The
Scriptures say: "Sin
is lawlessness." (1 John 3:4) "All wrongdoing is
sin." (1
John 5:17) "Anyone…who knows the good he
ought to do and doesn't do it, sins." (Jam. 4:17) Sin is going
your "own way."(Isa. 53:6) Sin is
anything that does not agree with God. What will happen
to those who sin against God? The Word of God says, "The
soul that sins must die!" (Ezek. 18:20). And in another verse, it
says, "the wages of sin is death." (Rom. 6:23)What
is death? Some think that to die is to cease
existing; everything is finished and you no longer know anything. But if we
rely on the Writings of the Prophets, we will see that this is not what death
is. In the Holy Scriptures, in the Hebrew language in which it was written,
death signifies separation. Death is separation
from life.
When God said to Adam: "If you eat of the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil you will surely die," this is what He was
saying: Adam, if you eat of the tree which I have prohibited, in that day you
will die, that is: you will be separated from Me. If you disobey me you
can no longer have a close relationship with me. I am holy and I cannot
tolerate sin or those who reject my way. I expelled Lucifer and his angels when
they sinned, and I will expel you too if you sin. Also, if you eat of the fruit
of the forbidden tree, your body will begin to grow old
and, eventually, it will die, that is: your soul will leave your body. And that
is not all. If you disobey me, not only will your body die, but your
soul will
go to the place created for Satan and his angels. And there you will be
separated from me for ever and ever!
Thus, we see that sin produces
three horrible separations. First, your soul is separated
from God here on earth. That is, you have no relationship with God the Holy
One because of the sin in your heart. Second, your soul will be separated
from your body on
the day you die. That is, your body will die and your soul will meet God for
judgment. Third, your soul
and body will be separated from God forever in the lake of fire.
Based on the authority of the Word of God, what is
death? In short, death is separation from the God
of Life.
Sin separates man from God, the source of true life. God is holy and cannot
coexist with sin. The soul that sins is like a branch of a tree that is cut
off and cast away. What happens when a branch is no longer part of the tree? A
branch that is cut off, is it alive? No, it is dead! The leaves do not become
instantly dry, but they have begun to die. Similarly, if you have not received
the way of forgiveness of sin which God has provided, you may think that you
are alive, but the Scriptures of the Prophets say that, before God, you are "dead in
your transgressions and sins." (Eph. 2:1) "Your
iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face
from you." (Isa. 59:2) You are "like a
branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown
into the fire and burned." (John 15:6)
The branch that is no longer connected to the tree
cannot produce fruit. That is how a sinner is before God. He cannot produce
anything pleasing to God, because he has no relationship
with God,
who is the "True Tree," the Source of
true life.
Sinners can only expect God's righteous judgment. However, in the Writings of
the Prophets, God has declared how we can be made righteous before Him and know
for sure that our sins are removed. It is this that we will be considering in
coming lessons.
Before we close, we would like to read what is found
in the remainder of this chapter. The Scriptures tell us how God created the
first woman.
Listen:
"The Lord God said,
'It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for
him.' So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he
was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh.
Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he
brought her to the man. The man said, 'This is now bone of my bones and flesh
of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman', for she was taken out of man.' For
this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,
and they will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked, and they
felt no shame." (Gen. 2:18,21-25)
Thus, we discover that marriage was designed by God. God
created one man and one woman so that they could love each other, share their
lives together, and have a happy family that glorifies God. God, who loved Adam
and wanted him to be perfectly happy, gave him a very wonderful gift: a
wife! God
wanted Adam to cherish his wife, provide for her, and love her as he loved
himself. Even more important, God wanted the man and the woman to enjoy a deep
relationship with Himself-to know Him, love Him and obey Him forever. (See
Ephesians 5:21-33; 6:1-4)
Thus, God finished His work of creation. The
Scriptures says:
"God saw all that
he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there
was morning, the sixth day. Thus, the heavens and the earth were completed in
all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been
doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God
blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the
work of creating that he had done." (Gen. 1:31-2:3)
Why did God rest on the seventh day? Was it because He
was tired? No, God is never tired! The Scriptures say that God rested because
He had "finished the work!" Everything was perfect. That is why God rested
(ceased) from His work on the seventh day. That is also why there are seven
days in a week.
Friends, thank you for listening. Next time, God
willing, we will learn how sin entered the world….
God bless you as you ponder this declaration from His
Word:
"The wages of sin
is death, but the gift of God is eternal life…!" (Rom. 6:23a)
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