We now return to Paradise in our 2016 SERIES 'Disaster from Disobedience' with a view of both the second Adam and the first man (adam).
I have added some definitions and explanation for those of you not inclined to READ them from my linked sources.
He was in the world,
and the world was created through Him,
yet the world did not recognize Him.
a Glance at Paradise
What did God intend for man in paradise or Eden in the beginning?
the Creation of Adam
Genesis 2:7
Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
This then, is really the beginning as far as man is concerned; but we must ask more: Man, we ask: what did Moses mean to say about the first man of flesh created by God?
- āḏām – a human being
And God said,
Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…
1:27 וַיִּבְרָא אֱלֹהִים אֶת־הָֽאָדָם בְּצַלְמֹו בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים בָּרָא אֹתֹו זָכָר וּנְקֵבָה בָּרָא אֹתָֽם׃
So God [‘elohiym] created man [adam] in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Genesis 1:26-27 KJV excerpt
- References to God are plural, not singular. Yet the One God is not consulting with other gods (a concept we shall not explore here).
- We are like God, not like the animals of God’s creation.
- Creation references to man, translated from ‘adam‘ include male and female.
God creates a perfect world, giving men and angels the freedom to obey and serve. But we don’t obey and therefore no longer live in a perfect paradise.
What is paradise?
Paradise would be a place where all men and women, all creatures of earth and all angelic beings live together in harmony with God.
We take our cultural meaning of paradise from the Greek word παράδεισος, but in the definition of Eden differs.
Adam in Eden
Continuing in Genesis 2:8
The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there He placed the man He had formed. The Lord God caused to grow out of the ground every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food…
- Do you know what it means, ‘Eden,’ that is?
Pleasure.
And man’s role was to care for the garden of our pleasure.
15 The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it.
Yes such a pleasurable work, tending the perfect place where the Lord walked with man.
Follow the Lord’s command and have eternal life (although in God’s glory and Adam’s bliss, man knew of no alternative.)
And the Lord God commanded the man,
“You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”
A Helper
In the KJV, 'a help meet,' from the Hebrew:ʿēzer - עֵזֶר
And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
(I do not like to be alone; do you? The Hebrew word for alone: baḏ.)
Moses then continues with the separate account of the creation of woman from man; that is, Eve. Much is made of her, ‘the female of the species made in God’s image.’
For as Moses testifies:
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper as his complement.”
v.22 KJV And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
Think of it dear brother, the Lord filled our emptiness of existence without a ‘helper’ at our side with one like us and for us. Therefore she is created as our ‘better half,’ as we become one.
23 And the man said:
[HCSB}
This one, at last, is bone of my bone
and flesh of my flesh;
this one will be called “woman,”
for she was taken from man.This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh. Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame.
The Knowledge of Good and Evil
Paradise,
an illustration of Eden:
man, woman, plants and animals, food and meaningful work. The created heavens above and bountiful beautiful earth in every direction. The Lord walked and talked with them!
God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it.
Genesis 1:28
One command from God to man and everything else filled with the freedom of eternal joy in Eden on earth. Paradise.
Paradise,
but due to just one bad decision, only for one generation.
Again, recalling from Genesis 2:17
“..but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…”
Why not, you ask?
Ah, but we are already sinners — men and women questioning God every day in generation after generation.
For Adam (and Eve as well) did not have to ask what to do; they simply just had obey the Lord’s one command.
God’s simple command to Adam could easily be defined:
“Good is to obey God, evil is to disobey God.”
Think about it, the definition that adam did not need was that of good and evil.
What is evil?
Why would anyone disobey the all-powerful, all-knowing, compassionate and gracious Lord, who created us to be a human image of Him?
But of course, we all do… and it is sin, by definition, evil.
Once again I will clarify a key definition.
- Evil – (obviously opposed to God and Good) – Hebrew: raʿ רַע
- adjective – bad, disagreeable, malignant, unpleasant, evil (giving pain, unhappiness, misery), displeasing, unkind (vicious in disposition),bad, evil, wicked (ethically), more
- masculine noun – evil, distress, misery, injury, calamity, adversity, wrong, evil (ethical)
- feminine noun – same as masculine noun
And GOD saw that the wickedness H7451 of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil H7451 continually.
Genesis 6:5 KJV
This, of course was later (in the days of Noah).
How much more evil do you suppose God sees in these last Common Era days?
- Evil – [Greek] kakos κακός – (again, like the Hebrew) opposite of good and opposed to God (and in the N.T.) an anti-Christ.
- (almost uniformly) evil); universally, of a bad nature; not such as it ought to be; (morally, i. e.) of a mode of thinking, feeling, acting; base, wrong, wicked: of persons
Beloved, follow not that which is evil, G2556 but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil [kakopoieō] hath not seen God.
3 Epistle of the Apostle John 3:11 KJV
From our APOSTOLIC FAITH SERIES:
Knowledge of Good and Evil
The moment Adam and Eve made their decision to disobey God,
and the moment Adam and Eve knew that they had chosen evil over obedience;
our lives and existence began to overflow with needless questions and numerous wrong answers.
Do not blame the serpent.. or others, falsely accuse demons or even your parents.. and DO NOT blame our first parents, the first adam and the first Eve, you who know Christ Jesus our Lord.
We were created for obedience to God who defines good.
Yet we all choose to go against God of our own free will, just as Satan and various angels had disobeyed.
God IS God! And we are not.
Original and Continuing Sin
In Disaster From Disobedience we had examined the fall of the Tempter and will not dwell on his role in Eden. We now carry a burden of the knowledge of good and evil, we carry the burden of our own sin.
Next:
A progression from God’s one command to adam to man’s disobedience through the generations.
Evil and sin will lead us to the requirements of the Law and convictions of our disobedience.
To be continued…
Leave a Reply