My wife and IChapter 2
In time Adam and Eve had many children, when they were grown those children left the garden to make lives of their own. Adam and Eve had their place in the world, in the garden. There they kept things working and did whatever they had to do to keep everything in order, they also communed with God, as we shall see shortly. Time had no meaning for them and so we do not know how long they were in the garden working and of course having children. Remember that in Genesis 1:28 it says: “Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it;.'”
Be fruitful and multiply, they had kids and their kids had kids. Interesting because today we worry about first cousins marrying and having children, and rightly so, since much has transpired since the beginning when man was first created. We will see much more about that as we proceed through this chapter and the ones that follow. One other thing we have to be aware of and that is the instruction that God gave Adam about one certain tree in the garden, Gen 2:17 “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Apparently at this time the animals and man could speak to one another, at least one of the snakes could. Gen 3:1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
Eve replies to the snake: Gen 3:2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; Gen 3:3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” The snake tells her that she will not die, God knows that if you eat of the fruit you will know of good and evil and will become like God. Let us look at what has transpired here. First Eve adds to the command of God that they not eat, nor touch the fruit. That was not what God told Adam, in Gen 2:17 God says you may not eat of it, for in the day you do so you will surely die. It is true that death enters the world through sin. Adam and Eve did not physically die on that day, but they did die spiritually. Physical death would come much later.
Eve now looks at the tree and sees that the fruit looks really appealing, Gen 3:6 (NKJV) “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.” The beginning we spoke of in the first chapter, now has come to its ending. They have both eaten of the fruit that was forbidden them, and they have died, not yet physically, but spiritually. Sin has now entered into paradise, and God cannot abide sin.
At the end of chapter 2 in Genesis we see that Adam and Eve were both naked, but, they were not ashamed, nor concerned about that condition. Now that they have eaten of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they are aware of their nakedness and are concerned about it and so make covering for their bodies. In the evening, they hear God in the garden, and they hide themselves for they are afraid. Gen 3:9 (ESV) But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” Now this is really cool, God knew where they were, but he wanted them to come out voluntarily from hiding, he also knew what they had done. God is after all, omniscient and omnipresent. The Spirit of God, what used to be called the Holy Ghost, was always around and knew what had transpired between the serpent and Adam and Eve.
Gen 3:10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” Gen 3:11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” Gen 3:12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” (ESV English Standard Version) Note that the man Adam blames his trespass (sin) on Eve, knowing that at any point in this conversation and action, he could have stopped it and did not do so. That is why it is Adam who sinned, in that he did not act as God had commanded him to do. In this case he should have said no, before Eve even picked the fruit. He too wanted to be like God.
Eve of course, blames the serpent, and God then curses the serpent, takes away his legs and all serpents now must act as all snakes do, sliding along the ground. Then God turns back to his children, Adam and Eve, and here is the rest of the new beginning. Eve will no longer rear children without pain in childbirth, and she will become enamored of her husband, and Adam now will be the one who must make decisions for the household, and till the ground in difficulty, and even painful conditions.
Gen 3:14 The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. Gen 3:15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” Gen 3:16 To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” Gen 3:17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; Gen 3:18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. Gen 3:19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Gen 3:20 The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. Gen 3:21 And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. Gen 3:22 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever–” Gen 3:23 therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. Gen 3:24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. (ESV)
Now they are outside, in the world in which we live, they must work hard to make a living for themselves. In this beginning it is the truth of life as we know it, there is work and relationships are sometimes very difficult, since now sin has entered the world. As we shall see sin is a terrible thing, yet, it is a part of life. The world is a harsh task master at times, because, it tends to make one work hard in order to make a living. This was especially true in this beginning, although as we shall see there is a thriving civilization in the world, which began when Adam and Eve were still in the garden. As their children left the garden to make lives for themselves, they also built villages, and worked together to build and farm. They even founded cities, all in the area of what we know today as Mesopotamia. Let us see how the story progresses, and what happens to the first man and woman in their new environment.
Gen 1:1 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
I know that there is a second idea about this, namely that there was a great explosion that set in motion the universe, and that through a lucky combination of things, this planet became hospitable to life as we know it. Of course, this theory tells us that it took literally millions of years for everything to come to fruition, yet it seems to me that the story in Genesis gives us a much better idea of what really happened. Not because I am anti science, but because it seems strange to me that an explosion can happen when there is nothing to explode.
You see, in the beginning, there was nothing, no chemicals, no dirt, not one thing existed prior to the so-called Big Bang, so how could there be a big or even a little bang when there is nothing yet in existence. Science still cannot make something from nothing, they must have a model to work from, and the materials with which to actually make something happen.
Starting from the realization that nothing begets nothing, the only explanation is that “In the beginning, God”, you see that, of course God is outside time and space, He created that which gives you and I existence, He set in motion all that we see, and he also gave us laws, like the law of gravity, “what goes up, must come down”, 2+2=4, and the other more complex laws that allow the earth to support life.
Once God created all that we see around us, the stars in the heavens the trees, grass, and weeds. He also created the fish, birds, animals, and bugs, many of which I can do without. Then he looked at all this beauty, and decided he needed someone to take care of this whole thing, so he created man.
Gen 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” It is important that we see the distinction here as to creation and the making of men and women. It tells us that God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” So man was made by God’s own hand.
Wait a minute, you say that God is Spirit so he has no hands, that is true, but, God is the three in one, his name in the original language is plural not singular. So we have God speaking to God in this passage. The second part of the trinity is Jesus the Christ, and of course we have also the third person the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the human face of God and it is his hands that form man.
Gen 2:7 “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” So now we see that God actually made man, took the time to actually form man from the dust of the earth, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.
It does say in Gen 1:27-28 NKJV “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (28) Then God blessed them, and God said to them,” “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Please note that it says “let them” have dominion in verse 26. God created man and woman to take care of the world that he had made specifically for them to inhabit. Again, we see in the second chapter of Genesis that woman came from man. Gen 2:21-23 NKJV And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. (22) Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. (23) And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.”
Woman is derived from the Hebrew ishshah ish=man and shah is womb, so woman, or female. All of this is to say that the woman was his help-mate, not inferior to Adam (man), but rather his equal partner in caring for the garden.
So now life on earth is complete, Adam and Eve (man and woman) will now work together as man and wife to till the garden and care for the plants and all that is in the garden. This even includes animals, all eating of the fruit of the garden, all vegetarians if you will.
By the way, remember that God told them “Then God blessed them, and God said to them,” “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” How could they be fruitful and multiply? They had kids, that is how we earthlings do these things, they had children while they were in the garden. Remember this part of the story.
We have no idea how much time passed while they were in the garden, working and having children. Since there was no pain in childbearing, they probably had a good amount of children, as we will find as we continue on this story of beginnings.
Of course, there is always a new beginning once life begins but that will be in the next chapter. Suffice it to say, that there is a time between this beginning, and the next beginning. Meaning of course that there is an ending, and this is a good place for that.
texasjq2 