The Fall of Man (Gen.3; Part 1)

God created man to be his 'royal representative' and the steward of creation. The Lord God had formed the man from the 'dust of the ground' and breathed the 'breath of life' into him. The Lord God placed the man in the 'garden of Eden' to work it and to take care of it. Man was free to eat from any of the trees except for the 'tree of the knowledge of good and evil'. If he ate from that tree he would die. It wasn't good for the man to be alone so the Lord God made a woman from the man's side and brought the woman to the man. They were both naked and they were 'unashamed'.

¹ The serpent, the ‘craftiest’ animal the Lord God made, spoke to the woman mocking the limitation God had placed on ‘His image’. They were free to eat from the trees in the garden (2:9); they were only restricted from eating from the ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil’. In fact, God warned them that if they did they would die! So the serpent mocks the prohibition and then suggests that God was jealously prohibiting them from acquiring the ‘knowledge of good and evil’.  

² The woman tells the serpent they can eat from the trees in the garden ³ but they’re not to eat ‘from the tree in the middle of the garden, or touch it or they’d die.’ So having mocked God’s prohibition, the serpent proceeds to question God’s good intention towards ‘His image’. They were not to eat from the ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil’ but God said nothing about touching it. They were free and had some choices to make among the options available to them. They could eat from any of the other trees and live (2:9). They could even eat from the other tree in the middle of the garden, the ‘tree of life’ and live forever (3:22). Then, of course, they could eat from the ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil’ but they would die!

Was God restricting their freedom and withholding good from them? The serpent claimed they wouldn’t die, but that they would be like God, knowing good and evil. But, everything God created was ‘very good’ and so to seek a source of knowledge independent of God and apart from God’s word was not good; in fact it was ‘evil’! To stand in judgment upon ‘God and His Word’ and align one’s self with the serpent was to rebel against God. So where was Adam and why was he silent? Why isn’t Adam intervening on her behalf? They needed to trust that what God said was good was good and what God said was evil was evil.

⁶ The woman sees the forbidden fruit is pleasing to the eye, good for food and now she sees the fruit as a desirable alternative source of wisdom apart dependence upon 'God and His Word’. Later, revelation would confirm that wisdom begins and ends with the ‘fear of the Lord’ (Proverbs 1:7, 9:10). Unfortunately, the woman aligns herself with the ‘word of the serpent’ so she reaches out and takes some of the fruit and she ate. Where was the silent Adam? Adam was with her and she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he also ate (3:6).

⁷ Now their eyes were opened, but what they gained was the knowledge of their own guilt before God. With their quilt exposed they sew fig leaves together in a futile effort to cover their shame and nakedness. They had been ‘naked’ before but ‘unashamed’ ⁸ but now when they hear God they’re afraid so they hide in the trees. They were supposed to ‘work and take care of’ the trees in God’s garden, but now the trees become a hiding place from God.

⁹ The Lord calls to Adam, “Where are you?” ¹⁰ Adam was afraid because he was naked and so he hid ¹¹ but God came looking for him. Surely the Lord God knows what has happened but He pursues Adam, and so the Lord God is graciously giving Adam opportunity to confess and repent. When the Lord God asks Adam if he had eaten the fruit, ¹² Adam blames it on the woman and on God who put her in the garden.  Adam fails to take personal responsibility; he fails to confess and turn back to God. ¹³ When the Lord God addresses the woman she says, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” She doesn't directly blame God or Adam, but she does blame the deceptive serpent.

¹⁴ God now turns to the serpent who was the agent of Satan (Rev. 12:9). God ‘curses’ the serpent to crawl on its belly and eat dust which symbolizes the ultimate destiny of Satan (Rev. 20:10). The Lord God will put enmity (hatred) between the serpent and the woman and between your offspring (those who will never repent, and demons) and hers (those elect children of Eve, excluding Cain and others. See 1 John 3:12); he (the singular saving seed, Messiah Jesus) will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

¹⁶ The Lord God tells the woman, “I will greatly increase your pain in childbearing; your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” The woman will continue with the privilege of bringing ‘images of God’ into the world but now with severe pain. ¹⁷ The Lord God ‘cursed’ the ground because Adam listened to his wife when she said to eat from the ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil’. God would continue to provide food for Adam but now the ground would produce thorns and thistles. ¹⁹ Adam’s work would include ‘painful toil’ and would be the ‘sweat of his brow’. Now there’s a ‘struggle’ in childbirth, in relationships, and in work that ends in man returning to the dust from which he was made.

²⁰ Adam names his wife Eve because she would be the mother of the living. ²¹ Then the Lord God clothes the couple with animal skins. ²² Here we have a hint at Israel’s ‘sacrificial system’ that would find fulfillment in the ‘crucifixion of Jesus’; the only proper covering for the guilt of our sin. Now the Lord God now doesn’t want them to reach out in their condition and take from the ‘tree of life’ and live forever. Evidently, this would have sealed them in an unhappy state of separation from God. ²³ So the Lord banished Adam and his wife from the Garden of Eden and ²⁴ placed an angel with a flaming sword there to guard the way to the tree of life.

God and man at Creation (Genesis 2).

By the seventh day of creation, God had finished creating his ‘very good’ world. The Lord God placed ‘His image’ in his ‘very good’ world to be His ‘royal representative’ . Man was to do God’s will on the earth in submission to God and His word. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it God rested from his work of creating. 

Now we ‘zoom in’ on in this story on God creating man. Some interpreters labor to reconcile the differences in the creation accounts we found in Genesis 1 and 2. Others, however, see Genesis 1 as a ‘poetic representation’ of creation and they see Genesis 2 as a more straight forward 'narrative’ account. Our concern is to let the story speak to us of a time when there were no shrubs, no plants, no rain and streams watered the ground and there was no man to work it. 

We are told that the Lord God had a garden in Eden that was full of trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden there were two specific trees, the 'tree of life' and the 'tree of the knowledge of good and evil'. The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being. Then God put the man in His garden to work it and take care of it. The Lord God told the man that he was free to eat from any of the trees in the garden with one exception. Of the two trees in the middle of the garden man was not to eat from the ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil’ for if he did so he would surely die (2:15-17). 

As 'God’s image’ the man was to fill the earth with other ‘images of God’ that would do ‘God’s will’ on the earth. Yet, this was a job that the man could not do alone and there was no ‘suitable helper’ for the man. This is the one thing that Genesis 1 and 2 tells us was ‘not good’. The Lord God brought all the animals to the man and the man named them. But, still no ‘suitable companion’ for the man was found. How could he be fruitful and multiply? How could he raise godly offspring and consecrate creation to God filling it with 'images of God' who would do God's will on the earth?

So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep and the Lord God made a woman from the man’s rib. The Lord God brought the woman to the man and 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.” We are told for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, as one flesh. At that time the man and his wife were both naked, and  they were unashamed.

Do you want to do God's will on the earth? We can learn about what God wants us to do from what Adam was supposed to do in that original relationship he had with God. Adam was to create a God-glorying world and culture in submission to God and 'God’s Word'. Yet, if we focus merely on the ‘test’ not to eat the forbidden fruit we will inevitably have a shallow view of what God wants from his followers in redemption. Adam had responsibilities beyond and in addition to 'not eating' from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Moreover, as the ‘redeemed’ followers of Jesus we have responsibilities beyond and in addition to evangelizing and going to church. If we focus on Adam’s general responsibilities at creation we will gain more of what we can say is a 'kingdom focus' in redemption.  In other words, Adam had work and rest, marriage and multiplication which he was to do in submission to 'God and His Word'. Adam was to imitate God’s creative activity by following God's pattern of work and rest and he was to multiple and fill the earth with ‘images of God’ that would do God’s will on the earth.

Adam failed this test by breaking the commandment not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Therefor in the fullness of time it would take a second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, to faithfully obey God even to the point of death on a cross (1Cor.15:45). Now because of Jesus’ death and resurrection which he accomplished on behalf of his people, God through Christ by His word and Spirit is now filling the world with ‘redeemed images’ of God who will do God’s will on the earth. Once we become a ‘redeemed image’ through faith in Jesus can serve His kingdom by ‘sharing this gospel’ but also by seeking to consecrate whatever sphere of influence we have been given before God in submission to 'God and His Word!  

In the beginning God...

This story is coming form  Genesis 1. God creates, by His Word and Spirit, a 'very good' world and He puts mankind in it to be His 'royal representatives' who were to do God's will on the earth. 

The Genesis 1 story tells us that God preexisted all created things, and that all created things are dependent upon God. In the account God is, God acts, God speaks and what God does is good and what God says is good is 'very good'. The story begins in the beginning and it tells us of an uninhabitable earth that was ‘formless and empty’ with the Spirit of God hovering over the chaotic waters. 

We then find God speaking the good ‘light’ into existence which He separated from the darkness; naming them ‘day’ and ‘night’. The next day God spoke an expanse into existence which separated the waters above from the waters below; and called it ‘sky’. On the third day God spoke and gathered the waters below the expanse together and dry ground appeared; which He called ‘land’. God spoke again and the land produced plants, vegetation, and trees. So on ‘Days 1-3’ God addressed the ‘formlessness’ of the earth by speaking the light, the sky and the land into existence.

On ‘Days 4-6’ God spoke and filled the ‘emptiness’ with the sun to govern the day and the moon to govern the night and He also made the stars. The next day God created the fish, sea creatures, and birds and God blessed them and told them to ‘fill’ the seas and ‘multiply’ on the earth. On Day 6, God created the animals and all the various creatures that move on the ground. Then God made mankind, male and female, as equally sharing in the image of God. They were to 'fill’ the earth with images of God, who would do God’s will on the earth. God blessed them and told them to “be fruitful and increase in number, to fill the earth and subdue it. They were to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over all the creatures that moves on the ground.

The Genesis 1 story also tells us that mankind is dependent upon God and responsible to God. Man is who he is in relationship to the 'Creator God'  and man or mankind is also responsible to God. All people are to reflect God; to reflect God's character and His creative activity. All people, no matter their gender, race of economic status are made in 'God's image' . Therefore, all people have dignity and worth and are to be treated accordingly. On the other hand, people are not God, they are dependent upon God for we are only images of God.  

In the ancient world the various ‘kings and pharaohs’ were considered the ‘image of their gods’ who were called to do ‘the will’ of their gods on the earth. The image symbolically represents the land's true ruler or the land’s ‘true king’. The Genesis 1 story makes it clear that ‘all people’, male or female, poor or rich, are the image of God. Not just 'kings and pharaohs' but even those poor Israelite slaves were God’s image and were to do ‘God’s will’ on the earth. According to the story, everything God originally made was ‘very good’. Moreover, God made mankind to be God's 'royal representatives’ and they were to do God’s will on the earth as the ‘stewards’ of God’s good creation. So far, so good!