The LOVE of God - Study Part 2

LOVE:

Now in review of study one. God could have said: "Let Man be created... and have dominion." But that's not what He said. He said: "Let US create Man, in OUR image, after OUR likeness..." And God got down on his hands and knees and formed Man with care from the dirt, as a sculptor spends meticulous time making sure everything is right in his creation.

God walked with Adam in the cool of the day. It seems to indicate that it was his custom so it happened for some time. Adam named all the animals. That took time no matter how fast he talked. And I imagine that he took great care with each name. Choosing just the right one. Then God created Eve. Now no two men or women on this planet ever shared what those two shared. I am quite sure that honey moon was more than the three day weekends many take today.

Adam was given the task of teaching and training this woman on the instruction God gave him. Adam would care for this one as God cared for him. (Ephesians 5:25). So it is, after who knows how many days, that Adam AND Eve are tending Eden and they talked to a snake. Now God warned Adam that this perfect world had trouble. He warned him when he told him to have dominion and subdue. To subdue means to put things down that are out of order. What could be out of order? Lucifer had already fallen from heaven before this creation was under way. Some believe eons before. So there was a warning. Vs 6 tells us that Adam was right there with Eve while she talked to the snake. Why didn't he speak up? Why didn't he correct the situation. Why didn't he subdue?

The Fall:

Nevertheless Adam and Eve are talking to the Snake:

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'?"

4 Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die.

6 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.

We see here in this abbreviated account a few interesting things. Adam was NOT deceived. Eve was. Why does the bible say that sin came through Adam. People often focus on Eve's role in the fall. But Adam was here first. He was given authority. He should have corrected her and the snake. Eve said that God said not to touch it. God never said not to touch it. He said not to eat it. Eve misspoke, Adam didn't correct it, and the snake used that point of entry. 

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."

1 Timothy 2:14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.

Adam heard every word of the snake. He didn't correct Eve because he was tempted by the snake/Satan to do exactly like Satan did when he fell. Satan wanted to over step his bounds and he tempted Adam to do the same. Adam, after all had been created with higher authority than Satan ever had.

Isaiah 14:8-18  13 For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.'

Psalm 8:5 (Hebrew Names Version)5 For you have made him a little lower than God, And crowned him with glory and honor.

Psalms 8 is often mistranslated "lower than angels". This was a religious error by religious translators. The word used here is Elohim. It is the plural/singular for God. It is the same exact word that is used in Gen 1 "...Elohim said: Let us create man in our image..." Psalms is the only place it is mistranslated in all other texts it is God. So man was created a little lower than God. In His Image! Mankind are children of God, Angels are servants. Angels never held the authority that man has held in this earth. Satan wanted Adam's authority. Unfortunately rather than pulling Satan up it only pulled Adam down. Satan has always and will to his last day need Man's authority to do anything on this earth. That is why he came after man.

The Fallout

So Adam took the plunge. He sinned against God. What was his sin? Rejecting God. He rejected God's word, knowledge, and love. He wanted to usurp him. This is where mutiny aboard a ship against her captain originated. Adam didn't trust God and took his own action. All that does not proceed from faith is sin, and you can't disobey God in faith. (Romans 14:23) Therefore this move was a move of doubt in God's will and word. 

Gen 3: 

7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel."

21 Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.

So God stepped in and informed Adam in more detail of what He already told him before. In the day you eat you shall die. "Shall Die" is a Hebrew term from the repetition of the same word "die" twice. Muth Muth. Literally: Die Die. In the day you eat of it, you shall surely Die Die. Meaning: Dying you shall die. That is the literal meaning. Die spiritually, and as death sets in over you and curse envelops you death with reign in you and through you. Eventually your body will give out and you will give up your body completely. God didn't curse Adam. God informed Adam of the curse. God doesn't create anything bad. But sin twists God's things into bad. The Curse was The Blessing that was in Adam. But it had now lost it's source in God and turned to Curse. The Blessing in Adam was so powerful that when it turned to Curse it set the whole planet into a gradual run into Chaos.

So why did God block Adam from the Tree of Life? That was actually God's mercy at work. Jesus knew that if Adam would eat of the Tree of Life and live forever that he would be forever stuck in this condition.

Loves Reaction:

So obviously God's reaction was to whoop Adam and throw that trash out of His garden right? Wrong. That is the way many people view what happened here. They feel that God cursed Adam for his sin. Actually Adam cursed himself by sinning. The Blessing was turned to Curse in Adam. God merely informed him of his condition.

Later He did this same thing for the children of Israel. He told them that Life/Blessing and Death/Cursing was set before them, and it was THEIR choice which they would receive and operate in. (Deut 30:19)

In God's great mercy He stepped in and stopped Adam from eating of the Tree of Life which would have locked his condition into death forever. He immediately pronounced the coming of Jesus to redeem this mess and crush Satan's head. Then he killed animals (The first blood covenant and sacrifice) and covered Adam and his wife. All sacrifices after this would come from this event.

What is that? What did God do? He RAN in after the fall, sought out Adam. Loved him enough to let him know He was coming. He wanted to wrap Adam in his arms and hold him but it would have killed Adam the sinner to be held by a righteous God. So he informed him of his results and gave him the promise of redemption. He immediately set out to re-establish contact and covenant.

We see just one generation later that Cain and Abel are making sacrifices in covenant with God. God seeks us out from moment one. When we fall He is RIGHT THERE to handle it for us. And, under the Grace of Jesus we don't need a covering. We are clean even before we sin. Glory!

So the story of the Genesis 3 is not how evil Satan is, or how disobedient man is. The true story of Genesis 3 is how Good God is. It is about how much He LOVED us. He LOVED so much that he rushed in to deal with the situation and cover mankind in his covenant, re-establish contact, and bring the promise of redemption. God is till rushing in today. When we sin, and the Accuser of the Brethren begins to bring condemnation (which is never of God), God is right there to bring us back in to his arms, if we'll let Him. 

Darrell G. Wolfe