Genesis 3:2-5 comments: ye shall not surely die

2  And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3  But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4  And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5  For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

Satan makes the woman, whom we later know as Eve, part of his deception, his con-game. We learn in verse 6 that Adam is with her, even though it is often told by preachers that Adam could not possibly have stood by and watched his wife get sucked into the con but later we also see that Adam is quick to blame even God for his actions. Adam is not tricked here, as we understand by what Paul said in a letter to Timothy. He stands by and watches what his wife is being pulled into.

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

 Eve acknowledges that she and Adam are permitted to eat of every tree but one. In fact, she goes beyond what God actually said, in neither shall ye touch it. We often do that with doctrine. God ordains a thing and we go beyond what He said to satisfy our own imaginings, making our new-improved rule God’s standard, when in reality, we have played the part of Eve.

Here, then, Satan makes a shocking statement, calling God a liar or calling into question what God meant by what He said. This is one of the most profound examples of wickedness in history, repeated by every drunk and drug addict before they take their first drink or shoot-up the first time, every sexually immoral person considering their lust, every teenaged boy with a heavy foot on the gas pedal, and every hot-tempered man of violence. Ye shall not surely die. Oh yes, you will, Sparky.

Some people might claim that Satan is telling Eve that they have misunderstood what God meant by what He said but what God said was so clear as to not be uncertain at all. Satan simply denies that what God said was true.

Satan basically tells them that God has tricked them and what He is doing is preventing them from being as gods themselves, having a knowledge of good and evil. Their eyes would be opened. But, while what he is suggesting seems desirable, being as gods, knowing good and evil comes at a price too horrible to contemplate, for death is at the end of that road. To disobey God when there was only one thing you could do on earth that constituted disobedience and the consequence of that one thing was too high a price to pay for such knowledge was the great tragedy of history.

We believe that we must have what we want and to get it we are willing to either deny that what God says will happen will actually happen, or as in the following passage, we simply justify it in our mind.

Genesis 3:1 comments: The Big Sting

1 ¶  Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

Subtil or subtilty, our modern subtle or subtlety, refers to a shrewd and clever individual, sly in plotting and schemes. This is someone who is full of guile and devices to corrupt and pervert those around him. His type is almost applauded in our culture as resourceful and a “winner” and someone who is likely to get the upper hand.

That Satan came in the guise of a serpent has long been understood by Christians. A serpent, in the history of the mythologies of the world, can also be a dragon and called a worm. It is a powerful motif in many cultures. This is not merely a talking snake. This serpent would have been a magnificent creature.

In the books of Isaiah and Ezekiel the prophets the writers may be talking about a human king and yet also give a description of Satan himself as human kings are often possessed of the traits and self-aggrandizing characteristics of Satan. This is part of the multi-dimensional layout of the Bible. Where the author is giving a description of Satan, as well, is clear to most readers. Here are some descriptions of Satan buried in writing about a human king.

Ezekiel 28:11 ¶  Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 12  Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. 13  Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. 14  Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. 15  Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. 16  By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. 17  Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. 18  Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. 19  All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.

Isaiah 14:12  How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 13  For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 14  I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. 15  Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

In these passages you get a glimpse of Satan’s majestic appearance, his original position, and his pride. One can imagine him resenting man’s position as having dominion over God’s creation greatly and plotting a way to take man’s place. Satan envies not only Adam. He envies God. It is that pride and ambition that has condemned him.

Satan twists God’s words in his trick. Did God say you can’t eat of every tree in the garden? The ultimate con-man will let his mark talk themselves into the deception. In this way the woman becomes part of the con.

Genesis 2:21-25 comments: one flesh

    21 ¶  And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 22  And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto 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. 24  Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. 25  And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

The Creator made the human female from the bone of a male. Woman is the only creature not made directly from the ground. She was made from material already present in the man. What is truly important about this passage is the fact that this is the pattern for marriage before God, the union of a man and a woman as one flesh, this union being the consummation of the marriage. There are a great many sermons to be had in this passage but I will try to avoid sermonizing so as not to take away from what the text literally says. Suffice it to say that many days of sorrow could have been avoided in a young man or woman’s life if they had gone to sleep in a manner of speaking and let God bring them a mate and many an unhappy marriage could have been happier if a young man or a young woman had been capable of leaving the control of their mother and father to start a new life together.

In their original state of innocence the man and the woman had no sense of shame for their nakedness. There were no inhibitions for them in that regard.

Genesis 2:18-20 comments: first creatures named

18 ¶  And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. 19  And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. 20  And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.

The word meet means worthy or useful in this context. Here it does not mean to run into someone by accident or design nor is there such a word in the Bible as, “helpmeet.” A help is a person who helps. The following verses reveal one way the Bible defines itself, that is by word substitution. Notice the two words I have put in bold print.

Matthew 3:7 ¶  But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8  Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: 9  And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

Luke 3:7  Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8  Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

The power to name represents the power to have dominion over just as the power to tax represents the power to govern. God gives Adam the power to name, not just a label, but recognition of what the beast is in relation to man. God therefore defines animals in the Bible in reference to their relation to agricultural man and military man, as in beast of the forest and beast of the field and function as in a fowl flying, which includes a bat in Leviticus 11, or a fish swimming in the sea which includes a whale comparing Jonah 1:17 and Matthew 12:40. Modern taxonomic classifications having to do with species, family, order, etc. are post-Bible terms that man uses to categorize animals in certain ways that are different from the Bible’s categories. In the Bible, as in modern day reality a beast of the forest is not going to pull your plow as a matter of rule. Here is a reference by God Himself to what we would call a rhinoceros today, which had a much larger range of existence in early days as shown by the Lascaux Cave paintings in France.

Job 39:9  Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? 10  Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee? 11  Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him? 12  Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?

Although Adam did give names to everything there was not found one creature that was useful or worthy to be his co-administrator over God’s creation as the stewards of God’s earth.

Genesis 2:16-17 comments: in the day that thou eatest

16 ¶  And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

This barrier, so to speak, of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, a real literal, tree, is very important. Mankind was not to reach beyond that barrier. Obedience to God presents blessings and eternal life. Disobedience was a barrier to the fellowship with God that eternal life depended on. God told mankind’s first representative, Adam, not to eat of it. God would grant all things to him and, by extension, to us but we were to obey. There was no law, no rules, no restrictions, no commandments, save this one thing, along with being fruitful and multiplying which seems more of a permission as it carries more obvious benefits, joys, and pleasures.

For a Christian to obey God requires belief, faith, and an expectation of things to come, which benefits are not always apparent. Our choices, our pleasures and entertainments, our professions, and those things and people we surround ourselves with often appear to us to be simply a matter of our own will. However, if we do not choose based on our obedience to God, if our free will is not harnessed to what God has ordained, then we will give the illusion of the goodness of our own will power over us. The end result of our own will, being corrupted by sin, is more sin, and disaster. Of course, this can be complicated by a so-called man of God dictating his will to a congregation as a substitute for God’s, even saying that the so-called man of God is repeating something that God has laid on his heart when it is his own prejudices, bigotry, fear, and self-righteousness that is being expressed. This is done for the purposes of control and self-justification. It is very important, therefore, to know what the Bible says so you can compare everything said to God’s word.

God said that Adam would die if he ate of the tree and he began dying that very moment he ate of it. The penalty for his disobedience was death. Dying is a process. In a way, we begin dying as soon as we are born. With each cell division and in each generation mankind passes on more and more deleterious mutations, so much so that some researchers into genetics have been alarmed at the accumulated damage and amazed that human beings have not become extinct because of it. (19) We will see a statement in a few verses that shows that future generations have the image or appearance of God that Adam had lacking in respects in them.

(19) Alexey S. Kondrashov, “Contamination of the Genome by Very Slightly Deleterious Mutations: Why Have We Not Died 100 Times Over?” Journal of Theoretical Biology, (1995) vol. 175, pp. 583-594.  James F. Crow, “The High Spontaneous Mutation Rate: Is it a Health Risk?” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, (Aug 1997) vol. 94, pp. 8380-8386.

The process of dying, mutations, decay, old age, disease, and death are the profound consequences of this disobedience. Death is the great plague of life.

Hebrews 2:15  And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

To eat of this particular tree was disobedience to God. Disobedience to God is sin. Death is the result of sin.

Romans 6:23  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Genesis 2:8-15 comments: eastward in Eden

8 ¶  And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9  And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. 10  And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. 11  The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; 12  And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. 13  And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. 14  And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates. 15  And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

Speculation is rampant as to where the Garden of Eden was located. However, the destruction wrought by the Flood of Noah’s time has erased all traces and, even if it had not, there are cherubim keeping it from being seen by us as you will see later. The fact of later place names of Eden given to locations in the ancient world or that name given to a person is not a guide as today we see how memory of times past leads us to name towns and places in America after European places and cities. Whether it be New York, New York or Hanover, Pennsylvania the newer place was named after a memory of the older. I believe that Eden is now in the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, based on what the Bible says in Revelation literally. The word paradise comes to us from the Persian for a type of large garden or park, typically a hunting preserve for them.

General locations of these rivers are given, hard to pin down today, which indicate a general location for Eden. It was in the Middle East. I would suspect by all of the references in the Bible to how special Jerusalem is that there was a beautiful garden planted by God that encompassed thousands of square miles in the vicinity of Israel and the land promised to Abraham’s descendants. This is the part of earth that concerns God the most as this is the location for the drama revolving around His restoration of mankind to where they were meant to be, but not by their own doing, but by His actions.

Not only did God plant beautiful, life-giving trees for food in this garden but the Tree of Life was there. It is now in the heavenly city.

Revelation 2:7  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

Revelation 22:2  In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations…14  Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

Eating of the fruit of the Tree of Life restores the body and permits the person to inhabit a physical body forever.

Genesis 3:22  And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

So, clearly this is like some tree you have never seen and has not ever been classified by a scientist.

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is the one that was in the event that cursed our ancestors and us to death and dying. Why, we ask, was it called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? The fruit imparted no knowledge. The simplest answer is that not eating of the tree, obeying God, is good, and eating of the tree, disobeying God, is evil. Doing what God said to do and not doing what God said not to do is the essence of good and evil. The easiest way for Satan to undercut that, and we will see this shortly, is to call into question what God said.

When you know, from reading the Bible, that God says to love your enemies and you hate even those who disagree with you, much less those who would do you hurt you have made the evil choice because you are disobeying God.

Matthew 5:43 ¶  Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 44  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45  That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 46  For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? 47  And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? 48  Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

When you have read the book of Job and know that God is angry at those who misrepresent Him and yet you, when somebody suffers, think you know what secret sin they are hiding that makes them worthy of their pain, you are choosing evil. Evil is malicious, meaning disaster, calamity, and trouble. Like vengeance, it is God’s prerogative those who oppose Him. It is not your right to express, particularly in the congregation of the Lord.

For us, in the context of our behavior in the congregation of the Lord, the local church, we are not to even allow the appearance of such malice to express itself, but we have failed in that, have we not?

1Thessalonians 5:22  Abstain from all appearance of evil.

Romans 12:17  Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.

Which way have you chosen?

If you wish to get snarky about the Law given to Moses, the religious and civil law for the Hebrews, and start using examples from there to point out things about killing Canaanites or stoning wayward children, understand first that, for Christians;

Galatians 3:24  Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25  But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

The laws given to Moses are not your marching orders unless those commands are repeated by Jesus, Paul, Peter, John, Jude, and James under the new covenant.

Mankind’s first job, his constant employment, was to care for the Garden of Eden. What a wonderful, unmodern, thought. Imagine the lack of running around like a madman, keeping schedules, cellphones, televisions, timeclocks, deadlines, and greed.

Genesis 2:4-7 comments: man becomes a living soul

4 ¶  These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, 5  And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. 6  But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. 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 soul.

In verse 4 we have another use of the word day, as a period of time rather than a 24-hour day. It is also used later in the Bible for the time of God’s judgment on a gentile nation or Israel.

Isaiah 34:8  For it is the day of the LORD’S vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.

There are three heavens; the atmosphere, outer space, and, “the abode of God and the blessed dead,” as I once read it called. The account in Genesis, chapter 1, refers to the creation of the first two.

2Corinthians 12:2  I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.

Of course the third heaven is not mentioned because it had to exist prior to the creation of things physical. The sons of God, spiritual beings who are represented by angels, rejoiced to see the creation of the earth.

Job 38:7  When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Genesis, chapter 1, presents literally a view of the creation of the physical universe and biological life.

Verse 5 is another example of how vastly different the earth was at the beginning as God watered the seeds of what He created with a mist to water the ground and there was no rain. The reason given is that there was not a man to work the ground that God had created. Plant life was created on the third day while man is not created until the sixth.

The first man was created from the dust of the ground. Perhaps we moderns can think of that as the elements of the earth. Man is a creature created from that which was already formed. This first man became a living soul when God breathed into him. These are first things, the original seeds of plants, before they grew, watered by the mist and man becoming alive when given breath. Some have used this to say that a baby isn’t alive until it breathes due to man not being a living soul until he breathed for the first time. But, like the mist that watered the ground the first man’s entry into the status of living was a one-time thing at the very beginning and can hardly be considered as a justification for abortion as awareness, the essence of a baby’s consciousness, or of God’s knowledge of the unborn’s condition, is present regarding the unborn child from then on.

Regarding the unborn John the Baptist;

Luke 1:44  For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.

And the prophet, Jeremiah;

Jeremiah 1:4 ¶  Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 5  Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

At least since Darwin’s time science has grown to theorize that mankind descended, along with modern apes, from an ape-like creature, through stages of mutations that helped move him forward from the primitive ape to man in a process of evolution called natural selection. However, evolutionists also accept the contradictory evidence that man is vastly different from an ape. For instance, on the site, macroevolution.net, that postulates the idea that humans are hybrids, the result of matings between pigs and chimps, it is noted that one reason for that conjecture is the tremendous difference between man and primates. Many stark as well as subtle differences are listed on the website between man and primates.(17)

We have been bombarded in the popular culture with statements about how we share 98% of our genes with chimpanzees. However, scientists also say we share genes with the Swedish mudworm so does that mean we are descended from mudworms?(18) Years ago scientists argued that so-called Neanderthals differed from modern humans by so much that we could not be related, however, the point spread they noted from a genetic perspective was no more than that which existed between populations of chimpanzees and they were still chimpanzees. What lies under the surface is not the possession of similar building materials but that a bus stop, a tool shed, a house, and a civic center, while using similar materials are vastly different structures. So, with genes, it is not the possession of similar genes or the same genes but the expression of those genes.

In any event, evolution as the development of mankind from worms to ape-like creatures to Neanderthals to brain surgeons is a fairy tale for adults who are justifiably terrified of God’s judgment but just haven’t come to terms with their terror. Believe the Bible and your hold on truth is secure while modern man dances like a dervish around you into oblivion.

2Timothy 1:7  For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

Man was created directly by God on the sixth day of creation.

(17) Eugene M. McCarthy, PhD in Genetics, http://www.macroevolution.net/human-origins.html (accessed 5.17.2016).

(18) “Humans Related to Humble Mudworm,” BBC News, 21 Aug 2003. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3170245.stm