Friday, February 23, 2007
On the sixth day of creation, after God had made a wonderful, beautiful, perfect world, filled with food, rippling grass, singing birds, and blooming flowers; the rivers, lakes and seas filled with colorful darting fish; the skies lightened by the glowing sun by day and the night by the silver moon and twinkling stars. It was perfect, but now God created the animals, big ones and little ones. Interesting animals like the kangaroo and the platypus. And He looked and everything was good. But He wasn’t finished yet.
And God formed man out of the dust of the earth. Can’t you just picture that? The God of the universe got down and got His hands dirty to create a man. My son used to always ask me to tell him the story of the mud people. He had figured out very early in life that God must have used mud to keep this figure together.
After He had sculpted this perfect being, made in His own image, able to procreate, able to love, able to reason, then He put His mouth on this mud person and breathed in the breath of life. What a lot of value He placed on this creature He had created. What a lot of value He places on you and me!
Can you imagine Adam’s first thought when he opens his eyes and there is the king of the universe face to face with him. I imagine that Adam was full of questions and so curious about everything. And as God makes all the animals pass before Adam so that Adam can name them, I can imagine what fun they had.
After Adam realized that all the animals were in pairs, then he realized that he was alone, he was one of a kind. Again, I see God’s perfect plan revealed. How much more Adam valued Eve after he knew what it was like to be alone. And God created Eve out of Adam’s rib, which I believe was taken from his left, by his heart and from under his arm. God certainly uses pictures and events to show us what He wants. Adam was to know that Eve was part of him, to be treated as well as he treated himself, for whatever he did to her he was doing to himself. She came from near his heart so that he would remember to love her; she came from under his arm so that he would remember to care for her; she came from his side so he would remember that they were partners.
Once again, Adam wakes up, and this time God has a gift for him. His wife! What a wonderful day they all had, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the angels, and Adam and Eve. I can picture the sun going down and all of them singing songs of joy and praise! Then waking up the next day to the Sabbath, a day for all of them to spend getting to know each other better; getting to know the world God had made, better.
All this was theirs to care for. Adam was given “dominion” over the birds, fish, animals, everything. The whole world was his kingdom for as long as he obeyed God’s law which was encapsulated in just one rule: don’t eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. As long as he obeyed that one command he could remain in his beautiful world, content and able to talk to God face to face. Obedience to that commandment showed that Adam loved God and trusted Him. Just like our obedience today of God’s law shows that we love Him and trust Him to care for us.
We don’t know how long Adam and Eve were in the garden. Some Jewish traditions have them sinning on the first Friday they were there, but that makes no sense. Other traditions have it that they were in the garden for 49 years before they sinned. But however long it was, they spent every day together in the company of God and angels. How they must have enjoyed that beautiful world God created for them. Sometimes I see a beautiful part of our earth and I just marvel at it, and yet, it is extremely ugly compared to what it was 6,000 years ago.
One day Eve wandered away from Adam. God had told them to stay together and to stay away from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The only commandment they had was not to eat from the tree, but He gave them guidelines to help protect them from the temptation to sin. That is what I believe “standards” are. In themselves some of the things we do aren’t wrong or sinful, but they put us in a position where sin become easier. So it was with Eve. I don’t imagine that the first time she left Adam’s side she high-tailed it to the tree of good and evil. Maybe the first time they separated it was for only a few minutes while she finished up what she was doing and he began another task. However it happened, one day Eve found herself alone. I imagine that it scared her and she felt apprehensive, but probably told herself that she was just as smart as Adam, had spent just as much time with God and was therefore capable of resisting temptation on her own.
So often in my life I ignore the guidelines, perfectly sure that I am capable of knowing right from wrong and able to resist temptation. But, as the story of Eve proves, when we go contrary to what God has said we get into BIG trouble. And so, as Eve wandered around the garden, probably a little excited about being on her own, she wandered by the tree of good and evil. Here she made another mistake, she stopped and looked at the tree. It was probably very lovely, as all God’s creation is. She probably looked at it from all angles, trying to figure out what was so different about that tree that they weren’t allowed to eat from.
Suddenly, she heard a voice. It wasn’t God, Adam or any of the angels. It was a voice she didn’t recognize and she was instantly curious so she looked to see who was talking to her. She was totally surprised to see that a serpent was speaking. In all the time in the garden, not one of the animals had spoken, and yet, here was this serpent speaking to her. Tradition has it that this serpent had wings (you can see in motifs from
God had warned Adam and Eve that an enemy was lying in wait to tempt them to sin. He told them to stay away from the tree and to be very careful. But she must have imagined that nothing bad could come from such a beautiful creature, and besides, it could talk, so it must be good. Again, as I look at my life I see how many times I’ve been beguiled by things that appear to be good and yet are so bad.
Eve then made another mistake, she engaged in conversation with the serpent. After all, he was saying something that wasn’t true: “Has God said, ‘You shall not eat from ANY tree of the garden’?” So Eve had to set it straight: “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.’”
Eve in her desire to correct the serpent, overstated what God had said. He said don’t eat from the tree, and Eve said don’t touch the tree. And here was this serpent in the tree, touching the fruit, and not only didn’t it die but it could now talk. How amazing. What could she do if she ate from the tree? So she took the fruit. It didn’t kill her, so she ate the fruit and took some to her husband and he ate it also. And, although they didn’t die that day, they did become mortal and the dying process began.
After they ate the fruit they realized they were naked. The light of God’s glory, which had covered them, had disappeared and now they were naked. So they got leaves from the trees and tried to cover themselves. And, to top it all off, when God came walking in the garden that evening, they hid from Him. They actually hid from their Creator, their best friend. How sad. How much they had lost by disobeying God’s commandment.
And here we see the grace of God and the whole story of salvation. After He pronounced sentence upon them, He killed a lamb, the first creature ever to die, and from its skin He made clothes for Adam and Eve. He told them that the lamb that had been killed was a symbol of the Lamb that would come from heaven, His only Son, and would die so that they could be covered by His righteousness. They could never work their way back into the garden because an angel stood at the gate with a flaming sword to block the entrance. All the leaves they put on themselves could never hide the fact that they had lost God’s presence and were totally exposed. But, His Son, the Lamb of God, would come to earth; would live a perfect life; and would cover all who accept Him with His blood and His perfect life and so they would no longer be exposed. Then He instructed Adam and Eve to offer lambs as sacrifices, as symbols that they accepted the blood of the Lamb to cover them and to cleanse them from sin. Someday, if they were faithful they would return to their garden home.
I love this story. And I love the way the Bible is organized. In Genesis 1-3 we see God creating the heavens and the earth; He creates man and puts them in a garden home and God comes down and spends time with them. Then we go to Revelation 21 and 22. God creates a new heaven and a new earth and He brings His throne to earth to live with man. Just as in Genesis 3 there is a lamb that is killed, in Revelation 21 and 22 the Lamb is victorious and His people are with Him.
What amazing grace! He is the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” Revelation 53:7.
Isaiah 53:1-12 – “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. 3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs. And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. 9 And they F65 made His grave with the wicked-- But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. 11 He shall see the labor of His soul, F66 and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.”
Please remember how much God the Father and Jesus, God the Son, love you and that He has a plan for your life and can work miracles for all who trust in Him.
Labels: forgiveness, God's grace
