Tuesday, April 17, 2007

A Study in Genesis





Genesis 2:15-17 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. 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.

So God made man and gave him a job to do! We didn't let this little fact slip by us did we? Some people believe that work was one of the curses that God placed on man for disobedience. Well, no, that not really quite right. If you looked at Gen. 3:17 you would find that God cursed the ground and man would eat of the herbs in sorrow. In verse 18 we find that it brought thorns and thistles and man would eat his bread by the SWEAT of his face.

In the garden man had the simple task of keeping it up and watching over it in a very friendly environment. After the curse the ground was going to fight back! Anyone who tries to raise a crop or garden knows this is still the case. You will fight and sweat for all you get out of the ground. You let it rain for a week or two to the extent you can't weed and see what happens. Don't spray your plants and see what happens. Let a drought come and see what happen. You will either work and sweat or you won't reap any benefits from what you planted.

Adam was blessed with having a garden under perfect conditions and hard toil was unknown to him. With the garden came also a stipulation. Help yourself to all but one tree. "Adam, you can eat to your heart's desire until you get to that tree over there and that is the tree of knowledge of good and evil." "Don't taste that one or you are going to die 'in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die'". Notice God said "surely die"!

Here we have another example where people think the Bible is in error since we see in Genesis 5:5 that Adam died at the age of 935 years yet God told him he was going to surely die the day he ate the forbidden fruit.

In order to answer this we must first realize man is by nature a 3 fold being. Body, soul and spirit.(1 Thess. 5:23) In order to see the truth of all this we need to look at other verses as well (scripture with scripture).

Romans 7:9-11 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. 10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. 11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Here Paul, a walking, talking, breathing human says he has been slain. Slain by sin through knowledge of the law. Adam had one and only one law he had to keep. He disobeyed, broke that law and something within him died. Yes he moved and breathed and carried on as a live person but he was spiritually dead! He had become separated from God!

Ok so Adam died a spiritual death immediately upon eating the fruit but there really is more. Adam also died a physical death in the "day" he ate of the fruit. 2 Peter 3:8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

What was Adam's life span? Wasn't it 935 years? Isn't that less than 1,000 years, or less than one day in God's prophetic time table? Ok, quick now, how many people have ever lived one full day of God's prophetic time?

If you said none then congratulations you do know some bible. :) In Genesis 5:27 you find the oldest man to ever live. Methuselah, and he died at 969. Not one cotton pickin' man who was born of the seed of Adam has made it one full day. We are all sinners and we have the curse on us and until we have that curse removed we will have a very short life span. Thanks be unto God that we can have an expectation of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That day will be one long eternal day (Rev. 21:25, Rev. 22:5).

By Hillbilly


Poetry Corner

Garden Setting

Long ago- there were secret smiles and love
Long ago-blessings reached us from above
In the Garden of Eden
Created by God
Who breathed life into man
With purpose and plan
Garden setting spoiled – God was betrayed
... for mankind disobeyed.



Today – We have secret smiles and love
Today- blessings reach us from above
On this beautiful earth…
Was a miraculous birth
Our Saviour - born here for man
Gethsemane-part of His plan
Garden setting holy – Saviour prayed…
Healed souls now saved.




Luke 22: 44
And being in an agony he prayed
more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling
down to the ground.



Julie Pisacane © 2006
Julie's Poetry