God's intent was to build a world in which to place His image bearer. He made a world the first three days and filled it with living creatures on days four through six. The seventh day He rested.
Mankind is given the task of doing, in a limited capacity, what God has already done on a grand scale. God has been creative, fruitful, working and resting. Now man is to work creatively, be fruitful, rule wisely and rest. In all of his activities man is to image God.
The garden that God plants is full of abundance and mankind is given the run of the place. He is assigned his task "tend and keep" and he is given a menu "of all these trees you may freely eat." He is prohibited from eating of one tree. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is forbidden. I take this to mean that the one thing man is forbidden, is the right to determine good and evil for himself. The determination of right and wrong, of what is and isn't lawful, is a matter in which the man was to depend entirely upon God to decide. As long as Adam respected this by obeying the prohibition against eating of this particular tree, he demonstrated his willingness to let God be God and to recognize his place as being one of subjection to his Creator.
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if only Eve and Adam hadn't eaten of the tree!!!
ReplyDeleteof course, I suppose someone way down the line would have eventually...hmmm...
Hey Tabitha,
ReplyDeleteI'd given up on this blog because nobody seemed to be following or commenting.
Yea, there are a lot of things we can wish were different. But consider this if sin had never entered the picture there are two things that would never have been revealed to us. One God's wrath against sin. Two, God's grace in redeeming sinners.
As Aslan said, “We can never know what would have happened, Lucy. But what will happen is another matter entirely”
LK
that is all true! And I don't think you should give up on the blog just yet! There are silent readers:)
ReplyDeleteHey Lawrence,
ReplyDeleteI've been pondering about the whole scene of the serpent and Adam and Eve and what went down. In verse 17 it says that God told man(only referring to Adam?) to not eat of the tree. We know Eve was told too because she knew she wasn't supposed to eat of the tree. What i'm picturing is this snake coming up to Eve and as soon as he starts talking I am expecting Adam to come up with a branch or something and whacking this snake before he gets another word in. :) Instead i see Adam sitting on the sidelines, somewhat intrigued and basically watching to see whether his wife dies either by this snake or by disobeying God. If only we could have relationships with people that were strong enough to say hey stop right there you are talking to the devil and about to disobey and disappoint God!I can help you, I want to see you walking with God and in heaven with me someday!
Carolyn,
ReplyDeleteExcellent thoughts.
It would seem that God told Adam not to eat of the tree before Eve was created. She either learned that the tree was forbidden from Adam or from God restating the prohibition to her after she was made.
I agree that Adam was there listening to the conversation between Eve and the serpent (3:6). He had been charged with the responsibility of not only tending the garden but "keeping" it as well. The Hebrew word for keep means to guard or defend. You are right that he should have beat the serpent and protected his wife. Instead he becomes the stereotypical male and abdicates his responsibility to lead and protect. This is why, when God comes to them, he confronts Adam first.