The Everlasting Covenant - 3.0 Adam and Eve in Eden

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3.0 Adam and Eve in Eden
By Hubert F. Sturges. www.everlastingcovenant.com, September 1, 2010

Topics:
Adam and Eve: a Story
In the Image of God
Holy Time: The Sabbath
More about Adam and Eve
God’s Plan for Man in Eden
This story is put together with what is revealed in the Bible and with a little journalistic license. It is important only in that it gives a picture of the relationship God desires with each one of us. This becomes important later as we talk of the place of the Law in the life of the Christian.
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Adam and Eve: a story:

Once upon a time, everything on this earth was perfect. There was plenty of food. The climate was a balmy warm. It was never too hot. Brilliant clouds floated in the sky. There was no pain, sorrow, or death. No one ever got old. And the animals, even the animals eagerly obeyed whatever they were told to do.

At that time only two people lived on this earth, Adam and Eve. They were joyfully happy. They sang while they worked, while they played, and even while they ate. They were not lonely. Angels came to visit, and even God talked with them. Adam and Eve were very intelligent, but there was so much to learn. They were happy to learn all that they could.

Adam liked to remember how it was: The first thing he remembered he was lying on the grass. He couldn’t remember where he was or who he was. But when he looked up there was a tall shining Being looking at him with deep love and approval. Jehovah, the Creator God (1) saw everything that He had made and it was very good (Genesis 1:31). And this last work of His Creation would not just have life, he was also made in the image of God (5). He could think, he could do, he could make decisions, he was aware of himself and of God (Genesis 1:26, 27; 2:7).

Creation was perfect, with no taint of sin. There was beauty in every detail. God said it was very good. Is not Jesus Christ, Jehovah, the Creator God a tall shining Being? Does He not show love and approval? God took personal action by forming man, planting a garden, instructing man, bringing all animal life before Adam to be named, and operating on Adam. Fellowship between God and man was further enhanced when God “walked in the garden in the cool of the day” (Genesis 3:8). This was not a one time occurrence. The interaction between God and man was close and personal (Genesis 1:31; Deuteronomy 6:5).

Adam bonded immediately with his Creator, as all creatures do to their first living contact after birth. This pleased the Creator. They began to visit. They made plans. God instructed Adam. He was to till the garden and to name the animals (2). It was the sixth day of a very eventful week. The next day they would spend in fellowship. The Sabbath was set apart as holy time when (3). Adam would put aside his work, pleasant though it was. He would spend this time getting to know his God better. It was a time to be holy, to honor God (Genesis 2:1-3, 8-9, 15) (4).
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In the Image of God

Adam was created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26, 27). What does this mean? After all, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). How can man be like God in any sense (5)?

Can man be like God physically? Yes! We don’t know what the spiritual body is like. We do know that all the capabilities of our physical bodies are capabilities that God has to a much greater degree. He can hear, He can see, and He can speak. His hand is not shortened that it cannot save (Isaiah 59:1).

Can man be like God mentally? Yes! “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9). We share with God the ability to love, be aware of ourselves, to understand spiritual concepts, to think and to plan. While we share these things with God, His capability is far above ours.

Can man be like God spiritually? Yes! Man has the capability to conceive of the unseen God. He can sense His presence and His guiding. He can understand that the things he sees on this earth come from the hand of the Creator. He has a social consciousness; he can sense the feelings of others. He can discriminate between the common and the Holy. He has a desire for the promised future.

How does this translate into everyday life? Adam and Eve in Eden loved God and patterned their lives on what they understood of God. What God did, they would do to the extent of their capabilities. For God to do something was to them a command to do likewise.
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Holy Time: The Sabbath

This earth was created in six days! Well, not really. There was a very real seventh day that was just as much part of creation as the other six days. Adam was created on the sixth day. His very first full day was the seventh-day, the Sabbath. When God rested on that day, Adam would rest too. God was not physically tired! Neither was Adam. But they rested from a work that God had completed (3).

Did God’s rest then continue throughout history? No! God has continued to be active in the affairs of men all through history. Was the seventh-day Sabbath of Genesis 2:1-3 just for God’s rest? Hardly! God does not get tired? God was setting a pattern for mankind for them to follow. Mark 2:27,28 says that “The Sabbath was made for man.” It was made for man at Creation, and was meant to be a blessing forall men throughout history.

On the seventh-day they put aside common week-day labor. Such labor is not bad. It is doing the work of God in supporting life. But by its very nature common labor tends to focus on common things. On the Sabbath, there would be 24 hours to focus on the reason for labor, on the reason for life. On the Sabbath, they would look away from their necessary labor to learn about God. They would lift their eyes to a higher goal, to become ever more like God in character!

In their Sabbath fellowship with God, they would learn about true love. The kind of love taught by Jesus when He was on earth. They would learn about true service to others. How in their labors they would not seek to accumulate the best for themselves, but would seek for ways to help others. It was an exhilarating experience. To spend a whole day focusing on God’s purpose for their lives.

The Sabbath was for man to be a covenant of ownership. “I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people!” As the disciple Thomas said, our response too is: “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). And as God has promised, He will make of us to be a peculiar treasure, a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation (Exodus 19:5,6).
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More about Adam and Eve

During the coming days, Adam gave names to all the creatures that God had made. He was to till the garden, and to have dominion over all the creatures that God had made. Adam noted that he was different from all the animals on one very important aspect. They all had mates and he had none. Many of the animals were beautiful and affectionate. But none provided the remedy for a longing he felt in his heart. In one of his daily visits he brought up the subject with God. And God agreed. “None of the beasts, beautiful though they are, will make a companion for you. And I wanted you to know this and to never forget it. I will make a helper who is appropriate for you” (Genesis 2:19-20).

God then put Adam to sleep, took a rib from his side and made the woman, Eve (Genesis 2:21,22). After her creation, Eve, too, first saw God and bonded to Him. After a short very private conversation, she was told that there was “someone” God wanted her to meet. And He “brought her unto the man.” (7)

Adam and Eve thrilled at what God had done. Their love and appreciation knew no bounds. As they tended the garden together, they prepared special places where they could visit with God. The garden rang with songs of praise that they had composed. Even the animals crowded around to get in on the action.

Without question, Jehovah, the Creator God was also Father, Brother, and Best Friend. He was everything to them and the focus of their lives. God Himself was very pleased. In their visits, His love and approval would surround them as a warm blanket. They belonged to Him. Seeing Him was always the high point of their day. Read the story from Genesis 1:26 to 3:8.

The story of Adam and Eve shows the kind of friendship God wants with His people. God did not create this earth, then walk off and leave everything to run itself. No! He was very interested. He continued to work with the flowers and trees, the animal creation, and especially with men and women. God even had a covenant with Adam and Eve. We’ll talk about that a little later (7).

Of even more importance we learn that man came from the hand of God, perfect and without blemish. In Genesis chapter three we learn that disease and death result from sin. The theory of evolution tries to tell us that violence, disease, and death are natural. Even sin, they say, is a natural part of the picture. They claim that through these same natural processes the world and mankind is improving.

The problem with this is that evolutionists generally refuse to consider the actions of God in creating this earth. Their theory leaves no room for the fall of man and the need for a Redeemer. Thus the Bible becomes irrelevant. Possibly the biggest problem is that this earth is NOT getting better and we see increasing decay, disease, and death on every hand. Our only hope is not in science, education, or civil laws. Our only hope is in the covenant that God made to restore in man the image of God, and to take back everything that was lost by sin
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God’s Plan for Man in Eden

The Creative ability of God is beyond understanding. It doesn’t fit with reality as we experience it. Yet for each of the six days of Creation week the Bible used the expression “and the evening and the morning” to mark each day. This expression shows that each day was a twenty four hour day just as we know it today!

Creation is something that we cannot explain. All the findings of science fail to tell us how it was done. Evolution is an attempt to explain that the earth created itself through eons of time – but this is even more unbelievable than to accept just what the Bible says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). While on this earth six days passed, God was not bound by time for His work of Creation.

In giving freedom of choice God was sharing with man a prerogative of Creation. Man could be creative, do new things, think new thoughts, and create new beauty. All of this he would do to bring praise and thanksgiving to that center of his being – God Himself. And since all knowledge, all wisdom, and all science were created by God there was nothing outside of God except self (5).

Why did God create angels and man? And, why did He give these beings the power of choice?
Knowing His character that God is love, we can safely say that Creation was an expression of that love. God gave the power of choice that man might return to Him intelligent love and praise (8).

God could have created man and restricted his choice so that he could not sin.  This would mean that man did not have a true power of choice.  He would serve God only by instinct.  The love of God is such that He has chosen to base the government of all the universe on love, freedom, enthusiasm, praise, and worship.  When man sinned, God valued these aspects of His government so much that Jesus became part of the human race to show that the law of God can be kept by grace (8).  And He would make the sacrifice on Calvary to pay the penalty of the broken law.  All that was lost in Eden would be restored.

In creating man lay imbedded the chance that man would choose wrong. From this would follow the incarnation, suffering, and death of the Son of God. The deep reasons for creation are a mystery, but we believe them to be grounded in God’s love, and in His desire to share with others the life that is His. “Because I live,” said Christ, “ye shall live also” (John 14:19).
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