We are going to back up a bit, just before the world was created. You see, in heaven there was God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. (along with Wisdom the angels and a few other characters we see throughout Scripture.)
God the trinity does not have any beginning, nor end which is difficult for our minds to comprehend because we DO have timestamps to our lives. The angels, however were created, but they are different than mankind, have different roles, abilities and even different capacities of choice than man does with their free will and are not living souls as man is.
The top most angel was beautiful. His entire body a musical instrument and when he moved, the wind whistling through his body would bring the most magnificent sounds to the ears around. This angel’s name is Lucifer and he is very cunning.
There came a point in Lucifer’s life that he looked around and saw how amazing he was and felt like HE should be God. That he should be like the most High.
In fact, he said in his 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: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”
And try he did.
In fact he was so convinced in himself that he persuaded 1/3 of the other angels that he should be the one to take the place of their OWN CREATOR! In the gospels it tells us that 12 legions of angels (a legion was a Roman term of about 5,000 men) were ready to come to their creator’s aid so there are at least 20,000 angels who followed Lucifer.
Of course, an angel has no comparison of strength and might to the God who spoke the world into existence and Lucifer, along with all his followers were banished from heaven. Lucifer, the angel of light now became known as Satan, the Devil, the wicked one, the great dragon, ‘a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour’ (and many other names). The angels who followed him are now known as Demons, Devils, Evil Spirits and fallen angels.
Once banished from heaven, Satan and his followers were then cast into the darkness of the atmosphere and also able to find themselves places on earth.
Now, Satan, the self-appointed enemy of God sees this new creation that God made. He sees him create light and time on day one and hear God say, “It is good.” Then He creates the firmament – or sky- on day two and it is good. God gave boundaries to the waters and brings forth dry land and plants on day three and it is good. Day four God makes the sun, moon and stars, institutes signs, seasons, days and years and again it is good. He watches as God creates life in the sea, and then the sky and it is good. God blesses them and commands them to be fruitful and multiply and that’s the fifth day that is good. And Satan hates all of it.
On day six, God reaches down and makes a special creature – man – and this man is in the image of God and is a triune being (Meaning man has three parts, representing the three parts of God) man has a mind, a body and soul. Satan instantly despises him. God then plants a garden, he plants the Tree of Life which bears fruit that causes you to live forever, and he plants the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, along with many many other fruit bearing trees. God then puts Adam in it, telling him to care for this beautiful garden.
He tells Adam he can eat of any of the trees in it, except one, The Tree Of The Knowledge of Good And Evil. God clearly warns Adam that if he does eat it, he will die. God then creates land animals and every creature that creeps upon the earth and brings them to Man to be named. Then God puts Adam to sleep to create the finishing touch of the creation – woman and on the sixth day, God’s creation was finished. It is now complete, and it is good.
On the seventh day, God rests.
Satan has heard and seen enough for him to formulate a plan.
Now, remember how everything is in perfect harmony? There have been no accidents, broken arms, snake bites or anything like that to cause fear or trepidation towards any of the animals. There is perfect unity between God and man. Each evening, God comes down in the cool of the day and walks in the garden with his creation, his friends, the ones He created with complete free will to choose whether or not they will serve him.
Satan, previously Lucifer, was an angel of light who can transform and indwell himself into other things however he needs, but there are always signs to show us who is really hiding behind the mask. He has been waiting and watching, looking for a weak spot. He transforms himself into a Serpent, more subtil than any beast of the field.
One day Adam and Eve are together in the garden when the snake comes up to Eve and the first thing he does is question God.
“Yea, hath God said, ‘Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?'”
Eve replies to him, “We can eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 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.”
Then he contradicts the words Adam was told by God himself,
“Ye shall not surely die:” He starts planting a seed of doubt, “For God knows that in the day you eat then your eyes will be opened, and you will be as gods, knowing good and evil.” A third sign of Satan is he always wants to offer you a position different than what you were designed for – because that is what he wants. Satan wants to be God. A fourth sign is that he will sprinkle just enough truth to make the lie seem plausible.
Eve then looks over at the fruit of the tree again. She sees how beautiful the fruit was. It was ripe, the fruit was colored beautifully and it smelt good. Not only that, but it would make her wise – that was part of its name, wasn’t it?
She reaches out, and picks the fruit, taking a bite and handing one to Adam who is with her, he eats it too.
Once they ate, their eyes were opened. Satan had been right in his own sense, their physical bodies didn’t die, but the thing that differentiated man and woman, the thing that made them able to have this close relationship with God, their living souls had died. Their clothing of righteousness had fallen away because they broke the clear command of God and had sinned.
Sin has now entered into the world, God’s special creation has now killed 1/3 of itself through direct disregard to God’s warning, and both of their eyes were opened to their lack of righteous clothing – their nakedness and for the first time, they felt deep shame.
Now, they have to figure out what to do. Nearby was a fig tree with large, broad leaves so Adam and Eve work together to clothe themselves. They make aprons.
That evening, just like all other evenings, they hear the voice of God walking in the garden and just as people today do when they know in their hearts that they have done wrong, they hide themselves from God. However, it seems like they, as we do today, forget that God is omnipresent (present everywhere at the same time) and omnipotent (having very great or unlimited authority or power) and all knowing. He is also highly forgiving when we ask forgiveness for what we have done.
“Adam, where are you?” God calls through the garden, knowing where Adam and Eve are, but just wanting them to do what they know is right.
“I’m here. I heard your voice and I was afraid. I’m naked, so I hid myself.” Adam responds.
“Who told you that you are naked? Have you eaten of the tree that I told you not to?” God starts at the forefront of the chain of command.
“You don’t understand! The woman you gave me, she handed me the fruit of the tree and I ate it.”
“Woman, what is it that you’ve done?”
“Well, it was the serpent’s fault! He tricked me so I ate it.”
And so God turns to the serpent and in His holy judgement and justice he says to the creature who was supposed to be subdued beneath the man and woman,
“Because you have done this, you are cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of your life. I will put a riviling hateful conflict between your seed and her seed. It shall bruise your head and you will bruise his heel.”
Then God turns to the woman, and with a heavy heart says, “I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children and your desire will be to your husband and he will rule over you.”
Which is not all a curse, In the beginning, that is how the design was, be fruitful and multiply, Adam is the head over Eve, and God over Adam -but now because of Adam and Eve’s actions, sin has entered into the world and the consequences for that sin is sorrow, death, no longer having communication with God and perfect harmony with man. It’s having children and sorrowing over the world they are in now.
God then turns to Adam and says, “Because you listened to Eve’s voice instead of my own, and ate of the tree which I commanded you not to eat of it, cursed is the ground for your sake. In sorrow you will eat of it all the days of your life thorns and thistles shall the ground bring forth and you will eat the herb of the fields. In the seat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground; for out of it were you taken for dust you are and unto dust you will return.”
Again, God is looking at the blessings Adam just forfeited. Part of a perfect world was the blessing of work, of taking care of the ground, of being able to eat the fruit of the field, however now because of Adam’s actions, sin has entered into the world, he is going to have to fight thorns and thistles and sweat and sorrow for the food they get. God also tells them how one day, they will die and return to dust.
Adam then calls his wife’s name, Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
Then, because of sin entering into the world, a holy and perfect God has to be the one to bring forth the first physical death. God kills an animal, the first blood sacrifice for sin, and made coats out of the animal skins and clothed them.
God then evicts Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and placed a Flaming Sword and Cherubims (A special rank of angels) at the entrance to the garden to keep Adam, Eve and their descendants from ever getting to the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life.
So Adam and Eve’s genetics, once perfect, holy and righteous – would now produce children who’s souls were dead. They have the knowledge within them of good and evil, and they are sinners at birth.
All would seem lost, if not for God’s promise to Eve that through childbearing, God would send them a Messiah – a promised one – that would cleanse them of their sins, that would save them from the mess they got themselves in.
wonderfullymadepublication.com 