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The
Bible tells us the name of the first human being ever
created was Adam, meaning the produced or created one.
His was a name that reflected his earthly origin; for
Adam, the Bible tells us, was created from the dust of
the ground and placed in a garden by his creator, the
Lord God. Adam was given the work of tending and keeping
the garden; and also, of naming the animals that roamed
freely throughout it.
In time, Adam came to see that he was unique upon the
earth. There were no other creatures like him. The Lord
God had led Adam to the realization that he needed a
helper, one who could dwell with and work alongside him.
Finally, the day came when the Lord God caused a deep
sleep to fall upon Adam. Then he removed from Adam a
rib, and with that rib the Lord created Eve. Adam
rejoiced when the Lord God brought Eve to him; and just
as he had named all the other creatures, he gave Eve her
name, life-giver. Eve was bone of his bone, she was like
him, and Adam was now blessed with a companion.
Both Adam and Eve, the Bible tells us, were naked and
were not ashamed. Much like small children, they roamed
the garden, completely innocent and unafraid.
Unfortunately, that condition did not last long.
While the garden was a safe haven, and almost everything
in it was placed at the disposal of Adam and Eve, there
was a fruit-bearing tree that the Lord God had placed
off limits to them. That tree is referred to in the
bible as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Adam and Eve were to have nothing to do with the fruit
from that tree; and the admonition from the Lord was so
strong that if they broke it, the Lord told them, they
would die. For the naïve young couple who knew so little
of life, abiding by that admonition was purely an act of
obedience, for they had no experience, as yet, to
understand or really fear death.
In their innocent, youthful state, Adam and Eve were
given a simple rule by the one who had created them,
much like parents give their children simple rules in
modern families rules that innocent minds can follow
so that they can begin to understand the rudimentary
principles of life. The Lord, according to Eve, had
said, “don’t eat, don’t touch!” And He had laid down a
punishment so severe they would be motivated to obey.
Parents now-a-days might tell their children if they do
” thus and such” they will be sent to their room.
Parents understand the importance of teaching their
children obedience that later on will serve to guard
their lives from grave consequences. The Lord God was no
different when it came to Adam and Eve.
Eve, having been created after Adam, no doubt looked up
to him; but also she noticed the way the Lord laid so
much of the responsibility for their lives at Adam’s
feet. She could see a special bond in that relationship
that did not always extend to her. One day, as she
walked alone through the garden, she passed by the
forbidden tree. As she contemplated it, a serpent’s
voice softly hissed to her from amongst its branches.
Eve listened as the voice told her that what the Lord
had said to her about the fruit was not true, that He
did not want her to eat the fruit because if she did,
she would be like Him, full of knowledge, understanding
both good and evil. The voice told her she would not die
from eating the fruit – that it was good for her. Eve
was intelligent; she desired knowledge. She wanted to
understand life, to be wise; and so she listened, then
she picked the fruit. Eve was enchanted by its beauty,
and looked at it for a moment, probably enjoying how it
felt in her hand, cool and inviting, and then she ate of
it. She did not die, then.
Adam, who came upon the scene shortly after, found Eve
holding the fruit with the telltale bite missing. Seeing
Adam’s eyes widen in fear, Eve gave the fruit to him,
already demonstrating she was wiser now than he; for she
was proof the Lord had not told them the truth, she had
not died. The Bible tells us Adam ate of it also.
The Lord Means What He Says
Adam and Eve, having eaten from the fruit of the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, lost their innocence
almost immediately. The trusting, childlike attitude
they had both possessed only a few moments before now
fled from them; and they looked at each other, naked and
vulnerable. As fear crept in, their first impulse was to
hide themselves. They understood enough to know the Lord
God would not be happy with them. Both their consciences
began to feel the weight of disobedience; and much like
children who wish to hide from their parents when they
break their parents’ rules, the disobedient pair reached
for something to wrap around themselves, finding only
fig leaves to use as a cover. Using tendrils of vines,
they sewed the leaves together until they had enough
patchwork to cover themselves, and still they continued
to hide – from the Lord.
As the pair concealed themselves among the trees of the
garden, they heard the Lord calling to them. Knowing
already what the two had done, the Lord asked them if
they had eaten of the forbidden fruit. Adam spoke first,
placing the blame for his actions squarely upon Eve.
Next Eve spoke, blaming the beguiling serpent that had
hidden within the branches for her disobedience. They
both stood, covered in leaves, cast down, afraid, and
unable to accept the responsibility for what they had
done. Suddenly, it did not seem so important to them to
possess the knowledge of good and evil: they would
rather be the two innocent children they had once been,
but there was no going back.
As in any instance when children break their parents’
rules, Adam and Eve were informed by the Lord of the
consequences of their actions. Eve was told she would
not ever be out from under her husband’s dominion – he
was to have rule over her. And she learned of her
childbearing, of how it was to be a painful experience,
and of how her experience as a mother would be full of
sorrow.
Adam, on the other hand, who would now have the upper
hand, learned that he was going to have to earn the
living for the two; and that doing so would not be easy.
Instead of a life of ease in a garden, Adam and Eve were
to be thrust out into a harsh wilderness to eke out a
living, Adam doing so by the sweat of his brow. The days
of ease were over, and life in the harsh, cruel world
awaited them: the world was to become their training
ground, teaching them lessons they could not now learn
from within the protective comfort and beauty of the
Lord God’s garden.
The Lord looked at the pair trembling and standing
before Him. Seeing how vulnerable and ridiculous they
appeared, covered in leaves, He left them only to return
with two animals that had been grazing peacefully in the
garden. He undoubtedly slew the animals before their
eyes, showing them the dreadfulness of what death was
like, and He used the animal hides to make coverings for
both Adam and Eve.
Another Tree in the Garden
In the garden there was yet another fruit-bearing tree,
a tree of rare beauty that bore twelve different kinds
of fruit. It had not been forbidden to Adam and Eve.
That tree was called the tree of life. The only real
difference the pair experienced between the two trees
was that no one ever spoke to them from within the
branches of the tree of life. No one had ever tempted
them to eat of its fruit; and so they had not. But Adam
and Eve had chosen to eat the fruit from the tree of
good and evil, the tree that represented the way God had
told them not to choose; and so their future was sealed:
they could no longer live in a garden where they could
also eat from the tree of life and live forever. God
thrust them out, and placed a powerful angel to guard
against their returning to the garden. They were on
their own, free to learn everything there was to know
about the way of good and evil, the way that they had
chosen.
Once expelled from the garden, the Bible tells us that
Adam and Eve began a family. Their first child, Cain,
was a male. Accounts from ancient history claim that
Cain was given excessive attention, that he was spoiled.
A second brother, Abel, was not. Cain was a farmer and
Abel a shepherd. They were very different from
one-another in many important ways. Cain, the spoiled,
arrogant brother, proved rebellious, refusing to obey
his parents in the same way Adam and Eve had disobeyed
theirs. Yet Adam and Eve doted upon Cain as their first
born, possibly hoping the Lord God would, through him,
provide a savior; for the Lord God had told them the
sins they had committed carried a death penalty they did
not want to pay. But He also told them someday a savior
would come who would pay the penalty for their sins.
Perhaps, they thought, it was Cain.
Abel, their second child, proved to be an obedient son.
The way of obedience was agreeable to him. He learned
the way of good from the Lord God who continued to visit
the family of Adam and Even and instruct them, even
outside the garden. The family grew up in His presence,
but was never allowed to return to the now forbidden
garden. No doubt, the idea of the garden captivated
Abel, filling him with a longing to be able to enter it
someday.
The Lord taught those in the family, who would listen,
the way of life; but He left it up to them to choose
between the way of good and the way of evil that sprang
up in the wilderness from the influence of the one who
had tempted them in the garden. That tempter’s voice
could also be heard outside the garden, and he was
always there to argue against the teachings of the Lord.
The family’s lot was to choose; and so their lives
became a mixture of choices between the knowledge of
good and the knowledge of evil. The family clung
together and other children were born to them.
Among the many things they learned from the Lord was the
knowledge of His feast days – days designed to teach
them to worship God in a proper manner – teaching them
proper respect for Him. On one such day, the family
gathered together to bring offerings to the Lord. They
were to offer up lambs as sacrifices to the Lord God,
picturing their need for a savior – for the prophesied
one who would save them from their death penalty; and,
like the symbolic lamb, would pay for their sins with
his life. At this feast, Abel brought forward a lamb for
an offering; but Cain, in a rebellious and arrogant
mood, refused to kill a lamb. Instead he offered up a
collection of vegetables from his garden. If he was to
choose, he reasoned, he could choose to acknowledge the
Lord his way. The Lord showed that He accepted Abel’s
offering – fire came down and consumed it; but Cain’s
vegetables remained untouched upon the altar.
Cain’s humiliation was obvious. The spoiled, arrogant
child became enraged at the Lord’s reluctance to accept
his offering. He was even further enraged when the Lord
told him to repent and do what was acceptable lest he
run into even greater trouble. Cain stormed out from the
presence of the Lord, leaving his parents and siblings
unsettled.
Cain’s ego could not admit to having his brother
accepted before everyone instead of him. Fury built in
Cain over the next few days until he could no longer
contain it. Knowing where his brother Abel was
shepherding his flock, Cain managed to meet him in a
part of the field that lay hidden from the view of
others. As the two brothers greeted one-another and
entered into conversation, Cain suddenly turned on his
brother, most likely pulling out his knife; and unlike
the sacrifice he had refused to bring to the Lord, he
killed his brother. No doubt Cain cut his brother’s
throat, just as he had been taught to do with the lambs
he had in earlier times brought as offerings to the
Lord. Abel, who the Bible later calls a righteous man,
fell to the ground, his blood flowing from his wound
back into the earth from which his father had come. The
evil of human death, heretofore unknown to any of them,
now revealed itself in this most horrible of ways to the
family of Adam and Eve.
The Bible is silent about how the news of their son’s
death arrived at Adam and Eve’s door. But for certain it
did. No doubt, rushing to the field where her son’s dead
body lay, Eve bent down to feel the cold, awful
stillness of his body, and saw the deep wound, like
those suffered by the lambs offered before the Lord;
only this time it was her son’s blood flowing into the
ground. As her hand caressed his cool cheek, she may
have remembered the feel of the fruit her hand had held
when she took it from the tree of good and evil. This
was what the Lord God had meant. Like an arrow, the
truth must have thrust its way into Eve’s heart: this
was death. And Eve wept bitterly.
The lessons from the life of Adam and Eve are timeless.
The Bible tells us clearly there is a “way that seems
right to man, but the ends thereof are the ways of
death.” Like Adam and Eve, humanity has, by and large,
ignored that warning also; and so life has gone on, with
most of mankind choosing to listen to that serpent’s
voice from within the tree of good and evil. Like Cain,
the Lord God’s creation has also chosen the way they
want to worship Him. Has God accepted their offerings?
It doesn’t appear that he has, for murder and mayhem
cover the earth.
As in the garden, there is another way for mankind,
another choice to be made. It is the way symbolized by
the tree of life: it is the way of God; and someday, the
Bible tells us, the knowledge of that way will cover
this earth as the seas cover the ocean beds; and most of
mankind will, someday, eat of that tree. And unlike Adam
and Eve, who now sleep in the dust of the earth, they
will live forever. |