God's Wisdom In A Nutshell

The Garden of Eden Story is a story that must be understood in order to understand the big questions. Questions such as “Why is there pain in the world, cancer, divorce, abuse, poverty and wickedness?” “Why doesn’t God do anything?”

In The Beginning…

God created the heavens and the earth and everything in it. He then created man (Adam) and told Him that he could eat from any tree in the Garden except from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. After this conversation, God said that it wasn’t good for man to be alone, so he made Eve. So we just learned that Adam was made first and heard God’s instruction about the tree, and then Eve was created. This means that it was Adam’s responsibility to tell Eve that the tree was not to be touched.

After Satan aka the Serpent came and tempted Eve to eat the apple so that it could make her wise, she considered that it was beautiful and good for food and that it could make her wise, so she ate it and gave it to Adam who was with her. She used her intellect and desire to oppose God.

This choice- to eat or not to eat the apple- is free will. God could have stopped them from having their own way but God didn’t create robots- He created thinking human beings who could choose if they wanted to listen to His instructions or not.

This act of disobedience to the word of the Lord was the fall of humanity. God had given Adam and Eve control of the earth and they handed it to Satan. It’s the same as if your father gave you his business when he retired and you signed on his nemesis to run it with you.

“Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living creature.”

God gave the earth to the first couple. They had authority to fill it and to rule it. When they took their authority and free will to follow Satan’s advice, it was as if they became partners with Satan. The Lord told Adam and Eve what to do and what not to do, and they ignored Him. Therefore God the Father left the earth- He can’t coexist with sin.

Agreeing with Satan let his dominion- let’s use the word opinion- enter the pureness of the world. You see, God had a kingdom on earth, starting in the Garden of Eden. God ruled in the earth at that time until the first couple opposed Him and gave the deed of the earth to Satan.

A kingdom is a territory ruled by a king.

The Garden was a territory ruled by God and God gave the keys to ruling the kingdom of earth to Adam and Eve. He told them to control it and subdue it. When they decided to go against God by their God given choice (free will) it was as if they gave the keys of the earth to Satan.

Think of it this way. Let’s say you were given an apple to eat. It was beautiful and tasty and you were told to eat the whole thing right away or it will quickly go bad. Lets say you took a bite and then got distracted and set the apple on the table and did something else, only to find that when you returned the apple was filled with maggots. There was no way you would take back the apple now- it was ruined.

With the Garden of Eden, when the first couple listened to Satan, they brought “maggots” into the sanctified and beautiful garden. It was now defiled and God the Father cannot live in the presence of  sin- deliberate defiance to His Word. Light and darkness cannot exist together. Therefore Adam and Eve’s choice made God leave His earthly Kingdom.

This choice also made everything worse for Adam and Eve. Instead of the provision of a garden and their duty to cultivate the garden, they were unable to enjoy God’s provision because God no longer lived there to provide for them. They now needed to work the soil themselves through painful toil. Unlike the enjoyment of cultivating the good soil from the Lord.

Pain entered the world at this point and Eve would now have to bear children in pain. All evil, all pain, all darkness now had entry into the earth due to Satan’s trickery. He smoothly convinced the first humans  to obey him.

The only way to get control of the earth again was through God manifesting as a man, living on earth yet never sinning and then dying for our sins. By ressurecting he conquered Satan, because Satans mission is to kill, steal and destroy. He didn’t kill Jesus- Jesus resurrected. Therefore Jesus was now able to provide a way for His creation to cure ALL the negative situations Satan brought to earth.

Now anyone who chooses to follow the Lord Jesus Christ are automatically given the powerful benefits which can bring heaven’s will to earth- and it is done through faith.

What will your choice be?

Food For Thought.

Lisa