This article is a continuation from part 1, which is linked below:
For this article I again studied from the King James Version (1611 Edition).
I will again say to anyone reading, I am not a prophet and I do not speak for God. I am one of His many creations. What I am doing in these articles is trying to spread the message of God's word. If I have published anything wrong about the scriptures, please be assured I have done so in error and would appreciate correction. Please flag it up to me whenever you can show me to have done this as I would never want to misrepresent God's word.
Please also pull me in, if I am making my own private interpretation of scripture as we all need to remember that scripture is not open to our own private interpretation, but only to the truthful meaning of it.
We begin at the fourth verse of chapter 2 of Genesis and in this article we will study a bit more about the creation and then move on to mans' fall.
Verses 4-6 of the King James 1611 version read as follows:
"Verse 4: These are the generations of the heauens, & of the earth, when they were created ; in the day that the LORD God made the earth, and the heauens,
Verse 5: And euery plant of the field, before it was in the earth, and euery herbe of the field, before it grew : for the LORD God had not caused it to raine vpon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
Verse 6: || But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground."
||Or, a mist which went vp from
Some may argue that this and other upcoming parts of Genesis show two slightly contradictory stories of creation with slightly different time lines. I would agree some translations can be taken that way, but if we study carefully and put the words into modern day English with the correct meaning, I think the accounts compliment each other.
Verses 5-6 can be used to compliment the account of the third day of creation (Genesis Chapter 1 Verses 9-13). These verses above can be fitted in to that account and indeed add further depth to the third day account. It may be that God created every plant of the field, before it was in the earth and every herb of the field, before it grew could mean God made the seeds, put them in the ground and then the mist mentioned in Genesis 2 Verse 6 came up and watered the whole face of the earth. This could them be the point when he commanded the land to bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed and the fruit tree, yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself. This is just a pondering and I am not saying this is the truth of the matter.
Genesis Chapter 2 continues:
"Verse 7: And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, & breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a liuing soule.
Verse 8: And the LORD God planted a garden Eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
Verse 9: And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow euery tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food: the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and euill."
We learn here of how our great God after forming man from the dust of the ground, breathed the breath of life into his nostrils and the man became a living soul. You could argue from this that we are literally part of the Earth, insomuch as that our Great Great Great... Grandfather was formed from the dust of the ground. It's amazing to think that we all trace back to that man formed from the dust of the ground.
Verse 9 shows us the many different purposes created things can have. Listed are trees pleasant to the sight and good for food. We see that God has made things pleasant and comfortable for his creation. The tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil are most interesting and feature in the sad story of how things descended to the levels we see today. We now sadly have an Earth where a genetic family (us) is torn asunder and where we are striking at each other. Let us remember, we are all related. Granted in most cases the relation is very distant, but we all come from Adam. We really need an end to the fighting and our God's laws need to be obeyed. As we will see as we go ahead with this study, God didn't make cumbersome laws for Adam. In fact God showed himself to be an excellent and caring ruler. He provided everything we could want and more besides. It is shameful that all the love God showed His creation was thrown back in His face, but how much more does it say of our God that He has made a way to everlasting life for us. He didn't have to do that. Death is the penalty for sin and He could have let us all die one by one, with no redemption and no hope, but whilst we do deserve that, God isn't like that. There's many reasons why we say God is love.
"Verse 10: And a riuer went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted, and became into foure heads.
Verse 11: The name of the first is Pison : that is it which compasseth the whole land of Hauilah, where there is gold.
Verse 12: And the gold of that land is good : There is Bdellium and the Onix stone.
Verse 13: And the name of the second riuer is Gihon : the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
Verse 14: And the name of the third riuer is Hiddekel : that is it which goeth || toward the East of Assyria : and the fourth riuer is Euphrates.
||Or, Eastward to Assyria
This verse adds more depth and background to our Heavenly Father's creative mastery. He set up the necessary waterflow to Eden to water the garden and we are also told of the land of Hauilah. We are also told that there is gold, bdellium and the onix stone in that land. If you like a mystery, there is some debate as to what bdellium actually is.
Next we are told more of God's love for man:
"Verse 15: And the LORD God tooke ||the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dresse it, and to keepe it.
||Or, Adam
Verse 16: And the LORD God commanded the man,saying,Of euery tree of the garden thou mayest freely eate.
Verse 17: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and euil, thou shalt not eate of it : for in the day that thou eatest thereof , thou shalt surely die."
Here we can see God puts man in the beautiful garden he has created and that man is to look after the garden. God gives the man freedom to eat from every tree of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This is not a cumbersome rule and remember God has given the man great freedom and provided him with a rich variety that he can eat.
The chapter continues:
"Verse 18: And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone: I will make him an helpe meet for him.
Verse 19: And out of y ground the LORD God formed euery beast of the field, and euery foule of the aire, and brought them vnto || Adam , to see what he would call them : and whatsoeuer Adam called euery liuing creature, that was the name thereof.
|| Or, the man
Verse 20: And Adam gaue names to all cattell,and to the foule of the aire,and to euery beast of the fielde: but for Adam there was not found an helpe meete for him.
Verse 21: And the LORD God caused a deepe sleepe to fall vpon Adam, and hee slept; and he tooke one of his ribs , and closed vp the flesh in stead thereof.
Verse 22: And the rib which the LORD God had taken from man, made hee a woman, & brought her vnto the man.
Verse 23: And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh : she shalbe called woman, because shee was taken out of man.
Verse 24: Therefore shall a man leaue his father and his mother, and shall cleaue vnto his wife: and they shalbe one flesh.
Verse 25: And they were both naked , the man & his wife, and were not ashamed.
Some may say Verse 19 contradicts Chapter 1 as God made the beast of the field and fowls before man, but what if this is just stating that God made them out of the ground and then going on to tell us that at some point after that, he presented them to Adam for naming. The verse doesn't explicitly say say that Adam named them immediately after the first of their kind was created.
What these verses show in abundance is God's love. He let's the man (Adam) name the living creatures. What a wonderful honour to bestow upon Adam. Not only that, but God made him a wife as he could see it wasn't good for the man to be alone. I have heard people often say that God is cruel in the Old Testament, but I would argue the exact opposite and that if you read the entirety of the Bible He is full of love and forgiveness in both testaments. He has been immensely patient with His creation, whilst His generosity and love has been thrown back in His face time and time again.
Verse 25 shows there was no shame and that is meant in a good way. The creation was innocent. The scourge of shame was not upon them. Even in nakedness, they were pure and innocent.
We now move on to Chapter 3:
"Verse 1: Now the serpent was more subtill then any beast of the field, which the LORD God had made, and he said vnto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not ea of euery tree of the garden ?"
This is the beginning of something very sinister which has reverberated through time to this very day, chapter 3 continues:
"Verse 2: And the woman said vnto the serpent, Wee may eate of the fruite of the trees of the garden :
Verse 3: But of the fruit of the tree, which is in the mist of the garden, God hath said, Ye shal not eate of it,neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
Verse 4: And the serpent said vnto the woman, Ye shall not surely die.
Verse 5: For God doeth know, that in the day ye eate thereof, then your eyes shalbe opened: and yee shall bee as Gods, knowing good and euill."
The serpent has indeed been subtle and cunning here. Verse 4 is an outright lie as sin did bring death, but the serpent smatters some bits in to verse 5 that further verses seem to collaborate, but with a bad underhand twist to them. This helped make the deception attractive, suggest there will be no consequence and frame it as beneficial even, when in reality it was a disaster. God loves his creation and with creation feeling no shame and being innocent, was that not an immense blessing? The actions of the serpent, the woman and the man in this chapter, trashed that. It's a sad state of affairs and we are living with the consequences to this day. That God provided a ransom for us says even more how brilliant He truly is.
We continue into the following verses:
"Verse 6: And when the woman saw, that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she tooke of the fruit thereof, and did eate, and gaue also vnto her husband with her, and hee did eate.
Verse 7: And the eyes of them both were opened, & they knew that they were naked, and they sewed figge leaues together, and made themselues ||aprons.
|| Or, things to gird about.)
A great deal of disrespect was shown to God here. That the woman and then the man would choose to listen to the serpent and not even consult God, after all God had done for them must have been incredibly insulting for God. That they listened to the lie and acted upon it. God showed them such love, if they were curious about further knowledge and wisdom, they could have asked God. These passages also show that something did change when they ate the fruit. Their eyes were opened and it seems new understanding came upon them.
This transgression is very serious. You may say that all they did was eat a piece of fruit, but this transgression has been the root cause of the death of everyone who has ever died. Adam and Eve were now imperfect and as they hadn't procreated yet, no future man or woman would be born perfect and as a result would inherit sinfulness. They would then sin and die. As we now know God has lovingly made provision for that, but he didn't have to do so. Their actions could have condemned us all to eternal separation from God with no hope. God didn't have to offer us His kindness and make a way to redemption. He wasn't obliged to do so. To throw back in His face everything God had ever done for them was such a sad thing to do. All the murders, paedophilia, assaults, hatred, sexual deviancy and other sins we see today stemmed from this incident. That is another reason why it is so serious. This was a rebellion against a loving creator and what a mess it has left us living with til this very day.
The scriptures continue:
"Verse 8: And they heard the voyce of the LORD God, walking in the garden in the coole of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselues from the presence of the LORD God, amongst the trees of the garden.
Verse 9: And the LORD God called vnto Adam , and said vnto him, Where are thou ?
Verse 10: And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden : and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid my selfe.
Verse 11: And he said, Who told thee, that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee, that thou shouldest not eate ?
Verse 12: And the man said, The woman whom thou gauest to be with mee, shee gaue me of the tree, and I did eate.
Verse 13: And the LORD God said vnto the woman, What is this that thou hast done ? And the woman said, The Serpent beguiled me, and I did eate.
Verse 14: And the LORD God said vnto the Serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed aboue all cattel,and aboue euery beast of the field: vpon thy belly shalt thou goe, and dust shalt thou eate, all the dayes of thy life.
Verse 15: And I will put enmitie betweene thy seed and her seed : it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heele.
Verse 16: Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorowe and thy conception. In sorow thou shalt bring forth children : and they desire shall be ||to thy husband, and hee shall rule ouer thee.
||Or, subject to thy husband.)
Verse 17: And vnto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened vnto the voyce of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commaunded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eate of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorow shalt thou eate of it all the dayes of thy life,
Verse 18: Thornes also and thistles shall it *bring forth to thee: and thou shalt eate the herbe of the field.
*Hebrew: cause to bud
Verse 19: In the sweate of thy face shalt thou eate bread, till thou returne vnto the ground : for out of it wast thou taken,for dust thou art, and vnto dust shalt thou returne.
Verse 20: And Adam called his wiues name Eue, because she was the mother of all liuing.
Verse 21: Unto Adam also, and to his wife, did the LORD God make coates of skinnes, and cloathed them.
Verse 22: And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good & euill. And now lest hee put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eate and liue for euer:
Verse 23: Therefore the LORD God sent him foorth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground, from whence he was taken.
Verse 24: So he droue out the man : and he placed at the East of the garden of Eden, Cherubims, and a flaming sword, which turned euery way, to keepe the way to the tree of life.
We see in verse 8 that even before God had addressed them, their sin had already caused a separation between the couple and God as they themselves hid from God.
The verses 9 through to 19 show the sad moments when Adam, Eve and the Serpent had to face God after what they had done and the sad situation of God having to confirm the (fully deserved) punishment for sin.
Verse 16 shows that the husband is head over the wife. This statement also correlates with the scripture at 1 Corinthians Verse 2:
"But I would have you knowe that the head of euery man is Christ : and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God."
King James 1611 Version
This statement might not be popular today in these warped times, but these are the scriptures. I would also remind readers that husbands are duty bound to properly take care of their wives (and should want to do so anyway) and these verses are not a licence to subjugate your wife as a slave. The way the Messiah looks after us is an example for a husband to look after a wife.
Verse 20 confirms the name of the first woman and that Adam named his wife.
Verse 21 to me shows that God still loved and cared for Adam and Eve despite what they had done. As I study throughout the Bible, I get the image of a loving Father who yearns for his children to live. You can see here how loving He is. Adam and Eve deserved death at this point and had no right to ask any kindness from God, but yet He clothed them. God is almighty. He could have pulverized this rebellion right there and then, but He has made a way back for us, a reconciliation.
Verses 22-24 speak of the tree of life. It seems it may have been possible for the man to live forever in his new state had he eaten from this.
I do wonder if in some hidden part of the earth the Cherubims and that flaming sword that turns every way are still there.
There are some that argue that the this a metaphor and that it is not meant literally, but either way the point about it being untenable for man to live forever in a sinful state surely remains true.
We now in the dark days we live in, can see very clearly why man eating from that tree after those events would have been disastrous. Imagine the most evil men and women from history living forever in their sinful state and causing an eternity of evil and suffering. That just isn't tenable and the actions in the garden were what created all the tyrants that the history of man has seen. God's rescue plan of everlasting life with sin removed is the only true solution. Imagine if your lot in everlasting life was everlasting suffering at the hands of a deeply evil individual. Would our loving and perfect God allow that eternally with no end? No of course not. The ransom sacrifice of the Messiah to remove our sin is the right way. It offers such a beautiful and sure hope for the future. Not just everlasting life, but perfect everlasting life.