First, we take a look at the God’s command of forbidding to eat the fruits of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We also see one Adam’s strength before he was contaminated by sin. Secondly, we see the process of God’s making Eve, and the original arrangements for them. Thirdly, from the conversation of the snake and Eve, we can see that Satan often uses similar strategies to seduce people. Fourthly, we see the cause why Eve was seduced, which is the same nowadays in principle. Fifthly, we really see what is meant by “for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die?” We can see that in Hebrews, the spirit died not immediately, but on the same day. This section is so updated. According to the Chinese translation, it doesn’t say that day means today. We are not aware of the fact that the word H3117 in Hebrews is used. Under no violations of the Bible words and logic, we came with a wrong conclusion. This is our basic principle. When we realize that we were wrong, we’ll change it. We try our best not to make mistakes. However, we do know that God is infinite, and people are finite. Human is bound to make some mistakes. All we can do are to correct mistakes when happened. Sixthly, we can see the reaction after contaminated by sin is to blame others and not to mention the real reason. We can also see the righteousness and mercy and grace of God, who started the plan of salvation by the way of prophecy.
1. The God’s command and the Adam’s strength
The command God given to Adam is clearly stated in Genesis 2:16-17, “The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.””
We know that Adam was created according to the image of God. Thus, he had a lot of strength before he was contaminated by sin. There is only one thing recorded in the Bible. “Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.”(Genesis 2:19-20) Since Adam was driven out from the Garden of Eden, there has not been another human being that had the same ability.
2. The process of making Eve
In Genesis 2:18, it states the reason to make Eve, “Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”” The process of making her is described clearly in Genesis 2:21-22, “So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.” We also see the Adam’s reaction in Genesis 2:23, “The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.”” So, the original will of God is stated in Genesis 2:24, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” This is the same as what Jesus said in Matthew 19:4-6, “And He (Jesus) answered and said, “…So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” At that time, they hadn’t contaminated by sin and their eyes was only fixed on God and not opened. “And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”(Genesis 2:25)
3. The seduction strategy of Satan
Let us take a look at what was said in Genesis 3:1-5, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.'” The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.””
We saw before that the command was told to Adam directly. Satan knew that. So, the serpent was crafty enough to seduce woman by herself. From their conversation, we know that Eve indeed got the command from Adam, and she was not crystal clear about what’s in the command. At the beginning, the serpent used the words “Indeed, has God said” to confuse Eve. From her answer, we can see that she was not clear about the command since the God didn’t say, “or touch it.” We also observe that the serpent further deepened her confusion by saying, “You surely will not die!” And it also used the correct benefits to seduce her. Here, we see one strategy Satan often uses is to mix some truth with fake news. People who see the true things often believe the fake as true also. Today is the same. If we are not careful, it is easy to take the whole thing without knowing we accept the fake as well. We must discern using the Bible.
4. The fall of Adam and Eve
We see that Eve was seduced before Adam as said in Genesis 3:6, “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband (H376) with her, and he ate (H398).” But Adam was knowingly disobeying. No wonder it is said in Romans 5:12, “Therefore, just as through one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, …”
Isn’t today the same? The seduction is three-fold as said in 1 John 2:16, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.” Isn’t it corresponding to what succeeded to seduce Eve in the three aspects? After their fall, we can indeed prove the messages from Satan was mixed. Because in Genesis 3:7, it says, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, …”
Someone says the Adam was with Eve at that time according to the English translation. However, it is not so according to the original languages in Strong’s Concordance, which are indicated in parentheses. Unless Adam and Eve were always together on everything, there is no point to have Satan to seduce Eve when Adam was in presence, particularly the serpent is craftier than any beast. According to verses, most likely Adam was not in presence since the Bible clearly says in 1 Timothy 2:14, “And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.” If Adam was in presence, it would say that both of them were deceived. But this is not the key point, there is no reason to argue one way or the other. The key point is “Therefore, just as through one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, and death through sin, …” (Romans 5:12)
5. What it means about “for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die? (This section is updated.)
Adam was indeed dead after he ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But he wasn’t immediately dead since it is said clearly in Genesis 5:5, “So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died.” It is also said in Genesis 3:22, “…and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.” They had originally the good body which could live forever. No wonder people live very long before the flood (ref. Genesis 5).
Man consists of spirit, soul, and body as said in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, “…and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, …” The spirit is used to communicate with God. We all know what the body is, which is made from dust and finally “…to dust you shall return.”(Genesis 3:19) The soul is then the rest, which includes will, emotion, etc. Before, I thought that the spirit died immediately after they ate the forbidden fruits. But it is not so according to the Bible. The Strong’s Concordance uses the Hebrew word H3117, which is the same word used in verses such as in Genesis 1:5, “…And there was evening and there was morning, one day (H3117).” In other words, it is in Genesis 2:17, “…for in the day (H3117) that you eat from it you will surely die.” Therefore, the spirit was not dead immediately but at the same day, which the Bible says so in other places consistently.
Here at this point, we’ll give the reason why we recommend you to use the Strong’s Concordance to help reading the Bible, particularly you can see the same point in English translation in this case. But the same word in the original language may have different translations. Using the Concordance, it is easy to find all verses using the same word. We can them compare them to find more adequate meaning for that word. There are also words we need to look at the original languages. For example, there are different loves in the Greek and the difference doesn’t show up in both English and Chinese translations. We have no choice but using the original languages in this case.
Let now take a look at what the Bible says. In Genesis 3:8, it says, “They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” So, they can still see God even after they ate the fruit. Then, they were chased out from the Garden of Eden on the same day, and could not communicate with God anymore. The Bible is indeed consistent in this event. God has absolute authority, and He can certainly choose to communicate with humans even after people are out of the Garden. It is clear in His communication with Cain described in Genesis 4:6, “Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?” In the era of the Old Testament, God initiated His communication with prophets. Today, it is the same since life can only come from God as said clearly in 1 Corinthians 3:6-7, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.”
We know that man has a dead spirit before being saved, because there is a new spirit like what was prophesied in Ezekiel 36:26, “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; …” Someone may say, the dead spirit means that the spirit is no longer working. Although still having the spirit, it cannot communicate with God anymore. We are born with a dead spirit, and eventually as said in Ecclesiastes 12:7, “…the spirit will return to God who gave it.”(Ecclesiastes 12:7) Thus, that someone may say that the old spirit is revived after being saved. This is not correct since the Bible says clearly that we have a new spirit.
In Genesis 5:3, it says, “When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.” When Seth was born, he already had a dead spirit, since he was already in Adam’s likeness. It is similar to be genetic, we are born with the dead spirit which is already contaminated by sin. This is also the reason why I cannot accept the dichotomy, where the spirit and soul are in one, not separable. This is not only against what the Bible says in Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, …” but we have to accept the existence of something which is half-alive since the spirit is dead but the soul alive. I have to say that I don’t know the existence of such a thing. Furthermore, the Bible says clearly that humans consist of three components – spirit, soul, and body.
Lastly in this section, we want to mention again that it is updated. According to the Chinese translation, it doesn’t say that day means today. We are not aware of the fact that the word in Hebrews H3117 is used. Under no violations of the Bible words and logic, we came with a wrong conclusion. This is our basic principle. When we realize that we were wrong, we’ll change it. We try our best not to make any mistakes. However, we do know that God is infinite, and people are finite. Human is bound to make some mistakes. All we can do are to correct mistakes when happened.
6. The reactions after contaminated by sin and the punishment from God
First, we notice in Genesis 3:7, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.” Can such clothes be indeed used as loin coverings or resisting coldness? No. Eventually, “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.”(Genesis 3:21)
We can also see that the contamination by sin results in blaming the others as described in Genesis 3:8-13, “They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.””
God is omniscient. He knew what happened and still asked on purpose, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” He asked them the question to make them face the real selves after contaminated by sin! We can see that they blamed the others. What they said are facts, but only partial facts. What they didn’t say is the real reason that they disobeyed God’s command. Nowadays it is the same. We often argue superficially and often forget or avoid the hidden real reason. It could be due to that we really don’t know or like what said in Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?”
The punishment of God is clearly stated in Genesis 3:14-19, “The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life; And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.” To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.” Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.””
So, before that time, there was no thorns and thistles on earth. We also know from Genesis 3:15 that God used the way of prophecy to start the salvation plan, which we’ll not repeat what was discussed in detail in [1]. Because Adam committed sin, death entered the world; otherwise, “…he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.”(Genesis 3:22) Before the flood, “…the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”(Genesis 6:5) When human contaminated by sin lives forever, it is a terrible thing!
Reference
[1] You can get “1044 God’s rest, salvation plan, and the creation of man – The original will of God (3)” in “https://a-christian-voice.com/” under “On spiritual understanding about life.”
(Verses refer to those in NASB unless otherwise specified.)
(You can get all articles in “https://a-christian-voice.com/” under “On spiritual understanding about life.”)
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