That's Not What I Remember: Adam and Eve
That's Not What I Remem • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 1 viewThe fall of humanity to sin is not often remembered accurately. We will dive into the human rebellion and will for autonomy because of free will, and the cost.
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Where did this take place?
Eden was the land of God.
What did the garden serve as?
“When we consider the Garden of Eden in its ancient context, we find that it is more sacred space than green space. It is the center of order, not perfection, and its significance has more to do with divine presence than human paradise.”
John H. Walton, The Lost World of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2–3 and the Human Origins Debate (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2015), 116.
God “planted the garden and placed the human in it” Gen. 2:8
8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
Here the human was to “serve” in the garden. God brought life out of it and it is the human’s responsibility to perpetuate that life.
The Garden was a Temple. A Holy of Holies in which the righteous Human could be in God’s holy presence and serve God as an intercessor on behalf of creation. The Human was the intermediary. In which God was the center of all action in which all life was directed toward.
Eden has Temple echoes.
Facing east
Watered by the Tigris and Euphrates.
What were the trees named in the Garden of Eden
The Tree of Life.
The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
The two trees are in the middle area of the garden. Why is the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge identified by name? Why is only the Tree of Knowledge forbidden to eat from?
God never says that the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was an evil tree. It is in the middle of the garden, in the middle of the sacred, in the middle of the temple.
The sin was not in the tree but the temptation to go around God to achieve knowledge and wisdom instead of waiting and depending on God’s timing and plan.
Genesis and Wisdom
Genesis and Wisdom
6 For the Lord gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
13 Happy are those who find wisdom,
and those who get understanding,
10 Take my instruction instead of silver,
and knowledge rather than choice gold;
11 for wisdom is better than jewels,
and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.
Wisdom is not achieved through selfish arrogance but in humility from the only one who is wise— The Father. God’s goal was to bring the human into the Divine council.
Contrast the first couple and Solomon. The first couple reached out and took. Solomon asked out of humility.
“By disobediently taking the fruit they were trying to be like God and placing themselves in a satellite center of wisdom apart from God. It is a childish sort of response “I can do it myself or I can do it my way” It is not a rejection of authority per say but an assertion of independence. If humans are going to work alongside God in extending order (subdue and rule) they need to attain wisdom but as endowment from God not by seizing it for autonomous use.” -John Walton, The Lost World of Adam and Eve.
The Serpent (Na-Has) was a tool of the Devil but not incarnate. He opposed God and spoke through the serpent.
The nahas, in its question turned the boundary of God’s blessing into a threat of Divine oppression.
The nahas ignored God’s gift of vocation, freedom, holiness, and provision and focused on the sole prohibitive prescription of God.
The nahas warped the logic that God was keeping something rather than laying a guard rail
What guardrails have been crossed that we have believed the lies of this world and the evil one:
Happiness- selfishness
Contentment- greed
fulfillment- consumerism
The humans made of dust failed in their ability to wait upon the LORD for their reward.
A rebellious spirit was always within the humans. This is the consequence of free will. God ultimately, must include the causality of the fall as the parallel to freedom.
In their failure, the first couple forsook their childlike faith and seized wisdom and upon this action. The na-has tells the truth. The humans will not die immediately and they will know good and evil though though not as God does. Humans will know objectively and experientially what evil is. They will have the ability to act it or be the recipients of it. But God who knows good and evil only knows it objectively. God cannot commit evil because God cannot go against His nature.
Their realization of their nakedness.
Sin
Limitation
Vulnerability
brokenness
inadequacy
Prescription
curses
On the humans
On the Nahash (Satan)
“The seed” will crush his head.
This is Jesus language.
The relationship with God, intimate and trusting is the beginning of wisdom.
The First Adam and the Second Adam
The First Adam and the Second Adam
The cost of the fall
Loss of intimacy with God.
inability to act in a priestly role
Loss of blessing (A removal of God’s protection)
Jesus becomes the perfect human. Obedient unto death. Phil. 2: 6
who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,
When Jesus died the Holy of Holies was opened in the Temple. The veil was torn from top to bottom. Matt. 27:51
At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split.
But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
Therefore because Christ did not seek to become the center
In Christ we are restored to be a royal priesthood.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
We have been given the keys to Eden, the kingdom of God in which God will dwell with us and we will be his people.
Behold I am making all things new. Revelation 21 tells us this. We are not held to the brokenness of this world. Everything will be undone and the upside down kingdom will arrive in the final day. Christ will return in final victory. All will be right. When we receive Christ, this promise is held safe in heaven for us.
My brother was visiting his girlfriend at college and stayed a little too late. He had worked all day and wanted to spend time with his now wife. He had a beautiful Ford Ranger Pick-up with a custom paint Job and rims to match. It was late when we got the call. Troy had been in a accident. He fell asleep. At 65 mph, he hit the median strip. I remember the picture coming up on the truck and my heart sank. I could have lost my brother that night. But the guardrail kept him from crossing traffic into the northbound Lane. The guardrail marked the boundary of blessing. It saved his life. God knew he needed a guardrail for that night. God have us guardrails in the beginning to show us the boundary of blessing.
Don't mistake God’s boundary of blessing for a line of oppression!