Sis Dorothy Sunday School 1/22/12
The gardens – In the creation of man God made a garden for his home.
What did Adam and God talk about as they walked and talked in the evening? There were no heartaches there for them to talk about. There were no wants, needs, poverty, attitudes, or burdens. It was a wonderful place that God made. Adam and Eve had no struggles or unfulfilled needs. Adam didn’t have any of that to talk to the father about.
Read John 17 in your devotions if you can. Adam was the first man but Jesus was the second Adam.
That we may be one… The father’s heart in the beginning was to be one with this beautiful human being and to have communion with him. When I talk to God is it all about me and my burdens, my needs, my family and my friends or is it: ‘Father make me one with you in your burden.”
I believe if I seek more to be one with my Heavenly Father, He will take care of all of my needs and my desires. He is not willing that any perish so I have all my trust in Him; He will take care of all my needs and my desires. If we concentrate on being one with Him, then we will have His heart and he will supply every need and He will answer our prayer.
I would like to entitle my lessons: Seeking the Will of God in the gardens of God.
In the fourth day God had created the earth, the sun, moon and stars, the green growing things, and day and night. In the fifth day God created all the living creatures in the water on the land and in the air. In the sixth day God created man and saw that everything that He made was good.
Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
God said, “Let us do something great.” Do you ever feel great in God’s sight? He wants us to. The creator created a creature of higher purpose. Let us do a work of greater purpose.
We are associated with the eternal uncreated Himself and not so much with the rest of creation. God felt like He could give us something higher than any of His other creation.
God is a spirit: He thinks, speaks, wills, and acts. God is in man, man reasons, he speaks, he thinks, and he has power.
In will is unfolded the action that chooses good and refuses evil.
They reason in forming the will and will directs the power. This is that form of God in which he has created man and chooses to commune with him. We were wonderfully made; right thinking right will and right acting capacities qualify us for dominion.
The Lord formed man of dust.
Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Gen 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
It is something how God crated man and then did something miraculous. Adam’s material part was from the dust of the soil; his mental/spiritual man was breathed into Him by the creator.
The song, “Breath of Life” is one of my favorites. God is breath of life to me. He is our being. This rational part bears the image of God. We are a living soul, suited to dwell on the earth.
Gen 2:8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
Gen 2:9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every 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 evil.
Gen 2:10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.
Gen 2:15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
Gen 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
Gen 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Gen 2:18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
Gen 2:19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
Gen 2:20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
The garden means to hedge about, protect and defend. Eden means pleasure, delicate and delight.
God put Adam in the garden to dress and keep it. Gardening is the first occupation of man. It was a place to dwell and rest as a place of building and recreation. I always thought that Adam didn’t have much to do. Everything grew, was green and watered and flourishing.
I don’t believe that God was satisfied with that. God doesn’t want man to be idle. He was to dress and keep the garden. To dress means to work, be a husbandman and be a servant. He prepared and enriched the soil, distribute the seed and help it flourish.
To keep means to guard and preserve it. Beasts were created just as we know them today. They were not cursed. There was only one creature of that day that was cursed.
I think they roamed around and did just what beasts do today and today, I have to fence them out. It may be that Adam had to build a fence. He had to train and nurture the garden, thin things out and move things around. He trained the shoots so that they would be in full development.
God doesn’t want us to be slothful and lazy; he has work for us to do.
Adam was formed an adult of full height and became acquainted with His creator by visiting with Him face to face. God’s voice struck Adam’s ear, intellect and heart. Adam had free concourse with God.
Adam was equipped with knowledge of language and gave the animals names and he had power of memory. He was equipped with highest of social contact. God was able to communicate with the creature that He’d created.
Gen 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
Gen 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Command, constitute, appoint, give a charge, commit: God said, thou physically may freely eat of every tree. He speaks to Adam’s moral man by saying thou shall not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Distinction of merit in actions is expressed in good and evil. There is merit in one and not the other. The second understanding of reward was the understanding of the choice of life or to die. The presence of God is understood in the command: here was a superior whose right it is to command and the inferior whose obligation is to obey.
We are under obligation to render implicit obedience to our creator. Commands can be permissive and prohibitive. The command to freely eat shows the care and good will of creator. The command, thou shalt not eat shows the absolute right of the dominion of God over His creation. All the other trees were given to man freely generously and bounteously by the creator.
He gave everything that Adam needed. He gave implicit command that Thou shalt not eat of it because it was full of evil. This shows the creator’s right and creature’s subjection as a moral being. He was chosen to be a higher being and have the moral that He needed.
Prohibiting this tree gives man the knowledge of good and evil. Obedience was moral good. Disobedience was moral evil.
Jer 6:21 Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will lay stumblingblocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them; the neighbour and his friend shall perish.
Why do we stumble over things? God requires that we be holy as He is holy and pure as He is pure. He requires moral justice at all times.
Jer 6:16 Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.
Jer 6:17 Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But
This is the remedy of the stumbling block.
Evil is known as the negative of good. The creator saw that everything that He’d made was good. He told Adam and was fair that the day that he ate of the tree He’d die.
He installed Adam as the owner keeper and dresser, prepared of him to provide for his wife. He was a superior to the animals that allowed him to protect her. By conversing with his maker he was qualified to be an intelligent instructor.
Gen 2:21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
Gen 2:22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
Gen 2:23 And Adam 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.
Gen 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
Gen 2:25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
Man was to be firm as the foundation, as a substance, be strong, brave nourish and furnish.
Woman was to be the famine with the same attributes. She was bone of his bone and flesh of
his flesh.
Serpent means: hiss, string, crafty, using craft and subtility. The serpent was made by God but he was used by the spirit of Satan.
Gen 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
There are methods of temptation, He used them very subtly.
First there was a question that opened a conversation. Notice there is no command to disobey. Only an insertion of a doubt and a question.
Any danger is denied as the second method of temptation.
Gen 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
The third method is suggestion:
Gen 3:5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
He suggests much advantage by eating. An open pure mind is naturally designed to believe the truth in everything. Truth combined with falsehood gives the power to deceive.
Reason comes in here: I can reason this out and I don’t see one bit of harm in that tree it looks good for food.
Temptation comes and she was made to feel discontent and to feel that by eating she would be fulfilled.
She saw, she took, she ate. She gave to her husband, and he did eat. These are the steps to disobedience and sin.
The result:
Gen 3:7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
They were shamed by conscience: disrobed by shame. When they heard the voice of God they were afraid of their once companion and friend. They hid when they heard God’s voice.
God asked, “In what condition are you? Where art thou?”
I was naked and afraid.
Who told you were naked? Have you eaten? He asked Adam because He wanted him to confess. Confessing leads to humility.
Excuse and blame: The woman you gave me. It wasn’t “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have done it.” He blamed Eve and he blamed God. Eve blamed the serpent.
Already they had hardness of heart. They could have repented but they took the blame game instead. I wonder how many are in hell because they didn’t take responsibility for their actions but blamed someone else.
The serpent was condemned and cursed. God promised that one day He’d send His son to bruise his head. The woman was given sorrow of all kinds and was told that she would be ruled by the man. The man was told he’d earn his bread by the sweat of the brow and the ground was cursed.
God gave mankind free will. Because of inherited sin we must come back to this choice of surrendering our will to God.
We must come to the great divide, all him or all me. We all have to make that choice.
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