Gen 3:5 You Shall Be As God Knowing Good and Evil!
(Ver 2.2) This is Part 5 in the series about Understanding Genesis 3. The Bible has so much information in it, it is challenging just to know what to teach. Genesis 3 is about the spiritual downfall of Adam and Eve. But there are a number of other good lessons to learn from this chapter also. I am shocked sometimes at how people don’t see what the Bible really says and I think today will be another example of that. You can tell if you have read my blogs on Genesis that we are faced with a challenge by God to recognize the difference between spiritual things and natural physical things being described to us. Many times men tend to look at everything in the Bible naturally, but since the author of the Bible is a Spirit, God’s perspective is the only one that should count. Most of the time wrong interpretations of the Bible revolve around private interpretations from the natural minds of men. But, if we use the Bible to help us determine the true meanings, we are far more likely to get it right. In my last blog on Genesis I talked about spiritual fruit being different than natural fruit. I gave you several scriptures that declare that it is not what we eat physically that causes us to sin. We can therefore conclude that God did not command Adam and Eve to not eat of a natural physical fruit tree in the Garden. We can further conclude that God when He was speaking of not eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, was telling them not to eat of a spiritual tree. If you didn’t realize it, God is more concerned with spiritual things than He is with natural things. People want you to save the planet, save the trees, save the environment, save the whales, etc., but God wants us to produce spiritual fruit and become a mature Christian, to be a laborer and to help prepare for His spiritual harvest. So when we read the Bible we need to become more spiritually aware and less naturally focused. Focus only on spiritual things in context with the subject given. Recognize how God applies natural things to give us glimpses into the spirit world.
Today I want to expand on verse 5 in Genesis 3. This verse has some profound truths written in it, that I believe we need to understand. This verse is Satan, the symbolic serpent speaking to the mind of Eve. If you didn’t know the serpent was a symbolic representation for a spiritual being, then you need to read my blog, “Was There a Talking Snake in the Garden?” Many times people overlook what Satan says because he is called the father of lies and they don’t realize that Satan will use the truth, if he thinks it will work to his advantage. Satan actually knows more truth than you do, that is why he can lie so well. Here are the words of Satan spoken to the mind of Eve as a thought:
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.
Satan is of course very presumptuous to think that he knows what God knows. I do believe that God taught Satan everything that Satan knows, however, I do not believe that God taught him everything that God knows. I think people need to learn that lesson, if they don’t learn anything else in this blog. We then see a statement that declares that their eyes would be opened. I would hope that you could see that Satan was not speaking of their physical eyes, but Satan was referring to their spiritual understanding. Here is a scripture from the New Testament which speaks to us along these lines:
Eph 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
Our spirits have the ability to see, perceive or as it says in this verse to understand. To see with our spirits is the ability of our spirits to understand the spiritual truths being spoken to us. The term is repeated to us in this verse “to know”. Isn’t that what Satan said to Eve? Satan told Eve that they would “know” good and evil. So what does this Hebrew word translated as “know” mean? If you have been reading my blogs you already understand the answer to that question. To “know” something is a covenant term. To know something represents an intimate sexual knowledge. God uses this same Hebrew word when He describes “Adam knew his wife and she had a son”. To “know” someone is to be in covenant with that individual. So what was Satan telling Eve? According to the wording and the underlying meaning, Satan said to Eve you will be just like God, in covenant with good and evil. I know I probably lost several readers with that statement, but if you keep reading in the chapter you will see that God did not contradict that statement, but He actually confirms it. You see if this was a lie or a deception of Satan, then God had the opportunity to confront the lie when He was talking to each of the participants after Adam had sinned. But, never do you see any confrontation or rejection of that statement in the chapter discourse. As you continue in the chapter you actually see that God confirms what Satan said to Eve in verse 22:
Gen 3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
I should probably go back and address one modification that I made to the verse 5 translation before I talk about this verse 22. In verse 5 the word “gods” is the Hebrew noun “Elohiym”. This is a plural word that is often times used for one of the names of God. God being a triune being is a plural being and not a singular one. It is a complex paradox that God is directly called three personalities, but is still just one God. In contrast there are many gods, but there is one “Elohiym”, the Supreme God. In the first chapter of Genesis, this word “Elohiym” is translated as God around 26 times. So the KJV translators instead of making this word say “God” as they did the majority of other places in Genesis, they chose to make it say “gods”. But the problem with that reasoning was Adam and Eve were already gods, but they were gods that only knew good and not evil. The only thing that Adam and Eve would gain from eating this spiritual fruit was the covenant with evil and what a dumb mistake that was. So translators got the word wrong in verse 5 and focused in on the wrong noun. Instead of saying Adam and Eve were “elohiym” (gods) they should have just made it say “God”.
So why did I have to go into all of that explanation? Because if the translators would have just put these two verses, 5 and 22 together correctly they would have seen what God said in verse 22 “Look, the man has become like Me!”; in covenant with good and evil. God actually repeats exactly what Satan said would happen, so it could not have been a lie. God declares that Adam was now in covenant with evil and therefore we can determine based upon our knowledge of Bible covenants, Satan was now married to man. Whatever Adam was given was now given equally to Satan. There are many verses in the Bible that confirm this statement; I’ll give you one found in the temptation of Jesus:
Luk 4:5 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
Here in the temptation of Jesus by Satan, Satan takes Jesus on a mental journey to the top of a very high mountain on earth. On the top of this mountain Satan shows Jesus all the kingdoms of this world. That would include every race, creed and inhabitant of the planet. There was nothing omitted or left out so that goes along with a true Bible covenant relationship between the two parties Adam and Satan. Then after showing Jesus these kingdoms, Satan makes this statement:
Luk 4:6 And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
We can clearly see that in Luke 4:6, Satan tells Jesus all of this which I just showed you has been given to me, and I have the power to give it to whoever I want. These were all true statements and Satan thought that he was in control of the situation, but God had a different plan. Now let me give you one more example of what I am saying found in 2 Corinthians:
2Co 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
You see God shows us that one of Satan’s titles is “the god of this world” in this verse. Or actually I should say that this is the title that Satan stole from Adam and God just informs us of this. Adam when he was created was given dominion over all of the creation of God’s handy work. You can read this in the 1st chapter of Genesis as well as verses found in Psalms. God transferred complete control and responsibility over the planet to Adam and in effect made him the “god of this world system”. Adam had complete control over his own destiny and whatever he decided carried the decision for every one that descended from him. So after Adam dies, Satan becomes the “god of this world system”. Jesus gives us some very strong insight into this spiritual transaction between Adam and Satan in the book of John:
Joh 10:1 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
You can see from this statement a very powerful spiritual truth being revealed to us. Jesus is telling us that Satan did not enter into our world legally. He took advantage of Adam and Eve and entered in the world that God had given to them by deception. Jesus is calling Satan a thief that has robbed someone of something that didn’t belong to him. Jesus was also contrasting His presence on the earth as being legitimate, while Satan’s presence on the earth as being illegal. You see God could not come to the earth the same way that Satan did and just take back everything that was given to Adam, without being called a thief and become just as guilty as Satan. So we can see a puzzle being revealed to us. Jesus says whoever enters into the world by the door is legitimate. So what is this legal door into this world? It is only being born here by a natural woman that has given birth to you, and that makes you legally here. You have to be a direct descendent of Adam and Eve to be here legally. God is so very tricky and smart. God knew that He could come into the world and pay for our salvation, if He came as a son of Adam. So we have a man that was born into this planet that was both 100% man and 100% God and this was legal. So I got off track giving you some insight into Satan’s illegal entry and God’s legal introduction into our world. So let’s go back to Genesis and look at this covenant relationship.
What are the spiritual implications given to us from what we just learned? A Bible covenant relationship represents a marriage in the eyes of God. So Adam became married to Satan. Whatever God had given to Adam now belonged to Satan. After Adam’s death, Satan had complete control of it all. A converse truth was whatever Satan had now belonged to Adam, and that was really not a good trade. Adam was originally created to know only good, the things that God had provided for him. But now whatever happens to Satan will happen to Adam and vice versa. Fortunately for us, God had a plan of salvation that would destroy the works of the devil and make a separation from all the consequences that Satan now faces in the future. As soon as the prophesied 6000 year time table of Adam’s dominion is up, Satan will be cast out along with those who are now in covenant with him. The time is very short, and Satan knows his time of reigning on this earth is almost ended and guess why he is so very angry with the church. Lucifer who was once second only to God himself will not enjoy his eternal destiny.
We can see from a previous blog a conformation given to us in these verses in Genesis 3. God is in covenant with the angelic beings. This would include the good and the evil ones. In one of my last blogs I showed you that death is a legal separation of a covenant marriage relationship. Because of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s covenant relationship with evil was terminated. Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our salvation was confirmed. All of those who believe in Him will be saved, but all of those who do not will be damned with Satan. It is a covenant reality, you are either joined to Jesus Christ and one with Him, or you are joined with Satan and one with him. These are powerful truths and help to explain a lot of the hidden things found in the Bible.
I know I teach a lot of new things, that you have probably never heard anyone teach before. The disciples in the Bible made a statement that is very profound, they said “Silver and Gold have I not, but such as I have give I thee”. Just as the disciples could only give what they had, I can only give you what I have. This is just a simple but basic Bible truth; everyone gives from only what they have. I hope and pray you enjoyed my Bible lesson today and grasped something from it that you can hold on to. If you liked it please share it with others that can also benefit from knowing the truth. God Bless.
If you would like to continue in the lesson series on Understanding Genesis 3 please proceed to Part 6.
Posted on January 12, 2010, in Bible Study, Chapter 3, Genesis and tagged Bible, Christianity, Church, Covenants, Genesis, God, Interpretation, Jesus, Prophecy, Religion, Salvation, Satan, Truth, understanding. Bookmark the permalink. 10 Comments.
The Agapegeek Blog 
first thank you for this blog, i want to try to sort some things out in my mind, death is physical but has a spiritual beginning namely adam when he gave the “deed” to satan thereby assuring death(physical and spiritual) as my understanding is that without God there is no life,what exactly was Eve’s sin? if there was no physical act unless she rejected God on the basis of what Satan told her? my thinking was that there was a physical act that eve did, what was it? you say earlier that she was tricked into eating, eating what? The tree of good and evil, was this a physical tree? the tree of life was that a physical tree also?
If Eve was deceived and came into covenant relationship with satan and since Adam was with her he was also in that so that point God had to do something as he is a holy God and can’t go back on his word, well you know the rest. the other part that i have often wondered is why Satan went first to Eve instead of adam maybe he knew something about her that is not specifically said in Genesis?
Dave
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These are difficult questions to answer. First the Bible is not complete on all of the details in any story found in the Bible. There are certain clues given to us by God that may help us to answer the questions in some regards if we can divide what they say correctly. For example let’s start with these two verses:
Ti 2:13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
1Ti 2:14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
Notice what is stated fist. Adam was formed and then came Eve later. This in conjunction with what is recorded in Genesis 2 seems to indicate that God gave the command to not eat to Adam only. Gen 2:16 says that God commanded the man (Adam) and the woman did not yet exist until verse 22. Therefore it must have been Adam’s primary responsibility to guard and protect the garden. Now go back to verse 14 of 1 Timothy 2. In this verse God clearly says that the woman was deceived but the man was not. It also says that she was in the transgression. What does that mean? That means it was the woman that disobeyed the command that was given to Adam. But we are technically never told that the woman knew the command from God. We can assume that but that would potentially bad assumption without verse conformation. Since Adam was clearly with Eve when the temptation took place we know that Adam was given the authority from God to stop the deception but chose not to. That was now a far greater transgression. Adam rebelled on purpose and was not deceived. What I see from this is that Adam sold out to Satan and Satan became the god of this world (2 Cor 4:4).
Ok, the part of the question about the tees being physical I do not believe they were. There is overwhelming evidence in the Bible that they are spiritual tree references. I call them symbolic trees for a greater spiritual truth. If you go and read the last chapter of Revelation you will again see the tree of life mentioned. This is clearly another spiritual representation of something in heaven. So how it usually begins is how it will usually end. That is called the laws of first and last mention. You may not be familiar with that concept but it is one that the Holy Spirit taught me to see.
Thank you for your questions and God Bless.
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As to Satan breaking the rules by not being born on the earth, would not that also then imply that God,s walking in the garden with them before his physical birth would have been a breach of rules? When lucifer fell from heaven, where was he supposed to go?
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Enjoyed this commentary it’s very insightful of why Adam’s fall burdens all men into the bondage of Satan. But more so why the death and resurrection of Jesus brings freedom and returns life from a sentence to bondage .
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Awesome comment and thanks for being led by God to read and study the Bible. I hope and pray that you are blessed in all knowledge, understanding and wisdom from God.
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woops..hit the wrong button.
Spiritual Death
In the sense of the massive amount of scripture referring to Light and Life/Darkness as Death. Light is indicated to represent God, Word, Jesus, Truth, Good, Wisdom, Understanding, Eternal life in the City of God. Darkness seems to represent all things apart from those mentioned above. It is the opposite. Satan’s realm is darkness since nothing of God is there. God said ‘let there be light’ when as His Spirit moved across the face of the deep (which was darkness or He wouldn’t have saw the need for Light). That came before He made the sun and moon. So we take that Light needed to dispell the darkness of the deep…as a Spiritual light or presence needed. Since Light and Life are synonomous. Then Darkness and Death is synonomous. When eve came to ‘KNOW’ evil because she was ‘beguilded’ or tricked (I believe by the permission of God..since Lucifer had no power to derail the plans of God. Too, Lucifer had no power over Eve. She didn’t even KNOW who he was. But God KNEW. And allowed him to ‘beguile’ eve. Death is Lucifer’s realm. At one point in scripture..demons referred to it as ‘the dry places’ which, I believe, was again a ‘spiritual’ reference more than a biological reference….as being the ‘evil’ place absent of the life-giving force of ‘water’ …which of course…Is God…He is The Tree of Life. And when they were banned from the Garden by the ‘flaming swords’…they were protected from the Tree of Life which would allow them to live forever in a fallen spiritual state….distanced from fellowship with the Father. The only way back into the state of Perfection was to pass through the flaming swords…’purged by fire’…’sword of the spirit’…’word of God is two-edged sword…cuts asunder’…..all being ‘In the beginning was God. The Word was God. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us…as the only begotten of the Father..(from John). So to once agian enter the City of God…one will come the only Way…through Christ. And while physical death certainly came upon man once they were separated from the Tree of Life..they would die physically (though the inner man is eternal). By the same circumstance…man died spiritually once he became separated from his Life-source…God. So I see the plan of God as intending for us to KNOW evil and death…as He does. We would understand, as He does, its realities and implications….as we had known the realities and implications of Life with God. Now..those who choose Life will be children of God….by way of His bringing it about through us. Those who choose Death and its benefits will experience those related consequences now…and forever. And since the body is just a shell….made from dust…I DON’T see it as having a value other than a visible means of revealing the invisible spirit of God to the world. The mouth that speaks kindness reveals God. The heart that serves the unlovlely…reveals God. The feet that walk towards places of need…reveal God. The hands that serve other rather than self…reveals God. The mind that absorbs the knowledge of God…reveals the mind of God….and so forth. ‘Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hath fenced with the bones and sinews’ Job 10.11
Want to later address Adam and man’s dominion. But gotta take abreak. God bless.
Adam given Dominion
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First let me say that you are ‘the real deal.’ I know you by your patience,your kindness, and your respectfulness. You are a Christian…of the good kind. I appreciate your ‘gentleness.’
Some thoughts: God’s Garden
Seeing Eden as the City of God (Tree of Life, God dwelt there, no death there, no tears there, all vegetative, animal, and human life was in a perfect form, perfect Love fellowship between God and the children of God_ The view of Eden before the fall of man seems to be equal with the final Revelation description of the Holy City…New Jerusalem..which will come down from God out of Heaven…at the time appointed. Therefore, I called it ‘The garden of God.’ Make sense” Ah…maybe..ha.
Intended or Wanted evil/death to happen
No! I agree with you. “It’s not His will that any perish…but that all come to repentance.” But because of the individual’s God-given ability to choose….most will choose the deceptions of sin….because of its immediate and lusty pleasures.
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Good post. Lots of Good scripture. But I have something ‘new’..so to speak..for your consideration. I know that traditional teachings surrounding the fall of man at Eden. Heard it all through my youth…and beyond in the Baptist and Methodist Church. But years later…I saw another view of the ‘garden’ event. Here it is..God had said, ‘let’s make man in our image.’ But He did NOT say it would be a split-second event. Okay..follow me. As you said..when they KNEW God…they KNEW only Good. And that ALL they KNEW. They had not yet been in ‘covenant’ as you termed it with anything elsse. They had NO understanding of evil. It was not part of their KNOWING. But God KNOWS both Good and evil. And He plans Adam and Eve to be ‘in our image.’ After Eve’s encounter with ‘the most subtle deceiver’ she then KNEW evil…through experience…same as she had KNOWN love through fellowship with God. Then Adam, never ‘beguiled’ or ‘deceived’ went into the same death as His bride…trusting God to redeem them both back to him. After all this happened…then God said…as you quoted the scripture…’Behold…man is become as we..knowing both good and evil.’
I totally …totally…totally believe deep in my heart that this encounter…this fall…was purposed by God. Mainly…I know there is nothing above Him. His plans are NEVER over-riden or derailed. And certainly not by peon little Lucifer. The Garden belonged to God. It was a perfect place. The ‘beguiler’ could only have been there by the invitation and permission of God. God is fair and caring. He would not allow Eve to stroll into an encounter with ‘the most subtle deceiver’ when her nature was one of only the KNOWLEDGE of Good. She’d had no experience with deception, lies, tricks, and deliberate spiritual murderers. But as Adam KNEW Eve and brought forth offspring. God purposesed Adam and Eve to be partakers of His Dna. They would experience ..KNOW..both He and Lucifer. If, after being equipped with free will…which came as a result of KNOWING both Good and evil…then they would choose which they would fellowship with. God ‘appointed them once to die’..after that the judgement. He planned Christ’s redemptive act before He had even created anything..’lamb slain before the foundation of the world.’ Christ said His impending death on the cross was ‘judgement.’ The need for His redemptive act…was evidence that man was damned under the penalty of death..because of ‘death’ in the Garden that day. Remember that Lucifer told the truth about..’God knows you be like him…knowing both good and evil.’ That was true. But the untruth was that he told her she would NOT ‘surely die.’ But he’s a liar by nature and the whole truth is not possible for him. And when their eyes were ‘opened’ to evil….they knew they were different beings. They recognized the ‘awarebness of the flesh’ that had not been there before. But they DID not lie to God. Adam did NOT make excuses for his participation on Eve’s behalf. Eve told God…’he beguiled me and I did eat.’ That was the truth. He TRICKED her. She knew only Good and had NO defense against him. Adam saw what had happened …and as the new testament scripture says, Adam was not deceived…but Eve was in the transgression.”Eve did transgress God law of ‘don’t eat.’ But God purposed it. Adam KNEW fully what was happening…..he became sin for the Bride….a type of Christ’s redemptive act.
‘Let’s make man in our image’ happened over time…as did redemption.
As the Law came to label sin….but it was not complete until Christ came to ‘complete’ or fulfil the LAW. HE IS THE FULFILLING OF THE LAW. He is the ‘way’ of keeping the Law….through His overcoming power and strength. So as God determined to ‘make man in our image’…..he indeeded that image to KNOW both Good and evil….as He did….free will. God didn’t want robots for children. His love is pure and whole. That kind of love MUST be given away. It is cyclic…it goes back and forth. That is the nature of love. We ‘love’ Him because He first ‘loved’ us. Temporal or ‘human’ love’ is not on that high plane. Ours is tainted with fleshly desires. When we through our will..,.choose Good over evil…choose God as our Father…rather than Lucifer….therein is the purpose of the ‘event’ in Eden.
Once I understood that God is who I KNOW Him to be…..soveriegn…nothing above Him….All Knowing….All Powerful…Perfect in Purpose and Love…….then I understood the verses in Genesis. I always knew…even as a small child…that the things I was being taught..traditionally…could not be correct. If they were true…then God was subject to the purposes and power of Lucifer….and I KNOW that is not true. Christianity has been ‘weakened’ by the teaching which says ‘Adam and Eve didn’t get it right..and they walked with God. So how can I possibly get it right.’ Lie from Lucifer. He has deceived many into thinking that he had the power to influence Eve that day. Bologne! It all clicked according to the perfect plan of God. God, of course, is all-knowing and could see ahead as to everything that would take place in the future. Thus the scripture, ‘Those he foreknew..He predestined to become sons of God.’ He sees all the choices we will ever make….when we are no more than a promise in His creative mind. But when you read Genesis..KNOWING that God perfect will was accomplished in Eden…and beyond..then you understand why he said…before He created man..’but there’s not yet a man to till the soil.’ He always intended they ’till’ the soil. He intended they KNOW both LIFE AND DEATH in order to choose which they wanted. SIMPLE.
Oh, well. Did not intend to be so lengthy. Just love looking, again, at this beautiful, beautiful time of God putting His plans into motion. After all, he created everything an opposite so they would reveal each other. How could we know LIFE…if we didn’t know DEATH. They reveal each other. How can we know the nature of Holiness…if we don’t know the nature of vileness. They reveal each other. And God has shown us in scripture that most will choose the pleasures of evil rather than the gentle joy of holiness. But those who choose the Father for His glorious heart…..will take on His dna….and will be His children….forever.
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Thanks so much for your dedication to the Word of God. I enjoy Genesis more than any other book, and I think I am not alone. You said a whole bunch for me to think about. I know I still have a lot to learn. I think I agree with most of the statements and conclusions. There are a couple of things that I struggle with, however. God is Sovereign, All Knowing, All Powerful, and Incredibly Loving. So I do agree with that. Having a foreknowledge of our choices only means God originated a plan for our redemption before he ever created anything in this current world system. Knowing what will happen only means that God can use it accomplish his plan. It does not mean that is what He intended or wanted to happen. God who lives outside of the dimensions of time and space, predetermined that he would experience the confines and limitations of time and space in order to experience death for us. That through His death, he might destroy him that had the power over death. It was a very cool thing that He did. You mentioned that Satan lied to Eve when he said “You shall not surely die…”. I guess that depends upon your perspective and definition of death. You can not kill a spiritual being and Eve was a spiritual being, living in a human body that is capable of death. But just because her body would die, she would always be somewhere. So Adam and Eve would technically never spiritually cease to exist. They just would not exist in their body forever. God said in the day that you eat, you shall surely die. If we understand that God is speaking of a 1000 year time period known as a prophetic day of creation we can see that Adam lived over 900 years, but he actually did die physically in the day that God told him that he would. Any way death is an enemy according to the New Testament. It is said to be the last enemy to be put under foot. So if death was an enemy of God, God uses his enemy to defeat his enemy. So the subject of death is much more complex than you have originally seemed to state. There are scriptures in the New Testament that speak of dying spiritually, but that would mean that you became spiritually unaware or oblivious to spiritual things. Never will you be dead spiritually as in cease to exist. Some have attempted to say that spiritual death is the separation from God and that when Adam died he died spiritually separated from God. But I don’t understand that statement because we can clearly see God talking to Adam after he had sinned. So this doesn’t hold water. Death is a very complex subject as are many subjects in the Bible and I’m still trying to expand my understanding to better grasp them.
Then there is another thing that you said that made me wonder what you were talking about. You said the Garden belonged to God. There are so many challenges with only thinking in natural terms when reading Genesis. The Bible declares God to be a husbandman with a garden. But it also says He is waiting for the precious fruit of the earth. These are not natural fruits that God is waiting for. So we can conclude that God’s Garden is a spiritual Garden and not a natural one. The Bible seems to indicate that there was a physical Garden on the planet somewhere in or around the middle east. But according to scripture God has given Adam everything that He created in this world. So the earth now belonged to Adam at least until the permitted time period is fulfilled. We can see this in Genesis 1:28 when God gives Adam dominion over the sea, the air and the land. Dominion implies ownership, rule, authority and control. We can see another confirming witness to this in Psalms:
Psa 115:16 The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’S: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.
So God has given the earth to the children of Adam. If there is a physical garden on the planet it does not belong to God anymore, but it belongs to Adam. Trying to figure out what is spiritual and what is natural is our greatest challenge with interpreting Genesis. Then Satan comes along and tricks the woman into eating. Then Adam openly defies God’s commandment and also eats. So what did God say happened to Adam? God said that Adam obeyed the voice of his wife Gen 3:17. So apparently Adam did not hear what Satan said to Eve, because she was the only one deceived in her mind. If you notice what Eve said, that is what Adam heard and Adam obeyed his wife and also ate. We know that Adam was standing by his wife when she was deceived (Gen 3:6) “with her”. This is not a type of Christ and the church in that respect, is it? I can’t ever see Christ taking sin as a result of anything that we say. In fact Christ was crucified while we were yet sinners and therefore we were not married in covenant with Him when he died for our sins. So when Christ knowingly became sin it was a free will act of his own initiative and maybe he did hearken to his future wife’s voice. That is something I’ll have to think on some more. The Bible certainly is a very complex book to try to figure out. The subjects of death and gardens alone seem to be quite extensive. I try to use the Bible to understand the Bible, so I need more Bible verses to expand my understanding of all of these subjects. I guess I’ll work on that. Thanks for your time and comments.
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