The First Eden
Before we can know what God has for us, we need to know what we’ve lost. Before we can know where we’re going, we need to know where we’ve come from. God will move us forward together into becoming who we were always meant to be if we walk by faith and trust in Him. When we reflect on Eden, we see what humanity enjoyed before sin entered the world through prideful disobedience. Adam and Eve walked with God and they enjoyed uninhibited fellowship with Him.[1] They knew no shame because they had never done anything to be ashamed of.[2] With the rest of His creation, God worked as the first Poet, speaking everything into existence by His powerful Word.[3] But with man, He worked as the first Potter, forming Adam out of the earth itself.[4] Of all the masterpieces He created, God said that they were very good.[5] Their very breath of life came from Him. He wanted these vessels for His goodness, power and love to flow through. Everything in Eden was perfect and tranquil. So peaceful is the thought of the first couple walking with their Creator in the cool of the day. The Lord God made man and woman in His image and gave them dominion over all the earth.[6] What favor they enjoyed!
There were two trees in Eden. Two trees with very different fruit. The Tree of Life is a powerful symbol of what Adam and Eve enjoyed. With Him there was light and life and every good thing. Perfect love casts out all fear. Our first parents had nothing to be afraid of. There was no sickness, stress, strife, death or any problem whatsoever. But this beautiful relationship was not forced. Adam and Eve had options. They were created with free will; the moral agency to make decisions and respond to the ripple effects of those choices. Immense power had been granted to them by Almighty God. Genesis 1:26, “Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
The Lord gave great responsibility when He willingly gave guardianship and stewardship of the Earth to humanity. His design was for humanity to function in His power and authority in tending the garden He had created. This was disrupted when, by their own free will, Adam and Eve chose to go their own way and eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Whereas before they sinned, they knew only goodness, they gave into temptation and evil came into the world, corrupting the paradise they had once enjoyed and distorting themselves as reflectors of the divine image.
Part of how we know about conditions in Eden prior to sin is by studying the effects of sin and what it has done to humanity and the planet at large. With sin came sickness, stress, strife, toil and death.[7] Imagine what life in this world be like without any of that. Earth is not functioning as God intended it. Stewardship was given to humankind and look at what we’ve done with that free will. “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way.”[8] The insidious aftermath of rebellion against the way of love and holiness laid out by the Creator has been compounded generation after generation until we inherited the catastrophe we live in today.[9] It isn’t all bad. There are bright spots and seasons made possible when individuals and communities of humans have agreed to live according to the principles of God’s Word, but by and large life here is pain.[10]
Their perfect relationship with God was spoiled and the dark effects of sin would be compounded generation after generation until today where our present reality is a mess of confusion, heartache, disease, and death. Deception cost them more than they knew. As a child, when I read of the Lord expelling them from the Garden and guarding the Tree of Life with a flaming sword, I thought God was being cruel. In reality, He was being compassionate. He did not want them to remain in their sinful state for eternity. Tragically, instead of operating in God’s authority, they relinquished power to Satan and he became the god of this world, the prince of darkness filling the globe with cruelty and lies.
From the beginning, divine rays of hope broke through the darkness. A plan of redemption was set into motion. Our Creator would become our Redeemer, creating something beautiful out of the ashes of ugliness. In Genesis 3:15 we find the very first glimpse of the Gospel, the protoevangelium, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspringand hers; he will crushyour head, and you will strike his heel.”[11]
Ever since sin entered the world, Satan and his demons have been attacking human beings because they know the powerful potential humans have if they receive salvation. When Adam and Eve sinned, they were ashamed and tried to cover themselves with garments made of fig leaves. This was the very first man-made religion, but it was not sufficient to cover their sin. Disobedience has consequences. The wage of sin is death[12] and so God killed an animal (some speculate this was a spotless lamb) and made robes of skin for Adam and Eve. This foreshadowed the sacrifice of a coming Redeemer. The offspring of the woman who crushed Satan’s head in victory was Jesus. He triumphed over our adversary with His death on the cross and resurrection from the grave. Romans 5:21 tells us, “Just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
As time passed since Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden, God revealed through prophets increasingly more about His plan of redemption and how men and women were to live and be blessed by Him in every age. These revelations were received, written down and compiled to become the books of the Old Testament. A human being, no matter what time in history or geographic location they live in, is responsible for the light and knowledge that has been made available to them.[13] The sons of Adam and daughters of Eve continued to exercise their free moral agency in choosing to either serve Yahweh with the knowledge mankind had received up until whatever point in history they lived in, or to go their own way which is ultimately what Satan wants.
[1] Genesis 3:8
[2] Genesis 3:7
[3] Genesis 1:1-25
[4] Genesis 2:7
[5] Genesis 1:31
[6] Genesis 1:28
[7] James 1:15, Romans 5:12
[8] Isaiah 53:6
[9] Genesis 3:13-19, Numbers 14:18, Exodus 20:5,
[10] Job 14:1
[11] Genesis 3:15
[12] Romans 6:23
[13] Romans 2:14-16
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