Welcome to Word of Life Study Series- The Pentateuch! The Garden of Eden was not a place of idleness. Adam was not only a zoologist, he was also a horticulturist. The beauty and productivity of Eden were not the result of God’s creative work only; Adam kept and tended the garden, giving it touches of human handiwork. Creative occupation is positively essential for fulfillment. Work became “toil” only when sin entered the scene.
Genesis 2:15
"The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it."
1. Adam and Eve
Just think, Adam named all the animals, but none of them was suitable to be a helper or companion for Adam- Genesis 2:19-20. A dog may be man’s best friend, but it is nothing compared to the woman God had created for him! Human beings are social creatures, they were made for companionship. In the garden, Adam had daily communion with the Lord. When Eve was created, he had constant companionship with a being of his own kind.
2. The Fall of Mankind
In Genesis 2:15, God told Adam to “take care of it or to keep it.” Which implies to guard and protect it from intruders. This is the first reference of an enemy to God and man. Why put that tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden in the first place anyway? What good is it to have a free will if we do not have an opportunity to make a choice to obey or disobey God’s command? Adam was created with the potential of immorality. Death would occur only if Adam disobeyed the command of God relative to eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
3. The Penalty of Death
The most disastrous consequence of the Fall was the introduction of death into the world. God had warned in Genesis 2:17 “…but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” Sin entered into the world through Adam and Eve’s high treason; their rebellious act of aligning themselves with Satan. As a result, death came into the world, reigning and dominating mankind. The fall of man has brought him to the depths of baseness, at times man acts like an animal. That does not mean that we are animals. Saved and unsaved, we will all have to give an account to God one day, but the Bible makes no reference to this for animals.
4. The Promise of a Savior
In the midst of God pronouncing judgment in the Garden after Adam and Eve’s transgression, a promise was made that would change the destiny of mankind and undo what Satan had just done in the Garden.
Genesis 3:15
“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
The seed of the woman, meaning a man born of woman would crush Satan’s authority and release mankind from the slavery of sin and death. In other words, it would bring about the eventual doom of Satan.
5. Cain and Abel
The account of Cain and Abel is very significant because it points out a very important principle in regards to the means by which fallen man can be reconciled back to God. In other words, how to deal with the sin problem, in order for our relationship with God to be restored – Genesis 4:1-7.