Genesis 3:15 NHEBJE I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”
Here, because of the serpent’s seduction which brought separationbetween man and God, we see that God had already set in motion His grand plan for sending the Messiah (aseed) to redeem us back to Himself. This is what He tells the crafty serpent:
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring [seed/ zera] and her offsprin g [seed/ zera]. He will pound your head, and you will bite his heel.” (Artscroll Tanach)
Banished from the garden with Adam and Eve, we follow Cain and his descendants to determine if he carries this promised seed. But as we emerge from the waters of the Great Flood, we find that they have perished.
Adam and Eve Forced to Labour – Schedelsche Weltchronik or Nuremberg Chronicle
Though the world had to be on the look out for a woman bringing forth a child, born under the law, all the descendants of Adam and Eve having flesh and blood in common, the child of that woman would also share those.
Hebrews 2:14 NHEBJE Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the same, that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
That devil or adversary of God would become bruised, damaged in such way that each adversary of God would be able to recognise that they are wrong to go against the divine Maker of the universe. For that reason God provided the solution of a man proving that man can keep pure and honest to Its Maker unlike the first human beings (from the beginning of times) and many of their descendants.
1 John 3:8 NHEBJE He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To this end the Son of God was revealed, to destroy the works of the devil.
Though the world had to see that this child of that woman would not receive everything like that. It also had to work for his living and had to be tempted like any body else. He also had to suffer, but this time even more than many other people. He was not the only one to be brought to death by others; He also would also not be the only innocent one to be brought to death.
God is an eternalSpirit Being Who can not be tempted, not be killed by any living being or something else. He is also a loving God Who had a wonderful Plan for mankind and wanted it to be fulfilled. Therefore he gave man a second chance, by providing some one with the same attributes as Adam, being created from the nothingness, made to be a living soul with flesh and bones and blood. Jesus said
Luke 24:39 NHEBJE See my hands and my feet, that it is truly me. Touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see that I have.”
Whoever does not do righteousness is not of God, neither is he who does not love his brother. {1 John 3:10} The one born from that woman showed the world he was righteous and loving, even so much loving the others, that he was willing to give his life as a payment for the sins of mankind.
1 John 3:7 NHEBJE Little children, let no one lead you astray. He who does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
Romans 2:13 NHEBJE For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified
Adam and Eve had heard God telling what they where allowed to do and what not. They heard His Law, but did not take it at heart. They were no doers of the law of God. It can well be that they were listeners, but their own inner voice was stronger for their heart than the Voice of God. they ignored His wish not to eat from the tree of knowledge.
By their disobediencesin came into the world and by it death came over them and their descendants. by their act of disobedience posterity was now also damned. But from their offspring would come some one who would have a stronger mind, a stronger will able to put his own will aside, for doing the Will of God.
Romans 5:12 NHEBJE Therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, because all sinned.
Luke 22:41-42 NHEBME He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and he knelt down and prayed, (42) saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
In the hour of his death he may have had it not easy and could have preferred to avoid him to be taken prisoner and condemned to death, but much more the favour of the Most High Elohim, he gave himself to that Only One God, having faith in Him. And by himself offering himself up for others, the gift in favour of the one man, יהושע Messiah, overflowed to many.
Mankind has to know that the favourable gift is not as by one having sinned, for indeed the judgement was of one to condemnation, but the favourable gift is of many trespasses unto righteousness. Because the first Adam sinned or trespassed, the divine Maker kept to His warning that they surely would die. From that moment of taking the wrong decision man brought knowledge of good and evil to man but also knowledge of feeling fear, pain and death. By the first Adam death did reign over man but when the temptation was shown the real face of the righteous man, those who receive the overflowing favour and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life through the promised one, יהושע Messiah.
Romans 5:15-17 NHEBME But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Yeshua the Messiah, abound to the many. (16) The gift is not as through one who sinned: for the judgment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses to justification. (17) For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Yeshua the Messiah.
From the Bereshith its first chapters we can imagine that there was no ego till the animal stage. When man came into the picture there came a personal feeling direct the coarse. The first man or 1° Adam, felt lonely, though there was God and all His creatures. He wanted a helper and got it. She, being formed out of him, had everything she needed. But her ego started growing. she came to feel , like Adam did previously, that she was missing something. And she accused God of hiding things for her. As such she became the first accuser of God. We can say that’s the beginning of the original sin. She also tried to convince Adam to do like her. This meant that she convinced him that she was something and could do something.
“I am something. I am doing something. It’s I who can do it”.
God has given man a free will. He allowed them to make their own choice. For that reason He also let them know what He preferred or what He wanted. It were His mitzvah or commandments. Man could follow them or go against them. In the end man has chosen to go against God’s Wishes. Eve, contradicting what God had said, and the 1° Adam showed God how weak they were and by not listening to him brought over themselves the curse God had warned them for.
So God said, “Let’s see. Let’s see their little courage, and let them decide.”
Consequently, the situations that our all-loving and all-wise God leads us into are consistently like being “delivered to death.” However, this action toward us is “for Jesus’ sake.” In our continual impossibilities, Jesus has repeated opportunities to manifest Himself. Our heavenly Father places us in circumstances we cannot handle by our own resources. We cry out to the Lord, putting our hope and trust in Him. He faithfully goes to work in us. The result is
“that the life of Jesus [is] manifested in our mortal flesh.”
You can be light in some-body’s darkness. You can bring colour to some-one’s grey and dreary world. You can bring cheer to a soul that is saddened, joy to a heart that has been broken; hope to those who have lost their way in the fog. You’ve got what it takes to live the life that pleases God and blesses others.
When God created everything, all things where like He wanted it and every time when He saw that it was good He continued creating something else. In this way the earth came to put forth living souls according to their kinds, domestic animal and moving animal but also wild beast of the earth according to its kind.
Genesis 1:24-25 MKJV And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind, cattle, and creepers, and its beasts of the earth after its kind; and it was so. (25) And God made the beasts of the earth after its kind, and cattle after their kind, and all creepers upon the earth after their kind. And God saw that it was good.
English: Man Made in the Image of God, as in Genesis 1:26 to 2:3, Bible card published 1906 by the Providence Lithograph Company (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In the same way God decided to make man in His image according to His likeness. He allowed man to have those other living creatures in subjection. He wanted them to be fruitful and become many, meaning that the earth would be filled with human beings living in unison with each other and with their Divine Creator.
Genesis 1:26-28 MKJV 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 heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creepers creeping on the earth. (27) And God created man in His image; in the image of God He created him. He created them male and female. (28) And God blessed them. And God said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply and fill the earth, and subdue it. And have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the heavens, and all animals that move upon the earth.
From the sixth day onward man was part of the universe and could created their earthen vessels, unfolding new life. But like clay pots are characteristically inadequate and vulnerable, man showed also to be so vulnerable, or susceptible, open to temptation,persuasion,censure,etc.. His vulnerability making man exposed to everything around him, having a softspot, his effectiveness depending on his own free choices.
God had placed man in a safe environment, where man did not have to worry. A garden where there was nothing which could endanger man or would bring man open to attack or damage.
God had given all green vegetation for food except the fruit of one tree.
Genesis 1:29-30 MKJV And God said, Behold! I have given you every herb seeding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree seeding seed; to you it shall be for food. (30) And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the heavens, and to every creeper on the earth which has in it a living soul every green plant is for food; and it was so.
The man made out of dust formed from the ground could use everything for him from that ground. After the water came down from heavens, watering the entire surface of the ground, out of it grew every tree desirable to one’s sight and good for food. As such there was also the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and bad.
Genesis 2:7-9 MKJV And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (8) And Jehovah God planted a garden eastward in Eden. And there He put the man whom He had formed. (9) And out of the ground Jehovah God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food. The tree of life also was in the middle of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
The man was settled in that beautiful Garden of Eden to cultivate it and to take care of it. This means God trusted him to make something good out of it. Though having him placed there God also laid a command upon the man, him to be allowed to eat from every tree to satisfaction, but as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad he was not allowed to eat from. God also warned him that in the day he would eat from it he was positively to die.
Genesis 2:15-17 MKJV And Jehovah God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. (16) And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, You may freely eat of every tree in the garden, (17) but you shall not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. For in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.
God also found it was not good for man to continue to himself and therefore had made him a helper, as a complement of him.
Genesis 2:18-25 MKJV And Jehovah God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. (19) And out of the ground Jehovah God formed every animal of the field and every fowl of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. (20) And Adam gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field. But there was not found a suitable helper for Adam. (21) And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept. And He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh underneath. (22) And Jehovah God made the rib (which He had taken from the man) into a woman. And He brought her to the man. (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. (24) Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife and they shall be one flesh. (25) And they were both naked, the man and his wife; and they were not ashamed.
The Fall of Man (16th Century painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
She noticing that tree of which God had said not to eat, questioned if God had really said it to protect them, avoiding death to death, whatever this could mean (because they had no idea at all of pain or death), or because God did not want them to have the same knowledge He had. She started wondering if she would eat of its fruit she could not receive the same knowledge or understanding and powers as God did have.
So her doubting thoughts about God‘s honesty is presented in the third chapter of Moses book as a creeping hissing in the mind, like a creeping snake or serpent, because that animal proved to be the most cautious of all the wild beasts of the field that Jehovah God had made.
Genesis 3:1 MKJV Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which Jehovah God had made. And he said to the woman, Is it so that God has said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
She wondered why she was not allowed to eat form its fruit nor to touch it and doubted God’s integrity.
Genesis 3:2-3 MKJV And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. (3) But of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.
Her thoughts told her it was ridiculous that she would die. On the other hand she became more convinced that on the day she would eat from that tree her eyes would go open further and she would become like God. This attracted her so much see wanted very much to eat from that fruit which would give her the same powers as God.
Genesis 3:4-6 MKJV And the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die, (5) for God knows that in the day you eat of it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as God, knowing good and evil. (6) And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasing to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make wise, she took of its fruit, and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
Having pulled her husband too in her adventure of opposing God’s command, she not only became herself an adversaryof God but made man an accomplice. As an abettor Adam now had also to bear the consequences of his act. He still had the choice not to eat from that fruit and to keep faithfulto God. But he made himself an accessory of Eve doing an act against God’s Wishes.
As accessory the 1st man contributed to or aided an activity or process in a minor way; subsidiary or supplementary to Eve’s adversary against God. In this way his relationship with God also became damaged, because in a certain way he gave higher value to his relationship with Eve than with God.
In the previous postings we have seen that immediately after Adam and Eve sinned, the Divine CreatorJehovah determined that there would be offered a solution for mankind by a symbolic mannin or woman who was to bring forth a seed, or son.
Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553): Adam and Eve. Beech wood, 1533. Bode-Museum, Berlin (Erworben 1830, Königliche Schlösser, Gemäldegalerie Kat. 567) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
There was no “throwing down ofseed,” before Adam and Eve sinned. Following the rebellion but before the conception of offspring by Adam and Eve, Jehovah foreordained the appearance of the “seed.”
The act of adversary had to come to an end. The 1st man had made the wrong choice and let himself be carried away with bad thoughts. Both were mislead by thoughts which went on in their mind. It was an act of adversary which is called the devil or satan in the Bible.
When Adam and Eve went in against God’s Wishes, they themselves became adversaries of Allah/God (satan). When Eve chose to eat from the forbidden fruit she committed an act of insubmission, going against the Will of God. By doing that she did wrong and sinned against a holy God; going against His righteous laws. Following her bad thoughts she committed sins against God His love, against His name and cause. Therefore God took action and delivered a judgement over them. When He did that, as a loving Father would rebuke His children He also spoke a prophecy that gave hope to their offspring, saying to the serpent:
“I shall put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you in the head and you will bruise him in the heel.” (Genesis 3:15)
From the beginning, the identity of the promised “seed” was a sacred secret or a mysteryof God. About those mysteries God declared they would become clear for the lovers of God in due time, not at the time of man but at the time of God.
This prophetic statement revealed that there would be a seed, which would not have to be literal children, or offspring, though later he declared also by His Word seed would come from the tribe of King David. This meant that this promised seed, God His speaking, would only become a reality “after” King David, as an offspring of this great man of God. That also means that the promised seed was not yet in the heaven with God, though the thought of it was already there with Him … in God’s mind.
The origin of the seed and the being of the seed originated by God. Like everything came into existence from nothing, by the Speaking of God, it also was the Word of God that gave existence to the seed. By God’s Power, the Spirit of God, a woman got pregnant with the send one from God. And this only happened many many years, even centuries, after the first sin of man, long after Adam was created and Cain and Abraham were born.
All who came after Adam and Eve in a way were from the devil (satan) because they all came forth from a man and a woman who were under the spell of treason to God. As such all born on this earth came under the same spell or from the same “father”.
John 8:44 NHEBJE You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and its father.
1 John 3:10-12 NHEBJE In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the devil. Whoever does not do righteousness is not of God, neither is he who does not love his brother. (11) For this is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; (12) unlike Cain, who was of the evil one, and killed his brother. Why did he kill him? Because his works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
Many would not like to hear it, but everyone who does not carry on righteousness does not originate with God, whilst the others do. And the one who proved never to go against the Will of God is the one who most of all can claim to be son of God. More than that, this special envoyé was placed in a particular way in the womb of a devout Essene young lady. She bore the pains of insult and of birth as well having to see how her son was being slaughtered. When her son was of age and went public, it was God Himself Who declared that man standing in the river Jordan to be His only begotten beloved son.
Luke 3:21-23 NHEBJE Now it happened, when all the people were baptized, Jesus also had been baptized, and was praying. The sky was opened, (22) and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form as a dove on him; and a voice came out of the sky, saying “You are my beloved Son. In you I am well pleased.” (23) Jesus himself, when he began to teach, was about thirty years old, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Eli,
From the 1° Adam and Eve, the first parents, came forth all people. From the 2° Adam were to come forth those who would choose to follow Jesus and to love God. Like the 1° Adam was part of a creation now the 2° Adam was the beginning of a new creation. Both those creations came into existence by the Speaking of God. God‘s Voice sounding and bringing into being. From the beginning this Voice or God’s Word was with God. And from the beginning of mankind God’s Word, His promise for a solution, was with God also. God His Word was to come in fulfilment much later, bringing a very important person (a god) to man, by whom no new creation could come into being and everything would have stayed the same as after the fall of man. But now, that promised seed brought a new world for mankind.
John 1:1-3 NHEBJE In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (2) The same was in the beginning with God. (3) All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made.
That important man (a god), the seed of the woman but also seed of King David, was a deliverer who would destroy the one really represented by the serpent, namely, the great serpent and enemy of God, “Satan” the “Devil”.
Revelation 12:9 NHEBJE The great serpent was thrown down, the old serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
From the early times many people would be deceived. From the revelation of St. John we can figure out that the devil and satan would have a “seed.” It would require time for the two seeds to be brought forth and for enmity to develop between them. This happened not before the fall of man, but long after. Both seeds came into existence even after Adam and Eve their act ofdisobedience. When the brought forth children, soon came a time that we could see that the seed of evil was again planted and a brother killed his own brother.
Jehovah also foresaw the result of the enmity between his woman and “Satan” and between their opposing seeds. Although Jehovah would allow the seedof God’s woman to suffer a bruising in the heel, in God’s due time, the seed would bruise the serpent, or satan the devil, in the head. In the meantime, Jehovah’s purpose unfailingly advanced through the chosen genealogical line down to Jeshua the Kristos or Jesus Christ.
“It was not until Jesus was begotten by the spirit, thus becoming a spiritual son of God, that he became the ‘seed of the woman’ and the seed that was to bless all nations.
This occurred at the time of his baptism by John in the Jordan River, 29 C.E. Jesus was then about 30 years of age. The holy spirit, coming upon Jesus, manifested itself to John in the form of a dove, and God himself acknowledged Jesus as his Son at that time.
Matthew 3:13-17 NHEBJE Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. (14) But John would have hindered him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?” (15) But Jesus, answering, said to him, “Allow it now, for this is the fitting way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed him. (16) And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up directly from the water: and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming on him. (17) And behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
John 3:3 NHEBJE Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I tell you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
With that rabbi who came to declare his heavenly Father, a new generation could start. A new seed be fertile. By the 1° Adam death had entered the world, now by the 2° Adam life could once again enter the world. Consequently, God’s promise,
“I shall surely multiply your seed like the stars of the heavens and like the grains of sand that are on the seashore,”
has a spiritual fulfilment and means that others, who “belong to Christ,” are added as part of Abraham’s seed and shall also be able to enter the Kingdom of God to enjoy a non-ending life.
Genesis 22:17 NHEBJE that I will bless you greatly, and I will multiply your seed greatly like the stars of the heavens, and like the sand which is on the seashore. Your seed will possess the gate of his enemies.
Mark 9:41 NHEBJE For whoever will give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because you belong to the Messiah, truly I tell you, he will in no way lose his reward.
1 Corinthians 15:22-24 NHEBJE (22) For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. (23) But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s, at his coming. (24) Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father; when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power.
Authority was given by the heavenly Father to Jesus, who was to be called King of the Jews. He was not like and brought animosity at the time of the Romans in Jerusalem. The ill feeling against him and his followers continued after his death. We can see that in this way the great serpent satan the devil produced “seed” that has manifested the bitterest enmity toward those who have served God with faith like Abraham, as the Bible record abundantly testifies. Continueously adversaries of God or satans tried to block or hinder the development of the woman’s seed. Jesus also had already warned his listeners about what man can produce or which seed man can saw.
Matthew 13:24-30 NHEBJE (24) He set another parable before them, saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field, (25) but while people slept, his enemy came and sowed tares also among the wheat, and went away. (26) But when the blade sprang up and brought forth fruit, then the tares appeared also. (27) So the servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where did these tares come from?’ (28) “And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and gather them up?’ (29) “But he said, ‘No, lest perhaps while you gather up the tares, you root up the wheat with them. (30) Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First, gather up the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.”‘”
We all shall have to bring forth seed, people who sincerely love God and want to step in the footsteps of master Jeshua. The real followers of rabbi Jeshua shall try to be stronger than the temptations those adversaries of God bring. They shall try to proof they are worthy the sacrifice that man brought and by whom blessings have come all over them who have faith in him and who love his heavenly Father the Only One True God.
At the times of the apostles it was not easy. The enmity reached its height, however, in the persecution of the spiritual seed, particularly in that displayed toward Jesus Christ.
Acts 3:3-15 NHEBJE Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive gifts for the needy. (4) Peter, fastening his eyes on him, with John, said, “Look at us.” (5) He listened to them, expecting to receive something from them. (6) But Peter said, “Silver and gold have I none, but what I have, that I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!” (7) He took him by the right hand, and raised him up. Immediately his feet and his ankle bones received strength. (8) Leaping up, he stood, and began to walk. He entered with them into the temple, walking, leaping, and praising God. (9) All the people saw him walking and praising God. (10) They recognized him, that it was he who used to sit begging for gifts for the needy at the Beautiful Gate of the temple. They were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. (11) And as he held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering. (12) When Peter saw it, he responded to the people, “You men of Israel, why do you marvel at this man? Why do you fasten your eyes on us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made him walk? (13) The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up, and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had determined to release him. (14) But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a man who was a murderer to be granted to you, (15) and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, to which we are witnesses.
Paul refers to the prophetic drama to illustrate, saying:
“Just as then the one born in the manner of flesh [Ishmael] began persecuting the one born in the manner of spirit [Isaac], so also now.” (Galatians 4:29)
And a later report, in reality a prophecy, describes the Kingdom’s establishment in heaven and the devil’s being hurled out of heaven down to the earth, with only a short time to continue his enmity. It concludes:
“And the dragon grew wrathful at the woman, and went off to wage war with the remaining ones of her seed, who observe the commandments of God and have the work of bearing witness to Jesus.” (Revelation 12:7-13, 17)
For sure the world shall have to face a terrible war, bigger and more fearful than the Great War. It shall be a war between people who claim to be fighting in the name of Allah/God, but they will be deceivers. Children and parents shall have many discussions with each other. Their internal, war between families shall be just part of the bigger picture where nation shall fight against nation and many shall ridicule religion and spit on the God of gods. Then we may see a war against the remnant of the woman’s seed which shall end when ‘Satan is crushed under their feet.’
Romans 16:20 NHEBJE And the God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
The first human beings had the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge, symbolizing potentialities or possibilities that God has made available to Man, who is free to choose and explore as much as he pleases, even to separate himself from God, like the Prodigal Son from his Father.
Man had made his choice and had to leave the Garden of Eden, trying to build up a decent life. Though now he had to work hard for everything and was aware he had disgusted or displeased God. First there was only the Most HighDivine Creator of all things Who was above Adam and Eve and above all other living creatures, the plants and animals. There was no hierarchy.
Hierarchy (from the Greek ἱεραρχία hierarchia, “rule of a high priest”, from ἱεράρχης hierarkhes, “leader of sacred rites”); ranking of objects into grades, orders, or classes of increasing dominance or inclusiveness + specific type of social organization in which members are divided by status or especially authority – people on a “ladder”
The first story were we saw human beings ‘fighting’ for a place or rang order is the one of Cain and Abel. Slowly hierarchy entered the human system. From simple hunter-gatherer tribes to complex, modern industrial societies we can find a hierarchy which is loved by people. Some scholars argue that gender played a central role in the formation and functioning of stratification systems. They showed that women’s exclusion from social life placed them in an inferior position, resulting in lessened life chances and status. While women’s standing in social and economic life has improved over the past half-century, women are still restricted by gender roles and patriarchy. Rich literatures examine the impact of family structure, occupational segregation, devaluation of women’s work, and sex-based pay gaps.
We also can see that the colour of skin, the place of origin, became important to place people on a step of the ladder. One’s racial and ethnic background or ethnicity, also greatly came to influence one’s life chances. When not belonging to the troop it could well be that people saw the person suitable to be used as an offer to the gods.
Human life was looked at as something very special and was considered by many as the most valuable material for sacrifice. The killing of a human being, or the substitution of an animal in place of a person, has often been part of an attempt to effect communion with a god and participation in his divine life.
We may find two primary types of human sacrifice: the offering of a human being to a god and the entombment or slaughter of servants or slaves intended to accompany the deceased into the afterlife. The latter practice was more common.
The realisation of human sacrifice to the promotion of the earth’s fertility may explain why the phenomenon has been most widely adopted by agricultural rather than by hunting or pastoral peoples.
The region where the Austronesian languages are spoken spans over 200 degrees of longitude from Madagascar to Easter Island
In a study published in Nature1, Joseph Watts, a specialist in cultural evolution at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, and his colleagues have analysed 93 traditional cultures in Austronesia (the region that loosely embraces the many small and island states in the Pacific and Indonesia) as they were before they were influenced by colonization and major world religions (generally in the late 19th and early 20th centuries). {On Human Sacrifice (Article Nature)}
By mapping the evolutionary relationships between cultures, the team suggests that human sacrifice and social hierarchy co-evolved. Although societies can become more or less stratified over time, societies that practised sacrifice were less apt to revert to milder degrees of stratification.
Clearly there were different ways to look at the sacrificial bodies. They could be seen as something very special and very worthy but also as something they did not want in their community and found good enough to give to the gods. More than animalsacrificehuman sacrifice helped to stabilize hierarchy, and conceivably, therefore, had a common role in the development of highly stratified societies that generally persist even today. Instead of killing the one in power a substitute was taken to receive for some time divine status and then was put to death. Sacral kings (considered to embody gods of vegetation) were sacrificed when their vigour declined, in order to prevent reciprocal effects on soil fertility. In various places in Africa, where human sacrifice was connected with ancestor worship or veneration of the dead, some of the slaves of the deceased were buried with him, or they were killed and laid beneath him in his grave.
Aztec cosmogram in the pre-Hispanic Codex Fejérváry-Mayer—the fire god Xiuhtecuhtli is in the centre
There were also places were people thought the elements of nature, like the moon and the sun, needed human nourishment, which led to sacrifices in which thousands of victims perished annually in their rituals, like by the Aztecs. The Incas confined such wholesale sacrifices to the accession of a ruler.There were instances of human sacrifice in Peru and among tribes of North American Indians.
All human societies have been shaped by religion, leading psychologists to wonder how it arose, and whether particular forms of belief have affected other aspects of evolved social structure. According to one recent view, for example, belief in a “big God” — an all-powerful, punitive deity who sits in moral judgement on our actions — has been instrumental in bringing about social and political complexity in human cultures.
The network of small and island states stretching from Madagascar to Easter Island — challenges that theory. In these states, a more general belief in supernatural punishment did tend to precede political complexity, the research finds, but belief in supreme deities emerged after complex cultures have already formed 2.
Joseph Watts, a specialist in cultural evolution at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, who worked on the study, wanted evidence to examine the idea that “big Gods” drive and sustain the evolution of big societies. Psychologist Ara Norenzayan at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, has suggested that belief in moralizing high gods (MHGs) enabled societies to outgrow their limited ability to police moral conduct, by threatening freeloaders with retribution even if no-one else noticed their transgressions3, 4.
Watts says
“Austronesian cultures offer an ideal sample to test theories about the evolution of religions in pre-modern societies, because they were mostly isolated from modern world religions, and their indigenous supernatural beliefs and practices were well documented.”
The believers in moralizing high gods (MHGs) got in their system some people who got control by aligning themselves with those supreme deities and then making lists of things people could and could not do. We can imagine their way of getting more power by making the people afraid with ideas of suffering or torture (in the underground or hell) and by the possibility to become a target of offering. For centuries certain religious organisation or churches made their followers afraid of doomplaces and told them that they could buy themselves free from those torture chambers by giving money to their church. People could buy indulgences.
The granting of indulgences was predicated on two beliefs. First, in the sacrament of penance it did not suffice to have the guilt (culpa) of sin forgiven through absolution alone; one also needed to undergo temporal punishment (poena, from p[o]enitentia, “penance”) because one had offended Almighty God. Second, indulgences rested on belief in purgatory, a place in the next life where one could continue to cancel the accumulated debt of one’s sins, another Western medieval conception not shared by Eastern Orthodoxy or other Eastern Christian churches not recognizing the primacy of the pope. {Indulgence – Roman Catholicism, encyclopaedia Britannica}
A Catholic bishop granting plenary indulgences for the public during times of calamity. Note the almsgiving in the background. Wall Fresco by Italian Artist Lorenzo Lotto, Suardi, Italy, circa 1524.
Certain faithgroups or churches wanted their believers to believe that offerings could reduce the the debt of forgiveness of sin. The offers could exist out of many gifts but also by the performance of good works in their life (pilgrimages, charitable acts, and the like) and if their offerings were not yet sufficient they would get a lesser penalty after they died, by temporarily suffering in purgatory instead of eternal suffering in hell. Indulgences could be granted only by popes or, to a lesser extent, archbishops and bishops as ways of helping ordinary people measure and amortize their remaining debt.
In different cultures an other way was less bloody, having the sacrifice taking place by going under water. Whilst in Mexico young maidens were drowned in sacred wells, others found it sufficient to have an immersion. As such we can find Celtic rituals. Whilst the burning of children occurred in Assyrian and Canaanite religions and at various times among the Israelites, it became a custom by the Israelites to be cleared of sins by immersion to enter a new life. John the Baptist as such came to immerse his cousin Jeshua, Jesus Christ, who was the long awaited Messiah. About 40 days after Jesus’ birth, his parents had brought the customary sin offering permitted in the case of the poor,
“a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” (Luke 2:24; Leviticus 12:6-8)
The offerings and human sacrifice legitimises political authority and social class systems, functioning to stabilize social stratification. It was also an ideal way to get rid of unwanted people or to take care that those who stood in the way could disappear from the scene.
In this way the NazareneJeshua an annoying person and possible peril for the security and peace in the Roman empire and in the Jewish community. Though it was not thought him to be an offer, several thought it better to give him away to be killed instead of the vigilant or robber Barabbas. Pilate knew that it was out of jealousy that the chief priests and elders wanted Jesus out of the way, i.e. being killed.
“Give us Barabbas!”, from The Bible and its Story Taught by One Thousand Picture Lessons, 1910
The man being called to be crucified did not have his roots in the right soil because nobody thought anything good could come out of Nazareth. (John 1:46; 7:41, 52) Although he was a perfect man and a descendant of King David, his humble circumstances did not impart to him any “stately form” or “splendour” — at least not in the eyes of those who were expecting the Messiah to come from a more impressive background.
Spurred on by the Jewish religious leaders, many were led to overlook and even despise him. In the end the crowds saw nothing desirable in the perfect Son of God.
Matthew 27:11-26 NHEBME (11) Now Yeshua stood before the governor: and the governor asked him, saying, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Yeshua said to him, “So you say.” (12) When he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. (13) Then Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?” (14) He gave him no answer, not even one word, so that the governor marveled greatly. (15) Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release to the multitude one prisoner, whom they desired. (16) They had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas. (17) When therefore they were gathered together, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release to you? Barabbas, or Yeshua, who is called the Messiah?” (18) For he knew that because of envy they had delivered him up. (19) While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.” (20) Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the multitudes to ask for Barabbas, and destroy Yeshua. (21) But the governor answered them, “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” They said, “Barabbas!” (22) Pilate said to them, “What then shall I do to Yeshua, who is called the Messiah?” They all said, “Let him be crucified!” (23) But he said, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the louder, saying, “Let him be crucified!” (24) So when Pilate saw that nothing was being gained, but rather that a disturbance was starting, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this man. You see to it.” (25) All the people answered, “May his blood be on us, and on our children!” (26) Then he released to them Barabbas, but Yeshua he flogged and delivered to be crucified.
In the time before Jeshua the ancient temple courtyard was the altar for offering sacrifices. This foreshadowed God’s provision, according to His will, for a perfect human sacrifice to ransom the offspring of Adam. (Heb 10:1-10; 13:10-12; Ps 40:6-8)
This man, born in Bethlehem, at his immersion was proclaimed by God Himself to be the “Only begottenbelovedson of God“. Nobody had managed to fully do the will of God neither could have brought a perfect sacrificial body in front of the Most Divine God. This time that man managed to put aside his will and managed to keep all the time to God’s Will. He was the living proof that man, if he wanted, could keep to God’s Commandments. Still to today there are religious groups in Christendom who want others to believe no man would ever be capable to keep God’s commandments, and therefore Jesus would have to be God himself. This idea makes of God a very cruel God Who imposed Laws to man which He knew they would never be able to keep. But God is a God of love and order Who does not asks more of people than they can endure or do. That what God asks of mankind Jesus managed to fulfil and by doing God’s Will all the time, not going against the Will of God, he was not at any time an opposer or adversary of God. Jesus him being a perfect human being made the sacrifice of his life acceptable in the eyes of God to be the best ransom that could be paid for making an end to the curse of death.
God even expanded the gift of Christ to mankind by declaring all those who have faith in Christ’s sacrifice, righteous on the basis of their faith. By believing in Jesus Christ and following his teachings, when they after their immersion try to keep to the commandments of God, they are viewed by God as sinless while in the flesh.
Romans 3:20-26 NHEBME Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin. (21) But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the Law and the Prophets; (22) even the righteousness of God through faith in Yeshua the Messiah to all those who believe. For there is no distinction, (23) for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; (24) being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Messiah Yeshua; (25) whom God set forth to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God’s forbearance; (26) to demonstrate his righteousness at this present time; that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him who has faith in Yeshua.
Romans 5:1-2 NHEBME Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah; (2) through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Differently than in other religions where every time a new sacrifice is needed, the blood of Christ is for ever and makes that no other sacrifices have to be made.
Romans 5:9-10 NHEBME Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. (10) For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life.
Romans 8:1-7 NHEBME There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Messiah Yeshua. (2) For the law of the Spirit of life in Messiah Yeshua made you free from the law of sin and of death. (3) For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh; (4) that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (5) For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. (6) For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace; (7) because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be.
There was a lovely harmony in the Garden of Eden. Man was free to walk around and live nicely. He also was free to think and to make choices. There it went wrong. The woman let her mind wander and got tempted by her thoughts, willing to know more.
We have seen that the yielding to the tempter or man’s mind doubtingGod‘s honesty is treated allegorically in the Edenic covenant as the serpentin the flesh. First man was full of life but now death had come to him. Temptation had taken over and evil had entered his mind. This evil is the “devil” or diabolos of the New Testament, which term is defined as “that which has the power of death” (Hebrews 2:14), elsewhere described as “the law of sin and death”, “sin that dwelleth in me”, “sin in the flesh” (Romans 7:20; Romans 8:2-3).
Hebrews 2:14-15 NHEBJE Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the same, that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, (15) and might deliver all of them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Eve was taken in by her thoughts which proofed not to be good thoughts. Those ideas opposingGod’s Wishes are considered bad thoughts. Going against God His Will is as declaring yourself to be against His ideas and opposing Him or to rival God, taking on the position of an opponent of God or an adversary (satan) of God.
Evil thoughts got so much power in man that it brought death to them but also put its stamp on all the rest of mankind. The act of the first two human beings created an awful situation for us. The curse of death having come over man also brought plants and animals in danger. Because now the mind of man was filled with darkness and their way of thinking became so blurred that often they would take the wrong decisions. At the beginning of the universe man had received the plants as food, meaning they had to be vegetarians or veganists. By the years following their expulsion from the Garden of Eden they were not happy any more by eating only plants and wanted also to eat meat, also becoming more like the animals, a carnivor. By doing so they also became killers of animal. They had taken their power to be master over plants and animals to be able to kill other living beings. Evil or badness in this way creped further in their life and as such evil or satan has become master or chiefrulerof this world now. The enmity against God was so strong it became deeply rooted in the next generations. Paul described how that this “warred against the law of my mind” (Romans 7:23), and in doing so gave expression to the enmity described by God in the 15th verse of Genesis 3.
Romans 7:23 NHEBJE but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.
God talking about the seed to come (a seed of a new generation), wanted mankind a solution for what they had caused and for those who had nothing to do with that first fault or wrong choice of Adam and Eve. God had asked not to touch nor to eat from the tree, which was a law for man. They ignored it, but with it they also did not listen to God. Also later the many Laws provided by God to guide man, got ignored. Through the flesh every law would be weak. But the seed or the send onefrom God was to show the world that he who also was in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, would be able to follow the Laws of God, not doing his own Will, but continually doing the Will of God. The action or attitude of that seed was going to contradict the thoughts of those taken by that ‘hissing in the mind’, the ‘serpent‘ or ‘evil’, the adversary of God, satan or the devil. Those coming after Adam and Eve also would have the choice to be after the flesh either to mind the things of the flesh or to love the things of the flesh. The loving harmony which subsisted between the Father and the son restored the relationshipbetweenGod and mankind and could again bring liberation in the condemnation of sin in the flesh.
Romans 8:3 NHEBJE For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh;
Though there is constant enmity or animosity between the lusts of the flesh and the requirements of God as set down in His law those who would come into the seed of the woman and would follow his teachings could make themselves stronger and become once again in the spiritual life or after the Spirit (o. pneuma) or the things of the Spirit (o. pneuma) . In order to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually (o. pneuma) minded is life and peace.
Romans 8:5-10 NHEBJE For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. (6) For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace; (7) because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be. (8) Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (9) But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is so that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. (10) If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
That the serpent is used allegorically of sin is shown by the punishment meted out to Israel when the people “spake against God, and against Moses” (Numbers 21:5). Serpents appeared among the people, the sting of which proved fatal (cp. 1 Corinthians 15:56), so that “much people of Israel died”.
1 Corinthians 15:56 NHEBJE (56) The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
In panic, the rest of the people appealed to Moses for help, and he interceded with God on their behalf. He was told to make a serpent of brass, and to set it on a pole, so that the people might view it. All who did so in faith were saved from the death that threatened them. The serpent on the pole illustrated to the people what they should do to the “serpent” within (the carnal mind that inflamed lust): they must crucify it if they would live.
The serpent or evil could put the seed on the pole, Jesus Christ being put to death, as a symbol of bringing the curse of evil and death to its end, Jesus vanquish evil by giving his unblemished body as a ransom for all who had that sin of the flesh. His decision only to followGod His Will has overcome the fault of those who followed their own will, ignoring God’s Will.
Unlike the active serpents on the ground, there was no venom in the serpent on the pole (not by Moses, not by Jesus Christ); similarly sin must be neutralised in us if we would live. At the time of Moses the serpent on the pole could also representing that seed promised in the Garden of Eden,the Lord Jesus Christ who came in the nature common to all. On several occasions he compared his crucifixion with the “lifting up” of the serpent in the wilderness (John 3:14-16; John 8:28; John 12:32), thus identifying his nature with the allegorical significance of the serpent.
John 3:14-21 NHEBJE As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, (15) that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. (16) For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. (17) For God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him. (18) He who believes in him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. (19) This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil. (20) For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his works would be exposed. (21) But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God.”
All About Evil (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We do live in a time now that people should be able to see who God has send to the earth and has lifted up. Today there are still too many, even people who call themselves Christian, who do not want to believe Jesus is that seed God has promised and send to the earth. They still do not want to believe Jesus is really the son of God and not a god son. They still do not want to accept that Jesus did not his own will (which he would have done when he is God) and and that he did nothing on his own authority, but spoke just as his heavenly Father taught him.
John 8:28-29 NHEBJE Jesus therefore said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and I do nothing of myself, but as the Father taught me, I say these things. (29) He who sent me is with me. The Father hasn’t left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.”
John 12:32 NHEBJE And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw everyone to myself.”
In the seed, which always did only those things that pleased Jehovah God, would come power to battle the evil. All those who would come to recognise that seed and would come under it, multiplying in unity trying to put away those fleshly lusts would be able to put their flesh to death at the stake to gain life in the mind of Christ.
The Divine Creator is a God of order, clarity, Who does nottell lies (= always telling the truth) and does not create chaos or confusion. (1 Corinthians 14:33) Man should have known that God always told the truth. But by letting his thoughts wander about, he was caught by his own bad thoughts that God would keep something hidden from him or did not want to give him what he also should own.
As He had promised they would get to knowlife and death, He cursed them to the hard labour which they previously never had to do. And having made out of dust, God told them they would return to it, becoming dust again, meaning to die and then to decay. (Genesis 3:19)
(Genesis 3:19 ASV): “in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
In the previous chapters we discussed that what happened to Adam and Eve still happens to us every day. Temptation today still follows the same pattern with us as it did with Eve in the Garden of Eden. Always there is first the arousing of desire; then the mind, seizing upon that desire, rationalizes it to make it seem reasonable, proper, and profitable. Then the will acts — and often immediately confusion, guilt, blame, and a sense of limitation follows without fail. The process is absolutely relentless.
Adam and Eve thought, like we often do, that we can hide ourselves. We may think that we have hidden things we did from the eyes of man, and oftentimes many of us are deluded into thinking that because no human being knows about our guilt, nothing has happened.
Yet within us, whenever we yield to evil, a darkness falls and death tightens its grip upon our throat. {Ray C. Stedman}
When addressing the evil God shows His understanding and shows His willingness to provide help in their hopeless situation. It is not that man shall be able to escape for what they have done. No, there is the curse for the woman and for the man. and to the evil or the adversary of Him, Jehovah says
Genesis 3:15 NHEBJE I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”
The evil or satan shall become subject of a war to the “death”. The thoughts Eve had, would now also come to her children, dwelling in them they shall be troubled by desires, vanity, and other bad things, bringing them into captivity to the law of sin which is in their members
Romans 7:18-23 NHEBJE For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but to do that which is good is not. (19) For the good which I desire, I do not do; but the evil which I do not desire, that I practice. (20) But if what I do not desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me. (21) I find then the law, that, to me, while I desire to do good, evil is present. (22) For I delight in God’s law after the inward man, (23) but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.
For those who have that incapacity to be fully correct or without fault, God did not want that they would not have to face total destruction. Speaking out His judgement over Adam and Eve the Divine Creator spoke about a future saviour. Some one who would be able to break the curse of death. Between the bad thoughts and the way of righteousness shall be a battle. Those who would like to follow their own self-love and what made Eve from this world shall find tribulation and lots of problems in this world, not strong enough to fight them. Though others who not want to be of that world shall be able to be stronger and find their way out, though the world may hate them.
John 15:19 NHEBJE If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
John 16:33 NHEBJE I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have oppression; but cheer up! I have overcome the world.”
Yes, there will be one coming, by the promise of the Most High, who can call himself the only begotten son of God. Though the mind of the flesh may be hostile to God (Romans 8:6-7) this provider foreseen by God in the Garden of Eden, after the fall of man, long before Abraham, is the one we all have to look for and have to find. In him we shall have to put our faith to come away under the curse of death. He is the only man who succeeded to be without fault. He always managed to do God His Will. Though he was tempted many times (in the desert, in the square of the village and in the town, in the temple, in the garden of Gethsemane) he never gave in to the temptation, always wanting to do God His will instead of his own will.
Luke 22:41-42 NHEBJE He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and he knelt down and prayed, (42) saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
The writer of Bereshith notates God’s declaration that there shall be a separating of the serpent (the evil, the temptation) from the woman, and tells about the provision of a solution, which we shall hear about in later books as well. In the third chapter of Genesis we find the basis for the first promise of redemption which must be interpreted allegorically. In that light, the serpent stood for what it proclaimed:
“Ye shall not surely die” (v. 4).
This error was an emanation of the thinking of the flesh called “the carnal mind” by the apostle Paul, which, he declared
“is enmity against God” (Romans 8:7).
Moses lets us understand that there in the Garden of Eden was the base of our problems. There the first man and woman doubting God and His honesty, they becoming adversaries or enemies of God. Eve her thoughts are represented as the creeping animal, a serpent which became “the father of lies“, and all who endorse or proclaim error are considered as its seed, or children.
John 8:44 NHEBJE You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and its father.
Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil עברית: חטא עץ הדעת – ד”ר לידיה קוזניצקי (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Accordingly, in the allegorical signification of this statement, the serpent represents the spirit of error and deceit as it emanates from the carnal mind. It is frequently used for those who oppose the Truth (Psalms 58:4; 140:3; Matthew 23:33; Revelation 12:9), manifesting themselves as adversaries of the righteous. Its error stemmed from its presumption in reasoning upon Divine law from the standpoint of the flesh. This philosophy caused Eve to view the forbidden tree anew, and its attractive appearance aroused in her the latent propensities of the flesh which then became active and demanding.
“The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life”
which John teaches is
“not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:16)
were inflamed, and became “the word of the serpent” made flesh in her.
Adam and Eve wanted so much to have that knowledge of good and evil. Their aspiration to own that knowledge was fed by their lust for more. Paul calls such ‘wants’ “lusts” and gives them the title of sin in the flesh (Romans 8:3), or “sin that dwelleth in me” (Romans 7:20).
Romans 8:3 NHEBJE For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh;
The sending of that son is God’s solution for mankind. Though evil shall do everything to try to destroy him, it shall not succeed.
Michelangelo Bounarotti – The Fall and Expulsion of Adam and Eve – detail (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
By the offspring of the woman the world shall come to see a Virgin Birth where “It” (AV), a singular seed, shall “bruise” (AV), or “Shuwph” = to crush (Job 9:17). This enmity which had come into existence, between man and God, is seeking the destruction of the higher interests of man. While it will inflict injury, this enmity is subject to the ultimate conquest of man.
The sorrow of woman consequent upon the Fall brings God now having a woman bringing life to a man, but this time not without pain. Also the seed God provides shall bring lots of pain to his mother and generations shall look up at that miserable pain this son of hers had to endure.
In the previous postings we have seen that the “serpent” is no ordinary “beast of the field.” Later portions of the Bible seem to imply that its subtle words were supplied by what man came ‘to believe’ or ‘see‘. Their action or attitude against God made them an adversary or satan.
Temptation of Adam and Eve. Genesis cap 3 v 6. after Raphael
The tempter for many became a ‘person’ or active figure called “Satan” or the devil. This Satan or adversary is the power of evil, the rebelagainst God. Hence the serpent has usually been treated by artists symbolically; Raphael pictures it as partly human, possessed of a woman’s head, a woman’s brain without her nobler soul. Certainly the serpent’s cunning words suggest human nature arguing with itself; the baser, beastly parts stirring the mind to ambition and rage and fear.
In the garden of Eden, the two mysterious trees, one of life and death, the other of “the knowledge of good and evil” were not for man. Their idea of being “as gods” was very temptive and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and had taken of the fruit thereof and had also given it to her husband, they effectively came to know “good” and “evil“.
They found that knowledge, even at its best, is but a poor substitute for innocent purity. Most startling of the grim facts made clear to them, was that they had disobeyed their Divine Maker and thus lost their sense of joy and security with Him. They could imagine He would not be pleased with their act and therefore hid ashamed for Him. Going against the Will of God they had taken into their hearts selfishness and suspicion and fear. Darkened of mind and sin-stained of body, they were no longer willing to be fully seen, to gaze and be gazed upon. They grew secretive, furtive. They began to clothe their naked bodies with leaves, and they crouched among the trees to hide from God.
Before their act of insubmission they were never afraid of each other, of animals or of God. But now, after they failed to comply to God’s Will, they clearly knew they had done something wrong and even felt not sure any more about themselves. Never before had they avoided their Creator who was there Father. But now when He came to them in the garden “in the cool of the day” and when He spoke to them sadly of their fall, Adam answered trembling from his hiding place, and showed how contemptible indeed that fall had been. His personal resources had failed him. Perhaps he did not come to see that if anything is withheld from us, we may be sure that it is not absolutely for our good. He came to understand that his heart and soul (his flesh, heart and spirit or thinking) had failed. His downfall brought with it that he sought excuses. He did not want to to take the lowest place. He sought with crafty, coward words to shift his blame upon the woman, and even upon God, which shows how a state of sin can affect us.
Genesis 3:12 NHEBJE The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”
Putting the blame on his wife, to consider her responsiblefor his misdeed, is something which those who do wrong still try to do today. From that first sin those two first people their offspring got ‘bad examples’ and got the genes of troubled minds. Though
“Genetic predisposition made me do it”
is no excuse and is doing the same as Adam did. Eve also quickly learned from Adam trying to use an excuse to plead her innocence and freedom. The term “deceived” seems to mean “cause to forget”. It may be an onomatopoeia to the serpent’s hissing (i.e. hissi’ani). The New Testament mentions Eve’s actions in 2 Corinthians 11:3 and 1 Timothy 2:14.
2 Corinthians 11:3 NHEBJE (3) But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
1 Timothy 2:14 NHEBJE Adam was not deceived, but the woman, being deceived, has fallen into disobedience;
Because the 1st Adam had hearkened unto the voice of his wife, not only listening to her and not pointing to her what she was thinking was wrong, but following her, he also was at fault and should have to bear the consequences like any person who does something wrong has to bear the consequences.
Man was taken out of the earth, from dust. Because both had not listened to God they had to see it was serious what God had said about life and death. Now they were going to feel what it meant knowing life and death. Knowing good and bad things of life and losing life.
Genesis 3:17-22 NHEBJE To Adam he said, “Because you have listened to your wife’s voice, and have eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. (18) Thorns also and thistles will it bring forth to you; and you will eat the herb of the field. (19) By the sweat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (20) The man called his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all living. (21) Jehovah God made coats of skins for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them. (22) Jehovah God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, lest he put forth his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever…”
Biblia Pauperum illustration of Eve and the Serpent (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Adam should have been following God’s word, but he followed his wife’s word and broke God’s specific command or mitzvoth. Each created being has received like Adam and Eve a free choice either to follow God His Words or to deny them and to go astray from God. Adam and Eve had heard what could happen (cf. Genesis 2:15-17). Now it was too late to turn back.
Romans 8:18-23 NHEBJE For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us. (19) For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. (20) For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope (21) that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. (22) For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. (23) Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body.
Nature became involved because man now being on his own trying to look for his dailyediblefood started also hunting the animals, which had to become fearing man and going into their defence. As such animals and plants also became a victim of the fall of man. But God is a God of love and He does not like it when His creatures do have to suffer. God is on the side of His creatures. Therefore He provide a solution for them, but it had to come form man itself. Like the first man or Adam had to make the right choice the new or second Adam, the man for the new beginning had to make the right choice too.
The story of the Eden Garden. The temptation of Adam & Eve by the devil. Pedestal of the statue of Madonna with Child, western portal (of the Virgin), of Notre-Dame de Paris, France Français : L’histoire du Jardin d’Eden. Au premier plan la tentation d’Adam & Eve par le Diable. Base de la statue de la Vierge à l’Enfant, trumeau du portail de la Vierge, Façade ouest de Notre-Dame de Paris. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We have no idea how long Adam and Eve had lived in unison with their Creator. But we are told that they themselves choose to go against God’s Will. It was their own choice to close their ears for God’s commandment not to eat from that tree. It was by their ownchoice of will that they made an irreversible act and created a different history for themself and, in fact, for all mankind.
Normally it was foreseen that they could live for ever in a paradise, but know, as God had warned them they had to face death. Now their days of life became numbered.
They had thought that in the day they were eating thereof, then their eyes would be opened and then they could be as wise and knowledgable as God. Having the same knowledge as God attracted them. They also wanted to have the same power as Him.
The metaphorical use of elements, like animals speaking, is often used in the Bible Books. Concerning Balaam the apostle Peter endorsed the account
2 Peter 2:16 NHEBJE but he was rebuked for his own disobedience. A mute donkey spoke with a man’s voice and stopped the madness of the prophet.
opening his ears, where previously his eyes were opened involving an occurrence with an angel.(Numbers 22:31) In later books of the Holy Scriptures references are made to the many lies which continue to live in this world. The lies Eve and Adam heard are like we may hear the lies of the false teachers (Genesis 3:4 vs 2 Corinthians 11:13) and want to follow them. The world may spread subtile or beguiling beliefs. (Genesis 3:1 vs 2 Corinthians 11:3,13) and get people seduced bringing them in danger of loosing their life (2 Corinthians 11:3).
After their own choice doing that act, Eve’s fall was disastrous.
1 Timothy 2:14 NHEBJE Adam was not deceived, but the woman, being deceived, has fallen into disobedience;
2 Corinthians 11:3 NHEBJE (3) But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
Today in Christendom we still can see how people let their ears be tangled by human teachings, instead of listening to the Biblical truth, and accepting God’s Words for what they are and say. In the same way as the serpent beguiled Eve by its craftiness, so are many minds corrupted from the simplicity which belongs to Christ, the sent one from God. Lots of so called Christians keep to the false idea that Jesus has to be God because they do not want to believe that Jesus is the sent one from God, who as a man of flesh and blood managed to do what the 1st Adam and the 1st woman did not succeed, namely to put his own will aside and only doing the Will of god, his heavenly Father, the Only One true God of gods.
The selfish thoughts of Eve, represented by the serpent, led Eve away from the Elohim יהוה YHWH Jehovah God, in small steps leading to self-assertive independence. Today also there are the personal wishes to be in control of everything and there are still other people who desire to draw people away from God. The serpent, by its poison and its loathly form, is the natural symbol of such an enemy of man, the adversary of god or a satan. The insinuating slyness of the suggestions of evil is like the sinuous gliding of the snake, and truly represents the process by which temptation found its way into the hearts of the first pair, and of all their descendants. For it begins with casting a doubt on the reality of the prohibition.
‘Has God said?’
is the first parallel opened by the besieger.
Often we also hear others say
“What does it matter” or “There is no harm in it”
this is even more dangerous than by Eve, who was warned that there was something bad to happen. But now that message of the badness that can happen to us is also blurred by what happened in the garden of Eden.
The woman could have been protected from her serious fall if she had referred the matter to her husband, who had been given the place of headship. Because she ignored this she was deceived into deliberate disobedience to God. She saw the tree was good for food: it appealed to her taste. It was pleasant to the eyes: it appealed to her sight. It was desirable to make one wise: it appealed to her pride (See 1Jonn 2:16). she therefore trusted her own inclinations and ignored the word of God (v.6). Before consulting her husband she ate the fruit of the tree. {L.M.Grant}
Like doubt may have been filtered into the ear of Eve today we also see the reality of moral distinctions, the essential wrongness of the sin, being obscured by a mist of sophistication. Where often scholars say to the people they can not understand it because God is too complicated. But God is a God of order and a God of love, Who wants clarity and righteousness. He would not withhold something for certain people because they had no opportunity to study or to learn certain things.
Mankind came to see, like they were warned. There was the temptation. They could have chosen to let it pass, like later on Jesus did several times. Going against the Wish of God is called sinning. The promise of knowing good and evil was indeed kept, because God always keeps His promises. Though their minds were hoping for things which were not for them. Instead of their eating of the fruit making the sinners ‘like gods,’ it showed them that they were like beasts, and brought the first sense of shame.
Adam & Eve 02 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Perhaps they now got more knowledge, but this knowing of good and evil was not such a blessing as they hoped for. Their ignorant innocence was changed into bitter knowledge, and conscience awoke to rebuke them. The first thing that their opened eyes saw was themselves, and the immediate result of the sight was the first blush of shame. Before, they had walked in innocent unconsciousness, like angels or infants; now they had knowledge of good and evil, because their sin had made evil a part of themselves, and the knowledge was bitter.
Before their act God had left them to do the things in the easy way, but now with the relation disturbed, them having questioning the power of God and His right to govern the world, got the admission to take care of themselves and the world themselves.
Before their sinful act they had not to fear God but now sin had broken familiar communion with God and turned Him into a ‘fear and a dread’. Hearing His Voice (asking them in what condition they were) but not answering or showing themselves, they brought up an excuse that they were afraid because they were naked, so they hid themselves.
Genesis 3:9-12 NHEBJE Jehovah God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” (10) The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” (11) God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” (12) The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”
After eating of the fruit the man and mannin found they were no longer fit for God’s eye, and that made them hide from Him, forgetting that God always sees us and knows our thoughts and feeling of our heart. From all this, as shown in the previous part, it is thus the work of conscience which is to expose us to ourselves, like it did to Eve. Shame had come over man and it will not go away until God gives us the tools to take that shame away. If man’s shame was to be effectually removed, God must do it.
Adam and Eve tried to submerge such feelings of guilt by sewing fig leaves together to make aprons for themselves. Since that time people have resorted to every kind of artifice to cover up the guilt of their sins, perhaps these may be professed “good works” or religious ceremonies or observances, but all are ineffective. The fig leaves were so unsatisfactory to Adam and Eve themselves that when they heard the voice of the Lord God in the garden they hid themselves. So today our own consciences tell us that our efforts to cover our sins fail so badly that we are afraid to face God. But fig leaves and trees are only part of God’s creation: they can give neither protection from sin nor a hiding place from God. {L.M. Grant}
You would expect a created being be loyal to its creator. Also the ElohimJehovahGod, the Divine Creator, wanted His creatures to be faithful to Him.
All the fullness of the Godhead was and is still thereto be that of mankind to make them complete. The Divine Creator made us in His image but did not endow us with the attributes of Deity. Though He had given man the possibility to give names to all things and to govern this world. He provided His omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, immutability and infallibility, for our defence. Man had to be satisfied with favour and full of the goodness of the Lord.
The first man (1° Adam) felt lonely and ‘fancied’ some accompaniment. He willingly or readily was quite ready to admit to his Creator that he loved somebody to talk to and to share ideas with. It was ‘of pleasure’ to have somebody of is equality around him. ‘Obliging’ or ‘willing’ he ‘on his own accord’ let his ‘mind wander’ to have a partner which he did not find in those already created creatures. His ‘spirit’ was ‘willing’ to have somebody who could be with him and help him.
Genesis 2:18-25 NHEBJE Jehovah God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” (19) Out of the ground Jehovah God formed every animal of the field, and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. (20) The man gave names to all livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field; but for man there was not found a helper suitable for him. (21) Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall on the man, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. (22) He made the rib, which Jehovah God had taken from the man, into a woman, and brought her to the man. (23) The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She will be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” (24) Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh. (25) They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
There was no need to be ashamed because their thoughts were still pure and innocent in conscience. The covering of our body is the ensign of our bad thinking and going wrong or our sin. There was no proneness to lust or sin: they were and everything was “very good”.
Genesis 1:31 NHEBJE God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.
They got habitual to their environment, a planted garden in a place called Eden, which was in the east, in which they also saw the tree God had planted and had asked them not to eat of its fruit.
Genesis 2:8-9 NHEBJE Jehovah God planted a garden eastward, in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. (9) Out of the ground Jehovah God made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the middle of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 2:16-17 NHEBJE Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; (17) but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat of it you will surely die.”
God ordered man something He knew they would be able to follow. It was not that God demanded more than man may cope. (Because that is not something God does.) God’scommandments are rules given to man in the knowledge that they should be able to keep them. In case God would have created human beings of which He knew they would not be able to keep or to observe His commandments that would have made Him to be a Creator of imperfect beings and also a cruel God or cruel Father, because when He cursed those who are at fault when He knows they cannot keep His rules He would have asked more than they can bear or demand more than they can do.
God had created the human beings with a free will. You may notice above the ‘signs’ of the feelings and the thoughts of man. It was the free mind and the capability of man to think and to reason that may have brought them to question their Maker.
From the man was taken a bone and as such being flesh of the man’s flesh the mannin or wo-man came living next to him and reasoning with him. They had all sorts of things pleasant in their sight and should have had no reason to complain.
Adam and Eve by William Blake (1808), Watercolour on paper
With the tree of knowledge of good and evil in their sight, both AdamandEve were confronted with the idea that they might also get the same insight as God and could come to know the good and evil. Though for them God having said that they should not eat of it, neither to touch it, lest they’ll die, seemed as if God was holding something back from them which they also could deserve.
The inner feelings or thought about that tree became very tempting. It was as a reptile creeping in their head, coming to their heart, making them to believe they could gain a knowledge which they did not have yet. The word ‘serpent‘ which can be found in many English translations stands for the Hebrew word that indicate “quickness of perception” or “to hiss, to divine”, in Greek, “to see” or also as the Hebrew meaning for a “voice of flesh”. It was an act of expressing (a negativeview or reaction) disapproval,contempt, or dissatisfaction. They showed discontent with their situation God having the right to touch the tree of knowledge and to eat that fruit whilst they were forbidden to come near it.
The original wording in the books of Moses show there was such a sounduttered as an exclamation of derision,contempt,etc, which made them doubt God and go against His Wishes. Such going against the Will of God is called sin and makes the person an adversary of God, for which the word ‘satan‘ is used. Satan is an act (and not a person as such) of taking on adversary or offering resistance or opposition. Adam and Eve felt an aversion against their Maker the Most HighElohim and this brought them to eat from the fruit of the tree of knowledge.
Their backbone was not strong enough. Their willpower was not so strong they could resist their inner thoughts of trying out what it would give if they ate from that tree. By absence of consensus ad idem Adam gave in to the will of the woman and with her, tried to eat from what they thought would give them more power and would bring them on the same line as God.
It is this act of wanting to become like God and disobeying His commandment what brought to mankind the first sin or mortal sin and the fall of man.
Selfseeking in the hope to gain something he thought God kept secret for him man out of selfishness, self-willed went his own way , headstrong or high-handed his self-complacency and conceitedness brought him to take the fruit. With his own hands man took the fruit like the woman had done in the hope to receive self-satisfaction, knowledge and more power.
The first human beings their mind had become adverse to or at enmity with God.
Genesis 3:1-8 NHEBJE Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which Jehovah God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?'” (2) The woman said to the serpent, “Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, (3) but of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'” (4) The serpent said to the woman, “You won’t surely die, (5) for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (6) When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit, and ate; and she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate. (7) The eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. (8) They heard the voice of Jehovah God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah God among the trees of the garden.
Psalms 12:4 NHEBJE who have said, “With our tongue we will prevail. Our lips are our own. Who is lord over us?”
Now they had found a liar in themselves. (Proverebs 30:6) Their idea of becoming like God made that they gained knowledge of good and evil, like God had warned them. Every thing that is desirable to be known could have been that knowledge. But with it came also what they thought God would not bring over them. This means that they thought God was not telling the truth or that God was a liar. But God always tells the absolutetruth and does not tell lies. This means that those who loveGod believe that God is always clear in His speaking and does not hide something but always says how it is.
Eve doubted of the certainty of what God had said whilst her partner the 1° Adam plainly and cleanly impugned it. God’s veracity was attacked first, than the truth of God’s Word was doubted and God‘s benevolence and goodness toward humankind was also further attacked (Genesis 3:5).
In a way it is ironical that mankind tried to grasp from God what was already his and was not willing to be patient enough to see everything evolve. The rabbis say that the eyes and ears are windows of the soul and what we let in, grows in our heart until the fateful act is committed. Eve is the first example given to us and should also be a warning to be alert and to not let us be carried away by our bad inner thoughts.
Evil
Messiah For All 