First mention of a solution against death 5 Evil its law of death

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 doubting God‘s honesty is treated allegorically in the Edenic covenant as the serpent in 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 opposing God’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 chief ruler of 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 one from 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 relationship between God 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 follow God 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
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.

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Preceding articles

A multifold of elements in creation and a bad choice made

First mention of a solution against death 1 To divine, serpent, opposition, satan and adversary

First mention of a solution against death 2 Harm or no harm and naked truth

First mention of a solution against death 3 Tempter Satan and man’s problems

First mention of a solution against death 4 A seed for mankind

Next: First mention of a solution against death 6

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Additional reading

  1. Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 Voice of God #6 Words to feed and communicate
  2. The Seed Of The Woman Bruised
  3. Jesus begotten Son of God #10 Coming down spirit or flesh seed of Eve
  4. Sayings of Jesus, what to believe and being or not of the devil
  5. A question to be posed
  6. Which man is mentioned most often in the Bible? Jesus, Moses, Abraham or David?
  7. Who is on the Lord’s side
  8. Chaff and the shoot out of the stock of Jesse
  9. Seeing or not seeing and willingness to find God
  10. The God of hope filling us with all joy and peace
  11. A book of life and a man born more than two thousand years ago
  12. Not about personal salvation but about a bigger Plan
  13. True riches
  14. Let us become nothing, and Christ everything
  15. Deliverance and establishement of a theocracy
  16. Solution for Willing hearts filled with gifts
  17. Looking for something or for the Truth and what it might be and self-awareness
  18. Message from the family tree in the Tanakh
  19. Set free from any form of mental torment or self-condemnation
  20. Were allowed to willfully break the Law of Moses
  21. God loving people justified
  22. No curtain placed over tomorrow
  23. Has the Bible’s Garden of Eden been found — and restored
  24. A promise given in the Garden of Eden
  25. Around pre-existence of Christ

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Further reading

  1. Where Did We Get Our Sinful Nature?
  2. “Where are you?” N:o 25 The enmity in the history
  3. As a believer your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost
  4. The Truth About Being Born Again
  5. Walking in the Spirit
  6. Be Still
  7. Covenant and the law (Sir 24:23-24:23)
  8. Looking at the Ocean and Seeing God’s Hand
  9. Signs from God
  10. Prophet Moses’ Obedience to Ishmaelite Prophet Jethro
  11. Anatoly of Optina: “Wherever God is — there is peace.”
  12. Debtor
  13. Enmity
  14. From The Heart The Mouth Speaks
  15. The Fight You Won’t Win
  16. Addiction #05 — Eating Animals (05/27/12)
  17. Men think they need to eat meat to be manly—and it’s making them sick
  18. How humans are not physically created to eat meat

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First mention of a solution against death 4 A seed for mankind

Vanity and the hope to be as God, knowing everything and being able to do everything, man made the wrong choice, going in against the Will of God, disobeying His mitzvot not to touch or eat of the tree of knowledge of good and bad.

The Divine Creator is a God of order, clarity, Who does not tell 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 know life 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.

 

English: Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil עב...
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 Expulsi...
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.

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Preceding articles

Creation of the earth and man #22 Man in the image and likeness of the Elohim #6 Spirits, spiritual bodies and illusory perception

Necessity of a revelation of creation 1 Works of God and works of man

Necessity of a revelation of creation 4 Getting understanding by Word of God 2

Genesis – Story of creation 6 Genesis 3:13-24 Enmity and curse

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 1

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 2

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 3

What others think about the tree of knowledge of good and evil

A multifold of elements in creation and a bad choice made

Not trying to make the heathen live like Jews #1

Not trying to make the heathen live like Jews #2

First mention of a solution against death 1 To divine, serpent, opposition, satan and adversary

First mention of a solution against death 2 Harm or no harm and naked truth

First mention of a solution against death 3 Tempter Satan and man’s problems

Necessary to be known all over the earth

Next: First mention of a solution against death 5 Evil its law of death

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Additional reading

  1. Challenging claim 4 Inspired by God 3 Self-consistent Word of God
  2. Creator and Blogger God 3 Lesson and solution
  3. Possibility to live
  4. Dying or not
  5. A learning process for each of us
  6. Together tasting a great promise
  7. The Devil Not A Personal Super-Natural Being
  8. Satan the evil within
  9. Satan or the devil
  10. Lucifer
  11. Redemption # 1Biblical doctrine of salvation
  12. The Song of The Lamb #3 Daniel and Revelation
  13. Story of Jesus’ birth begins long before the New Testament
  14. Marriage of Jesus 10 Old and New Covenant
  15. God Our Refuge
  16. On the Edge of Believing
  17. What is life?
  18. Dying or not
  19. Mortal Soul and Mortal Psyche #6 Summary
  20. People Seeking for God 5 Bread of life
  21. When believing in God’s existence and His son, possessing a divine legislation
  22. The redemption of man by Christ Jesus
  23. Suffering redemptive because Jesus redeemed us from sin
  24. Looking for a primary cause and a goal that can not offer philosophers existing beliefs
  25. 1 Corinthians 15 Hope in action
  26. How we think shows through in how we act
  27. Not staying alone in your search for truth
  28. Doing the works of God
  29. Being fit to take care of a garden
  30. Be holy
  31. We have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace
  32. Aim High: Examples of Godly Characters to follow
  33. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #10 Prayer #8 Condition
  34. Mortal Soul and Mortal Psyche #2 Psyche, the word
  35. Departed Souls Await Judgment

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Further reading

  1. Daily Reading: 29 March – The Fall – Genesis 3 ~ paradise lost
  2. The Original Sin
  3. Were We Ever Cursed?
  4. The fall of “The Fall” Part 2
  5. Genesis 3 – would you Adam and Eve it?
  6. Why We Sin…and the Truth That Sets Us Free
  7. Death, Life, and Trees
  8. Fear & Loathing In… God?
  9. Significance of Jesus wearing a crown of thorns?
  10. Christ’s Sacrificial Love
  11. Children of the Free
  12. How Great The Fall
  13. Practising Ministry 5: It All Went Wrong
  14. Pastor Wrinkles: Unintended Consequences Pt. 5
  15. Pastor Wrinkles: Unintended Consequences Pt. 6
  16. Tradition or the Bible – your choice.
  17. The Answer for Pain
  18. More Grace Needed Here!
  19. A Tale of Two Skywalkers
  20. Redemption and Restoration
  21. The Poetry of George Herbert: “The Sacrifice” (Pt. 2)
  22. Rejoicing in Christ
  23. In A Perfect World…
  24. Reasons not to compromise with theological compromisers
  25. No Longer Slaves!
  26. +++
  27. Further reading
  28. Is Eve Responsible?
  29. To The Weary…
  30. Ripped from the headlines: Bring on the so-called “Catholic” guilt
  31. Empathy and Guilt
  32. 5 Steps: Overcoming Guilt
  33. Guilt and Regrets
  34. The Voice of Guilt
  35. Guilty of Being Human
  36. Living With Guilt
  37. Guilt, Shame & the Atonement: A Foreword
  38. Daily Obstruction: Religious Obstructions
  39. No More Guilt
  40. Guilt Free
  41. Condemnation Never Comes from God
  42. It’s On You, It Always Has Been
  43. Here’s to You: Your are Right in His Sight
  44. Who is evaluating you?
  45. The Offerings in Leviticus (1 of 2)
  46. The Offerings in Leviticus (2 of 2)
  47. Perfectly Imperfect
  48. The Path to your Potential
  49. No short cuts to heaven..!
  50. The Purpose in it All
  51. Not For The Faint Of Heart
  52. Redemption
  53. Deliverance
  54. What Lie We Often Fall For
  55. Why does God allow deception?
  56. The Father of Tall Tales
  57. The Father of Lies
  58. Satan, Who? Is Satan Real?
  59. Dear Father of Lies
  60. Look at the Lamb (Day 8)
  61. The Importance of Biblical Discernment
  62. God Is and We Aren’t
  63. Jesus Free Man From Sin
  64. Are people willing to die for something they know is a lie?
  65. Liars & Murderers – God Says They Are The Same!

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