The Fight (Spiritual Battle) Part 3
Last week we talked about the elohim and about free will as we continued our look at spiritual battle. This week we will be looking into what happened at the fall in the garden of Eden.
The Garden of Eden
The Garden of Eden was a type of cosmic temple. A place where heaven and earth connected in a very real way.
Genesis 2:15-25 (NIV)
15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” 18 The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” 19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” 24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. 25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
Adam and Eve were the children of God, they represented God’s earthly family. God’s heart was to live with them and partner with them in making the whole world like Eden. They were to be fruitful and multiply and co-rule with God on the earth.
As we have discussed previously, God also had a divine family. His heart was that His divine family and His human family would all be together and enjoy each other.
The Beginning of the Spiritual Battle
The battle begins as we see that at least one of the divine family (elohim) has a problem with this human family and his hope in tempting them to sin is that God will destroy them. While successful in the tempting, the plan of getting rid of humanity failed. There would be consequences for rebellion, but God’s plan for a human family would not be thwarted.
Genesis 3:1-7 (NIV)
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'” 4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
The Consequence of Rebellion
The consequence for their sin was banishment from Eden, from His presence. In so doing, all of us as descendants were also separated from the presence of God. Instead of enjoying eternal life with God, humanity would now be faced with death.
Romans 5:12 (NIV)
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned–
Death is the result of separation from the source of life, God. However, God wasn’t giving up on his plan to have a human family. God has a plan which we will begin to see unveiled as we continue to press into the story together. But there are two more significant acts of rebellion that we need look at; the flood and the tower of babel.
Steve Lawes is a church encourager and the lead pastor of Keys Vineyard Church.