2.1 The Adamic Covenant

The crowning jewel of God's creation was making man in His own image. He created His own son and daughter to populate the earth. It is when He was first known as Father. Amid the vast universe (which was a backdrop for His greatest goal), God created the earth. Within it, He created a garden in that supplied all the ingredients for sustaining life - a life with whom God could have a purposeful and meaningful relationship.

He created Adam in His image and placed him in the garden. He instructed him to cultivate the garden and to name the animals. Adam could take all the time in the world to name the animals. It was the best job in the world with the best employer!

Surely Adam noticed that the animals were producing babies. It might have contributed to his loneliness. He dearly valued his relationship with God, but he wanted someone for human companionship. The next thing we know is that God put Adam on the operating table and performed a painless surgery.

The woman was not created out of the dust of the earth like Adam. She was developed from one of Adam's ribs. It sounds like an upgrade! She was designed to multitask better than Adam. She would have to be able to do so to begin the job assigned to them in Genesis 1:28 and to care for the children without grandma's help.

1 Genesis 1:28

28 God blessed them. God said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it."

Unlike all other creatures, God uniquely created Adam and Eve with the ability to choose to love, worship, and obey Him - or to reject Him. He gave them a choice to partake of His eternal life by only eating the Fruit of the Tree of Life. He warned them not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, lest they die. This was His first covenant. It consisted of blessings for obedience, but judgment for disobedience.

God's preferred plan was for Adam and Eve to obey and to delight in God's holiness. It was Normal for a man and woman to walk in their unique differences to birth new life! There are some things that never change. It is no surprise that the goal of the New Covenant is to restore people to that same level of normalcy in with God. I call it the New Normal!

Until the Fall, all that Adam and Eve ever knew was walking with God in open relationship and holiness. They did not know how good they had it. To eat from the Tree of Life was to partake of the bread of God's eternal life. It came with every spiritual blessing including great peace and wholeness. There was no need for healing because there was no spiritual, emotional, or physical disease.

We cannot begin to imagine what God would have done if they never yielded to temptation, but it seems that God had a second plan in place just in case. It would require the divine action of sending His son into the world, born of a woman, to endure the penalty for yielding to temptation, but it would take a major rebuilding project before that could happen.

The rebellion was profoundly difficult and painful for God. It changed everything. Cursing the ground was a major judgment against Adam. He would be reminded every time he did his best to plant seeds and to reap produce amid harsh thorns and tares.

When Adam and Eve partook of the forbidden fruit, they became aware that something was wrong. It created a distance between them and God. They experienced feelings of shame, uncleanness, and unworthiness. It was spiritual death.

When God cried out to Adam, "Where are you?" Adam responded that he was naked, that he was exposed. He tasted the poison of the forbidden fruit and felt the pain of sin in his gut, and he had no remedy. Restoration was not something that Adam could manufacture. Fortunately, God revealed a prophetic remedy in His ensuing rebuke of the serpent in Genesis 3:15. The woman's offspring would bruise the serpent's head.

1 Genesis 3:15

15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.

Because Adam and Eve sinned, they had to be removed from the garden. They were no longer worthy to eat of the Tree of Life. A replacement covenant was needed.