TYPES OF GREAT COVENANTS FOUND IN THE BIBLE.
Covenants is a sacred thing overly count greatly by God for the fulfilment of his purpose throughout the scripture.
In form, a covenant is an agreement between two people and involves promises on the part of each to the other. The concept of a covenant between God and His people is one of the central themes of the Bible. In the Biblical sense, a covenant implies much more than a contract or a simple agreement between two parties.
The word for "covenant" in the Old Testament also provides additional insight into the meaning of this important idea. It comes from a Hebrew root word that means "to cut." This explains the strange custom of two people passing through the cut bodies of slain animals after making an agreement (cf. Jer. 34:18). A ceremony such as this always accompanied the making of a covenant in the Old Testament. Sometimes those entering into a covenant shared a meal, such as when Laban and Jacob made their covenant (Gen. 31:54).
Abraham and his children were commanded to be circumcised as a "sign of covenant" between them and God (Gen. 17:10-11).
At Sinai, Moses sprinkled the blood of animals on the altar and upon the people who entered into covenant with God (Exo. 24:3-8).
The Old Testament contains many examples of covenants between people who related to each other as equals. For example, David and Jonathan entered into a covenant because of their love for each other -- this agreement bound each of them to certain responsibilities (1 Sam. 18:3).
The remarkable thing is that God is holy, omniscient, and omnipotent; but He consents to enter into covenant with man, who is feeble, sinful, and flawed.
In this article, we want to examine five great covenants of the Bible.
God's Covenant With Noah
Centuries before the time of Abraham, God made a covenant with Noah, assuring Noah that He would never again destroy the world by flood (Gen. 9).
Noah lived at a time when the whole earth was filled with violence and corruption -- yet Noah did not allow the evil standards of his day to rob him of fellowship with God. He stood out as the only one who "walked with God" (Gen. 6:9), as was also true of his great-grandfather Enoch (Gen. 5:22). "Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations" (Gen. 6:9). The Lord singled out Noah from among all his contemporaries and chose him as the man to accomplish a great work.
When God saw the wickedness that prevailed in the world (Gen. 6:5), He told Noah of His intention to destroy the ancient world by a universal flood. God instructed Noah to build an ark (a large barge) in which he and his family would survive the universal deluge. Noah believed God and "according to all that God commanded him, so he did" (Gen. 6:22).
Noah is listed among the heroes of faith. "By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith" (Heb. 11:7).
With steadfast confidence in God, Noah started building the ark. During this time, Noah continued to preach God's judgment and mercy, warning the ungodly of their approaching doom. Peter reminds us of how God "did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly" (2 Pet. 2:5).
Noah preached for 120 years, apparently without any converts. At the end of that time, "when ... the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah ... eight souls were saved through water" (1 Pet. 3:20).
People continued in their evil ways and ignored his pleadings and warnings until the flood overtook them. When the ark was ready, Noah entered in with all kinds of animals "and the Lord shut him in" (Gen. 7:16), cut off completely from the rest of mankind.
Noah was grateful to the Lord who had delivered him from the flood. After the flood, he built an altar to God (Gen. 8:20) and made a sacrifice, which was accepted graciously, for in it "the Lord smelled a soothing aroma" (Gen. 8:21).
The Lord promised Noah and his descendants that He would never destroy the world again with a universal flood (Gen. 9:15). The Lord made an everlasting covenant with Noah and his descendants, establishing the rainbow as the sign of His promise (Gen. 9:1-17).
Another part of the covenant involved the sanctity of human life, i.e., that "whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man" (Gen. 9:6). Every time we see a rainbow today we are reminded of that agreement -- this covenant has not been done away with. As long as God still sends rainbows after a storm, capital punishment will still be a part of God's law for the human race.
God's Covenant With Abraham
In making a covenant with Abraham, God promised to bless his descendants and make them His own special people -- in return, Abraham was to remain faithful to God and to serve as a channel through which God's blessings could flow to the rest of the world (Gen. 12:1-3).
Abraham's story begins with his passage with the rest of his family from Ur of the Chaldeans in ancient southern Babylonia (Gen. 11:31). He and his family moved north along the trade routes of the ancient world and settled in the prosperous trade center of Haran, several hundred miles to the northwest.
While living in Haran, at the age of 75, Abraham received a call from God to go to a strange, unknown land that God would show him. The Lord promised Abraham that He would make him and his descendants a great nation (Gen. 12:1-3). The promise must have seemed unbelievable to Abraham because his wife Sarah was childless (Gen. 11:30-31; 17:15). Abraham obeyed God with no hint of doubt or disbelief.
Abraham took his wife and his nephew, Lot, and went toward the land that God would show him. Abraham moved south along the trade routes from Haran, through Shechem and Bethel, to the land of Canaan. Canaan was a populated area at the time, inhabited by the war-like Canaanites; so, Abraham's belief that God would ultimately give this land to him and his descendants was an act of faith.
The circumstances seemed quite difficult, but Abraham's faith in God's promises allowed him to trust in the Lord. In Genesis 15, the Lord reaffirmed His promise to Abraham. The relationship between God and Abraham should be understood as a covenant relationship -- the most common form of arrangement between individuals in the ancient world. In this case, Abraham agreed to go to the land that God would show him (an act of faith on his part), and God agreed to make Abraham a great nation (Gen. 12:1-3).
In Genesis 15 Abraham became anxious about the promise of a nation being found in his descendants because of his advanced age -- and the Lord then reaffirmed the earlier covenant. A common practice of that time among heirless families was to adopt a slave who would inherit the master's goods. Therefore, because Abraham was childless, he proposed to make a slave, Eliezer of Damascus, his heir (Gen. 15:2). But God rejected this action and challenged Abraham's faith: "'Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.' And He said to him, 'So shall your descendants be'" (Gen. 15:5).
Abraham's response is the model of believing faith: "And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness" (Gen. 15:6). The rest of Genesis 15 consists of a ceremony between Abraham and God that was commonly used in the ancient world to formalize a covenant (Gen. 15:7-21). God repeated this covenant to Abraham' son, Isaac (Gen. 17:19). Stephen summarized the story in the book of Acts 7:1-8.
The Mosaic Covenant
The Israelites moved to Egypt during the time of Joseph. A new Pharaoh came upon the scene and turned the Israelites into common slaves. The people cried out to the God of their forefathers. "So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob" (Exo. 2:24). After a series of ten plagues upon the land of Egypt, God brought the Israelites out "of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand" (Exo. 32:11).
Three months after leaving the land of Egypt, the children of Israel camped at the base of Mount Sinai (Exo. 19:1). God promised to make a covenant with the Israelites (Exo. 19:3-6). Before they even knew the conditions of the contract, the people agreed to abide by whatever God said (Exo. 19:8).
This covenant was between God and the people of Israel -- you and I are not a party in this contract (and never have been). The Ten Commandments are the foundation of the covenant, but they are not the entirety of it.
After giving the first ten commands, the people asked the Lord to speak no more (Exo. 20:18-20). Moses then drew near to the presence of God to hear the rest of the covenant (Exo. 20:21). After receiving the Law, Moses spoke the words of the covenant to all of the people, and the people agreed to obey (Exo. 24:4).
Moses then wrote the conditions of the covenant down, offered sacrifices to God, and then sprinkled both the book and the people with blood to seal the covenant (Exo. 24:8). This covenant between God and the people of Israel was temporary -- God promised a day when He would make a new covenant, not only with Israel but also with all mankind. "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah -- not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people" (Jer. 31:31-34).
God's Covenant With David
Another covenant was between God and King David, in which David and his descendants were established as the royal heirs to the throne of the nation of Israel (2 Sam. 7:12-13).
This covenant agreement reached its fulfillment when Jesus, a descendant of the line of David, was born in Bethlehem. The gospel of Matthew starts off by showing Christ was "the Son of David" (Matt. 1:1), and thus He had the right to rule over God's people. Peter preached that Jesus Christ was a fulfillment of God's promise to David (Acts 2:29-36).
The Covenant Of Christ
The New Testament makes a clear distinction between the covenants of the Mosaic Law and the covenant of Promise. The apostle Paul spoke of these "two covenants," one originating "from Mount Sinai," the other from "the Jerusalem above" (Gal. 4:24-26). Paul also argued that the covenant established at Mount Sinai was a "ministry of death" and "condemnation" (2 Cor. 3:7, 9).
The death of Christ ushered in the new covenant under which we are justified by God's grace and mercy -- it is now possible to have the true forgiveness of sins. Jesus Himself is the Mediator of this better covenant between God and man (Heb. 9:15). Jesus' sacrificial death served as the oath, or pledge, which God made to us to seal this new covenant.
The "new covenant" is the new agreement God has made with mankind, based on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The concept of a new covenant originated with the promise of Jeremiah that God would accomplish for His people what the old covenant had failed to do (Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 11:7-13). Under this new covenant, God would write His Law on human hearts.
When Jesus ate the Passover meal at the Last Supper with His disciples, He spoke of the cup and said, "this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (Matt. 26:28). Luke's account refers to this cup as symbolizing "the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you" (Luke 22:20).
When Paul recited the account he had received concerning the Last Supper, he quoted these words of Jesus about the cup as "the new covenant in My blood" (1 Cor. 11:25).
The Epistle to the Hebrews gives the new covenant more attention than any other book in the New Testament. It quotes the entire passage from Jeremiah 31:31-34 (Heb. 8:8-12). Jesus is referred to by the writer of Hebrews as "the Mediator of the new covenant" (Heb. 9:15; 12:24). The new covenant, a "better covenant ... established on better promises" (Heb. 8:6), rests directly on the sacrificial work of Christ.
The new covenant accomplished what the old could not, i.e., the removal of sin and cleansing of the conscience (Heb. 10:2, 22). The work of Jesus Christ on the cross thus makes the old covenant "obsolete" (Heb. 8:13) and fulfills the promise of the prophet Jeremiah.
Conclusion
Unlike the Mosaic covenant, the new covenant of Jesus Christ is intended for all mankind -- regardless of race. In the Great Commission Jesus sent His apostles into the entire world so they could tell the story of the cross (Luke 24:46-47; Matt. 28:18-20). The gospel call extends to every man and woman today!
Wednesday, 4 June 2014
Masturbation, seducee spirit, marital delay, failure, disappointment, lack of Job etc are sometimes operating in the lives of people as a result of evil curse working in their lives. For you to be free, there's need for the curse to be broken through a powerful deliverance sessions.
Now is the time! Stop procrastinating!
Come Friday 13th June, 2014 in a 24 Hours Marathon Interdenominational Prayer
@
Christ Apostolic Church, Hill of Power Renewal, Off Container Road, Paseda, Awoyaya, Lagos.
With Several Anointed Men Of God Specially Commission By God For The DELIVERANCE SESSIONS
9:00am - 12:00 noon
10:00pm - 4:00 am
It's a divinely ordained you will be free!
Now is the time! Stop procrastinating!
Come Friday 13th June, 2014 in a 24 Hours Marathon Interdenominational Prayer
@
Christ Apostolic Church, Hill of Power Renewal, Off Container Road, Paseda, Awoyaya, Lagos.
With Several Anointed Men Of God Specially Commission By God For The DELIVERANCE SESSIONS
9:00am - 12:00 noon
10:00pm - 4:00 am
It's a divinely ordained you will be free!
Sunday, 23 March 2014
THE FALL OF MAN
THE FALL OF MAN
Genesis 3:1-24
THE BACKGROUND FOR THE FALL
God told Adam before Eve was created that he was not to eat of the of the knowledge of good and evil. (Gen. 2:17) Further God warned that in the day he did eat fruit of that tree man would surely die.
Adam was without sin, but God had given him a will which gave Adam the potential to sin. At first, Adam exercised his will toward God and had fellowship with Him. How long a period of time between Adam and Eve's creation elapsed the Bible does not tell us. The only clue we have is that they did not have children before the Fall, which seems to indicate a short period of probably a few weeks. However, this is speculation.
Eve was tempted by Satan who took the form of a serpent. (3:1) The serpent is described as being more subtile or clever than any other animal of the field. This probably is why Satan choose to take the form of a snake. Eve, seems not to think it unusual that the serpent could speak to her. Possibly, Adam and Eve could communicate with animals, but again that is pure speculation.
THE FALL OF SATAN
Satan is a created being, an angel called a cherb. In Ezekiel 28:12-17, the Bible gives us information concerning Satan. Though the passage states this is referring to the King of Tyre, it is clear that Satan had indwelled this king, for the King of Tyre was not in the Garden of Eden as V13 says. It was Satan who was in the Garden of Eden. Verses 13 and 17, state Satan was created beautiful. He was covered with precious stones. And as a Cherub he was the highest of all the angels God created. He had a special place of prominence. On the Ark of the Covenant, it is Cherubs whose out stretched wings guarded the mercy seat. (Ex. 25:20) Verse 15, states he was created perfect without sin.
Yet, Satan sinned against God and God cast him down from his high position. Isa. 14:12-14, Further describes Satan's sin. He is called "Lucifer" meaning the bright one, "the son of the morning". He was cut down to the ground because of his sin he said in his heart that he would be above God. He was determined to set up his own throne that men might worship him. Yet God said he would be brought down.
It is obvious that Satan first led a rebellion in heaven against God (Matthew 12:24, 2 Peter 2:4, Jude 6, Revelation 12:4) and then proceeded to tempt man also to disobey God.
WHEN DID SATAN FALL ?
The question always arises as to when Satan's fall in Heaven took place. In Genesis 2:1, God pronounced that "the heavens and the earth....and all the host of them" were "very good". Henry Morris, believes that the "host of heaven includes the angels as well as the stars.(1) Charles Ryrie, concludes that refers to stars (Neh. 9:6), and to angels ( 1 Kings 22:19), and this use of the term "the host" simply means all the things God created.(2) This would mean the Fall of Satan took place between the completion of the Creation or bet ween Genesis 2:25, and Genesis 3:1. Whether we accept that the term "host of heaven", included the angels and Satan, it is clear that Satan's Fall took place before Genesis 3, and that is all we can be sure of.
Those who believe in the "gap theory" preclude that Satan's Fall took place after Genesis 1:1, and before Genesis 1:2. Weston Fields explains the this supposed "gap" this way:
"In the far distant dateless past, God created a perfect heaven and perfect earth. Satan was ruler of the earth which was peopled by a race of "men" without souls. Eventually, Satan, who dwelled in a garden of Eden composed of minerals (Ezek. 28), rebelled by desiring to become like God (Isa. 14). Because of Satan's fall, sin entered the universe and brought on the earth God's judgment in the form of a flood (indicated by the water of 1:2), and then a global ice-age when the light and heat from the sun were somehow removed. All the plant, animal, and human fossil upon the earth today date from this "Lucifer's flood" and do not bear any genetic relationship with the plants, animals and fossils living on the earth today."(3)
At the heart of the "gap theory" is the effort to place in time the Fall of Satan. But it is not a proper or correct method of interpreting Scripture to "dream up" the existence of a supposed prior earth which was destroyed. There is no Biblical or Scientific evidence to support such an idea. Thus, if we honestly want to teach what the Bible truly says we can only state that the Fall of Satan took place before Genesis 3. It serves no purpose to do otherwise.
THE TEMPTATION OF EVE
Genesis 3:1-5
Satan begins the temptation with a question, "Hath God not said Ye shall no eat of every tree of the garden?" This is the way of Satan to bring into question what God has plainly stated. It is actually bringing God Himself into question. To question God is suggest that God could be wrong, or have some sinister reason for what He says.
Eve's response was to correct Satan's question, by stating that she and Adam could eat of all the trees of the garden except the one tree called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It should be noted that she further stated they could not eat or "touch" it lest they die. God had said in Genesis 2:17, that they should not eat it. God did not say anything about touching it. This addition to what God had said seems to indicate that Eve resented the fact of God prohibition not to eat of that particular tree. On the other hand, it could mean that she was indicating her understanding that God did not want them to have anything to do with this tree. God said not to eat the fruit, she concluded she shouldn't even touch it.
Satan who is the father of lies, then blatantly lies and tells Eve that she would not die! Speaking to the Pharisees Jesus said of Satan:
" Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it" (John 8:44).
Satan tells Eve, that God has with held the truth from them and that if she eats the fruit of the tree she would see the truth and she would become like God. The words used in the KJV, "as gods", is better translated "like God".
Morris makes this most revealing statement:
"In effect, of course as soon as one begins to deny God's Word or to question His sovereign goodness, he is really setting himself up as his own god. He is deciding for himself the standards of truth and righteousness." (4)
Even today Satan still tempts gullible man into believing he can become as his Creator. The devil dangles this before the eyes of the cults and they believe Satan rather than what God has clearly stated. It is the ultimate and most despicable act of the pride of man to even entertain the idea we can be "like God". Satan is cunning he knows his subject well. Being a creature of pride, he know of pride's weakness. The cults and the false teachers of today question the stated Word of God. They add, subtract, twist and lie as to what God has said. Many are they that fall victim.
EVE'S RESPONSE TO TEMPTATION
Genesis 3:6
Satan's attack was outward which appealed to the inward heart of man. God's appeal is first an inward one that when accepted changes the outward character of man.
Eve then allowed herself the be deceived in three areas. First, Eve saw the fruit was good for food, appealing to the flesh and bodily senses. Second, She saw it was pretty, appealing to the emotions, and Third, it appealed to her mind and intellect, in that she wanted to be wise.
Satan used the same line a attack in tempting the Lord Jesus. He first suggested Jesus, "Command that these stones be made bread", appealing to Christ's bodily senses. Next, challenging the Lord's courage and His emotions, Satan said, "Cast thyself down". Lastly, the Devil appealed to the spiritual pride and said, "Fall down and worship me". (Luke 4:1-13)
Satan's tools of deception remain the same today. He appeals to the weakness of our flesh, emotions and intellect.
Eve's failure was a series of multiple errors. She refused to simply accept God at His Word. She added to and subtracted from it. She doubted God, opening the door to the Devil's appeal to the flesh and her spiritual pride. She succumbed and sinned and in doing so plunged all the world thereafter into sin.
She also failed in the area of her position as Adam's helper. She made the decision to disobey God by herself. She did not involve Adam in any way until the act of disobedience was done. Then she became a instrument of temptation herself and offered the fruit to her husband. She failed in her role as a helper and was the means bringing his downfall.
Sin and rebellion by its nature is contagious. Its effects are never confined to only the one who sins. It grows. It spreads and seeks to involve others as well. Eve, upon eating the fruit immediately sought the one she was suppose to be a helper to, Adam. She was the source of Adam's temptation, not Satan. I Timothy 2:14, states Adam was not deceived. He fully and completely knew what he was doing in taking the fruit.
The verse further states that it was Eve who was in transgression or became the sinner. Yet, Romans 5:12, 18, and I Corinthians 15:22, the Bible lays the guilt to Adam, not Eve. The responsibility rests on the shoulders of Adam. Adam was made first, and Eve was from Adam and thus all of mankind is the descendent of him.
Some have concluded that Adam loved Eve to the point he willing sinned in order not to lose her or be separated from her. It is a false view because it makes Adam's deed almost honorable. Adam would have gave up all for love. All sin is an abomination unto God and the wages of sin, any sin is death. There is nothing honorable about doing wrong.
Satan's goal was to get Adam to sin. He used Eve's gullibility and weaker nature to get at man. Adam saw that Eve had eaten of the fruit, and he must have concluded that she was not dead and thus God must have lied to them. He most likely based his response to a false perception of what he thought the situation was. Instead of believing God, he believed what his eyes saw and what his own wisdom concluded was real. He was wrong! His error was deadly and he willing accepted his own wisdom over the expressed Word of God.
THE IMMEDIATE RESULT OF THEIR SIN
Genesis 3:7
After Adam sinned, both their eyes were opened and they saw themselves as their had made them to be, naked and ashamed. The had succumbed to temptation, and instead of being elevated to the status of a god, they had been plunged down into the depths of destruction. What a awful realization it must have been. What emptiness and depths of shame they must have felt.
They immediately sought to cover their nakedness and sewed fig leaves together into an apron. There was no way to hide or undo their sin. The leaves sewn together were a poor and useless substitute for the purity they had before they sinned.
THE FURTHER RESULT OF SIN
Genesis 3:8-24
Adam and Eve, having sinned had broken intimate fellowship with God. The effects of sin is always separation from God. This does not mean that God does not love us, but it means God by His nature must be separated from sin.
The sin that plunged mankind into sin was not murder or some other gross sin, but a simple act of eating the fruit of a prohibited tree. The sin was disobedience. It shows that man was not capable of determining what was good and evil and that man must trust God in the matter. The tree was placed there to define good and evil. On all the earth there was only one source of temptation, that one tree. Adam and Eve, in reality did already know what was right and wrong. It was wrong to eat the fruit of that one tree. That had to exercise trust in God; God said it was forbidden and thus they had to accept that it was.
God is our creator and thus has the right to establish laws that His creation live in an orderly manner. God's laws are both spiritual and material. The material law of gravity is absolute. If you disobey the law of gravity by jumping off a high cliff you will be injured or killed. The law of gravity is vital for order on the physical earth. The law of gravity is not evil but is good. Further it is not evil because if violated it can bring harm to the violator. The responsibility rests with the individual to obey and observe the law of gravity thus benefiting from it.
God wanted the very best for man, thus he had the right to prohibit man from doing that which was destructive to him. Thus he instructed man to always obey God. The tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil established the bonds of man's responsibility. Of all the trees in the garden man could freely eat, however this one tree was harmful and God told man not to eat of it.
Note that God had given man a will. There was a need of a prohibition on man's will. Man was not God and did not have the knowledge of God, thus was and is a creature needing guidance and help. Man was not a robot programed to be a performer. Man was made a free being able and expected to use his God given ability to choose to correctly obey God.
There are many questions these brief notes do not explain. Man has sought to find the answers throughout history, yet without success. We then are left with a mystery. We do not know the mind of God in why man was created or understand how all this came to be. But we do know this, whether we understand it or not, God is not the author of sin. Man was created in God's image, able to exercise his will yet, man was created Holy, separate from sin. Sin ended when man disobeyed and God allowed it to happen. God will not violate man's will. To do so would turn man into a robot. The sun is not the source of darkness, but darkness exists where the sun does not shine. God is not the source of sin, but when man disobeyed God's good law, God withdrew and darkness came upon man.
ADAM AND EVE HIDE FROM GOD
Genesis 3:8-10
God came as usual in the cool of the day to fellowship with Adam and Eve, but they withdrew. This is the hard fact that man withdrew from God, not God from man. It is clear that man tried hide from God, and yet he could not. The created could not divorce itself from his Creator.
These two sinners could not escape the presence of God, and when called responded honestly, "...I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself". (Gen. 3:10) When we come in contact with God face to face we are left with no defense. Isaiah, the prophet of God, cried, "Woe is me!, for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclear lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." The holiness of God exposes our sin and deep down we know we have no defense.
ADAM AND EVE ATTEMPT SELF-JUSTIFICATION
Genesis 3:11-13
When questioned by God as to how they knew they were naked and asked had they eaten of the forbidden fruit both Adam and Eve tried to justify their action by passing the blame.
Adam, pleaded is was the fault of the woman, "...whom thou gavest to be with me". It seems Adam was indirectly blaming God. As if, if God had not given him the woman he would not have sinned. However, Adam was not deceived as noted earlier. He with full knowledge willfully disobeyed God. Eve, followed Adam's example and said it was the serpent's fault. He tricked me she said and thus she pleaded she was not responsible.
Since the Fall it has never helped anyone to blame someone else for our own shortcomings. When we try to justify our actions we are denying our guilt. It are avoiding reality by not facing sin. All the while we are busy trying to justify ourselves we are delaying the cure to the problem. All who come to Christ must plead "guilty". We must accept our responsibility for our actions, and throw ourselves on the mercy of God.
THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD FOR THE SERPENT
Genesis 3:14-15
God must judge sin. Without responsibility for our actions the law is invalid. God made the serpent a perpetual example to man of the Fall. The serpent lost its place as the "most subtil" of all the beasts of the field and made the lowest. It would crawl on its belly from that day forward. The judgment and effects of sin extended not only to the serpent but to all the animal kingdom. (See Jer. 12:4, Rom. 8:20)
Further, God said there would be "enmity" between the serpent and woman. The curse goes much deeper than just establishing an ill feeling between woman and serpents. It was addressed to Satan himself. Man would not be Satan's willing ally and the seed of woman, referring ultimately to Christ, would crush the head of Satan which is a fatal blow. Satan's power would be only to cripple mankind, and not be able to destroy it.
THE JUDGMENT OF GOD FOR THE WOMAN
Genesis 3:16
God's judgment on woman was that her sorrow and conception be multiplied. The result of sin was that the length and pain of child birth was increased.
Further, the woman would have a strong desire to rule over her husband, however her husband would rule over her. Having overstepped the bounds of her position and responsibility, she would be mastered by him. She would always be in subjection to man, and in her carnal nature, never be satisfied with this situation.
THE JUDGMENT OF GOD FOR THE MAN
Genesis 3:17-19
Man's sin brought the judgment of having to toil and have great hardships in making a livelihood. The same word which describes the pain of women in childbirth is used her to describe man's pain in laboring for a living.
The life of man would be one of hard work caused by "thorns and thistles" indicating that even the plants of earth were adversely effected by man's sin. After a hard life man would die and be returned to the dust from which he was formed.
ADAM NAMES WOMAN
Genesis 3:20
Trusting is the promises of God that one would come who would restore fellowship with God and destroy the work of Satan, Adam named his wife, Eve. The name means "life", she was to be the mother of the human race.
This statement absolutely refutes any concept of theistic evolution. Eve was the mother of all men on earth. God did not evolve men from lower creatures.
GOD'S PROVISION FOR SINFUL MAN
Genesis 3:21
Adam and Eve, must have been greatly repentant of their deeds which had brought sin into the world. God in his mercy made provision for them made them coats of animal skins for them to wear. Earlier they had made themselves fig leaves to hide their nakedness, however their efforts were lacking.
The word "covering" also means "atonement". Most see this act of God as being more than just providing clothes, but as an act of God's Grace in providing atonement from sin as well. They responded in their hearts to God and trusted Him, God in turn accepted their faith and saved them.
There was shedding of blood, as a picture of the coming of Christ and His shedding His blood to atone for the sins of all mankind. Animals were killed and their skins used for a "covering" for man.
The Garden of Eden continued on for some time after the Fall, maybe even until the Great Flood. However, God drove Adam and Eve from this special place prepared for them and sent them into a harsh world to hack out a living by the sweat of their brow. The would no longer have be able to take of the fruit of the tree of life that grew in the garden. The result of sin was death. God had warned them it would be so. Now cut off from the source of everlasting life they face a sure and certain future death.
God placed Cherubims with flaming swords to protect the entrance into the Garden and Adam and Eve never again returned to it.
Man's death was spiritual as well as physical. When he sinned he died spiritually being cut off from the source of life, who is God. In time sin works its way and all men eventually die. Romans 6:23, says, "The wages of sin is death...". Man is given time; time to live experience life and also to seek God and be saved.
As we close Chapter 3, the record of the Fall of Man, the picture looks bleak. But we have the promise of God, in Genesis 3:15, man had forsaken God, but God had not forsaken man. The Savior was promised and he would come and all that would by faith accept God's provision for atonement would not be taken in the "second" death, that being eternal separation from God in Hell's fires. The message is one of man's failure and God's demonstrated mercy to save the sinner gone astray.
Genesis 3:1-24
THE BACKGROUND FOR THE FALL
God told Adam before Eve was created that he was not to eat of the of the knowledge of good and evil. (Gen. 2:17) Further God warned that in the day he did eat fruit of that tree man would surely die.
Adam was without sin, but God had given him a will which gave Adam the potential to sin. At first, Adam exercised his will toward God and had fellowship with Him. How long a period of time between Adam and Eve's creation elapsed the Bible does not tell us. The only clue we have is that they did not have children before the Fall, which seems to indicate a short period of probably a few weeks. However, this is speculation.
Eve was tempted by Satan who took the form of a serpent. (3:1) The serpent is described as being more subtile or clever than any other animal of the field. This probably is why Satan choose to take the form of a snake. Eve, seems not to think it unusual that the serpent could speak to her. Possibly, Adam and Eve could communicate with animals, but again that is pure speculation.
THE FALL OF SATAN
Satan is a created being, an angel called a cherb. In Ezekiel 28:12-17, the Bible gives us information concerning Satan. Though the passage states this is referring to the King of Tyre, it is clear that Satan had indwelled this king, for the King of Tyre was not in the Garden of Eden as V13 says. It was Satan who was in the Garden of Eden. Verses 13 and 17, state Satan was created beautiful. He was covered with precious stones. And as a Cherub he was the highest of all the angels God created. He had a special place of prominence. On the Ark of the Covenant, it is Cherubs whose out stretched wings guarded the mercy seat. (Ex. 25:20) Verse 15, states he was created perfect without sin.
Yet, Satan sinned against God and God cast him down from his high position. Isa. 14:12-14, Further describes Satan's sin. He is called "Lucifer" meaning the bright one, "the son of the morning". He was cut down to the ground because of his sin he said in his heart that he would be above God. He was determined to set up his own throne that men might worship him. Yet God said he would be brought down.
It is obvious that Satan first led a rebellion in heaven against God (Matthew 12:24, 2 Peter 2:4, Jude 6, Revelation 12:4) and then proceeded to tempt man also to disobey God.
WHEN DID SATAN FALL ?
The question always arises as to when Satan's fall in Heaven took place. In Genesis 2:1, God pronounced that "the heavens and the earth....and all the host of them" were "very good". Henry Morris, believes that the "host of heaven includes the angels as well as the stars.(1) Charles Ryrie, concludes that refers to stars (Neh. 9:6), and to angels ( 1 Kings 22:19), and this use of the term "the host" simply means all the things God created.(2) This would mean the Fall of Satan took place between the completion of the Creation or bet ween Genesis 2:25, and Genesis 3:1. Whether we accept that the term "host of heaven", included the angels and Satan, it is clear that Satan's Fall took place before Genesis 3, and that is all we can be sure of.
Those who believe in the "gap theory" preclude that Satan's Fall took place after Genesis 1:1, and before Genesis 1:2. Weston Fields explains the this supposed "gap" this way:
"In the far distant dateless past, God created a perfect heaven and perfect earth. Satan was ruler of the earth which was peopled by a race of "men" without souls. Eventually, Satan, who dwelled in a garden of Eden composed of minerals (Ezek. 28), rebelled by desiring to become like God (Isa. 14). Because of Satan's fall, sin entered the universe and brought on the earth God's judgment in the form of a flood (indicated by the water of 1:2), and then a global ice-age when the light and heat from the sun were somehow removed. All the plant, animal, and human fossil upon the earth today date from this "Lucifer's flood" and do not bear any genetic relationship with the plants, animals and fossils living on the earth today."(3)
At the heart of the "gap theory" is the effort to place in time the Fall of Satan. But it is not a proper or correct method of interpreting Scripture to "dream up" the existence of a supposed prior earth which was destroyed. There is no Biblical or Scientific evidence to support such an idea. Thus, if we honestly want to teach what the Bible truly says we can only state that the Fall of Satan took place before Genesis 3. It serves no purpose to do otherwise.
THE TEMPTATION OF EVE
Genesis 3:1-5
Satan begins the temptation with a question, "Hath God not said Ye shall no eat of every tree of the garden?" This is the way of Satan to bring into question what God has plainly stated. It is actually bringing God Himself into question. To question God is suggest that God could be wrong, or have some sinister reason for what He says.
Eve's response was to correct Satan's question, by stating that she and Adam could eat of all the trees of the garden except the one tree called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It should be noted that she further stated they could not eat or "touch" it lest they die. God had said in Genesis 2:17, that they should not eat it. God did not say anything about touching it. This addition to what God had said seems to indicate that Eve resented the fact of God prohibition not to eat of that particular tree. On the other hand, it could mean that she was indicating her understanding that God did not want them to have anything to do with this tree. God said not to eat the fruit, she concluded she shouldn't even touch it.
Satan who is the father of lies, then blatantly lies and tells Eve that she would not die! Speaking to the Pharisees Jesus said of Satan:
" Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it" (John 8:44).
Satan tells Eve, that God has with held the truth from them and that if she eats the fruit of the tree she would see the truth and she would become like God. The words used in the KJV, "as gods", is better translated "like God".
Morris makes this most revealing statement:
"In effect, of course as soon as one begins to deny God's Word or to question His sovereign goodness, he is really setting himself up as his own god. He is deciding for himself the standards of truth and righteousness." (4)
Even today Satan still tempts gullible man into believing he can become as his Creator. The devil dangles this before the eyes of the cults and they believe Satan rather than what God has clearly stated. It is the ultimate and most despicable act of the pride of man to even entertain the idea we can be "like God". Satan is cunning he knows his subject well. Being a creature of pride, he know of pride's weakness. The cults and the false teachers of today question the stated Word of God. They add, subtract, twist and lie as to what God has said. Many are they that fall victim.
EVE'S RESPONSE TO TEMPTATION
Genesis 3:6
Satan's attack was outward which appealed to the inward heart of man. God's appeal is first an inward one that when accepted changes the outward character of man.
Eve then allowed herself the be deceived in three areas. First, Eve saw the fruit was good for food, appealing to the flesh and bodily senses. Second, She saw it was pretty, appealing to the emotions, and Third, it appealed to her mind and intellect, in that she wanted to be wise.
Satan used the same line a attack in tempting the Lord Jesus. He first suggested Jesus, "Command that these stones be made bread", appealing to Christ's bodily senses. Next, challenging the Lord's courage and His emotions, Satan said, "Cast thyself down". Lastly, the Devil appealed to the spiritual pride and said, "Fall down and worship me". (Luke 4:1-13)
Satan's tools of deception remain the same today. He appeals to the weakness of our flesh, emotions and intellect.
Eve's failure was a series of multiple errors. She refused to simply accept God at His Word. She added to and subtracted from it. She doubted God, opening the door to the Devil's appeal to the flesh and her spiritual pride. She succumbed and sinned and in doing so plunged all the world thereafter into sin.
She also failed in the area of her position as Adam's helper. She made the decision to disobey God by herself. She did not involve Adam in any way until the act of disobedience was done. Then she became a instrument of temptation herself and offered the fruit to her husband. She failed in her role as a helper and was the means bringing his downfall.
Sin and rebellion by its nature is contagious. Its effects are never confined to only the one who sins. It grows. It spreads and seeks to involve others as well. Eve, upon eating the fruit immediately sought the one she was suppose to be a helper to, Adam. She was the source of Adam's temptation, not Satan. I Timothy 2:14, states Adam was not deceived. He fully and completely knew what he was doing in taking the fruit.
The verse further states that it was Eve who was in transgression or became the sinner. Yet, Romans 5:12, 18, and I Corinthians 15:22, the Bible lays the guilt to Adam, not Eve. The responsibility rests on the shoulders of Adam. Adam was made first, and Eve was from Adam and thus all of mankind is the descendent of him.
Some have concluded that Adam loved Eve to the point he willing sinned in order not to lose her or be separated from her. It is a false view because it makes Adam's deed almost honorable. Adam would have gave up all for love. All sin is an abomination unto God and the wages of sin, any sin is death. There is nothing honorable about doing wrong.
Satan's goal was to get Adam to sin. He used Eve's gullibility and weaker nature to get at man. Adam saw that Eve had eaten of the fruit, and he must have concluded that she was not dead and thus God must have lied to them. He most likely based his response to a false perception of what he thought the situation was. Instead of believing God, he believed what his eyes saw and what his own wisdom concluded was real. He was wrong! His error was deadly and he willing accepted his own wisdom over the expressed Word of God.
THE IMMEDIATE RESULT OF THEIR SIN
Genesis 3:7
After Adam sinned, both their eyes were opened and they saw themselves as their had made them to be, naked and ashamed. The had succumbed to temptation, and instead of being elevated to the status of a god, they had been plunged down into the depths of destruction. What a awful realization it must have been. What emptiness and depths of shame they must have felt.
They immediately sought to cover their nakedness and sewed fig leaves together into an apron. There was no way to hide or undo their sin. The leaves sewn together were a poor and useless substitute for the purity they had before they sinned.
THE FURTHER RESULT OF SIN
Genesis 3:8-24
Adam and Eve, having sinned had broken intimate fellowship with God. The effects of sin is always separation from God. This does not mean that God does not love us, but it means God by His nature must be separated from sin.
The sin that plunged mankind into sin was not murder or some other gross sin, but a simple act of eating the fruit of a prohibited tree. The sin was disobedience. It shows that man was not capable of determining what was good and evil and that man must trust God in the matter. The tree was placed there to define good and evil. On all the earth there was only one source of temptation, that one tree. Adam and Eve, in reality did already know what was right and wrong. It was wrong to eat the fruit of that one tree. That had to exercise trust in God; God said it was forbidden and thus they had to accept that it was.
God is our creator and thus has the right to establish laws that His creation live in an orderly manner. God's laws are both spiritual and material. The material law of gravity is absolute. If you disobey the law of gravity by jumping off a high cliff you will be injured or killed. The law of gravity is vital for order on the physical earth. The law of gravity is not evil but is good. Further it is not evil because if violated it can bring harm to the violator. The responsibility rests with the individual to obey and observe the law of gravity thus benefiting from it.
God wanted the very best for man, thus he had the right to prohibit man from doing that which was destructive to him. Thus he instructed man to always obey God. The tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil established the bonds of man's responsibility. Of all the trees in the garden man could freely eat, however this one tree was harmful and God told man not to eat of it.
Note that God had given man a will. There was a need of a prohibition on man's will. Man was not God and did not have the knowledge of God, thus was and is a creature needing guidance and help. Man was not a robot programed to be a performer. Man was made a free being able and expected to use his God given ability to choose to correctly obey God.
There are many questions these brief notes do not explain. Man has sought to find the answers throughout history, yet without success. We then are left with a mystery. We do not know the mind of God in why man was created or understand how all this came to be. But we do know this, whether we understand it or not, God is not the author of sin. Man was created in God's image, able to exercise his will yet, man was created Holy, separate from sin. Sin ended when man disobeyed and God allowed it to happen. God will not violate man's will. To do so would turn man into a robot. The sun is not the source of darkness, but darkness exists where the sun does not shine. God is not the source of sin, but when man disobeyed God's good law, God withdrew and darkness came upon man.
ADAM AND EVE HIDE FROM GOD
Genesis 3:8-10
God came as usual in the cool of the day to fellowship with Adam and Eve, but they withdrew. This is the hard fact that man withdrew from God, not God from man. It is clear that man tried hide from God, and yet he could not. The created could not divorce itself from his Creator.
These two sinners could not escape the presence of God, and when called responded honestly, "...I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself". (Gen. 3:10) When we come in contact with God face to face we are left with no defense. Isaiah, the prophet of God, cried, "Woe is me!, for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclear lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." The holiness of God exposes our sin and deep down we know we have no defense.
ADAM AND EVE ATTEMPT SELF-JUSTIFICATION
Genesis 3:11-13
When questioned by God as to how they knew they were naked and asked had they eaten of the forbidden fruit both Adam and Eve tried to justify their action by passing the blame.
Adam, pleaded is was the fault of the woman, "...whom thou gavest to be with me". It seems Adam was indirectly blaming God. As if, if God had not given him the woman he would not have sinned. However, Adam was not deceived as noted earlier. He with full knowledge willfully disobeyed God. Eve, followed Adam's example and said it was the serpent's fault. He tricked me she said and thus she pleaded she was not responsible.
Since the Fall it has never helped anyone to blame someone else for our own shortcomings. When we try to justify our actions we are denying our guilt. It are avoiding reality by not facing sin. All the while we are busy trying to justify ourselves we are delaying the cure to the problem. All who come to Christ must plead "guilty". We must accept our responsibility for our actions, and throw ourselves on the mercy of God.
THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD FOR THE SERPENT
Genesis 3:14-15
God must judge sin. Without responsibility for our actions the law is invalid. God made the serpent a perpetual example to man of the Fall. The serpent lost its place as the "most subtil" of all the beasts of the field and made the lowest. It would crawl on its belly from that day forward. The judgment and effects of sin extended not only to the serpent but to all the animal kingdom. (See Jer. 12:4, Rom. 8:20)
Further, God said there would be "enmity" between the serpent and woman. The curse goes much deeper than just establishing an ill feeling between woman and serpents. It was addressed to Satan himself. Man would not be Satan's willing ally and the seed of woman, referring ultimately to Christ, would crush the head of Satan which is a fatal blow. Satan's power would be only to cripple mankind, and not be able to destroy it.
THE JUDGMENT OF GOD FOR THE WOMAN
Genesis 3:16
God's judgment on woman was that her sorrow and conception be multiplied. The result of sin was that the length and pain of child birth was increased.
Further, the woman would have a strong desire to rule over her husband, however her husband would rule over her. Having overstepped the bounds of her position and responsibility, she would be mastered by him. She would always be in subjection to man, and in her carnal nature, never be satisfied with this situation.
THE JUDGMENT OF GOD FOR THE MAN
Genesis 3:17-19
Man's sin brought the judgment of having to toil and have great hardships in making a livelihood. The same word which describes the pain of women in childbirth is used her to describe man's pain in laboring for a living.
The life of man would be one of hard work caused by "thorns and thistles" indicating that even the plants of earth were adversely effected by man's sin. After a hard life man would die and be returned to the dust from which he was formed.
ADAM NAMES WOMAN
Genesis 3:20
Trusting is the promises of God that one would come who would restore fellowship with God and destroy the work of Satan, Adam named his wife, Eve. The name means "life", she was to be the mother of the human race.
This statement absolutely refutes any concept of theistic evolution. Eve was the mother of all men on earth. God did not evolve men from lower creatures.
GOD'S PROVISION FOR SINFUL MAN
Genesis 3:21
Adam and Eve, must have been greatly repentant of their deeds which had brought sin into the world. God in his mercy made provision for them made them coats of animal skins for them to wear. Earlier they had made themselves fig leaves to hide their nakedness, however their efforts were lacking.
The word "covering" also means "atonement". Most see this act of God as being more than just providing clothes, but as an act of God's Grace in providing atonement from sin as well. They responded in their hearts to God and trusted Him, God in turn accepted their faith and saved them.
There was shedding of blood, as a picture of the coming of Christ and His shedding His blood to atone for the sins of all mankind. Animals were killed and their skins used for a "covering" for man.
The Garden of Eden continued on for some time after the Fall, maybe even until the Great Flood. However, God drove Adam and Eve from this special place prepared for them and sent them into a harsh world to hack out a living by the sweat of their brow. The would no longer have be able to take of the fruit of the tree of life that grew in the garden. The result of sin was death. God had warned them it would be so. Now cut off from the source of everlasting life they face a sure and certain future death.
God placed Cherubims with flaming swords to protect the entrance into the Garden and Adam and Eve never again returned to it.
Man's death was spiritual as well as physical. When he sinned he died spiritually being cut off from the source of life, who is God. In time sin works its way and all men eventually die. Romans 6:23, says, "The wages of sin is death...". Man is given time; time to live experience life and also to seek God and be saved.
As we close Chapter 3, the record of the Fall of Man, the picture looks bleak. But we have the promise of God, in Genesis 3:15, man had forsaken God, but God had not forsaken man. The Savior was promised and he would come and all that would by faith accept God's provision for atonement would not be taken in the "second" death, that being eternal separation from God in Hell's fires. The message is one of man's failure and God's demonstrated mercy to save the sinner gone astray.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)