Created for relationship - Part 2

“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.  She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate.” (Gen. 3:6)

God had given his children in the Garden of Eden everything they needed and more. He had given them a wonderful career – to rule over his entire creation. They had the basic ability to do so because He had created them in his own image. He had even given them their first assignment, a task that would challenge them to use their talents and develop the necessary skills. In order to name the animals they would have to observe them carefully and develop a system for classifying the different kinds. They were learning how to discover the order God had built into his creation. Could it be that they were the first scientists?

God was pleased with his children, but He had placed a limit upon them. The fruit of one tree in the garden was off limits. God had even stressed to Adam the severity of disobedience, “When you eat from it you will surely die.” But they did eat that forbidden fruit. Did they die? Not physically, at least not for a long time. Adam was 930 years old when he died. But they did die spiritually when God kicked them out of the garden. That was spiritual death. Never before had they known evil, but now they did. They began to know by experience pain and suffering because they had broken the perfect relationship between themselves and the Father who had been providing for their every need. Their relationship with each other suffered also as they began to pass blame for wrong-doing off onto someone else. Now they really did need wisdom for discerning between good and evil. The final temptation, the one that Eve and her husband who was with her could not resist, was the serpent’s lie about the forbidden fruit being desirable for gaining wisdom to discern between good and evil, making them equal with God. Eve really was deceived when she believed they could get that kind of wisdom from a source (the forbidden fruit) other than God himself. James tells us where to go when we need wisdom to discern between good and evil: “If any of you lacks wisdom you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault” (James 1:5). Could it be that our 21^st century secular culture with its attitude that, “Now that we have science and technology we don’t need God,” is making the same mistake that Adam and Eve made way back in the beginning?   

Created for Relationship - Part 1

“Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him’." (Gen. 2:18)

That was the first time in the creation account that God said something was not good. I thank you, Pastor Mike Plunkett, for that profound insight!  It is very significant. I had never thought about that passage in that way before. It’s so easy for us to read simple words and think we understand, but God always wants to take us a little deeper. So I now turn to God in my childlike inquisitiveness and ask, “But God, weren’t you alone for all eternity before you created the heavens and the earth…one God, pure and simple, perfectly good, perfectly at peace, in need of nothing? So why was it good for you to be alone, but now that You’ve created a man you say it is not good for him to be alone, especially since you created him in your own image?”

Then I remember that passage about God creating us in His own image. It says, “Then God said, "Let Us make mankind in Our image, in Our likeness…and God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” The pronouns, “us” and “our,” jump out at me. Who is God speaking to? Could it be that God was not alone before He created the heavens and the earth? Then I remember that, of course, God has always existed in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit united by a bond of love…three persons, one eternal Supreme Being whose defining characteristic is unending love. And wasn’t it the Son who said, “Let us make mankind in our image …” the Son asking, the Father giving, because of the great love between the Father and the Son? 

When Adam was created he was already in relationship with God as a son to his father. He was never alone. So what did God mean when he said, “it is not good for the man to be alone?” The answer to that question becomes clear when we look at the rest of the passage about us being made in God’s image. It says that they (mankind) were to be “fruitful and increase in number” and rule over all of God’s creation. God wanted many sons and daughters to love, who would love Him and follow his lead to build His kingdom. In order for that to happen Adam definitely needed a helper! So God made him “a helper suitable for him,” and Adam named his wife “Eve.” The first relationship God created between those he had created in his own image was the husband-wife relationship. Once that relationship was consummated, many other kinds of relationship followed – relationships between parents and children, brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends and neighbors. Man was definitely created for relationship – both with God as His sons and daughters – and with each other. And the latter relationships were all supposed to bear some kind of resemblance to the love relationship that has existed for all eternity between God the Father and Christ the Son, with the Holy Spirit uniting three in One. Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. What happened? To be continued…