How Does the Old Testament Mesh with the New? 5
Last time, we looked at how Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God’s commandment for giving more credence to Satan’s lies over His truth – leading to the ‘original sin’ that led to their infestation and to their expulsion from the Garden of Eden (see Part 4). Now we will examine some of the detrimental aspects of that sin as it was passed down to our progenitors’ first two offspring:
- The first homicide, anger, and sin:
Chapter 4 of Genesis first introduces us to the parties involved in this atrocity:
Now Adam had sexual relations with his wife, Eve, and she became pregnant. When she gave birth to Cain, she said, “With the LORD’s help, I have produced a man!” Later she gave birth to his brother and named him Abel.
When they grew up, Abel became a shepherd, while Cain cultivated the ground. When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the LORD. Abel also brought a gift – the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock.
The LORD accepted Abel and his gift, but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected. Gn. 4:1 – 5. NLT
What do we see? First, Eve recognized that Jehovah was instrumental in the creation of Cain. She’s excited, looking for her firstborn to be the prophetic manifestation of a messiah who would deliver her people from sin by killing the devil.[1]
That Cain and Abel both brought sacrificial offerings to God, also demonstrates a belief in a monotheistic God and shows their faith in sacrifice and prayer, as being proper components of worship.
So, why is Cain angry? The Scripture does not reveal how he knew that Abel’s offering was accepted, and his was not. However, what we can discern is that Abel brought the ‘best portions of his firstborn lambs.’
We can infer, then, that Cain did not prioritize bringing the ‘best’ of his crops. Thus, Cain’s intent for his fulfilling his sacrificial obligation was off base – that perhaps he did not present the finest of his ‘first fruits’.
Cain is angry, but God is not. He appeals to Cain:
“Why are you so angry?” The LORD asked Cain. “Why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you.
But you must subdue it and be its master.” (Emphasis mine.) Gn. 4:6, 7. NLT
Jehovah does not love Abel more that Cain. He doesn’t play favorites.[2]
God never asks us to do something that we cannot do. Sin first tempts us. Jehovah is telling us here that we can overcome that temptation. (This, by the way, is the very first mention of the word sin in the Bible – more on that coming up). Does Cain take the higher road? Let’s see:
Cain talked with Abel his brother [about what God had said]. And then they were [alone, working] in the field, Cain attacked Abel his brother and killed him. Gn. 4:8 AMP
The Bible does not tell us what Cain said to Abel. Instead of just correcting his own error, Cain failed miserably. Why? He gave into sin – just like all of humanity. He let the temptation in his jealousy ramp up his emotions, inviting its cousins as well: anger, and then rage.
Just as with Adam and Eve, God loves Cain despite what he’s done. Similarly, He also gives Cain an opportunity to confess and repent:
Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother?” And he [lied and] said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” Gn. 4:9 AMP
Well, that’s a flat out lie. He could have confessed. There were no admonitions proscribed against murder, and up to now, there were none. However, Cain wouldn’t lie unless innately he knew it was wrong. It means he possessed an inborn knowledge of morality.[3] Yet, Cain turned a deaf ear – no confession or repentance. Jehovah responds:
“What have you done? The voice of your brother’s [innocent] blood is crying out to Me from the ground [for justice].
And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s [shed] blood from your hand. When you cultivate the ground, it shall not longer yield its strength [it will resist producing good crops] for you; you shall be a fugitive and a vagabond [roaming aimlessly] on the earth [in perpetual exile without a home, a degraded outcast].” Gn. 4:9 – 12. AMP
God’s response indeed reveals that Cain is his brother’s keeper, a task he has neglected and shunned. (Note that the Hebrew says ‘your brother’s bloods’– inferring a further aspect of Cain’s crime, that of denying the earth of God’s intended descendants from Abel).
Why does God not kill Cain outright? If you think about it, it is only premeditated murder that is punished by death. We can’t deduce Cain’s motivation from the Scripture. It appears to be more of an on-the-spot emotional response.
Nevertheless, Cain responds with abject fear:
My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold you have driven me out this day from the face of the land; and from Your face (presence) I will be hidden, and I will be a fugitive and an [aimless] vagabond on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”
And the LORD said to him, “Therefore, whoever kills Cain, a sevenfold vengeance [that is, punishment seven times worse” shall be taken on him [by Me].” And the LORD set a [protective] mark (sign) on Cain, so that no one who found (met) him would kill him. Gn. 4:13 – 15. AMP
Cain was now attempting to confess his transgression and admit his guilt. In yet another demonstration of God’s mercy and lovingkindness, our gracious God puts a protective sign over Cain, obvious to all others, that it is from Jehovah Himself. He loves all humankind despite their sins, but they must clean up that mess with Him, through confession and repentance.
Before we close this chapter in history, we must examine two things that were introduced in God’s Word for the first time in the biblical historical timeline. The first is anger.
Anger is a natural human response – part of the emotional array that we inherit from our Heavenly Template. Yes, God gets angry too, but His righteous anger is triggered only by injustice; and that’s the only way that He accepts angry behavior from His children:
For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime! Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning. Ps. 30:5 NLT
…for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish. Joel 2:13 NLT
But He, the source of compassion and lovingkindness, forgave their wickedness and did not destroy them; Many times He restrained His anger and did not stir up all His wrath. Ps. 78:38 AMP
If we follow our Father in His heavenly example, we see that our anger is to be slow-growing, short-lived and filled with compassion and forgiveness.
Yet, as we have seen, since the fall of Adam and Eve, we have an ungodly component in our soul and flesh that desires to follow the worldly examples. Worldly anger, like its close cousins: pride, jealousy, and envy, are all forms of fear:
Envy is the fear of being ‘less than’, believing others to be better than you.
Jealousy is like envy, both being born out of a lust for something someone else has, while holding them in disdain for their apparent good fortune.
Exercising pride is where you lift yourself above another, effectively oppressing them.
Anger is the motherlode of all fears – the fear of life itself.
Anger is an unsuccessful strategy of oppression, a defense mechanism against the pain that the angry one is feeling from their life experience – all because they refuse to grab ahold of life by the rudder and take responsibility for the consequences of their actions. In addition, they are not inviting God to help them in the parts of their lives that they cannot control.
It is an emotional offensive play, that is, in reality, a defensive tactic to intimidate someone whom they feel is trying to invalidate their own beliefs. These opinions are always rooted in some interpretation (meaning) that they’ve attached to some event in their past.
Anger is a form of ‘closing down’, by ‘striking out’. It creates barriers to communication and relationship. Worse, it’s addictive and feeds upon itself.
The roots of unrighteous anger include:
1) Not liking something, i.e., your preferences are manifesting.
2) Wanting life to be different than it is but being paralyzed by a fear of change.
3) Seeing others as ‘the enemy’ for not sharing your preferences.
4) Defending yourself against potential rejection, afraid the past will repeat itself.
5) Fearing being ‘found out’ for some past mistake or having your false persona being exposed.
6) Feeling that someone is trying to control you – especially if you see yourself as a ‘victim’.
There is nothing good about unrighteous anger:
Stop being angry! Turn from your rage! Do not lose your temper—it only leads to harm. Ps. 37:8 NLT
For anger kills a fool, and jealousy slays the gullible. Job 5:2 CSB
Our tirades drive everyone away, even those we want to hold close – leaving us with more shame and guilt, and ultimately, loneliness. Worse, it does nothing to relieve our pain.
The danger that indulging in anger brings is elevation to violence – that you direct towards others and yourself. How can you expect to embrace any form of happiness?
Anger makes you think that you are powerful, but it eviscerates your health – leading to anxiety, high blood pressure, stroke, and cancer.
Instead, we must put on the mindset of God:
And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil. Eph. 4:26, 27. NLT
A gentle answer deflects anger, but harsh words make tempers flare. Pr. 15:1 NLT
Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Eph. 4:31 NLT
Good sense and discretion make a man slow to anger, and it is his honor and glory to overlook a transgression or an offense [without seeking revenge and harboring resentment]. Pr. 19:11 AMP
The long and short of it is, that if we want to uproot anger from our lives, we must practice living in the opposite way, i.e., living a life of peace:
But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. Gal. 5:22, 23. AMP
If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Rm. 12:18 CSB
Be joyful. Grow to maturity. Encourage each other. Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you. 2 Cor. 13:11 NLT
Ultimately, we can choose anger and die, or choose peace and live:
God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God. Mt. 5:9 NLT
[1] Gn. 3:15
[2] Rm. 2:11
[3] Jer. 31:33
Building Better Americans 121
How Does the Old Testament Mesh with the New? 4
Previously, we looked at a more detailed description of the creation of Adam and Eve, our soul, and why we were created the way were (see Part 3).
Now, we are going to explore the roots of original sin and how that impacts us all:
- The downfall of humanity
Adam was created in Divine love. He was fashioned as a man, who instantly knew that love and willingly obeyed the Source of it. We know that because he didn’t get into trouble until he first disobeyed God.
Adam was meant to be a ‘son’ of God’ – living in complete harmony with his Creator. In fact, his sole source of love, intelligence, and wisdom was God Himself. Adam saw the world through His Father’s eyes.
Furthermore, as we saw in chapter 2, Adam and Eve were placed in an idyllic garden that fed them. In addition, the Tree of Life provided for their immortality. Likewise, we saw that Jehovah had only given Adam one rule to follow, that is, not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil – the transgression of which would lead to death.
Why this rule? The obvious reason is because God cannot lie; eating of the fruit would result in death. However, I believe that the primary purpose was to give Adam and Eve an opportunity to make a free-will choice to obey Him.
This is important to understand, because God and His Son both measure our efforts to love them by our labors to obey them.[1] So, choosing to obey is choosing to love. And true love only exists in a continuing freedom to choose to do so. God is only about true love.
Chapter 3 begins with a visitation to Eve from a talking snake:
Now the serpent was more crafty (subtle, skilled in deceit) than any living creature of the field which the LORD God had made. And the serpent (Satan) said to the woman, “Can it really be that God has said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?” Gn. 3:1 AMP
I defer to the Amplified translation because it identifies the serpent as empowered by Satan at the outset.
Some of our Hebrew scholars see the Garden of Eden as a divine parable rather than a literal divine account – some going so far as to say there is no satanic infiltration or any inference to the struggle between good and evil. That’s their interpretation. I do not disrespect nor judge Judaism. We are spiritual brothers and sisters, in concordance on many levels.
Yet, this is another important Christian divergence. Jesus, Himself, tied the serpent to Satan directly.[2] And He refers to Satan straightforwardly as the first murderer who deceived and manipulated Adam and Eve into sin, which led to their deaths.[3]
Notice in the aforementioned Scripture that Satan approached Eve, (even though Adam was in earshot, because the devil was using ‘you’ pronouns that are plural in this encounter). It is conjectured in both Hebrew and Christian, that was because only Adam directly received God’s admonition about the tree, and that perhaps his conveyance to Eve was weaker.
Again, back to the previously cited Scripture: what was the devil up to? He was purposely misquoting what God had said, saying instead that He commanded them to not eat from any of the trees in the Garden – to both confuse and sow seeds of doubt in her understanding of the accuracy of Jehovah’s command.
Eve responds to correct Satan’s twisted declaration:
“Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. “It’s only from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do you will die.” Gn. 3:2, 3. NLT
Interestingly, Eve herself innocently misquoted God by adding ‘or even touch it.’ Some scholars get their panties in a twist, declaring that she added to Jehovah’s word. We don’t know how Adam repeated His command to Eve, or if she understood it correctly.
Moreover, at this point, Eve had yet to commit any sin. She was innocent and blameless, as was undoubtedly her motives. The devil retorts:
“You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” Gn. 3:4, 5. NLT
Satan is calling Jehovah a liar! Instead of recognizing God’s attempt to get them to obey His word for their good and well-being, and to depend upon Him to discern between good and evil in every situation, the devil makes Jehovah out to be a jealous God, not wanting them to be on His level.
Moreover, the devil began this pack of lies by denying that they would die, when in fact they do, making him the first murderer in recorded history.
This is what I call Satan’s ‘Big Lie,’ because at the core of his falsehood, he promises Eve that she would be like God, suggesting that she was missing something. The devil was appealing to the desire of her flesh, a desire that was already stirred up as she began to consider the veracity of his claims:
The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it too. Gn. 3:6 NLT
Adam is the greater at fault in the commission of the ‘original sin.’ He received the prohibition against these actions directly from God. He kept silent while she was being tempted, and he ate without hesitation. You can also see this because he receives a greater degree of God’s discipline than does Eve.
As God promised, the change was instantaneous:
At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. Gn. 3:7 NLT
(Note that the Hebrew word for ‘nakedness’ here, (with shameful and sinful associations), is not the same word used when they were first united and unashamed.)
A very unexpected thing happened next – a clear example of God’s compassion, love, and forgiveness, not of his wrath:
When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the LORD God walking about in the garden. So, they hid among the trees. Then the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”
He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”
“Who told you that you were naked?” the LORD God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”
The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit and I ate it.”
Then the LORD God asked the woman, “What have you done?”
The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.” Gn. 3:8-13. NLT
There is so much to glean from this exchange:
First, another Christian divergence. Only in the New Testament do we learn that God is invisible, and that Christ is the visible expression of His Father – once from Jesus Himself[4] and secondly from the Holy Spirit-inspired apostle Paul.[5] Thus it had to be the pre-incarnate Son of God walking in the garden.
How does that work? Let’s follow Thomas Aquinas’ reasoning from his book Summa Theologica – especially with regards to the trinitarian concept (which, I did not believe or understand until I became familiar with what the Holy Spirit imparted to Aquinas):
God in His totality is what comprises His essence. He brings His essence to bear through His will.
God is Father, God is Son, and God is Holy Spirit. And these are not three Gods but one God.
Following this reasoning, God’s Word is an outpouring of His essence, so it is related to God, and proceeds forth as His Son:
In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought life to everyone. Jn. 1:1 – 4. NLT
Christ existed before creation, before time. Thus, there was nothing to create Him with. The only conclusion is that He was generated (begotten) by the essence of God.
As we have seen, (teased out in our examination of Gn. 1:1), God is immovable and eternal. And He is infinite. If He is infinite, He cannot be divided, or He would be reduced to a finite state. Therefore, the Son of God must be incorporated within the Father.
Continuing to follow Aquinas’ reasoning, given that God knows all things and was maintaining the universe through His essence, He is identical to His actions. Therefore, if God speaks, it is indistinguishable from who He is. So, Jesus, Jehovah’s Word, cannot be anything other than God Himself.
“If you know me, you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Jn. 14:7 CSB
And because everything that God does is perfect, Christ Himself must be perfect.
If God is love,[6] then He must love Himself and He expresses this love, this essence of Himself, as the Holy Spirit, living in God, as does His Son – both in equal rank because they are part of God’s essence.
Again, God is a perfect unified essence, consisting of His thoughts, His substance, and the exercise of His will (actions). God’s Word (Christ) is representative of His thoughts, distinguished as different only with regards to the process of God’s generated Words becoming Jesus’ expression of them.
Similarly, God’s love is who He is, yet it is expressed outwardly through the Holy Spirit. This directed process is the only distinction between God and the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, the Holy Spirit is also identical to God.
So, God expresses Himself through His Son and loves through the Holy Spirit. Given that God is a unified essence, He cannot have differing views from His Son or from the Holy Spirit. The three exist in perfect harmony.
God is the Father, Jesus is the Son, who emanates from the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from them both.
In addition, the Bible tells us that flesh and blood, in our present state, cannot enter heaven.[7] We must be transformed, which is what happens when we accept Jesus. So, Christ, a part of God’s essence, and must have been a Spirit being as well.
I hope this discussion helps you see why Christ, the visible manifestation of God, (and He could take on that visibility, even as a Spirit-being), had to be who was walking in the Garden.
So, let’s return to Jehovah’s exchange with Adam and Eve:
God is not asking all those questions for the sake of information. He is omniscient. Jehovah wanted them to see what kind of predicament they had put themselves in and to hopefully elicit confession and repentance from them.
But no. We see, instead, that Adam blamed Eve, and even put some blame on God for bringing her to him, and Eve blamed the serpent.
Now, God turns to the serpent, finished with His somewhat gentle admonition of Adam and Eve, but gives the snake (Satan) no quarter:
Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all animals, domestic and wild. You will crawl on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live. Gn. 3:14 NLT
The snake already crawled on its belly, so how was this a curse? He elaborates:
“And I will put enmity (open hostility) between you and the woman, and between your seed (offspring) and her Seed; He shall [fatally] bruise your head, and you shall [only] bruise His heel.” Gn. 3:15 AMP
This marks a big Christian divergency from the Hebrew view of a Garden parable, or referring to a Messiah that has yet to come. Christians see this Scripture as the Protoevangelium (‘first gospel’), pointing to Christ (Eve’s descendant) as the Messiah, whose heel will be ‘bruised’ on the cross, but only a bruise – that He will overcome by His resurrection.
Satan on the other hand, will suffer a fatal blow from Jesus’ bruising of his head.[8]
God turns His attention to Eve:
“I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.” Gn. 3:16 NLT
This is not a curse like the devil received. It is more of a Divine reprimand. Eve would already have pain in pregnancy by the virtue of the anatomical changes that occur, but He was going to intensify her symptoms to put her transgression in her remembrance.
Regarding her relationship with Adam, this is not a curse, but an explanation of what will manifest outside of the Garden, i.e., she will want to dominate him, but being unsuccessful, she will resent his rule, (his intended leadership role given by God).
Jehovah turns to Adam:
“Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains.
By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made of dust, and to dust you will return.” Gn. 3:17 – 19. NLT
God cursed the ground (and all of nature with it) instead of Adam. Yet his life would be made more difficult for it. Also, he will die, returning to the dust from which he came, having been cut off from the Tree of Life due to his imminent expulsion from the Garden.
Speaking of expulsion, it now begins:
Then the man – Adam – named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all who live. And the LORD God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife. Gn. 3:20, 21. NLT
In this Scripture, we also find Divine forgiveness / atonement for their sin, which at that time required a blood sacrifice, which would have been facilitated by God’s slaughter of the animals for their skins.
Moreover, we see the continuing love and compassion of the Godhead for the first couple:
And the LORD God said “Behold, the man has become like one of Us (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), knowing [how to distinguish between] good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take from the tree of life as well, and eat [its fruit], and live [in this fallen, sinful condition] forever” – therefore the LORD God sent Adam (and Eve) from the Garden of Eden, to till and cultivate the ground from which he was taken. Gn. 3:22, 23. AMP
After sending them out, the LORD God stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden. And he placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. Gn. 3:24 NLT
The love and compassion were born out of God’s concern that Adam and Eve might eat from the Tree of life and becoming eternally damned in their newfound moral depravity. Thus, by removing them from the Garden and making sure they could not return in an inappropriate time (i.e., before the end of time)[9], God saved them from themselves.
Yet there are unavoidable consequences outside of the Garden.
Judaism uses Chapter 3 of Genesis to explain human suffering, suggesting that people are born innocent but tend to commit evil as Adam and Eve.
Christianity diverges once again, with the concept of ‘Original Sin.’ In this view, we see Adam’s and Eve’s actions as a source of devastating consequences for both them and for all humankind, throughout the ages.
It led to self-rejection, because they accepted Satan’s Big Lie that there was something missing from how God created them – inferring that they were inadequate. They exercised their new-found sin, the expression of pride, for something they didn’t have (the knowledge of evil; they already had the knowledge of good).
And so, they became something less, because they were made perfectly as God made them. Now, they would eventually die in the flesh – meanwhile, cutting themselves from a direct relationship with God, because sin cannot coexist with righteousness.
This sinful taint is passed on through all successive generations, robbing all people of the original paradise, the gift of immortality, our direct love connection with God, and of the peace and freedom that accompanies living a sinless life.
It was the beginning of all human suffering, at the hands of themselves. Humans shifted their relationship with God from one of love, to one based upon fear and shame – stemming from their disobedience. What results is that we all suffer from an indelible imprint upon our souls that tells us that God will not accept us.
The Big Lie is the devil’s masterpiece, because in the end, most are infected with that lie – a twisted belief that they are unacceptable or unlovable.
This drives an unrelenting cycle of fear and shame that perpetuates our transgressions against God, to numb ourselves against our pain of separation from Him.
We are afraid that God doesn’t love us, so we act contrary to His word, hoping it will bring temporary relief to our flesh, to ease our spiritual pain. Shame kicks in, and we try to bury it in addictions or obsessions, until we feel that we’ve done enough penance, whereupon we hopelessly rinse and repeat.
As we will eventually explore, a relationship with Jesus is the only way out – a guaranteed pathway of salvation that allows us to return to Him forever, in eternal paradise…
[1] Jn. 14:15
[2] Rv. 12:9 & 20.2.
[3] Jn. 8:44
[4] Jn. 1:18
[5] Col. 1:15
[6] 1 Jn. 4:8
[7] 1 Cor. 15:50
[8] Ps. 110:6; Rm. 16:20; 1 Jn. 3:8; Rv. 20:10
[9] Rv. 22:1,2.