The book of Genesis is often spoken about as the seed plot of the Bible. Many basic fundamental principles are laid down which are traced right through the Bible. One can even think of the book of Revelation as Genesis in reverse God is working to put right the failures of man in Genesis and the climax is reached in Revelation 22. For example, in Genesis 1:1, we begin with the perfect creation of God in Genesis 1:1 and in Revelation 21, we read of a new heaven and a new earth. In Genesis chapter 3, Paradise is lost upon earth. In Revelation 22, Paradise is restored upon earth.

We are going however to confine our remarks to chapters 1 to 3 of Genesis and in particular to events around Adam and Eve in the garden. The story of Adam and Eve in the garden has been widely set aside by men today, if not ridiculed. Yet when speaking about marriage in Matthew 19, the Lord quotes from Genesis chapter 2 which speaks of Adam in the garden. In Luke chapter 3, the writer Luke takes us back through the genealogy of the Lord to Adam, the son of God. Paul also mentions the name of Adam in his letters to the Romans and to Timothy. We as Christians have therefore no reason not to believe the story as told us in Genesis.

We begin our study in chapter 1, verse 26:

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

1.1. Let us make the trinity in action

Is there really such a thing as a triune God? Here we have an example of it. God said, Let us make. The us are the three persons of the divine trinity. Indeed it is not the first time that we come across the trinity in this chapter - see also Gen 1:1

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

God here is Elohim, a plural noun, but created is a verb in the singular. We have three persons acting together as one in perfect unity.

A third example is found in chapter 3 after the Fall.

The man is become as one of us, to know good and evil.

Then there is a fourth in Genesis chapter 11. When men began to build Babel, God said:

Let us go down and there confound their language

1.2. In our image, after our likeness.

What is God like? He is like us, for we are like Him.

The following verses describe various parts of His body.

Matt 18:10 His face

Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.

Exodus 33 His back

20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.
21 And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock:
22 And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:
23 And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.

Rev 5 His right hand

1 And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.

But some might say, Whether or not He looks like us is of no consequence for does John not say in chapter 1:18 that no man has seen God at any time.

18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him

This might seem like a definitive statement but does John not qualify his statement when he says at any time. What if we are beyond time ie in heaven or in eternity, can we see God then?

But some might argue further, what about the invisible God of Colossians chapter 1?

15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

But the word invisible in this verse does not have the same meaning as in our language today. Today is has the sole idea of something which cannot be seen. But the Greek word in this verse has the meaning of unseen ie not that God cannot be seen but that He is not seen.

The bible gives us a number of examples of men who saw God or hoped to see God, but none of them saw Him in the realm of time or upon earth.

In Revelation chapter 4, John has a vision of God sitting upon His throne.

3 And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.

The same writer describes in chapter 5, God sitting upon His throne with a book in His right hand.

1 And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals

In Daniel chapter 7, the prophet describes in a vision four great beasts rising up who would trouble Israel. Daniel describes the Ancient of days ie God, sitting upon His throne. Once again, Daniel is beyond the realm of time.

I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.

In perhaps the first book ever written in our bible, Job three times over expresses his certainty of one day seeing God.

26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
27 Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.

Note that while Christ is said to be the image of God, He is never said to be in the likeness of God. He is God!! He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. Outwardly, He was no different from any other man. Judas had to mark Him out with a kiss in Gethsemane.

In John 9, the Lord has to introduce Himself as being the Son of God there was nothing remarkable about his appearance.

35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?
36 He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?
37 And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.
38 And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.

The Lord Jesus was none the less, God manifest in flesh. He was able to make the statement:

He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father

1.3. Let them have dominion

Who are the them in this verse? Not men as a gender but male and female. Before we even read of the building of Eve, we learn that she is destined to share in Adam's dominion. We can see the dominion of Adam over all creation insofar as God brought the beasts and the birds to Adam, that he might give them names.

Gen 2

19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
But even though Adam was made first, it was always God's intention that the woman would share this dominion with him.

So it is with Christ and His bride. In Ephesians chapter 1, we read first of all in verse 10 of God's purpose in making Christ head over all His creation.

10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:

But this is followed immediately with the revelation that we too will share in His reign:

11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

2. Chapter 2:16-17 a single commandment given

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

It might seem strange that God should have put even one restriction upon Adam and Eve in the garden. They could eat of every tree bar one the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Obviously, this one commandment was put there to test Adam and his wife. The trees of the garden were so abundant that they had no need of it for food, but it proved to be a temptation that Eve could not resist, especially when brought to her attention by the serpent.

See also Israel He fed them with manna to prove them in the wilderness and to see whether they would keep His commandments or not.

3. 2:18 A help meet given

18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

When Adam was alone in the garden, he was lord of all that he surveyed. He was enjoying fellowship with God. What else could he need? There was one thing he lacked someone with whom he could share his thoughts and his feelings. God filled this gap in Adam's world by giving him a wife.

Eve is often described as being a help-meet for Adam. But does this make any sense? When we look again at Genesis 2:18, him is used twice, both times referring to Adam. The first him is used in the sense of for him, but this means we have two for him phrases in the same sentence. Can we paraphrase the verse differently? I will make for him, a help meet for him. Meet is an adjective meaning suitable. God provided Adam with a help who would be just right for him.

In what way was she suitable? She was unique in the way that God formed her. Adam was formed from the dust of the earth.

Gen 2:7

7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

So too were all the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air.

19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

Compare this with Eve

21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

The Hebrew word used for made in verse 22 has the meaning of builded. God built a woman from Adam's rib. In Matthew 16, the Lord Jesus used the same language when He spoke to Peter about building His church.

What Eve was to Adam, the church is to Christ. He wishes to share with us His innermost thoughts and feelings. We are part of Him. The head is in heaven the body is on earth. She is the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. She complements Him.

The church is also unique in that it belongs to heaven and not to earth. In Ephesians chapter 1, we are seated in Christ in heavenly places. In Revelation chapters 19 and 21, the church is twice seen as descending from God out of heaven.

But just how close to God is the church? In Isaiah 42:8, God makes a statement regarding His glory:

My glory will I not give to another

In a very well known verse in Romans 3, Paul wrote that as sinners we fall short of the glory of God. But in Revelation chapter 21:11, we read regarding the church, having the glory of God. This does not contradict Isaiah 42 or Romans 3. It rather underlines the fact that the church is not another she is part of Christ.

4. Gen 2:24 One flesh

24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

The above is the verse used by the Lord in Matthew chapter 19 when contending with the Jews on the subject of divorce. He uses it to underline the unity and perpetual character of marriage. Paul also quotes the same verse when speaking about marriage in Ephesians chapter 5.

The unity of marriage is also reinforced by the following verse from Genesis chapter 5:

2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

God saw these two people as one - Adam.

5. Gen 3 the temptation of Eve

5.1. She should have sent him to Adam

It was to Adam first that God gave His instruction regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. All Eve should have said was Go and speak to Adam God spoke to him.

It is because of Eve's deception that Paul made the prohibition on women teachers in I Timothy 2:

12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

Without being unkind, Paul is suggesting that there was something in the woman's character to make her more open to deception than the man.

5.2. The changes made by Eve

1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

1. Omission of freely

   When speaking to Adam, God said that of every tree he could freely eat. It gives the picture of a bountiful and giving God who held nothing back save one tree.

2. The vagueness of how she described the tree in the midst of the garden

   God was quite specific regarding the forbidden tree it was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve speaks to the serpent only of the tree which is in the midst of the garden.

3. Nether shall ye touch it an addition

   While Eve omits the word freely, she includes something here which God did not say. God said nothing about not touching it.

4. Her vagueness regarding the divine judgment lest ye die

   God warned Adam, In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. There was no doubt about the penalty. Eve is more vague lest ye die. It leaves an element of doubt.

6. The serpent

The word of God questioned, then denied. The serpent begins his attack by questioning the word of God.

Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

It is good for us to ask questions regarding the word of God. It is by asking intelligent questions that more truth is learned. But we must never question the truth and the reliability of the word. If there is a question that we cannot find an answer to then we put it to the back of our mind and leave it there. Sooner or later, the Spirit of God gives us the answer.

The devil then tells an outright lie

Ye shall not surely die.

The Lord says of the devil in John 8:

for he is a liar, and the father of it.

The serpent then questions the motives of God

For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. His suggestion is that God was holding something back from them. There's something God doesn't want you to have, for when you do have it, you will be like Him.

It was a desire to be like the Most High that led to the downfall of Lucifer in Isaiah 14 It will be sitting down as God in the temple of God that will mark the man of sin in II Thess 2.

7. the fruit

6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

7.1. The fruit as seen by Eve

Eve saw three things in the fruit

Good for food
Pleasant to the eyes
A tree to be desired

These are three things that the believer still has to be wary of today. John tells us that these things are in the world

1Jo 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

The devil brought these three things before the Lord in the temptation in the wilderness.

The first temptation had to do with food. the lust of the flesh

Command these stones that they be made bread

The second had to with the eyes

The kingdoms and their glory

The third had to do with the pride of life the Lord was asked to put God to the test to prove that He was the Son of God

If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down

8. The fall of Adam

Why was it Adam's fall and not Eve's that brought mankind into ruin? I suppose that being the first to be formed by God, he was the one who is held responsible. II Timothy 2:14 also tells us that Adam was not deceived by the serpent as Eve was. He sinned wilfully and knowingly. He knew what he was doing when he took the fruit. This made him doubly responsible.

Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression

Adam no doubt was moved by his love for Eve. He loved her and gave himself for her, but he could only but join her in her sin. Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her but He being sinless was able to save her from her sin.

Eph 5

25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

9. the seed of the woman

Gen 3:15

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Why not the seed of the man? Throughout the bible, we generally hear of the seed of the man. For example we read of the seed of Abraham and of David's seed. I could find in my concordance only one other reference to a woman's seed, and that is the Rebekah's seed in Genesis. Every other reference to seed is the seed of a man. Perhaps the Lord is called seed of the woman because he was born of the virgin Mary. He did not come from the seed of the man. In this He was unique.

The attempts of Satan to destroy the seed of the woman

Cain was of that wicked one and slew his brother

Gen 6 the sons of God

Atthaliah slays the seed royal

Herod and the young child.

Later Herod Herod desireth to kill Thee (that fox)

The devil and Judas

10. The place of women in subjection to the man

Gen 3:16

16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

There is no thought of Adam's rule or of Eve's subjection until after the fall of Eve.

In I Cor 11, the woman is to be subject to the man because Adam was made first and also because the woman was made for the man.

8 For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. 9 Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man

The man is said to be the glory of God while the woman is the glory of the man. Man must therefore be uncovered so that the glory of God may be seen, but the woman is to be covered so that man's glory might be hid.

11. The curse upon Adam and creation

11.1 Paradise lost Gen 3: 17-19

God drove out the man separation from God Isaiah: John 13: Matt 28 My God

17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Romans 8:

22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

11.2 Paradise restored

See Gen 1:29-30 before the Fall. A vegetarian diet for every creature

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

The millennial kingdom introduced

1. Man's destiny fulfilled see Psalm 8 and Hebrews 2

2. Horticulture in abundance

   Handfuls of corn upon the tops of the mountains
   The dessert shall blossom as the rose
   The ploughman shall overtake the reaper

3. Animal kingdom peace established

   The wolf and the lamb shall lie down together
   The lion shall eat straw like the bullock
   The child shall play on the cockatrice den
   They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain

   Universal peace among the nations

   They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Neither shall they study war anymore

4. Longevity restored a child shall die being a hundred years old

   The tree of life made available Revelation 22

   Twelve manner of fruits in their seasons the leaves of the tree for the healing of the nations