Before the Beginning

Tying Job 38:4-7 in with Genesis

Genesis 1&2

Four mandates:

1. Cultivate and keep the garden 2:15

2. marry – leave mother and father and be joined to wife 2:24

3. have children - be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth 1:28

4.rule over all the earth 1:28

It appears that God’s plan was for mankind to expand the paradise of Eden to the whole earth, in other words, heaven on earth, and to live forever.

But the plan was interrupted when Adam and Eve didn’t heed the only rule – not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, or they would die.

God had already created other ‘sons of God’ in heaven, before he created the earth, and they were watching the creation. Job 38:4-7

⁴ “Where were you
when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you possess understanding.
⁵ Who set its measurements—if you know—
or who stretched a measuring line across it?
⁶ On what were its bases set,
or who laid its cornerstone—
⁷ when the morning stars sang in chorus,
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Obviously, Adam and Eve had free will. God didn’t want a bunch of robots, so he took the risks. The ‘sons of God’ also had free will. And some of them rebelled, too. We call their leader Satan, or the ‘devil’, and he appeared in the garden disguised as a charming serpent.

Rev.12:7-9 in context seems to be a description of the devil’s activity after the birth of Christ, but it also seems to describe what happened in Eden.

Note - the dragon in Rev.12 has 7 heads and 10 horns but this is the closest free pic I could find

⁷ Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. ⁸ But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. ⁹ The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.”

So the devil’s rebellion against God’s plan led him to instigate Eve and Adam with her to eat the one forbidden fruit, and that resulted in the whole creation being under a curse, continual spiritual war, and mankind being excluded from paradise.

Romans 8:19-22

¹⁹ For the creation eagerly waits for the revelation of the sons of God. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly but because of God who subjected it—in hope ²¹ that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children. ²² For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers together until now.”

Sin not only leads to death, but also led to the curse. So now we have evil, sickness, disease, poisonous plants and creatures, and carnivorous animals, even though at first all they needed for food was plants. As Romans 8 says, the whole creation was affected.

Of course, since God by definition knows everything, he knew what would happen, and had a plan for dealing with it, and removing the curse, in his perfect timing.

When I first heard the Gospel, I didn’t realize that the plan started unfolding immediately after Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden.

Tune in again to learn about the sacrificial system that God set up and why Jesus had to first die if we were to have the offer of eternal life with him.