The second chapter covers life in the garden before and immediately after the Fall. The themes are so heavily spiritual, that I did consider discussing them on Midlife Musings, but I have decided against that, mainly for two reasons:
1) you really can’t study this time period without investigating a few spiritual issues. Life is connected, after all.
2) the same issues that caused problems then continue to cause them today.
So, the earth has been created, and God has placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He visits them there. It is worth noting that God met face to face with these two people, communing with them and answering their questions. It is from Adam, in fact, that we get our earliest history. Surely one of the things he asked was “where did I come from?” It’s a question we still ask and struggle with today.
While Adam and Eve are enjoying God and the Garden, pride is entering the picture in Heaven, wrapped in the heart of the angel, Lucifer. This pride is what I meant when I said the same issues cause us problems today. Look at WWII, caused by the pride of one race of people thinking they were better than another. Look at Darfur, and South Africa today: same issue.
Lucifer became prideful and wanted to be on a level with God, and he convinced some of the angels to join him. They were ultimately defeated, and tossed out of heaven. Lucifer brought his disgruntlement down to mankind, and now here we are today, still full of trouble originally caused by pride.
The next thing worth noting from a purely historical view is that Adam was not deceived. He knew exactly what he was doing, and the consequences, when he took the fruit from Eve. He chose to enter into her punishment with her, rather than endure life alone. This same desire for acceptance and unity also plays a big role in historical events. Look at the atrocities above: in large part they occurred/are occurring because the people near the event choose to keep silent in order to enjoy acceptance.
The remainder of the chapter brings out themes of legalism and love, best handled on the blog I mentioned before.
Technorati Tags: God, Adam and Eve, Garden of Eden, pride, Lucifer, Darfur, South Africa
