As we continue our study of chapter three of Genesis, we also reflect upon the record of creation, how it occurred, who is responsible, how life began, how mankind got here, how the sexes came into existence, and what differences exist today with respect to our beginnings. Logic demands that, if “In the beginning God…” then common sense tells us, there couldn’t be, “In the beginning…” Bang! …nor could the Theory of Evolution be a valid reason for the existence of the various forms of life on our planet. Some folks may disagree with this, but I believe a fair understanding of the sense of Genesis, chapter one, yields only the option of the Lord’s finger in every aspect of creation. Nothing was left to chance.
If you are a scientist at heart, believing that only what is physical exists, then you get a “Bang!” out of life (excuse the pun). On the other hand, if you are a person of faith, then God is behind all that exists, and the record of Genesis is a reasonable account of how that occurred. Nevertheless, a closer look denies many of the traditions, which are behind what we’ve been told by the authorities of our faith, which, of course, presents our need, as men and women of God, to question authority. Question our traditions, are they true? Question authority. Who gets to say, and why? Nevertheless, this is not the same as rebelling against those, our leaders, who have told us about God, vis-à-vis what God did and why, as well as what our mission and responsibility is toward him.
How mankind would have reproduced their descendants if Genesis 3 never occurred is a mystery. It seems that the myriads of angels were individually created by God, because they couldn’t reproduce themselves? At least they had no means of sexual union as husband and wife to enlarge their number (cp. Matthew 22:30). The Kingdom of God is enlarged by preaching the word (seed) of God and belief in what one hears as the good news (seed). So, if faith is the manner in which reproduction occurs in the Kingdom of God, was something like this intended in the beginning? Moreover, if this is logical and true, what part would the male and female relationship in marriage play in all this (Genesis 2:24)? We can only guess, and I know most of my guesses are wrong! At this point, Adam named his wife Eve (Genesis 3:20). At first, he called her, Woman, because she was taken out of man (Genesis 2:23). Her life was produced by him, through the power of God. Now, however, it became evident that all life would proceed from her alone,[1] through the power (seed) of the man.
Next, we find God making coats of skin to clothe mankind (Genesis 3:21). This is a curious development, because why would it be necessary for God to actually make clothing for the man and the woman? Couldn’t they do that for themselves? If we keep in mind that the Genesis account points to many spiritual matters that become important later in scripture, consider that God at this time produced a physical body for the man and the woman; Job tells us that God had clothed him with skin (Job10:11), the same skin that had become broken and loathsome (Job 7:5). Prior to this event, they had been spirit (breath) and soul (nephesh; cp. Genesis 2:7). They lacked a body, which is why they felt shame over their nakedness (Genesis 3:7; 2Corinthians 5:1-3; cp. 1Thessalonians 5:23).
All other forms of life already had a physical body, but mankind did not. Neither does God have a body. However, man was created to be his image, so that would require a body of some kind. Therefore, mankind was required to choose the form of body he wanted. There was a specific form of body that would be his, if he ate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, but another, as a result of eating from the Tree of Life. Mankind rejected the Tree of Life, so the Lord slew an animal, presumably, however, not simply a beast of the field, but an entire species of animal, and he clothed the man and his wife with the body of death, the body of the beast species. Thus, with a physical body, death entered man’s race/species, and this was due to the rebellion (cp. Romans 5:12). This death is later called the second death (Revelation 2:11). The first death was the death that occurred, when the couple ate the forbidden fruit, which caused their eyes to open, and they noticed their nakedness (Genesis 3:6-7).
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[1] The name, Eve, means life-giver (H2332).
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