Angelic Conflict part 101: Human history – Gen 3:17-21; Rom 8:20-23; Isa 35.

Title: Angelic Conflict part 101: Human history - GEN 3:17-21; ROM 8:20-23; Isa 35.   

 

Provisions of the Adamic Covenant are in 4 categories: the serpent, satan, the woman, and the man.

 

The Adamic Covenant for the man; four provisions, GEN 3:17-19.

 

Because Adam stands as the representative head of the human race the judgment that comes upon him comes upon his progeny and becomes a judgment on humanity.

 

Adam is responsible for the present human condition.

 

GEN 3:17 Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat from it';

Cursed is the ground [land or surface of the earth] because of you; In toil you shall eat of it

All the days of your life.

 

Because you have listened - he failed to exercise headship.

 

And because you have transgressed My one command…

 

First provision: Cursed is the ground because of you and in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.

 

That which was under man’s authority is now cursed. When God judges a person in authority, He also judges that which is under the authority.

 

This is a common biblical principle.

 

Man did labor before the fall:

GEN 2:15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.

 

None of us have ever known this type of work. A perfect body with perfect energy and strength cultivating perfect ground in a perfect garden. No pain, no headache, no fatigue, no failure for everything grows (perfect green thumb). No sweat, no body odor, no need for shower and shave.

 

No longer:

ROM 8:22

For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth [curse] together until now.

 

Adam brought pain into the world and now there would be painful toil without which the earth, which once produced beautiful things, now produces thorns, thistles, and weeds.

 

Thorns and thistles, which thus possess the natural property of reproducing themselves in so great profusion, are mentioned as prominent parts of the curse pronounced upon the earth for the sin of the first man; and experience shows that weeds of all kinds, particularly thorny or spinous plants, such as those mentioned here, which are the effects as well as the evidence of deteriorated physical conditions, would increase with such dangerous rapidity as to overrun the ground, if they were not eradicated or checked by the industry of man. [JFB]

 

All of these are useless to man, ugly, painful, and a judgment upon an earth that was under the authority of Adam.

 

Under the Edenic Covenant the earth brought forth things beautiful to see, delicious to eat, and sustained the Tree of Life. The earth even watered itself.

 

GEN 2:6 But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground.

 

Now man would rely on the precipitation cycle, also cursed to an extent, that could bring flash floods one year and drought the next. He would have to deal with soil depletion, crop destroying diseases, crop destroying insects, weeds, rot from water damage, etc. I’ve heard of ongoing wars with moles, rabbits,  and deer from people who like to garden.

 

ROM 8:20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it [Adamic Covenant - cursed is the ground because of you], in hope

 

ROM 8:21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

 

The creation is in bondage of corruption waiting to be liberated which is the Messianic redemption at the second coming of Christ.

 

ROM 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.

 

ROM 8:23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.

 

The travailing in pain of the creation is the origin of the law of disorder and death; the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

 

This curse on creation makes evolution impossible. Order doesn’t arise from disorder but disorder from order.

 

Second Law - heat will always flow from a hotter object to a cooler object until both are the same temperature. Entropy - the measure of disorder of a system.

 

Is your refrigerator running? Is your car 100% fuel efficient? Is your coffee still as hot as when you poured it?

 

When you leave your yard alone for a few years how does it look? Thorns, thistles, and weeds. How about a park, a golf course, a garden or even a man made thing like a car or a house. Left alone long enough and they decay from order to disorder. That is entropy - it isn’t what it used to be.

 

The man is working to reverse the trend of the second law with toil, which he can never fully do. This should not frustrate him, 2TI 2:4.

 

2TI 2:3-4

Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.

 

This is not a call to be a sluggard, quite the contrary, but the believer must understand that though he toils greatly in his life he will not make the world, or rather his little corner of it a perfect environment. “It’s a long walk back to Eden.”

 

Satan has the human race working overtime in order to clean up the world, make the environment perfect, governments perfect. Neither the UN nor curtailing logging or carbon dioxide emissions has done anything but create different problems. The UN is full of corruption and fascism, forest fires rage from dense forests destroying more than what would have been cut, and although carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, it isn’t the most effective and it exists at about 400 ppm in the atmosphere or 0.04 % of all gases in our atmosphere and is not at all scientifically linked to earth’s temperature, but the legislation, like cap and trade distributes wealth to whomever the legislators desire, which is socialism which causes far more problems. Satan always has man working to undo the Adamic Covenant and to recreate the Garden of Eden in his way and everything man has tried for millennia has mostly failed and any successes are met by different problems.

 

And God leaves us a very important example:

 

The environment will be perfect in the Millennium and still the human race will rebel because of their great unhappiness, which allows them to be deceived.

 

The Millennium will show that it is not the curse of the ground or earth that has ever prevented man from finding deliverance in Christ from all curses.

 

This is very important to note at this time:

 

ISA 35:1 The wilderness and the desert will be glad, And the Arabah [desert south of the Dead Sea] will rejoice and blossom; Like the crocus

 

pic - Arabah

 

ISA 35:2 It will blossom profusely And rejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, The majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the Lord, The majesty of our God.

 

ISA 35:3 Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble.

 

ISA 35:4 Say to those with anxious heart, "Take courage, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; The recompense of God will come, But He will save you."

 

ISA 35:5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.

 

ISA 35:6 Then the lame will leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb will shout for joy. For waters will break forth in the wilderness And streams in the Arabah.

 

God through the prophet beautifully depicts this change at the second coming of Christ. Much is going on here. In Isa 34 Edom is destroyed, prophesied by Isaiah almost 200 years before its ultimate destruction. Also in Isa 34 we have the return of the Lord who will land in Edom and enact destruction against the opposing armies gathered together against Jerusalem in order to attack from the east. When He returns He will lay them waste and the ground will flow with blood. And then there is the spiritual dryness of the people of Israel who long for the return of the Savior, both before the NT and in the Tribulation. All are depicted here and all will have the curses lifted by Him.

 

Edom is destroyed by Babylon (~580 BC) prophesied by Isa (~730 BC).

 

The Lord will destroy the armies in Edom at second coming (Isa 34).

 

The Adamic curse on the earth as well as these destructions will be reversed and the environment will become perfect at the SC of Christ (Isa 35)

 

This wonderful change can probably be best imagined by an actual account of being in such a wilderness without water.

 

[quote] 'Lameness and dumbness are the uniform effects of long walking in a desert; the sand and gravel produce the former, fatigue the latter. In such cases some of us have walked hours together without uttering a sentence; and all walked as if crippled, from the sand and gravel getting into the shoes; but the sight of water, especially if unexpected, unloosed every tongue, and gave agility to every limb; men, oxen, goats, sheep, and dogs, ran with speed and expressions of joy to the refreshing element.' (Campbell's Travels in Africa.)

 

But once you’ve had enough water and you’re no longer in the desert and water is always available to you do you look at it with the same appreciation as you did when you went without it for hours and hours in the hot desert? This is the Millennial problem for mankind. Man is never satisfied. Eve wanted more, Adam wanted more, Cain wouldn’t submit to something so simple. The world is full of these people and they are in conflict with the people of God.

 

ISA 35:7 And the scorched land will become a pool, And the thirsty ground springs of water; In the haunt of jackals, its resting place, Grass becomes reeds and rushes.

 

ISA 35:8 And a highway will be there, a roadway, And it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, But it will be for him who walks that way, And fools will not wander on it.

 

ISA 35:9 No lion will be there, Nor will any vicious beast go up on it; These will not be found there. But the redeemed will walk there,

 

ISA 35:10 And the ransomed of the Lord will return, And come with joyful shouting to Zion, With everlasting joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy, And sorrow and sighing will flee away.

 

Despite the restoration of the cursed earth by Christ, billions of people will rebel in war against Him at the end of the Millennium.

 

GEN 3:17 Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat from it';

Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you shall eat of it

All the days of your life.

 

GEN 3:18 "Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you shall eat the plants of the field;

 

Second provision: You shall eat what naturally grows in the wilderness. (meat comes from animals that eat the same).

 

If man says I’m not going to plant I’m going to hunt and fish then he is eating what is naturally the diet of what he hunts. There are natural things to eat but they are scarce and usually unpleasant and some of them are hurtful and even poisonous.

 

If he wants something better, which would pale in comparison to the produce of the Garden then the third provision would be that he would have to work exceedingly hard for it and to avoid scurvy for one thing, he’s going to have to do it.

 

GEN 3:19 By the sweat of your face You shall eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return."

 

Third provision: hard labor. In order to produce good things from the cursed earth man would have painful labor with sweat. His ability to eat is now based on his work ethic.

 

PRO 6:9 How long will you lie down, O sluggard?

When will you arise from your sleep?

 

PRO 6:10 "A little sleep, a little slumber,

A little folding of the hands to rest" — 

 

PRO 6:11 And your poverty will come in like a vagabond,

And your need like an armed man.

 

PRO 13:4 The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing,

But the soul of the diligent is made fat.

 

PRO 15:19 The way of the sluggard is as a hedge of thorns,

But the path of the upright is a highway.

 

PRO 19:24 The sluggard buries his hand in the dish,

And will not even bring it back to his mouth.

 

PRO 20:4 The sluggard does not plow after the autumn,

So he begs during the harvest and has nothing.

 

PRO 21:25 The desire of the sluggard puts him to death,

For his hands refuse to work;

 

PRO 21:26 All day long he is craving,

While the righteous gives and does not hold back.

 

PRO 22:13 The sluggard says, "There is a lion outside;

I shall be slain in the streets!"

 

PRO 24:30 I passed by the field of the sluggard,

And by the vineyard of the man lacking sense;

 

PRO 24:31 And behold, it was completely overgrown with thistles,

Its surface was covered with nettles,

And its stone wall was broken down.

 

PRO 24:32 When I saw, I reflected upon it;

I looked, and received instruction.

 

PRO 24:33 "A little sleep, a little slumber,

A little folding of the hands to rest,"

 

PRO 24:34 Then your poverty will come as a robber,

And your want like an armed man.

 

PRO 26:13 The sluggard says, "There is a lion in the road!

A lion is in the open square!"

 

PRO 26:14 As the door turns on its hinges,

So does the sluggard on his bed.

 

PRO 26:15 The sluggard buries his hand in the dish;

He is weary of bringing it to his mouth again.

 

PRO 26:16 The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes

Than seven men who can give a discreet answer.

 

GEN 3:19 By the sweat of your face You shall eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return."

 

The fourth provision: physical death. Hard labor is to continue until the day of his death.

 

Man is dust and clay and because of the curse now imposed all humanity will die physically and his body will return to the dust from which it was made.

 

Man had died spiritually and now he must die physically, all as a result of Adam’s sin, GEN 2:17; ROM 5:12; 1CO 15:22.

 

GEN 2:17

but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die. [muth muth = dying you shall die]

 

ROM 5:12

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned

 

1CO 15:22

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.

 

On a humorous note the rabbinic interpretation has Adam cursed with loss of stature, in other words, he was made shorter.