P.E.W. Perspective

Adam is here. God placed him on the earth, the only human being. Adam must have just stood there, looking around in wonder at all the things he saw.    He had no family, no friends, no parents or childhood.  He had to learn all on his own what it meant to be a human. He was a perfect man, there was no sin in the world at that time so he wouldn’t have been afraid. Indeed, all the creatures around him were harmless to him and to each other.  The lions weren’t interested in eating the lambs, the eagle flying overhead did not even think about trying to catch the rabbit and eat it.  Apparently, at this point in time, every creature that God had created was given the seed-bearing plants and the fruit of the tree’s to eat. There is nothing in the story that God indicated that certain animals would eat certain other animals or even that Adam would eat animals.

Once God had finished his creation of Adam, and Adam had looked around a bit, God moved him to a garden that he had planted in the east, a garden that was called Eden.  This was a beautiful garden that was full of tree’s that looked good to eat from.  It was all available for Adam to eat, with two notable exceptions.  In the middle of the garden were two special trees, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  God specifically told Adam he could not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  He said that if he did he would die.  He didn’t specifically say that he couldn’t eat from the tree of life.  It could be speculated that God actually intended for Adam to eat from that tree because he wanted Adam to live eternally.  Hold that thought, we will return to it in a bit.

At this point, God gave Adam a job to do.  He was to give names to all of the creatures.  The livestock, the fish, the birds, and the wild animals.  God brought them all to Adam to receive a name.  It was a big job and God knew that Adam would need a helper. Adam was still a perfect man, the absence of sin would have meant that he was not aware of loneliness.  Being alone was all he knew, there was no other alternative, and that was fine and normal for him.  But God, in his love and care decided that it was not good for Adam to be alone on this magnificent earth.  So to make sure he would not experience loneliness and to give Adam a helper in this huge animal-naming project he caused Adam to go into a deep sleep so that He could perform a little surgery.  He made an incision in Adams side, took out one of his ribs and then closed up the wound perfectly.  He then used this rib to create one of his most stunning creations, the woman.   God took the woman to Adam and Adam said, this creation I am going to name woman because she was created from the bones and the flesh of man.  I am sure he was thrilled with this beautiful companion.  At this point the man starts being referred to in Genesis as Adam.  It is uncertain whether it was intended to be a personal name. Adam is just the English translation of the Hebrew word for the man. 

Adam and the woman (she has not been named Eve yet) got along perfectly right from the beginning.  They had a totally open, honest and innocent relationship with no hint of shame.  They were able to run around the garden naked, eating fruit from the trees, playing with the various animals and enjoying life as the only two humans on earth.  At some point, Adam must have discussed the rules of the garden with the woman.  Remember, he had been given complete freedom to tend and care for the garden. He was told that he could eat from any tree except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  So the woman knew of this restriction even though she likely hadn’t been told directly by God as Adam had.

Now the story starts to go downhill. Though there were surely many serpents or snakes in the garden, one in particular had become the earthly body inhabited by Lucifer (Satan, the devil)