Adam and Eve

Our story as human beings begins with the creation of our first parents - Adam and Eve in Genesis. In Genesis One, we are given an account of the entire Creation Week ending with the creation of Man on the sixth day. We are then given a much more detailed narrative on how our first parents actually came into being in Genesis Two. In the case of humans, God did not just say: "Let there be human beings..." No, this was the most important phase in the Creation. So an executive committee had to be put in place first (notice the plural: "let us make man"). God then models the human form out of clay, and breathes life into the nostrils of our First Father. This is a very distinct departure from the Genesis One narrative on how the rest of life forms on earth came into being. The question then begs: Why so? In this brief piece, we try to look at some of the reasons why that particular path was charted.

There is no doubt that Adam was created a king, a ruler over the rest of the living creatures on earth. The narrative is clear: "...And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth..." (Genesis 1:26, KJV). Later, the blessing is repeated unto our parents: "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground..." (Genesis 1:28). The animals are then paraded before Adam whose onerous task is to name each of them. So the first biologist on the planet was adam! Adam's kingdom was the entire planet, God's good earth. He is therefore intimately connected to the earth in a very special way. Indeed, the name 'Adam', stems from the Hebrew word 'adamah', which means "soil", or "ground." The name Adam thus literally means: "...from the earth". Interestingly, science concurs. For example, the human body contains enough iron to make a six inch nail, and enough sulphur to make a whole matchbox! In fact the chemical composition of the earth is closely mirrored by the chemical composition of the human body! Even such other elements as fire, electricity, magnetism, etc, present on the earth,   are also present in the human body! In fact, just as our beautiful planet is 71% water and 29% solid, so is the human body composed of 70% fluids and 30% solid matter. But I digress.

Adam is thus created and is put in charge of the beautiful Garden of Eden. However, God notices that whereas all the other creatures are happy and content, the same cannot be said for Adam. He observes: "It is not good for the man to be alone." The man  looks forlorn, lonely and somewhat unhappy. Something is definitely missing. God therefore puts Adam into a deep sleep and proceeds to perform the planet's first surgical procedure on him. Out of Adam's side, God extracts a rib and goes on to fashion a beautiful woman out of it. Please note God does not extract a bone out of Adam's head. No, he moves down his body all the way to Adam's rib-cage! In so doing, God demonstrates that the man is always the head of the woman (cf 1 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Timothy 2:11-14, etc). That is why we are given only the figure of the men who came out of Egypt during the Exodus and not the women (Numbers 1: 44 to 46). In both the miracle of the five loaves and two fishes (cf Luke 9:14, John 6:10), and seven loaves (cf Mark 8:9), again the Scriptures do not give us the number of women, but only of the men. Goes to show us where this whole gender equality doctrine is coming from! Certainly not from the Scriptures. But back to our story. Thus our Mother Eve, came into being. Adam is then resuscitated out of his coma and presented with this beautiful creature for a wife! The man is ecstatic. He immediately goes poetic: "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman' for she was taken out of man." (Genesis 2:23). The perfect equilibrium has now been set.

In Genesis 3:20, we learn that Adam named his wife "Chavah" (Kiswahili 'Hawa'), "...because she would become the mother of all the living..." (please note that the Hebrew letter "Heth", meaning "breath" or "life" - chai in Hebrew, and uhai in Kiswahili - is in that name). Now, we are not told how much time this original pair spent in marital bliss, enjoying the verdant, lush tranquility and totally mesmerising environment of Eden. Was it days, weeks, years? We simply do not know, for the narrative speedily moves unto the next earth shaking events in the story.

The following chapter goes on to recount the Fall of these our first parents, succumbing to the wily guile of Man's chief adversary - the devil. In passing judgment on fallen man, God does not permanently shut the door of redemption on humanity. He instead makes clothes for them but drives them out of beautiful Eden to forestall any attempt at eating from the Tree of Life while in their sinful state. Had that been allowed to happen, humanity would have been doomed to perpetually living as fallen, sinful creatures. So, even as they are banished from Eden, the love of God for the human race shines through. The Good Lord promises them a Saviour who will: "...crush the head of the serpent under his heel..." (Genesis 3:15). This Saviour of the world was to be born of a woman.  Now, this is deeply symbolic. It shows how God's love for humanity reverberates throughout all the pages of the Holy Scriptures. The whole story, both the creation and the Fall, metaphorically foreshadow Elohim's plan for the salvation of man.

Just as our earthly mother - Hawa - was taken out of Adam's wounded side, so was the Second Adam (Yahshua) wounded in the rib-cage. Yahshua's  wounds and shed sacrificial blood then  purchased for humanity the eternal life lost at Eden. So, in a manner of speaking, Yahshua's Bride - the Church - was taken out of Yahshua's side as He agonized and atoned for man's sins at Golgotha. Also, just as Adam was put into a deep coma before Hawa could be taken out of him, so was Yahshua "put to sleep" (cf John 11:11-14) before his Bride (the Church) could be obtained for Him. Paul tells that:"...the wages of sin is death..." (Romans 6:23). Thus by dying on our behalf on the tree, Yahshua paved the way for repentant human beings to gain access not only to Life, but also to the Paradise Lost with our being driven out of Eden at the dawn of creation (cf Genesis 2:23-24).

We are here able to see that none of God's words ever falls into the earth for nothing (cf Isaiah 55:10-11). The divine command given in Genesis 1:28 did not find complete fulfillment because of Adam's sin. Even today, we can see that man's complete dominion over the earth and its fullness has not been realised. For example, the cursed earth regularly gives us weeds ("thorns and thistles") whenever we till it. There is also disharmony between man and wildlife. The mean African cape buffalo, for example, is referred to as the "black death" due to its decidedly hostile mien toward human beings. The huge aquatic pachyderm, the African hippo, is also responsible for several hundred human deaths every year, while the venomous black mamba will attack humans completely without provocation. Okay, I do concede that we humans too  are not exactly innocent, no, not with our almost irresistible  instinct to dispatch the deadly legless scaly creatures anytime we come across them! So it is all so very messy down here. We certainly cannot claim to be totally in charge as God had intended that we be. No, we are not in control - not in the air, not on land, and certainly not in the forbidding uncharted depths of the oceans.

Does it therefore mean that all is lost and that God's word in Genesis has come to nought? Certainly not. We await the Return of the Second Adam to make amends. He comes to initiate the Restitution of all things (cf Acts 3:19). Yahshua comes to restore the Edenic state (Isaiah 11:1-9; 65:17-25). He comes to fulfill God's command which the First Adam failed to because of disobedience and the subsequent entry of sin into the world. That is the Kingdom that Yahshua preached about (cf Matthew 4:17). It is the Kingdom he commanded his disciples to pray for (Matthew 6:9-10). These are indeed glorious tidings for this tired, war weary, poverty ravaged, pestilence-ridden planet. Even the lower creatures look forward to those refreshing times (Romans 8:18-21, Acts 3:19-21, etc).

Above all however, Genesis Two's biggest lesson is the foreshadowing of the relationship of love between the Messiah and his Bride - the Church. Says the Apostle Paul: "Husbands, love your wives, just as Messiah loved the Church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless..." (Ephesians 5:25-27). Yahshua, no doubt endured unimaginable physical and psychological pain (remember the heavy blood-like drops of sweat in Gethsemane?) during his passion. He endured Gethsemane's and Golgotha's agonies so as to redeem us from our sins. He has rescued us from  the permanent death in hellfire, if at all we accept the gift of Life presented to us via the cross .
As Yahshua's Bride, we should therefore not take this atoning sacrifice at Golgotha for granted. Instead, we should live lives worthy of his calling, keeping our lamps well oiled and burning as we await the Bridegroom's appearance (Luke 25:1-10). Indeed: "...blessed are those who are invited to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb..." (Revelation 19:9). My dear reader, are you adequately prepared? Blessings.

JK Changandu
05/01/2024