ONE THING HAVE I DESIRED
GENESIS
01. B'REISHEET 2 of 5
01. Parashah: B'reisheet = In the Beginning
TORAH REFERENCE
Genesis 3:1-3:24
HAFTORAH REFERENCE
BRIT CHADASHAH REFERENCE
TEMPTATION, FALL, SIN, SERPENT, DEATH, LIFE, LIE, GOOD, EVIL, HEAD, HEEL, WISDOM, NAKEDNESS, COVERING, PRESENCE, VOICE, BLAME, DECEPTION, ENMITY, SEED, RULER, BREAD, KINGDOM, CHALLENGE
Elohim created a house for His creation to live in and put Adam and Eve in charge of it. They could do anything they wanted except eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Of course, the serpent came along and tempted Eve so she ate the fruit and shared it with Adam who also ate it. When Elohim made enquiries, mankind began the first blame game and each participant received their own punishment. We have been dealing with the consequences ever since. All was not lost, though; Elohim promised He would send help and thus began the greatest story ever told. It remains for us to desire to dwell permanently in the house of Elohim enough to do whatever it takes to qualify.
There was only one thing for Adam and Eve to be concerned about. Only one thing to remember—“Do not eat fruit from that tree over there!” Can you imagine what it must have been like not to have a bunch of rules to follow? They had nothing but good stuff to eat, nothing but amazing stuff to see, nothing but pleasant stuff to do. Life was awesome! They probably paid no attention to that tree for a long time (some people say seven years) and then one day a serpent engaged Eve in a conversation wherein he offered a brilliant temptation, a great deception. He suggested that she could be like Elohim, knowing good and evil. Who would not want to be able to discern for themselves whether or not something was good or bad? It sounds like something a godly person should seek after, right? But Yeshua told us that we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless we become like a little child. Little children do not have knowledge of good or evil; they simply trust. If Eve had simply trusted that Elohim had it all handled and that she did not need to know good and evil, but only to trust and obey, mankind would not have descended into the mess it is in today. Adam and Eve opened the door to a whole host of evil thoughts and horrible events.
We have the same challenge. Paul told the Corinthians he was “afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his trickery, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Messiah” (2 Corinthians 11:3). Life was simple for Adam and Eve before their fall into sin. Where they had dwelt in the house of Elohim and experienced the joy and beauty of His voice and His presence, now they began to hide from Him in shame. Where they had lived free from encumbrance of clothing, now they each had to have a covering at the cost
of innocent animal lives. Where they had known only life abundant and free, now they began to know evil and death. The serpent had told Eve, “You shall certainly not die”, but that was a lie. No, Adam and Eve did not immediately die physically—but they did eventually die after a lifetime of hardship after being driven out of the Garden. (It was within the first millennial day.) And they did experience spiritual death, symptoms of which included the shame, pain and grief they were promised as punishment. Adam had to provide for his family by the sweat of his brow and Eve had to birth children in pain and sorrow.
And the serpent was cursed to crawl in the dust all the days of his life. Not only that, but he and his seed were destined to lose their battle with Eve’s eventual Seed, the Messiah. “And I put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed. He shall crush your head, and you shall crush His heel.” Yeshua, the Messiah, would make it possible for us to return to dwell in the house of Elohim—even after death!
Write a short story or poem about what it was like to live in the Garden of Eden, using your best guess about things like the animals, the plants, the weather, etc. Could the animals talk and were they friendly with each other and with Adam and Eve? Were all the plants beautiful, or were some ugly? Was the weather only pleasant, or did it ever get cold? What did people sit on? Could they see music? Could they hear colours? In the closing verse or paragraph refer to the extreme effects that sin has had on all of that.
Since we live in a world filled with sin, a fallen world, we need to learn to discern between good and evil. Adam and Eve did not have to worry about that in the beginning, but their actions made it so they and their descendants would have to do so. Wisdom dictates we always do what Elohim tells us to do, and to the extent we accomplish that then we can have successful and generally pleasant lives. However, bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people so we cannot use our definitions of good and evil to prove whether or not we are obeying Elohim. Our definitions are often wrong! We need to study the Scriptures and discover what Elohim considers righteous behaviour.
Sometimes (often) godly people endure persecution. And sometimes (often) evil people get rich and powerful. Life is not fair and it often looks like Elohim is not fair, either. He is always right, though, and He has a plan—a secret plan that He did not dare to let even the angels fully understand until it has come into fruition. Then everyone will marvel! This is what is referred to in chapter 3 verse 15. Elohim promised to send the Messiah to reverse what Adam did in the Garden. The curse will be lifted and mankind will be restored.
Yeshua is called the “second Adam” because He is bringing mankind back into dominion of the house Elohim created for us to dwell in. He crushes the serpent’s head at the cost of bruises to His own heel! The serpent will not have dominion over the earth forever; mankind will rule and reign once again with Yeshua as the King, and He will rule with a rod of iron. Adam was king over the house of mankind, over the whole earth, until he submitted to the serpent—but Yeshua will be King forever and will get rid of the serpent. Yeshua will be a righteous ruler over a kingdom of righteous people.
The many things Yeshua accomplished are all working together for our good. Although this will require deep and intense study over a lifetime, you can start to learn what He did and why He had to do it. Start a notebook with Scripture references listing things Yeshua did or said, why He did or said them, how people reacted, and how each thing pertains to you. Include cross references between books of the entire Bible.
What is the nature of life? What does it mean to live forever? Would you want to live forever? Elohim kicked Adam and Eve out of the Garden to prevent them from eating of the tree of life which would allow them to live forever—with the knowledge of good and of evil always in their consciences. They may have been eating of the tree of life prior to eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but Elohim did not want them to eat of it anymore. Why not? He did not want them to stay stuck in their fallen state forever! He did not want them to know evil anymore! He made a legal way to get around that problem.
Elohim already had a plan to send the Messiah to fix what Adam had done so that we could have the opportunity to dwell in the house of Elohim forever. After the plan has been completed mankind will be allowed access again to the tree of life (Revelation 22:2) and the curse will be lifted (Revelation 22:3). Study Revelation chapter 22 and make an artistic depiction of what it describes, making sure to put the tree of life front and centre!