The Meaning Of Life

4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORDb God made them.

5 Now no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth, nor had any plant of the field sprouted; for the LORD God had not yet sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. 6 But springscwelled up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.

I’ve heard different pastors say that one of the reasons people didn’t listen to Noah is because it had never rained before that time. God created a perfect world, and rather than having rain and thunderstorms, the earth was watered by springs that came up from the surface of the ground. The same thing happened to the Egyptians when Aaron told them that there was going to be darkness, or locusts, or frogs, or all the other plagues that occurred.

7 Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.

The dust of the ground was what created Adam’s body, but his life came from the Lord. The life of the Lord is in all of us, whether we like it or not; personally, I’m grateful for it, because if that life ever leaves me, I’ll return to dust.

8 And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, where He placed the man He had formed. 9 Out of the ground the LORD God gave growth to every tree that is pleasing to the eye and good for food. And in the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10 Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it branched into four headwaters:

11 The name of the first river is Pishon; it winds through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is pure, and bdellium and onyx are found there.

13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it winds through the whole land of Cush.

14 The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it runs along the east side of Assyria.

And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

Of the four rivers mentioned, only the location of the Euphrates is known, the other rivers have changed over the last 6000 years, or were possibly renamed. If the location of the rivers were known, the location of the Garden of Eden could be pinpointed, but I assume God doesn’t want us to know because He doesn’t want to turn it into a tourist attraction or theme park. Some say one of the rivers may have originated from the Nile, others day one of the rivers came from Ethiopia.

15 Then the LORD God took the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it.

16 And the LORD God commanded him, “You may eat freely from every tree of the garden, 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”

Evil existed at the time God made the Garden of Eden and at the time He created man. Satan and his angels had been cast down to earth and were already roaming “to and fro” as Satan will later say in the Book of Job. So why did God plant such a tree in the Garden? Was it a test to see if Adam was going to be faithful and obedient? And telling Adam not to eat it had to have peaked his curiosity. God is all-knowing, He can see into the future. He had to have known that Eve was going to sin.

I don’t have the answer to that question, but I have faith in God’s plan, His Will, and there was a reason He did it. I hope to get to ask Him in Heaven some day.

And when God said we would “die” if we ate the forbidden fruit, he didn’t mean we would drop dead right then and there, like the fruit was poisonous. I believe God intended for us to live forever. I believe when God created the earth, it was going to be Heaven itself. We would live together, in peace, loving each other, serving God. But when we ate the forbidden fruit, that ended our immortality.

18 And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” 19 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to [g]Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.

21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He [h]made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.

23 And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called [i]Woman,
Because she was taken out of [j]Man.”

24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

When God created the animals, He told them to “be fruitful and multiply” because it was His intent that everything would regenerate itself; fruit and vegetables not harvested would drop their seed and regrow the next season. Surely He meant for man to be fruitful and multiply, therefore he had to have a female in order to accomplish that.

In regards to being “naked”, I once watched a Jewish Rabbi who was preaching that when God created man and woman, they had no skin. They were just flesh and bone, and that after they sinned, God gave them skin. I’m not being judgmental because I’m confident someone will judge my interpretation of the Bible, but I find it very difficult to believe that “flesh and bone” was the case.

In my opinion, I believe Adam and Eve were clothed in the Glory of God; no, they weren’t wearing clothing so they were naked in that sense, but you could not see their nudity because of the Glory that surrounded them. And after they sinned, the Glory of God left them, at which point they were truly and visibly naked.

See what happens when you disobey God? And please do not take that to mean God is a tyrant who demands obedience. God is our Father, must like our earthly fathers, who loves us, knows what’s best for us, and wants us to be safe, healthy and happy.