The Fall and the Adamic Covanent (third stage of our journey)

Remember our quest is to able to answer with Biblical Authority the following five questions:-

What is the Holy Spirit?

Why is the Holy Spirit so important?

What does the Holy Spirit do for you and for me?

How do I become filled with the Holy Spirit?

What tangible, indisputable evidence does God provide me that assures me I am filled with the Holy Spirit?

So let's pick up the next step of our journey in Genesis:-

Genesis 3: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7;  ''Now the serpent was more subtle [cunning] than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.  And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?  And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:  But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.  And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods [God], knowing good and evil.  And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant [a desirable thing] to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.  And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons [girding coverings].''

The story of the Fall of man, given in Genesis 3 describes how mankind's first parents, Adam and his wife Eve, when tempted by the serpent, disobeyed God's express command by eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The essence of all sin is displayed in this first sin.  Having been tempted by the serpent's cunning to doubt God's word (Yea, hath God not said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?), man is led on to disbelieve God's word (And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die), and then to disobey God's word (...and did eat...).

So what happened next?

Genesis 3: 8, 9 & 10;  ''And they heard the voice [sound] of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool [breeze] of the day: and Adam, and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.  And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where are thou?  And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself''

''Walking'' from the Hebrew more accurately means ''traversing back and forth'' looking to Adam.  No small wonder that the sound of the LORD God was traversing back and forth in the garden seeking out Adam and Eve, they actually ''hid themselves'' from His ''presence'' acknowledging that their intimate fellowship was broken.

''And the LORD God called out unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?'' God always seeks out man - He solicits a response from His Creation now separated from Him by sin.  Thus God comes asking questions, not making accusations.  Adam on hearing the sound of the LORD God ''was afraid''  (just as many people are afraid of God today) and so began the age long process of Adam (Man) hiding himself from his Maker.

So, the consequences of sin were immediate: first, awareness of guilt and separation from God with whom hitherto there had been unimpaired daily fellowship.  But once God had learnt what had happened worse was to follow:

Genesis 3: 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 & 19;  ''And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this,  thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.  And I will put enmity between thy seed and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it [he] shall bruise the head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.  Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow [pain] and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to [toward] thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.  And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow [toil] shalt thou eat all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat of the herb of the field:  In the  sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.''

Adam should have remembered the positive results of obedience: 

Genesis 2: 8, 15, 16 & 17; ''And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put man whom he had formed. And the LORD God took the man [Adam], and put him into the garden of Eden to dress [tend or cultivate] it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shall surely die.''

So Adam's responsibilities, under what is known as the Edenic Covenant which God established with him were simple:

• to labour for his sustenance
• to obey God by abstaining from eating the forbidden fruit.

God's command was ''thou mayest freely eat'', and this included ''every tree'' except the tree of the 'knowledge of good and evil''. The Hebrew conveys very emphatically ''you may freely eat to your heart's content'', emphasising the freedom and permission of a loving, gracious God. 

The Lord's God's provision is a model of parental care. The fledgling, Adam, is sheltered - but not smothered: on all sides discoveries await him to draw out his powers of discernment and choice, and there is ample nourishment

But disastrous are the consequences of disobedience as explained by God: ''Thou shalt not eat'' is in the strongest Hebrew form of prohibition. ''Surely die'' is the strongest way to stress the certainty of death upon eating.

So, due to Adam's failure to keep within the terms of the Edenic Covenant God replaced it (as we can see from Genesis 3: 14 through to 19 given above) by what we know today as the Adamic Covenant:

• the serpent was cursed
• God promised redemption through the seed of the woman
• the woman experienced multiplied sorrow and pain in child-bearing
• the earth was cursed
• sorrow, pain and physical death became part of the experience of life
• labour became burdensome

Man failed under this covenant, degenerating to the point where people did only evil continually:

Genesis 6: 5;  ''And God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imaginations [intent] of thoughts of his heart was only evil continually [ all the day].''

So, God judged them with the flood establishing the Noahic Covenant  - which we will look at a little later in this journey.

One final thought from Paul in the New Covenant:

Romans 5: 12 & 19b;  ''Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.  For by one man's disobedience many were made sinners...''

''By one man sin entered...''  The entry of sin into the world is traced back to its human source from which all mankind came.  ''All have sinned'' refers to a point in time when all sinned.  It points to the moment when all were in one man, Adam.  When he fell the entire human race was constituted sinners.

Adam a the seminal head of the human race (seminal=seed) implies that everyone existed in seed form within Adam.  When Adam sinned we were all actually sinning with him, 

Adam was also the federal head of the race.  In this sense, Adam's vote for sin is similar to the vote of a representative of Parliament, who by his vote obligates his constituents for certain indebtedness.  Sin is ascribed to all of us because we are all connected with Adam's race.