Adam

Intro

It’s easy when reading scripture to see the people as nothing but characters, we fail to see them as real people, people who actually walked the earth, people who face the world in the same way as you or I. However, I find that the more I relate with a person in the bible, the more human they become.

And my hope and prayer is, that as Ron and I discuss some of the different people found in the bible, they’ll become real to you as well, that you would be able to relate with them in some way and learn from their life. and I figured there’s no better person to start off with than Adam.

Creation

As you may know Adam was the very first Human, and his name was most likely a play on the Hebrew word for Earth, land soil Adamah (Biblical Hebrew : אדמה). Which would make sense since Adam was originally created from the Dust. Let’s open our bibles to Genesis 2:5-7.

Genesis 2:5–7 ESV

5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— 7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

Now how is this relatable? You certainly weren’t created from the dust of the earth and that’s true, however you were still formed by God in the mothers womb and the same breath that was breathed into Adam is now in you. And that’s crazy to wrap our heads around God’s breath is within us, it is what gives us life, what forms our soul. We are separated from the rest of creation by the way we were created.

I read an interesting study a while ago which talked about a research team that was studying Hebrew language and they had found that the name YHWH in it’s original spoken language sounded very similar to the sound of a breath, (Make YHWH breathing sound) and so it’s almost as if every breath we take is a reminder of he who gives us breath in the first place, we cannot breath without uttering his name.

Another part of our creation was freewill, we were given the choice between good and evil. To either obey God or Disobey God it was important to God that we would choose God according to our own will. and so we were a special part of creation, created from the dust with the breath of God in us made in his image. and we had the choice to choose him. and so naturally God had big intentions with Adam, his ultimate creation.

Intention

Let’s read Genesis 1:26-31

Genesis 1:26–31 ESV

26 Then 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 birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

He gives Adam the ultimate job. He commands him to rule over his creation! All of creation was now under man’s dominion. and not only that he wanted Man to populate the entire earth, he gave them the ability to reproduce and populate. And God had this beautiful design for creation. He took man and put him in the garden with all of the animals and they all lived in harmony, and food was plentiful. and they were to populate the garden of Eden and all of their children would walk in the midst of God every day.

And when I was young I remember thinking to myself man why did Adam have to go and ruin it for the rest of us. God only had one rule in the garden, and we read about it in Genesis 2:15-17

Genesis 2:15–17 ESV

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Now the Tree of Knowledge was one of the two named trees in the garden, the other tree was the Tree of Life. and these two trees represented their choice, the choice to obey God and have eternal life, or to become like God and be fated to die.

Fall

And this is when we see the serpent show up to destroy man, Genesis 3:1-13

Genesis 3:1–13 ESV

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Now just like many sins the fruit looked desirable on the outside but ultimately leads to destruction, Satan tricked them but they made the choice to disobey. and what did they do after eating the fruit they realized they were naked and hid themselves and the Lord came to find them. and I love how it’s described, “They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day” because this idea cool of the day has a couple ways to look at it, you could look at it as the time of day when it is coolest, however a cool day is also a way to predict a coming storm. and so when I read this passage I see the cool of the day as a warning of the coming of the storm, God’s wrath would be on man, on Adam his special part of creation.

and In order to prevent them from eating from the tree of life as well he kicked them out of the garden, not because he wanted to but because God is Just and he warned them of the consequences of their actions. and so they brought a curse upon themselves and on the world open your bible to Genesis 3:16-19

Genesis 3:16–19 ESV

16 To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” 17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

and so they had a life of hardship which would ultimately lead to death. However they still had the command from God to follow, the command to have dominion over the earth, to multiply and cover the earth. and even though they were taken out of the garden God still deeply loved his creation he still loved man and so he wouldn’t abandon them, but would continue to bless them and be with them.

Us

So what does all this mean for us? Well to start it certainly means that we also are under the curse that Adam brought upon man kind. We have to work for what we have, childbearing is painful, and our lives will inevitably lead to death. And I said earlier that when I was young I’d get so mad that Adam would go and ruin it for the rest of us. But we all are faced with the decision of life and death, we are faced with the choice to obey God or disobey, and we have the knowledge of good and evil, we know better, and yet who here has never disobeyed God and sinned against him. So It’s not Adam’s sin that separated you from God but your own sin.

Now this takes me to John 3:16

John 3:16 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

We are now faced with a decision yet again, God gave us a way back to him. He gave us someone who could undo Adams curse on man, where Adam brought death Jesus brings life, eternal life, and all we have to do is choose him. That doesn’t seem like it should be a very difficult choice and yet so many struggle to make it. Why do you think that is? The world produces death and yet so many are consumed by it. I want us to be a church that offers the fruit of life. I want us to show people the promise that Jesus offers us.

You are God’s creation! you are filled with his breath, you are his image bearer. we should seek to be like him, not in the way that Adam sought to be like him but we should be like him in our righteousness. be an example to the world, shining your light before others. free yourselves from the curse of Adam and choose eternal life! and so my challenge to you is this, be an example to the world and show God’s light to others to that they too can be free from the curse of Death.

And this is the easiest way to do that, simply ask them to come to church with you. that’s all I want you to do. open the door to the Church to them and let God do the rest, can you think of a single person in your life who may not know that they are created in God’s image and that they need the Lord, well this is your challenge to invite them to come to church with you!

Let’s pray!