We continue in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve were faced with a decision, and they bombed out big time. Instead of bowing before a Holy God and keeping the One Commandment they were given, they rebelled instead. They believed the lie pitched by Satan that God was a big ogre who was not looking out for their best interest. In reality, God gave them that command to protect them and to protect their glorious innocence.
Man wanted the glory, but he could not handle the immense burden required to uphold the world around him, so it was sinfully wicked for him to try and steal the glory that he did not deserve. That would be like me taking credit for the Mona Lisa; not only is it absurd, but it is also deceitful because I did not paint this renowned portrait. With God, the bar is raised far higher and the stakes are much greater. God does not and will never give His glory to another! Amen!
"I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images." (Is 42:8) "For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another." (Is 48:11)
Therefore, man was chastised severely because he rebelled against a Good Just Glorious and Holy God who would not allow wickedness to prevail; otherwise, God would be just as wicked if he had not judged Adam and Eve. Man would die, and he brought death (Rom 5:12-14) upon all of his offspring; he died spiritually and would die physically. The ground was cursed, man would have to toil in his labor, and the woman would have go through great pain in childbirth (Gen 3:16-19). In Romans 8:18-23, Paul writes at length describing how all of creation is bound under the gravity of sin that God put it under because of Adam's rebellion. One cannot imagine a world where animals did not eat other, where cancer did not exist, and where violence did not reign among men, yet that is how it was before the Fall: a pristine world.
In his Commentary on Genesis, the great Reformed pastor and theologian John Calvin had some insightful comments on the devastation wrought by man's sin upon himself and all of creation.
Calvin wrote, "After God had briefly spoken of Adam's sin, he announced that the ground would be cursed because of him. Now, as the blessing of the earth means, in the language of the Scripture, that fertility that God infuses by his secret power, so the curse is nothing other than the opposite privation, when God withdraws his favor. ... The earth would not be as it had been before, producing perfect fruits, for God declared that the earth would degenerate from its fertility and bring forth briers and noxious plants. Therefore we know that whatever unwholesome things may be produced are not natural fruits of the earth but are corruptions that are the result of sin. ... Truly, God pronounced, as from his judgment-seat, that man's life would from now on be miserable, because Adam had proved himself unworthy of that tranquil, happy, and joyful state for which he had been created," (Calvin, Genesis Commentary, of verses 3:17-19), p49).
In a similar vein, two hundred years later, John Wesley wrote, "… none of these [animals] then attempted to devour, or in anyway hurt one another. All were peaceful and quiet, as were the water fields wherein they ranged at pleasure … there were no birds or beasts of prey; none that destroyed or molested one another; but all creatures breathed, in their several kinds, the benevolence of their great Creator," (In Jonathan Sarfati's book Refuting Compromise p 206, quoting John Wesley's Sermon "God's Approbation of His Work"). As an added note, in the full context of what Wesley was saying, he did not deny that birds of prey existed; rather, he was alluding to the fact they were not acting as predators to other creatures before the Fall.
Such words and commentary are devastating to listen to, yet just before that in Genesis 3:15, the glory of His grace shines through all the more! One would come from the seed of the woman and crush the head of the Serpent! He who is King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev 19:16)! Amen!
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