From dust Adam was made by God. Then God created the perfect Garden of Eden and made it Adam's home. It was a place filled with unimaginable splendor, fresh water flowing freely, lush vegetation, and friendly animals. Beauty and adventure in abundance were spread out before him. The golden, warm sunlight by day, and moon light by night, along with crystal clear waters for bathing and drinking were all his to enjoy. The lush land provided not only a gorgeous landscape, but also more than enough nourishing food for him and the living creatures of every shape and size that roamed freely along with him. Adam was happy, and God, his creator, the creator of it all, saw that it was good. From nothing, and in only six days God created with His words all of heaven and earth, a world more amazing than anyone could fathom. The garden was a magnificently beautiful paradise made specifically for Adam to rule. God saw that it was good and was very pleased.
Adam, in all the perfection of the immaculate garden, lacked only one thing- a companion. He needed someone to comfort him, to love, and laugh with. He needed someone to share his life with and ultimately with whom to reproduce. God saw the need and took a rib from Adam. Along with Adam's rib He packaged up a whole bunch of love, emotions, beauty and a great big heart to create a female. Her name was Eve, a name that meant mother of all the living. Adam was very happy with his female companion. He felt complete when he saw her and immediately claimed her as his saying, "She is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh." They lived happily in the garden as husband and wife - God's union: the two become one flesh.
On the seventh day God rested, he blessed the day as one of rest and made it holy.
Adam and Eve spent their days eating perfect, nutritious food from the various trees surrounding the garden. Fear and evil did not exist in the land, only peace and happiness. They loved each other and spent carefree days playing with the many animals, giving them names as they saw fit. They bathed in the crystal clear water falls. They shared a cool drink from the fresh spring with a zebra, while a lion watched from above. Adam, I imagine, could be caught splashing around in the stream with a bear, while Eve enjoyed a ride on the back of an elephant. Their infectious laughter echoed through the land.
In all the perfect paradise there was only one thing that was denied of them, the fruit from the tree in the center of the garden. God made it very clear that they were not to eat from the tree or they would die. The tree was bountiful and tempting, but God provided more than enough for the happy couple and hoped they would choose to obey Him rather than fall into temptation. He gave them a choice, free will to do as they wished, while providing everything imaginable to please them and keep them away from the forbidden tree.
During that time, years of peace, and happiness - a sort of heaven on earth, were Adam and Eve's daily life. No cares, no worries, no evil. But just as temptations are known for, the tree of knowledge of good and evil sat there in the center, so lush and beautiful, pulling at them. As time passed on, the temptation, and curiosity of the forbidden tree weighed heavily on Eve. She thought about the exquisite taste she must be missing. After dwelling on it one day she talked it over with a serpent who lived nearby. He helped convince her that there was nothing wrong with taking of the tree. He deceived her and claimed that taking the fruit would not be the end, but in fact would give her unimaginable knowledge. The jovial anticipation of knowing more than possibly even God pushed Eve to want it more.
Reluctantly she took the fruit, then she shared some of it with Adam.
The first sin was committed.
(Life lesson: I believe when God, creator of all, gave Adam and Eve the choice to obey it was to be considered a gift. He wants us to choose Him rather than demand that we obey. He wants us to realize he provides absolutely everything we could want or need if we do make that conscious choice. It makes him happy when we make the right choice, especially when the temptation is pulling at us so hard. We need to be aware that everything we do in life is a choice, and when we choose God, he rewards us with more love, peace and happiness. However, when we choose the temptation, or sin, the choice itself will become a form of punishment. God loves us and will punish us when we do not obey. The most important thing, the thing we should remind ourselves of, is the very true fact that once we give in to temptation or sin, we will always find ourselves still searching for satisfaction. It will never end well, and will never be worth it.)
Immediately, once the fruit was consumed, the couple became ashamed. Shame was a brand new feeling, one they had never experienced before sin was brought about. The feeling was confusing and scary for them. They were aware of their nakedness, a thought that never consumed their cares previously. They sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. They hid behind a bush and dreaded the worst when they heard God ask, "Adam, where are you?" It was apparent to them both that God hadn't asked where he was because He didn't know the answer, rather, He asked because He wanted Adam to confess what He already knew. Eve spoke up and deflected blame saying, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate from the forbidden tree."
Devastated that they chose to disobey Him, broken hearted by their sin, God punished them. He cursed the serpent, making him to forever crawl on his belly, and eat dust all the days of his life, putting enmity between him and mankind. God made it so that man will crush the serpent's head and the serpent in turn will strike man's heel. As punishment to the woman God increased the pains of childbearing, and made her to desire her husband, who would rule over her. Then to Adam, for disobeying, God cursed the ground. No longer would the perfect lushness of the ground be provided freely for him. Only by painful toil would he eat of the land, which would produce thorns and thistles. With back-breaking work he would plant and plow the fields to have food. The easy, carefree life of the garden would no longer be available to either of them for God banished them from the garden.
God wasn't done yet. Then came the ultimate punishment for them both, and all of mankind after them - no longer would they only know good in their lives, but after eating of the tree, they would also know evil. The new knowledge the serpent had tempted Eve with proved not to be a good thing. God wanted to protect man from knowing such sad, tormenting, heartbreaking things that evil invokes on mankind. Sin had been committed, it was too late to make the right choice, and evil was on God's earth for all humans to endure.
Away from the garden, it was through hard work and determination that Adam and Eve managed to survive off the land. In time they began a family. During all of it they were very aware that if not for God's blessings they wouldn't have been able to survive at all. God still had hope that through punishment, sin could be stamped out and people would ultimately choose good.
As time moved on Eve became very excited when she was blessed by God and became pregnant. She was thrilled when she had her first son, whom she named Cain. Later she had another son and called him Able. Eve was thankful to the Lord for allowing her to mother two wonderful sons, because though she had sinned and brought evil upon the earth, she knew all she had, every blessing she received was from God.
As her kids grew up, Cain worked the fields and Able kept flocks. As was custom, the family sent up sacrifices to the lord as a thank you for all their blessings. Able sent up burnt portions of fat from some of the first born of his flocks, and Cain brought up fruits from the soil as his offering. Able gave with a good heart, freely and thankfully to God, while Cain had anger in his heart and didn't give freely. God knew Cain's heart and could see that he had a problem with his attitude. Therefore, God looked with favor to the offering sent up by Able, but did not look with favor on Cain's. God warned Cain that he must first master his anger, and avoid sin that was undoubtedly crouching at his door. God told Cain that when he did things right his offerings would be accepted.
Even with the warnings, Cain couldn't control his anger. His jealousy over his brother consumed him, and in time Cain reached his breaking point. He asked Able to meet him in the fields, and it was there that he attacked and killed his younger brother.
The sinful choice Cain made to kill a good man because of jealousy made God very angry. In order to punish him for his sin God cursed the land he loved. No longer would it yield it's crops to him. Cain would from then on, for the rest of his life, become a restless wanderer. It was a harsh penalty, and one Cain thought was too severe, but God did not want sin to take over so his punishments were firm.
Cain worried that someone would find him wandering and kill him, but God assured him that would not be so. He wanted Cain to suffer a long life of punishment for killing his brother. He put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him, saying anyone who kills Cain would suffer vengeance seven times over. Cain went out of the Lord's presence and lived as a fugitive and a vagabond in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
Later in his life Cain had a son named Enoch. And through the generations ( keep in mind in those days people lived 800 and 900 years) Cain and his son and grandsons began to build a city named after Enoch. Some of his descendants made tools out of bronze, others raised livestock and lived in tents, others played harps and flutes. There was peace in the land, and many generations lived in the city, until one great, great grandson of Cain's, named Lamech, claimed to have killed a man who harmed him. In doing so Lamech feared that though Cain was avenged seven times for his sin, he would be avenged seventy-seven times for what he had done. The fear of God their creator was real, they worshiped Him and obeyed Him.
When Adam was 130 years old he and his wife Eve had another son, and named him Seth. They were both very happy that God had given them another child in the place of Able. They raised him up along with many more sons and daughters throughout their life together.
Adam lived a good life until the age of 930 years old.
Peace settled on the land, and God was pleased.
(Life Question: Do you ever find it difficult to make choices between what feels good in the moment verses what is right in the eyes of God? Do you make excuses to justify the choice? God gives us free will, as a gift. He didn't intend for it to make things more difficult, but He intended for us to choose to love Him freely, and choose to fear and obey Him so that he could in-turn take give us all the blessings and promises of peace and protection.)