Lives and Legacies: First Ladies of the Bible. Cheryl Rhodes

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СКАЧАТЬ food for all creatures just growing out of the ground. No planting, tilling, weeding, harvesting. Just growing.

      We’d not been present to view God’s handiwork before we were formed. We’d known nothing of the void before God began creating order. We could only imagine a watery chaos stretching as far as the eye could see. We could not fully appreciate The Creator’s awesome, diverse, and detailed plan of creation. The earth becoming blanketed with vegetation as varied and lush as any garden you could imagine. Afterward, we became aware of perfection. Afterward, we came to know what perfect beauty had been like—when we could no longer see and live in it. You cannot imagine!

      But try, won’t you. Try to see your world without sin and the consequences of sin. Perfect! Your own body, perfect. No aging, no injuries, no pains, no disease, no flaws, no scars. Envision all the people around you perfect, no jealousy, no misunderstandings, no animosities, no hurts.

      Try to conceive of trees and bushes without damage or disease. What would it be like if all the animals of earth, sea, and air lived off plants, in peace, harmony, and the joy of each other. No imperfection—none.

      Conceive of food in abundance, without blemish, and of superb flavor, texture, and color. No cooking or seasoning, only pick and eat.

      Until you can get some idea of this world into which we were created, you can have no conception of what all we lost. Or I should say, “all we gave over” by our disobedience.

      Among the trees—which were pleasing to the eye, delicious to taste, and nourishing—stood the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life (Gen. 2:8–10). Now it didn’t rain in Eden. A mist came up from the ground and watered the earth (Gen. 2:6). A river flowed out of the garden, dividing into four head waters (Gen. 2:10). I doubt, anywhere on your earth now, there’s such pure, clear, refreshing water. It was delightful!

      The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He placed us. Our function, if you will, was to dress, guard, and keep the garden (the second set of commandments). God said, “Of every tree of the garden you may eat freely, except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You may not eat of it, for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die” (Gen. 2:15–17).

      God looked at everything that He had made and declared it very good. No higher standard was there ever to be met, and no higher praise could ever be given. That was evening and morning, day six (Gen. 1:31).

      Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. On the seventh day God rested from all His creating. God blessed the seventh day and set it apart, because in it The Almighty rested from all His creative work (Gen. 2:1–3).

      You may not have considered it, but the seventh day was a creation in a different sense—the creation of the first holy day—the first day of remembrance and anticipation. This was a day to rest and worship. Remember, we were not made for the Sabbath; the Sabbath was made for us—to remember, to anticipate, to rest, and to worship.

      The days flowed by without much attention from us. We enjoyed being in this place of perfection, learning to know the plant, animal, and bird life. Of an evening, The LORD God would come to walk with us and talk with us. Only afterward would we know how delightful it had been to enjoy The Creator’s company and hear all He would teach us. Only when it was too late did we realize how much He had to share with us and how much we had benefitted from the time He spent with us. But time had little meaning for us. It was not our enemy, as it sometimes is for humans in your day. It just was. We just were. No pressure. No guilt. No fear. Perhaps when God had said we were to tend, guard, and keep the garden, we should have taken that as a warning (Gen. 2:15). Guard and keep it from what?

      God has an enemy (Isa. 14:12–14, Ezek. 28:12–18). This enemy’s goal is to kill, steal, and destroy (John 10:10). This enemy wanted us dead. He wanted the power in God’s creation that God had given to us. And he wanted to destroy the relationships we enjoyed with The Creator and with each other.

      Be aware: the enemy of God is your enemy. He wants to kill, steal, and destroy in your life, your purpose, and your relationships. If you fail to recognize your enemy, you will not be prepared to wage war against him. If you do not do battle, you lose. I know now—I lost. Please, won’t you heed my warning to you.

      Acknowledge the enemy. Beware his subtle doubts and lies. Learn to battle him. The Almighty is on our side, if only we trust and obey our Creator. To disobey is the enemy’s plan.

      One day as we were tending paradise, the enemy, in the guise of a snake, asked me, “Did God actually say ‘Y’all should not eat of any tree in the garden’ (Gen. 3:1)?” You see, he started by misquoting and casting doubt upon The Creator’s goodness.

      I responded, “We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden, except God said, ‘Y’all may not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, neither may y’all touch it, lest y’all die.’” I use the plural y’all, because while Adam and I were one flesh, we each had a mind with a will. You’ll see (Gen. 2:23 and 24).

      And I must admit to expanding God’s prohibition to include “not touching.” The Hebrews call that building a wall or hedge around the forbidden. Would that I had included “Don’t even be looking at it.” That’s where my trouble began—looking, pausing to consider an “alternative” view. Would that I had listened to God’s instruction to the point of obedience.

      There is a time for a closed mind, you should know. Make a decision. Where God’s Word is concerned, accept it. Close your mind to “alternatives!” The enemy wants to spin you a tale. God says what He means and means what He says.

      But the serpent said, “Y’all will not surely die. God knows that when y’all eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and y’all will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

      Now we wanted to be like God, but perhaps our “want” was more about ambition than about affiliation. Knowing good and evil did not seem a bad thing. (That’s the enemy’s alternative explanation.) But why we should doubt The Word of The Creator? I could never explain or defend my yielding to the doubt the enemy placed in my thinking.

      It’s always the same. The enemy questions The Word. Then he contradicts The Word. Why didn’t we check with the Creator? But things haven’t changed.

      Today you’ll read or hear something and not know what God says about it. So why not go to The Book and find out? The Bereans were labeled “more noble” because they searched The Scriptures to see if what they were being told, from the Apostle Paul, no less, was accurate (Acts 17:10 and 11).

      We could see that the tree was good for food and of delightful appearance. Believing the enemy, that the fruit of the tree could give us insight, I took of its fruit and ate. I gave some to my husband, who was with me, and he ate (Gen. 3:2–6).

      Immediately, after Adam joined me in disobedience, our eyes were opened. We knew good from evil, we knew we had chosen to disobey, and we knew that we were naked. In shame, we collected fig leaves and sewed them together to make ourselves coverings (Gen. 3:7).

      You know the feeling of loss. You’ve had feelings of loss since you were small. Well, we had no experience with loss before this. This was our first. Now we knew. Our innocence was gone. Our relationship with each other tainted and strained. We were retched. The shame was all-consuming; even as we attempted to cover ourselves physically, nothing could ease the spiritual and emotional damage we’d done to ourselves by disobedience.

      People are so foolish. Do they really think that God makes rules for His own convenience? The Creator knows how His creatures СКАЧАТЬ