Genesis 1:26-31

26 Then God said, “Let us make human beingst in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”27 So God created human beingst in his own image.
In the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”29 Then God said, “Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food.30 And I have given every green plant as food for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along the ground—everything that has life.” And that is what happened.31 Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!
And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day.

God has created man and women on the sixth day of creation. Everything else had been created beforehand: light and darkness; day and night; land and sea; air, land, and sea animals; etc. In the first five days God had created everything, but he still needed a little something extra. He needed a gardener to watch over his creation; so, thus began his most ambitious project.

God decided to create man in his own image.

You see everything else had been created but it only invoked God’s response as “This is good.” But, when he was done creating man and giving them their ordination he looked over them as if to say, “Hmmm….This is very good!” At this point in creation man was in his/her purest form. They hadn’t sinned yet, they had dominion over everything that was, and the best part is that they could commune with God on a daily face to face basis. At this point, God had created man without imperfections. They could commune with God freely without the fear of dying. It wasn’t until sin entered into this world that man became imperfect separating them from God who was still perfect and has always been perfect.

Genesis 3:1-24

1 The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the LORD God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”
2 “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied.

3 “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”
4 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman.

5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”
6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.

7 At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.
8 When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the mant and his wife heard the LORD God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the LORD God among the trees.

9 Then the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”

10 He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”

11 “Who told you that you were naked?” the LORD God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”

12 The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”

13 Then the LORD God asked the woman, “What have you done?”
“The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”

14 Then the LORD God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this, you are cursed
more than all animals, domestic and wild.
You will crawl on your belly,
groveling in the dust as long as you live.15 And I will cause hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will striket your head,
and you will strike his heel.”

16 Then he said to the woman,
“I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy,
and in pain you will give birth.
And you will desire to control your husband,
but he will rule over you.t”

17 And to the man he said,
“Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree
whose fruit I commanded you not to eat,
the ground is cursed because of you.
All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.18 It will grow thorns and thistles for you,
though you will eat of its grains.19 By the sweat of your brow
will you have food to eat
until you return to the ground
from which you were made.
For you were made from dust,
and to dust you will return.”

20 Then the man—Adam—named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all who live.t

21 And the LORD God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.
22 Then the LORD God said, “Look, the human beingst have become like us, knowing both good and evil. What if they reach out, take fruit from the tree of life, and eat it? Then they will live forever!”23 So the LORD God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made.

24 After sending them out, the LORD God stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden. And he placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

This event was a sad day for mankind because it meant separation from God and from all of the goodness that he had created for mankind to have dominion over. However, you can still see God’s loving and kind nature through these events. God still provided protection and a plan to bring man back into right-standing with him through the midst of punishment. Like a good father needs to punish his children for doing wrong; God had to punish man for their disobedience. A wrong doing couldn’t go unpunished, but that doesn’t mean that a way of escape from their punishment wasn’t in order.

Genesis 3:21 says, “And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins and clothed them.” In this one simple act we see a multi-layer of revelation. Through this instance we see that God was:

1. Protecting them from the elements.
2. Showed them that he still loved and cared for them enough to see them covered, protected, and provided for.
3. Showed the means at which was needed and the extent that he would have to go in order to bring them back into right-standing with him.

Think about it this way, God was clothing them because of their sin and shame. They were naked in their trespasses and sins and needed a way for it to be covered up. God clothed them with coverings that were created from sacrificed animals. God had to kill an animal in order to get the skins to make man and woman the necessary coverings for their shame.

Hebrews 9:22 says, “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”

The only thing wrong with this type of covering is that it would eventually wear out and a new sacrifice would need to be made for man to be continually covered. So began the waiting period for God to come up with the perfect plan to bring man back into right standing with God.

He Must Have Seen It Coming!

You may be asking yourself, “He’s God isn’t he! He must have known that man would sin, and he would already know the plan that he would need to follow through with.”

You are correct on both statements; he is God and he would have known about man’s fall beforehand. I have heard it referenced this way in regards to how God views history: Man views history as a parade from the sideline. We see this linear process a start, middle, and end. We cannot see the end of the parade before we see the beginning or even the middle for that matter. All we can see is what is right in front of us. God views the same parade that we do, but he looks at with one key difference. He soars above it from the standpoint of a helicopter. Being above the parade he can see the beginning, middle, and end all at once. So, when God saw man being created, he saw their fall and the needed plan for their redemption all at once. Not only did he see these events but he saw the little events leading up to the big events as well.

Knowing the Plan Already—Why Did God Wait To Enact It?

That is a good question and ultimately one that only God can answer. But, we can make a god guess as to why God waited. It wasn’t that God was being mean or unfair. It was all in the timing! God has a specific time about everything he does. Sometimes it is not what we imagine, but it might be the best time that God could have planned for it.

I could almost imagine God looking at the parade from his helicopter view saying how would history look if I place man’s redemption here, or how about here? God found the perfect plan and the perfect timing to administer his perfect will to an imperfect people. Knowing the nature of people how they doubt; God might have needed to wait long enough to put prophecies in place in order that if man were to really study the scripture they could not deny that God was at work and that redemption had taken place. Think about it, there are over 300 prophecies in place concerning the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Messiah who was promised to bring redemption to all people. I think God waited in order to solidify his coming with proof that he exists and solidify proof that redemption indeed had come.

Like God had a time frame for man’s redemption and restoration back to God he has a time frame for many of our callings. We may not know when God is going to call us but one thing is sure that what he did for one he will do for all. God is no respecter of persons which means that he is not partial! What he does for one person he will do for another. All we have to do is be willing, obedient, and persistent to press in to make our faith in Jesus active and living.

Until Next Time,

Peace, Love, and Christ ‘cause you know He died for you!