There has always been conflict between those who interpret Genesis chapter 1 literally and those who follow science – at least the modern science which denies that the heavens and the earth could have been created in six days. God called the light day and the darkness he called night. It was not until the fourth day that he created the sun, moon, and stars. On the first day, there was light when God commanded the light to come forth.

God separated the light from the darkness in creation just as he wants to separate the light from the darkness in us, such that we become a people for him. Then that light can flow through us to the world around us.

In the New Testament, Jesus says that he is the light, that he is the way, and that he is the life. Scripture says Jesus did not have a beginning and he will have no end; he was with the Father from the beginning of creation, and nothing was made without him (Colossians 1). Now scientists are saying that surely the universe must have begun with a big bang, and over a very long period of time the stars and planets formed, and so on.

I think the Lord could have had as much time as he needed to form what he was doing in a way that does not conflict with the parameters of Genesis chapter 1.

What is a day?

God says that the evening and the morning were the first day, and he speaks of evening and morning before there was a sun, a moon, or stars. We tend to interpret the word day from our own perspective. We are here, more or less in the middle of planet earth. Everything is going around, and it looks like the sun rises and sets, when in reality it is the earth that is turning. And one full revolution of the earth is what we now call a day. But what if we change our position? Let’s stand on the North Pole. At the North Pole, there are not 365 evenings and mornings per year. There is only one evening and one morning. There is a night which lasts approximately five months and a day that lasts about seven months, because the atmosphere refracts or bends the rays of light, and this makes the sun appear higher on the horizon than it really is. In the design of God, there is always more light than darkness, and the first thing that God did on the first day of creation was to separate the light from the darkness.

Genesis 1

4 And God saw that the light was good, and God divided the light from the darkness.

He said that:

2 And the earth was without order, and empty; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

We attempt to understand these things. Then God separated the waters below from the waters above. He separated them with something called heavens (plural). Then below he separated the waters from the dry land and called the waters seas and the dry land earth. God is describing his work as Creator not only of this physical universe that we observe, but also of a spiritual realm that the natural man cannot perceive (Colossians 1:16).

Each one of us is born here in a body of flesh and blood, but this is only a facade, because the real us is inside, and God desires that our soul become alive. He desires to continue this creation process in us. First, he must separate the light from the darkness. He must show us that in the way we are going, what we think is the light is not really the light. He is the true light; the light comes from him.

Then he must separate that which is above from that which is below. He will continue to separate; he will continue to put things in order. He desires to order our being and show us that he will have a people taken out of all the Gentiles of the world who are separated and set aside exclusively for him. The natural creation of the heavens and the earth are a symbol of what he is doing in the spiritual realm.

If we attempt to interpret the first chapters of Genesis with our own natural understanding, we will tend to come up with absurd conclusions that may clash with science. We must take into account that the Scripture is speaking of a time when the spiritual and natural realms were not separated. The separation between the two realms came as a result of rebellion. After sin and rebellion took place, God soon expelled the man and the woman from the garden of paradise. He placed cherubim and a flaming sword to guard the entrance so that man in his fallen state would not have access to the Tree of Life (Genesis 3:22-24).

The cherubim and a flaming sword were embroidered on the veil that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies in the temple. The priests were able to minister in the Holy Place, but only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies once per year and with a lot of preparation. If the High Priest were to enter in an unworthy manner, he could pay with his life. This is why the blood sacrifice system was instituted after the original sin, to make it clear that we cannot regain access to the presence of God in the life of Adam, in our natural life. We can only have access to the presence of God in the life of Jesus. This is why we must be born again. The gospel says that we must be born not of the flesh but by the Spirit of God (John 3:3-8).

The Spirit of God is from the beginning. The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. There are many details in the creation. God made the green grass, and the grass gave forth its fruit. God made the fruit trees, and they gave forth fruit according to their nature. The grass was given to the beasts as food. The grass and the trees and their fruit were the food for mankind. After the fall, this all got mixed up. Death began to make inroads all over, and the creatures began destroying one another. Scientists speak of “natural selection” and “survival of the fittest.” This was not so in the beginning.

Genesis 2

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

God defines much terminology in Genesis. Later in Scripture it says that the Lord is the Lord of the hosts. It is interesting that the term host, or army, was applied to the children of Israel. In the book of Numbers, the Lord ordered and armed the twelve tribes of Israel into four camps which were four armies or hosts. He is the Lord of the hosts. Here, from the beginning, he has had a host, or army, spread across the heavens and the earth, which also correlates with heavenly creatures which were also created by God.

2 And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

Many think that God created everything in six days and that all he did was rest on the seventh day. That is not what it says here. It says that it was on the seventh day that God finished his work. We do not know what percentage of the seventh day was dedicated to work, but it is clear from the Scripture that God worked on the seventh day, and after he finished his work, he rested. When Jesus came to the Jews, they did not understand this. They thought that no one could do anything on the seventh day. And Jesus and his disciples walked around picking handfuls of grain, traveling, and doing miracles on the Sabbath. This really upset the Jews. The Lord states once in the Old Testament and once in the New Testament that for him one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years are as a day (Psalm 90:4; 2 Peter 3:8).

From the creation of Adam upon the earth until now is a little over six thousand years. We are entering the seventh millennium, which, according to Scripture, is the day of the Lord prophesied by almost all the prophets. The day of the Lord is the day in which God will finish his work. The first heavens and the first earth which we can observe in part (I say in part because we cannot perceive the spiritual part with our natural eyes) will give way to a new heavens and a new earth which will no longer have this separation. Genesis chapters 1 and 2, before the fall, are the description of everything without the veil or separation between the spiritual and the natural realms that happened in Genesis chapter 3. This is why scientists (and many others) who only consider the natural realm cannot understand it.

3 And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.

Sanctified means that he set it apart for his own exclusive use. The seventh day from here on is the day of the Lord.

3 And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it he had rested from all his work which God created in perfection.

He worked until it was all perfect. This word perfect is the same word used to describe maturity all through Scripture. The seed that has reached perfection or maturity is the seed that may be planted and will reproduce itself in kind. It may not win a beauty contest. The seed could be scarred or even deformed, but when planted, it will sprout and reproduce according to its nature.

What am I saying here?

That he created all his work in perfection.

What was this perfection?

In Genesis chapter 1 it says that God blessed the creatures he had made and that they were to multiply in the earth. He also blessed man and told him to multiply and fill the earth. This word perfection means that God worked until the creation complied with the purpose for which it was created, and that was that creatures like us could live here and be multiplied under the blessing of God.

The theme of the new creation runs through many Scriptures and is clearly stated in the final chapters of the book of the prophet Isaiah. We are now six thousand years (six prophetic days) into the process of the new creation which God will also finish in perfection. In order to do this, he will work for a while on the seventh day – during the seventh millennium which we are entering into. He will work until his masterpiece is perfect. Scripture states that Jesus will return for a perfect bride without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. God will do what man has been unable to do in six thousand years. God will finish the work (Romans 9:28).

The new creation is connected to the old creation. The old is the seedbed for the new. In the first years of the old creation, God had to separate the light from the darkness. Everything plunged into darkness after the fall.

Yet the light began to shine through the lives of select individuals; the most notable was Enoch who simply disappeared because God took him. He did not see death, but Scripture has him on a list in Hebrews chapter 11 of those who died (Hebrews 11:5, 13, 39). Death was able to hold many, but death was not able to hold Enoch even though he died. He did not go to the abyss or pit controlled by the Devil, which is called hades or sheol. The true hell is the second death, the lake of fire, which is prepared for the Devil and his fallen angels and any other rebels who persist in turning their backs on the light of God (Revelation 20:10).

On the second day, the waters from above were separated from the waters below, and on the second day or second millennium of the new creation, we come to Noah. One of his ancestors had a name that means “to descend.” Things were going from bad to worse. In the first one thousand seven hundred years of human history, the Scripture only speaks well of three men: Abel, Enoch, and Noah. And Noah’s father, Lamech, was surely special for he lived 777 years and died shortly before the flood. Noah’s grandfather, named Methuselah (meaning, “when he dies, then it shall come”), died the same year that the flood came. Noah found grace in the eyes of God, and God gave him discernment. Noah built the ark to God’s specifications, and it had never even rained in the history of the earth. The waters that were above had remained above, and the waters below had remained below.

Yet one day the grandfather died, the deep opened up, and the waters from above came down. Only Noah, his three sons, his three daughters-in-law, and his wife were saved. Scripture says a total of eight people were saved. God even made provision for the animals, and everything had a new beginning.

In the third millennium (third prophetic day), Abraham was outstanding along with his son Isaac and Isaac’s son Jacob (who became Israel). The dealings of God began with the children of Israel. The third day began with Abraham and ended with King David. The fourth day began with David and Solomon and ended with the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Sun of Righteousness.

What was God doing?

He was separating a people for himself from the seas of the rest of the Gentiles. The Promised Land and Israel are almost inseparable in Bible typology. God told Abraham that he would have two kinds of sons. Some would be as the sands of the seashore – legalistic sons who would form the buffer between the seas and where the land begins. This has been the case for millennia with the Jewish people and their laws and precepts (Genesis 22:17; 26:4). God has caused it to go well with them in the things of this world, in economic matters; but there has also been much envy and persecution against them.

God also promised another class of sons to Abraham that would be as the stars of the heavens. They will dwell in the celestial realm above the law of (human) nature. Paul writes of a higher law, the law of the Spirit of life (Romans 8).

One of the most important changes regarding the new creation is that the Lord changes the sun. Instead of the natural sun he places the Sun of Righteousness who brings saving health in his wings.

Four thousand years after the creation of Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ appears on the scene at the end of the fourth prophetic day. He begins a congregation that is to reflect his light (like the moon reflects the light of the sun). He begins to place ministry and authority on those he calls to work for him (placing them as stars, as sons of God who shine like him, their elder brother).

What are the heavenly bodies for?

Genesis 1

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for appointed times and for days and years;

15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth; and it was so.

for signs. Isaiah prophesied: I and the children whom the LORD has given me are for signs and for wonders (Isaiah 8:18). Isaiah was only a symbol of what Jesus would be. The Lord places the sons of God to shine in this world of darkness. He places us for signs and for appointed times and for days and years to give light upon the earth. Man thinks that he has had six grand millenniums but in reality he has been in darkness. Scripture promises that there will be the light of seven days in one, for the Lord will return (Isaiah 30:26).

On the fifth day of the natural creation, God created life in the seas and the fowl of the air. In the fifth millennium as the church age gathered momentum, God began to give life to the seas of lost humanity that we may become born again of the Jerusalem from above, that we might again have access to the heavenly realm in his life. Jesus told his disciples that he would make them “fishers of men.”

On the sixth day of creation, God created the animals, the beasts (something the Scripture calls “serpents”), and also man. In the beginning, all the creatures and beings of this creation had living souls. In the beginning, here in Genesis, even the serpent spoke. We do not know many of the details of how things went wrong, but the Scripture says the entire creation was frustrated and even now cries out with birth pangs. The creation lost its link with God when Adam fell. The creation has turned into the law of the jungle:

Romans 8

20 For the creatures were subjected to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected them,

21 with the hope that the same creatures shall be delivered from the slavery of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.

22 For we know that all the creatures groan and travail in pain together until now.

Everything will be put back into place in the seventh millennium. It appears that Adam and Eve may have been twelve years in the garden before the problem. There is a factor of twelve years that affects every time line through the ages.

Genesis 2

4 These are the origins of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.

God spent six days and part of the seventh on the creation. Now the Scripture mentions a broader day that includes the original week. It means the season or the time in which the creation took place. Use of the word day in relation to a person can even mean the entire life span of the person. In Scripture a day can be a thousand years. The one who puts definition and value on the days described in Scripture is God, not us. Prophecy is of no particular (or private) interpretation; it is whatever value the Holy Spirit places on it, and he may use the same Scripture multiple times and apply it to many different situations. Daniel had a vision of seventy weeks, and it turned out that there were seventy weeks of years (490 years) until Jesus began his ministry at the beginning of the seventieth week. At the end of the week, the gospel was given to the Gentiles, starting with the household of Cornelius.

5 and every plant of the field before it was in the earth and all the grass of the field before it grew, for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and neither was there a man to till the ground.

The Lord created all the plants. In Genesis 1 it says he created the trees and the grass and each one gave forth fruit according to its nature. But here it says that each thing was first created with potential, and there was still nothing growing on the earth because there had been no rain and there was no man to till the earth. Everything did not really come together until man was on the scene. Look at how God caused this to function. It is very important.

6 But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.

There were waters above, waters below, and the heavens in the middle. The heavens are the dwelling place of God. There was no pollution in the air, and therefore it was not possible for it to rain because each drop of rain must condense around a particle of dust or other impurity in the air. But a mist or dew condensed upon the surface of the earth. There was a huge shield of water vapor above the earth that caused a greenhouse effect over the entire planet. This would have warmed the polar regions and cooled the tropics. The Lord had designed a perfect climate; there was no possibility of having storms, hurricanes, tornados, or hail. Almost the entire surface of the earth would have been usable. Tropical plants and animals have been found buried under ice layers in the Arctic and Antarctic, and scientists have been hard-pressed to come up with a good explanation.

7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.

8 And the LORD God had planted a garden east[1]ward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.

Now, at the end of the sixth millennium since Adam and Eve (the sixth prophetic day), the new man that the Lord is forming is called the body of Christ, and the Lord Jesus is the Head. Scripture states that he will continue to sit at the right hand of the Father with all power and authority until all his enemies are under his feet; and the last enemy is death.

On the sixth prophetic day, God brought about the Reformation, the Great Awakening, the Welsh Revival, the Azusa Street Revival, the Latter Rain Movement, and the dozens of ministries that sprang forth in 1948 and in 1967. He is putting the finishing touches on the corporate “man” who will tend his millennial garden as he plants all the seeds that he has spent six thousand years developing.

9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is desirable to the sight and good for food.

Note that the design of the trees had two parameters: they were desirable to the sight and they were good for food.

9 the tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it was divided into four heads.

What does Eden mean?

Well-being, delight.

The River of God functions backwards from the rivers that we know of and experience. The rivers that we have now start out with many tributaries and end with one big channel as they empty into the sea. But this river flows from the presence of God and is divided into four heads. Four is the number that symbolizes the heavenly love of God which covers the earth like a mist and condenses to form the river. The River of God waters the entire garden and branches out to reach even the uttermost parts of the earth wherever there is a need. Jesus said that the greatest in the kingdom of the heavens is the one who is the humble servant of all.

The River of God is described in the beginning of the book of Genesis, and the book of Revelation ends with the restoration of this most important river. In Revelation the Tree of Life grows on both banks of the river. The River of God is not like the river of humanism. The River of God flows and continues to divide until all the need is met. The trees along its banks give their fruit every month, and even the leaves are for the healing of the nations, the Gentiles, those who need a change of heart.

We will contemplate how this river was in the beginning. What the Lord desires to do at the end is even better. The old creation was frustrated. The new heavens and the new earth will be infinitely better than the old.

10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it was divided into four heads.

The river divided into four, and surely these four continued to spread in the same fashion.

11 The name of the first is Pison; that is it which compasses the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.

Pison means “free flowing.” Havilah means “circle” or “perfection.” This is a river that encompasses the whole land. Can you imagine the perfection of this garden at the beginning? It is possible that much of the actual site of the garden is now under the sea because water now covers many places that used to be dry land.

where there is gold. Gold is the symbol of the nature of God – what he desires to reproduce in us. Adam was of the earth, earthy, and therefore was corruptible. He was made in perfection and placed in the garden with free will. He could have sought the Tree of Life instead of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God did not prohibit this. Adam usurped the one thing that God had reserved. The knowledge of good and evil was for God to decide.

God delegated the rest of the creation for Adam to administer under the criteria of what God decided was good and what God decided was evil. And God told Adam that if he were to eat of the wrong tree, he would surely die in the very same day. Adam ate of the tree and died nine hundred and some odd years later. But if one day is a thousand years, then he died on the very same day. And if a day is twenty-four hours, the spiritual death was felt instantly. What seemed good to Adam and Eve was really death, which began with a lie of deception. This is how death was planted in the earth. In the marvelous land of Eden where just one branch of the river flowed into Havilah – the land of perfection where everything was complete and nothing was lacking – there was gold, the nature of God. Adam could have sought the nature of God but did not do so.

12 and the gold of that land is good. Could there be gold that is evil?

Of course. The love of the god of money is the root of all evil (Luke 16:13; 1 Timothy 6:10). Look at how it was. There is gold that is good and if one kind of gold is good, it is because there is another kind that is evil, and only God knows the difference. The lie of the Devil had a dose of truth: If you eat of the fruit of this tree, your eyes will be opened, and you will become as God, but God does not want you to become like him because he is so good that he does not want anyone else to be like him. He wants to be a dictator and keep everyone else under him. He does not want anyone else to be like him. So goes the Devil’s lie and look what happened: curse, corruption, thorns, briars, sweat of your brow, and birth pains.

In the case of the Tree of Life, the Lord does desire sons of his own family, of his own nature. However, if we are to enter his life, we must be willing to leave something behind. The tree of his life can cost us our own life, but in a very different manner than what happened with Adam and Eve with the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

If we are on the true way of God, the desire of God as our Father is that we become as he is. But at the beginning of the creation of the earth and even of the heavens, Scripture says that the earth was without order and empty. If we attempt to put order and fill the void with our own selfish impulses, we will cause more disorder and more corruption and more and more trouble. On the other hand, if we decide for the life of God, as the Lord Jesus did, it will lead to death of the old, coupled with resurrection life in the new. Jesus came here, and instead of choosing the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil,” he told his Father that he was willing to do the will of the Father and not his own (Matthew 26:39, 42).

Jesus walked toward a tree of life, but when he got there, it turned out to be a cross. They hung him on it where he bled to death drop by drop, and where something very interesting happened right after he died. A Roman soldier stuck a lance in his side, and water and blood flowed out (John 19:34). The apostle John wrote that the Spirit and the water and the blood bear witness on earth (1 John 5:8). Those of us who are born of the water (his Word) and of Spirit (the blood of his life) shall become part of his heart because this river flows from his heart; this river flows from his riven side; this river relates to his bride. Jesus’ bride will not be deceived. Adam had a wife who was taken from his side and who reflected the desires of his heart. She was deceived. Adam was of the earth, earthy, whereas Jesus is the Lord of heaven.

There is good gold and evil gold. The good gold is the nature of God, and it will cost us our own life. The evil gold also has a price. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil had a great price. The delayed effect took over nine hundred years to kill Adam, and by that time the chaos was of such unimaginable magnitude that God himself repented of ever creating man (Genesis 6:6).

12 there is bdellium and the onyx stone

Here in Colombia we have emeralds and other precious stones that have to do with the nature of God. But they are precious stones that sometimes cause a lot of trouble when they fall into the hands of fallen man. The Devil tries to get his hands on the precious stones of God but has been unable to obtain three of them. The Lord ordered Moses to put all twelve of the precious stones on the pectoral of judgment (bound by golden chains to the ephod), over the heart of the high priest representing all the tribes of Israel in a symbol of the Lord Jesus, our great High Priest, who has all the sons of God in his heart. This River of God that springs forth from the innermost part of our being produces this effect. It causes us to have a special place in our heart for all the other members of the body of Christ.

13 And the name of the second river is Gihon; this is the same that compasses the whole land of Ethiopia.

Gihon means “to spring forth and flow.” The River of God springs forth and continues to flow, and God desires this river to flow from the most intimate part of our being.

14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel; this is that which goes toward the east of Assyria.

Hiddekel means “rapid”; it is also the Tigris (an arrow) River. In Revelation 6:2 the Lord goes forth with a bow, victorious, mounted on a white horse. He can target any of us with the arrows of his righteousness. He can pierce us with his truth and modify our future. This is a spectacular river with many rapids and swift currents. The Lord can move us through all of this and into perfect peace.

14 And the fourth river is Euphrates.

Euphrates means “double fruitfulness.” This is what the River of God produces. The fruit is multiplied and multiplied and multiplied.

15 And the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

Here is where the problem began. He was to dress and keep it. The man was to work and to guard the garden. There was a danger lurking in the garden and instead of protecting the garden, he was absorbed by the danger.

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou may freely eat.

This included the Tree of Life.

17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shall not eat of it; for in the day that thou dost eat of it thou shalt surely die.

18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.

Note this: God told Adam about the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil before Eve was created. Adam must have told Eve about the tree, and she committed the great error of listening to the wrong voice.

19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living soul, that was its name.

For the ancient patriarchs, the name has to do with the nature, and the one who knows the name also has certain dominion and authority. Apparently someone was observing that Adam had all this authority and dominion and that he had come upon the scene so quickly. And this great archangel (the Devil) who had a lot of power did not want to have to answer to some little pipsqueak like Adam.

20 And the man gave names to every beast, and to the fowl of the heavens, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a help meet for him.

The animals were created in pairs, male and female, but Adam was alone.

21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and he took [from] one of his sides and closed up the flesh in its place;

22 and the LORD God built that which he had taken from the side of the man into a woman and brought her unto the man.

Note that this translation does not mention a rib. God opened Adam’s side. Eve came from below Adam’s heart. This is the same as what happened with the Lord Jesus when he died and water and blood flowed from his side. Those who are born again of water and of the Spirit of life form part of his bride. The river of water and blood, which flows from his riven side, is used by the Father to form the bride of Jesus Christ.

Note that Adam received the breath of life from God into his nostrils, but Eve was taken out of Adam and built into a woman by God who brought her unto the man. There was no separate act of breathing the breath of life directly into Eve. Scripture says that a man shall … cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh. The bride of Christ receives her spiritual life directly from Jesus.

What was the mistake that allowed Eve to be deceived?

She made a decision that Adam did not participate in. This was before the curse and before the woman lost her authority to the man. Notice what happens here. It is very important.

23 And the man said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

None of the rest of the creatures had this distinction.

23 she shall be called Woman because she was taken out of Man.

The word that is translated man is a word that can denote noble birth. The old civilizations had the idea that some were of noble birth and the common people were born slaves. Adam and Eve were created free, but due to a serious problem all their descendants (with the exception of the Lord Jesus) have been born into this world as slaves. The innocent little babies are beautiful, but they are slaves to the whims of their own hearts; slaves until the Lord cuts the control of the flesh in their hearts. This is called the circumcision of the heart and leads to true freedom.

She shall be called Woman because she was also created free. She had the freedom to listen to the serpent or to not listen to the serpent. She had the freedom to listen to Adam or to not listen to Adam. So she did not listen to Adam, and she did listen to the serpent. This caused a huge problem for Adam. Now he had to choose between her and God.

When the Lord Jesus chose the other tree (the Tree of Life) he chose God and also obtained the perfect woman. He opened the way for her to exist. Many have posed the hypothetical question of what would have happened if Eve had eaten of the fruit and Adam had rejected it. In this matter we are unable to resolve hypothetical questions. Eve was deceived, but the Scripture reveals that Adam rebelled (Romans 5:14). It does not say that it was Eve’s sin that doomed the human race. Scripture is very clear that it was Adam’s sin that caused all of us to be born into a realm of death and corruption.

24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh.

Eve was free, but she also had a dependency on Adam. She was created to complement Adam. Her access to the wisdom and spirit (breath) of God was through Adam, but now everything went backwards. Instead of the wisdom, spirit, protection, and life of God flowing through Adam and into her, the lie and deception of the serpent entered into her and infected Adam. What was only deception in her became rebellion in Adam.

Some have attempted to put together a teaching in which the woman represents the flesh, and the man represents the soul and the Spirit by the Lord Jesus. I do not feel comfortable with putting things together that are not clearly defined in Scripture. Many have made serious mistakes with these first verses of Genesis. We must be very careful to base everything only on what the Lord says and reveals because the serpent is there, ready to deceive us again. It does not matter if we are men or women; he can deceive all of us. Matthew 24:4-5 implies that even the elect can be deceived. The only human who cannot be deceived is the Lord Jesus because he is not corruptible. He is incorruptible. This is why there is such a high price to access the Tree of Life. It will cost us our own life.

25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Why? Because they had a covering. Their covering was their relationship with God. They were in a right relationship with God. They were also in a right relationship with all the creatures, beasts, and animals, and thus all were in a proper relationship with one another and with God.

Genesis 3

1 Now the serpent was more astute than all the animals of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Has God indeed said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

Look how the deception began. He did not start out by saying, “How come God prohibited you from eating from this beautiful Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?” He started by insinuating that God had them eating grass like the rest of the beasts and was very unreasonable in prohibiting them from eating all the fruit of all the trees.

There are those who continue to be astute like this. What do they seek? They are looking for a reaction from us, and after we react, they spring the next part of their trap. This is what happened here.

2 And the woman answered unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden.

She started out by defending God.

3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, Ye shall not eat of it; neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

4 Then the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

The first lie was a lot softer than the second.

5 For God knows that in the day ye eat of it then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was desirable to the eyes, and a tree of covetousness to understand, she took of its fruit and ate and gave also unto her husband with her; and he ate.

The problem is summed up in three or four verses, and the consequences have been going on for six thousand years. It was very easy to enter into the problem. It has been very difficult to get out of the problem.

7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves girdles.

Someone said that this was man’s first attempt at religion because the religion of men only seeks to cover what is evil. The problem was already inside them, and it was serious; their solution was to cover it up on the outside. The fig tree represents the religion of men, and when the Lord Jesus came to the fig tree seeking good fruit, there was none. He cursed the fig tree, and it dried up from the root (Matthew 21:19-22). The disciples marveled at this, but he said, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Remove thyself and cast thyself into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe that what he says shall be done whatsoever he says shall be done unto him (Mark 11:2-23).

Which mountain? The mountain of the religion of men. This mountain will cast itself into the sea on the great day that is at hand when a company of overcomers speaks forth the word of the Lord.

Matthew 24

32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree: When his branch is yet tender and puts forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh;

33 so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.

The religion of the Jews and all other religions are putting forth their leaves as never before. Who knows, the Jews may even build another temple in Jerusalem. Many evangelical groups and even Catholics have been affected by the rites and rituals of the Jews. Some of this has its roots in truth, but there are a lot of tares mixed in. It is much easier for the natural man to comply with symbols and rites, because if we are to embrace the real Tree of Life, it will require a tremendous surgery in our hearts. It is much easier to sew some fig leaves together and cover our shame which has been caused by the evil inside of us because we have usurped the place of God.

Some relinquish half of what they have taken. They will allow God to say what is evil while they continue to decide what is good. It is impossible to regain the blessing like this. It is extremely important to understand that Jesus cursed the fig tree so that it would bear no more fruit. No one will ever eat fruit from it again. The religion of man will never, ever produce the fruit of righteousness, the fruit of the Spirit. As a sign of the time of the end, the fig tree will put forth leaves. Leaves, yes; fruit, no. The leaves are all over; everyone is covering themselves with them, yet there will never be good fruit.

Genesis 3

7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves girdles.

8 And they heard the voice 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 And the LORD God called unto the man and said unto him, Where art thou?

10 And he replied, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.

11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee not to eat?

The fruit of each tree is produced according to its nature. There was no need for anyone to teach them that they were naked. It was in the package.

12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.

13 Then the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I ate.

14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all beasts and above every animal of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life;

We are formed of the dust of the earth, and men who follow their carnal desires, the desires of their bellies, are the prey of the serpent.

15 and I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed; that seed shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

The Devil has the possibility of crippling our walk, but God wants to cripple our walk in the flesh so that we will seek to walk in the Spirit. Jacob learned this. His walk in the flesh was crippled, but his name was changed; his nature was changed. God placed his name (nature) on Jacob. In Adam there is no blessing. Adam’s blessing was changed into a curse, but in Christ we are back in the blessing. He is the promised seed (singular) who was born of a woman and shall bruise the head of the Devil.

16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth sons; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed shall be the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

18 thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the grass of the field;

19 in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread until thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

The sentence of God begins with the serpent, continues with the woman, and ends with Adam. The earth was in Adam’s hands and came under the curse. Scripture also relates that one-third of the angels fell with Lucifer, the Devil, and that there have been problems in heaven as a result of great battles that have raged. The Lord mentions a key that can be within our reach which will bind things on earth so they will also be bound in heaven, and release things on earth so they will also be released in heaven (Matthew 16:19; 18:18).

What should we bind?

The life and curse of Adam.

What shall we release?

The life and blessing of Jesus.

20 And the man called his wife’s name Eve.

Eve means “life” or “living.”

20 because she was the mother of all living.

All humans are descendants of Adam and Eve.

21 Then the LORD God made coats of skins for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

God did not like the fig leaves. He made them coats of skins. How did God get the skins? Something had to die. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin (Hebrews 9:22). In the life of Adam there is no remission; in the life of Christ there is.

Through the rest of the Old Testament, the symbol of a true prophet of God is a leather girdle (or coat of skins). This means that the prophets were under the covering of a blood covenant, and the prophet understood that he was not to minister in his own life. A prophet who prophesied his own thoughts, his own ideas, his own dreams was a false prophet even if his prophecies came to pass, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Revelation 19:10). True prophecy is when the Holy Spirit of God speaks through his prophets. This is the manifestation of his life and not of the life of Adam.

22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live for ever,

23 therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.

24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubim and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life.

The cherubim and the flaming sword were embroidered on the veil between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies of the temple. Ezekiel had a vision of a new temple without a veil, without an ark of the covenant, with steps and rooms that complied with very careful measurements and where there was a family of priests, sons of Zadok (which means “righteousness”), who had access to the presence of God. The rest of the priests were not permitted in the presence of God; they could only minister outside, killing sacrifices and cutting up the meat.

We are the temple of the new covenant, and the Lord desires a people with direct access to himself. He promises that when this temple, made of living stones, meets his specifications, the true glory of God will enter and fill the house. What he will restore at the time of the end will be much better than what was lost in the garden of Eden.

Many desire a return of the glory, the beauty, and the simplicity of the early church, but the Lord promises that the wine at the end of the wedding feast will be much better than that served at the beginning (John 2:10). We have had the early rain and also the latter rain, but he has promised both rains at the time of the end. The Devil caused immense damage. Eve fell in his trap, and Adam rebelled, but God knew that this could happen. Scripture says that he prepared a lamb from before the foundation of the world to take away the sin (Revelation 13:8). God did not create the Devil evil; God did not make Eve yield to the deception; God did not make Adam rebel; but God knew that this could happen.

All of creation was made with the participation of the Lord Jesus. Without him nothing was made that was made. He worked together with his Father, and angelic hosts may have been involved. They must have contemplated the possibilities:

What if there is betrayal?

What if there is disobedience?

The two trees are in the garden, but what happens if they choose the wrong one?

Jesus was willing to become a man and die; from the beginning the Father was willing to sacrifice his only Son. The trouble with Adam and Satan has caused a lot of pain to the heart of God. So much so, that in Genesis 6 it says that God repented of having made man when he saw that the desires of the heart of man were always, continually evil (Genesis 6:5-6).

For those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose, the Scripture says that all things work together for good (Romans 8:28). If we love the Lord and are called to his purpose instead of our own, even what the Devil does, in attempting to destroy us, contributes in the end to the plan of God. The Devil thought it would be great to kill the Lord Jesus, but he was not even really capable of doing that because Jesus voluntarily laid down his life. The Devil intended to trap Jesus in death and hold him prisoner in hades, but instead he lost the keys of death and hades. Things have continued along this vein as millions of martyrs have given their lives or have been willing to give their lives (which is equally important to God) for the cause of Christ over the past two thousand years.

The Devil has had certain usefulness for a certain amount of time. Even in this great day that is presently upon the horizon, he will be bound in the bottomless pit when he was the one who used to hold the souls of the dead captive (until Jesus overcame death and took away the keys). It only takes one angel to bind him for a thousand years when God gives the order (Revelation 20:1-3).

The overcomers of God are those who have also turned their backs on their own life so that they may embrace the life of the Lord. The life of the Lord is the same Tree of Life except that it begins with a cross. The Lord Jesus was forced to carry his cross, and someone even had to help him. This apparent debacle, however, ended in resurrection. Now the Lord Jesus has the keys! He will reign with his overcomers for a thousand years (Revelation 20:4).

Scripture says that at the end of the thousand years the Devil will be loosed for a little while. This may be another example of the twelve years that appear every now and then and seem to jog the Bible time lines. After one thousand years of prosperity, after one thousand years of the reign of Christ upon the earth, anyone left whose heart is not right and who is still seeking their own life and their own things will have another opportunity to side with the Devil. They will have the opportunity to embrace the evil that the Devil has sown since the beginning.

Since the beginning of what? Not since the beginning of the creation of the heavens and the earth. Not since the creation of the Devil and all the other creatures. But since the beginning of the world system initiated by the Devil when he began his rebellion. The world is a system, a way of doing things that up until now has been run by the Devil for close to six thousand years. When the heavens and the earth were created, along with all the creatures that would inhabit them, the verdict was that everything was good and had been created to perfection. This was not the foundation of this present world. The present world system was founded by the dragon, the serpent of old, which is the Devil and Satan, an undetermined number of years later with lies, and as a consequence of the lies, rebellion and death entered. This is why Scripture says that he is a liar and a murderer from the beginning.

The earth had a good beginning. The world did not have a good beginning. The meek shall inherit the earth. The world will come to an end with all of its elements on fire (2 Peter 3:6- 7). These are two different things that seem similar and have been confused by many, when in reality they are vastly different. The world is the system of the Devil, the system of Leviathan (Job 41). Satan is the god of this world. The earth has to do with the people of God. The world is not the same in the Bible as the planet. The sons of God will receive the earth by inheritance. When the children of Israel received the Promised Land, it was filled with enemies, even giants that had to be overcome and vanquished.

After the thousand years the Devil shall be loosed out of his prison (Revelation 20:7-10), and it appears that many shall follow him and that the Lord will use this to weed out anyone whose heart is not right. God’s people have faced six thousand years of adversity, and there are many who have been faithful to the Lord and have overcome in the midst of many trials and tribulations. But the biggest test is yet ahead as we face one thousand years of prosperity. Whenever Israel prospered, the next generation almost invariably turned away from the Lord. The church has not done much better. God’s people have a very sad track record of losing their way when they are prospering and then of seeking God when they are being oppressed and persecuted by their enemies.

The strongest and cleanest expressions of Christianity exist today under the most repressive conditions. The church is doing much better in places like China, Iran, and Cuba than in Western Europe or North America. The most contaminated church may be in the United States where there is greater personal liberty and unparalleled prosperity. All of us long for the day when the Devil is bound and when we will be able to reign with Christ for the thousand years, but now is the greatest test for the people of God.

These people are the temple of God. They have allowed him to separate the light from the darkness within them, making a new creation. They have allowed him to mold them into willing vessels from which will flow his life.

Let us pray

Lord, may we understand your work of creation and may we be docile in your hand so that we may be molded anew in your likeness and image; that we may be touched and transformed until we know that we are bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh; that we have been formed by your Father from that which flows from your side (from your heart). Lord, may we appreciate your Word and your life over our own and over all the other voices of deception. Lord, may we form part of the new woman who will never be deceived because she depends directly upon her husband. Amen.