Death – Genesis 2:15 – 17 (ESV)

 

“Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. – Gen 2:15-17”

 

God makes a declaration in Genesis 2 that on its surface seems deceptive. God promises that the day Adam-male and Adam-female eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that they would die and later on Genesis we’re told that Adam lived 930 years. What’s going on here? Well just like in lesson 3 where we learned there’s a biological life, sourced through physical means and a spiritual life born of God who is spirit. Death is the same. There is a biological death that Adam suffered after 930 years. But there’s a spiritual death that Adam-male and Adam-female suffered as soon as pieces of the forbidden fruit were bit into.

 

We see the effects. A perfect and loving union is fractured to its core. Adam-male in his sin-state tells Adam-female she is no longer a perfect representation of him, but someone else. She’s now Eve. She doesn’t get to keep the name God gave her, but because she has lost her co-authority with Adam-male, she must accept it. How many churches which are supposed to be the bride of Christ call themselves by another name? A name that can not save and has no divine power to deliver? But alas, that’s a different lesson.

 

In this new state of spiritual death, what was just an easy acquisition must be worked for. Food that once burst from the earth as a present from *Yahweh-Yireh, just there for the taking must now be patiently cultivated and harvested through thorns, sweat, tears & anguish. The very presence of God, which was just as much of the atmosphere as sunlight, now has to be sought daily through prayer, meditation and study. If life is to have the spirit of God make Himself and His fruit observable and available, then death is the absence of the Holy Spirit and for love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control to be not only absent but impossible. Death hypocritically desires those character traits in others but loudly disdains any demand that those same traits reveal themselves in self. 

 

Where life is moving forward towards the light, which is the structure and safety provided by the willful submission to God’s authority. Death is to be dragged backwards into deeper and deeper darkness, chaos and terror that disobedience leaves in its wake. Death is where the sweet promises found in the word of God are bitter to confused and foolish tongues. Where the submission to God’s wisdom and order is not the culture. However, our Christ controls even death via His successful mission to live a sin-free life, die the biological death on the cross and take back up His biological life in 3 days. We see that in the first chapter of The Revelation of John, [“I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death. – Revelation of John 1:18]

 

The Messiah tells us not to fear biological death but the spiritual one. [“And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. “But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him! – Luke 12:4-5] The spiritual death is the one of FAR greater consequence. The biological death is something to avoid as long as possible through the proper care of our physical vessel. How much more important is the proper care of our spiritual vessel? For the believer, biological death is no more than a passage to eternity, for the unbeliever it is one end of two. May the Bread of Life find them.

 

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff are with me;” – Psalms 23:4 The reason David can be without fear in the valley of the shadow of death is because he knows that even if physical death comes, his soul is secure. Physical death is nothing but a shadow compared to the spiritual one.