Troublesome TopicRead These Assumptions First

This speculative reconstruction of the lives of Adam and Chavva after Eden assumes that God allowed the consequence of their sin to be harsh. By this I mean that He did not prepare them carefully for all aspects of life in a cursed world; in most cases they had to figure things out on their own. I believe that the consequences of their sin turned out to be more serious than Adam and Chavva ever imagined. This assumption fits what I have to say in What Is Meant by “Knowing Good and Evil”?

It also fits the pattern I see throughout the Bible, but especially in the Law. This pattern shows that God is like a tough coach; He is getting us ready to meet the opposition and His tactics seem harsh from our perspective. He knows that lightweight teaching methods can only teach lightweight lessons. Yet He knows what He is doing and He is very effective at teaching us what we need to know if we remain submissive and obedient to Him. The same is true for us today because some of God’s most effective teaching tools in our lives are hardship and suffering. Therefore, I am convinced that God did not make it easy for Adam and Chavva after they left Eden. They had to learn how to survive in a dangerous new world, and learn mostly on their own.

However, I also assume that for a few key issues God gave them just enough information or insight in order to survive. While He made the consequences of sin harsh, He did not make their situation impossible.

Here are some examples:

  1. Time: The sun, moon and stars are to “serve as indicators of seasons and days and years” (my paraphrase of Genesis 1:14). I see here a hint that a pattern would become evident over time and that pattern would prove helpful in many ways. Because of their expulsion from the Protected Enclosure, they had to figure out time on their own. We know they did figure most of it out because they recorded how long each male lived prior to the flood, thus they figured out how to count years.
  2. Food and water: Yeshua probably helped them understand that they needed both food and water. It is safe to assume that when they were removed from the Protected Enclosure, they knew the importance of finding food and water.
  3. Sacrifices: I believe that after Yeshua had made them clothes, He disposed of the animals’ flesh and bones by burning them. In that way He taught them about sacrificing. “The red man made from dirt” understood that blood represents life; therefore he would later teach his sons that a sacrifice to God must be that of an animal that has blood.
  4. Fire: “The Red Man Made from Dirt” saw how “The Lord is Salvation” started the fire to burn the flesh of the first sacrificial animals, but he could not get one started himself. He remembered that first “The Lord is Salvation” had broken off some branches from a tree and with much intensity He had breathed on them hard and loud many times. “The red man made from dirt” and “the one through whom God gives life” saw the leaves wilt and dry up. Finally “The Lord is Salvation” arranged the branches He had dried out and put other things among them, including bark and grass, which He also dried with his breath.

It is also safe to assume that Adam and Chavvah were very intelligent and ancient man before the flood was very intelligent.

The next lesson in this study is The Meaning of the Names Adds to the Story