Sword & Trowel 2015: Issue 1


of man’s powers and gifts was God’s purpose for him. He was and still is constituted to be active in purpose- ful work, today in both secular and church life. Inactive churches are unfulfilled and unbalanced, as well as unblessed. We are made for produc- tive serving in every sphere of our lives.


The test of man Our attention is instantly engaged


by the pivotal words of Genesis 2.16- 17, where a great test is laid upon the first man and woman, God sanc- tioning every delightful fruit for his enjoyment with the single exception of the fruit of the tree of the knowl- edge of good and evil. This is rightly seen as a covenant between God and man, with God freely giving so much to man (life, home, happiness, food and purpose), and man for his part being required to obey God. The obedience was the easiest kind, because Adam was not asked to ac- complish anything difficult, but only to desist from doing one thing that he had no need to do. For his happi- ness he did not need the knowledge of good and evil. In other words, the only duty for man was that he should not be hostile to the will of God, or oppose him. He would have every wonder- ful thing, while he trusted the Lord and observed the one prohibition in a Garden of magnificent provisions. Not only was the duty given to man easy and light, but the warning against disobedience was frighten- ingly severe, ‘But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that


thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.’ Later, in Genesis 3, will come the Fall, when man died in a number of respects. His sense of fulfilment ended, his perfect happiness was lost, his intimate communion with God disappeared, his status before God withered, his eternal blessedness fled, and his security perished. Death rushed in, bringing spiritual death and beginning the process of death in his body. Before tracing man’s Fall, we are told of the entry into the Garden of the first woman. First – Genesis 2.19 – there is the naming of the animals, whether the principal representatives of each species, or more, or just those which would be encountered in the Garden, is a matter of debate. They were brought, and Adam named them. There were no predators in that perfect place, no claws adapted for aggression, no gaping jaws or venom, but all creatures were docile before the first man. He is seen in the naming of animals as an astute think- er and student of zoology. As master of creation he is able to categorise the animals, naming them surely in accordance with their distinctive fea- tures.


But among the animals there was no companion fit for Adam. Not that he was looking for such a helper from among the animals, as it was undoubtedly clear to him that he was their lord, and considerably greater than they. But as he studies the ani- mals and takes note of their powers and beauty, it becomes increasingly obvious to him that he is alone, with- out a worthy earthly friend. His loneliness would not have been a


The Garden of Eden


 page 39


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