God's First Command and it's meaning for all times!

Sometimes we don't think enough of the words of God. What he said is often taken too lightly or superficially. With that in mind the following verse should be further examined:

Genesis 2:16 "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 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."

This was said to Adam before Eve even existed. The command was to Adam. He was man so this command was for all mankind!  Let's take a look at the meaning of Adam's name. It's Hebrew. Many believe that Hebrew was the original language of mankind!  "Adam" means "one formed from the ground". Hebrew adamah means "ground". In Latin homo means "man".  Humanus means "human" and humus in Latin means "earth", "soil" or "ground". Therefore, one can readily see where Adam, ground and man or all synonymous.

Notice that Genesis 2:16 is a command of God. It's the first time God put limits on man's behavior. Before this command, for that short duration in time, there had been no laws, rules, regulations nor anything. Man was completely free to do as he pleased and was totally innocent of any wrong-doing. This is the state in which Adam was created and it's the desired state for all mankind. Some seek a "Return to Paradise" by making it to heaven while others attempt in futility, I might add, to create Paradise or Utopia here on earth!

God's "command" was a "law"! For what reason are there laws of God?

Galatians 3:19 (ESV) "Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary."

 

The law was given to man "because of transgression". Transgressions are stepping out of bounds or going beyond the limits God expects of his creation. Eve was deceived by Satan and broke the law; the only law that existed at that time. "Eve you say?"

 

1 Timothy 2:14 (ESV) "And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor."

 

We normally think "Adam sinned". That he did, but it was Eve who instigated it! The serpent beguiled her and she then beguiled her husband. Adam too is responsible for breaking that one law:

 

Genesis 3:17-19 (ESV) "And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed ...  for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

 

Here we see that Adam should not have listened to Eve "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife..." God told Adam, not Eve, the command. Again, the command was made before Eve was even created. Adam's role was to instruct Eve. He apparently did, but Eve didn't listen well for she got the message confused!

 

Genesis 3:3 "but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

 

God didn't say that! It seems that man never gets it right. Not only do we fail to hear, but we fail to understand. Eve added her own take on God's command. She did that because Satan deceived her and used what we now call "spin" to encourage her to believe a lie. Because Adam listened to woman and did as she did, his sentence was death: "for you are dust, and to dust you shall return".   This is death. God gave a command and gave a penalty for breaking that command. It was death! God's definition of death is "returning to the dust from which a person was created". Think about that! Our body is nothing more than the compounds found in the soil mixed with 80% water. We're so accustomed to adding water to a packaged recipe to have instant food, so guess what? We are no more than "instant man"! If it wasn't for the gift of mind and body we'd be little more important than Lipton's Soup!

 

In that same verse is more! Since we're not merely packaged soup, it is seen that Genesis 2:16 establishes our "free will". We are given freedom by God and given a command. What was Adam to do with that command? He had a choice! He could either obey God's law or violate it. That "choice" indicated that God had given him a "free will".

 

Probably the best definition of"free will" is our ability to make a choice without intervention by God or any others. It's an individual's own faculty. Choice is made by "reason", which is "logical thinking". Cognition is when we think and the faculty of "thought" lies in the brain. This passage from Genesis continues to grow! It's God's "First Commandment", punishment for disobedience is provided, it shows man's freedom, it acknowledges man's free will and it establishes reason in mankind. "Reason" is virtually defined by "the knowledge of good and evil". Knowing what's "wrong" and what's "right" requires evaluation. Man must reason to make a logical decision.

 

In order to reason it demonstrates man's unique mental capacity, going far beyond the other animals. God enhanced us with the capacity to learn by constructive thought. However, in their innocent state, learning was for befriending God, tending the garden, interacting with the animals and with each other. By eating of the fruit of the tree that knowledge was expanded to include "wrong". With the eating of the fruit was when man gained a "conscience". It's an aspect of man where our reason evaluates what's set before us. It's the "good" and "bad" scale between mind and spirit! Our mind is on the side of the flesh (body), but our spirit is our soul which must do "good" to be in harmony with God. The conscience is the check-valve which encourages, but not demands, that we obey! The interaction of mind, body and spirit is our free will and that will is inherent in the conscience.

 

One of the last lessons in Genesis 2:6 is not as clear. It's the first time that the "First Commandment" is stated:

 

Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me."

 

Where in Genesis 2:6 does it say that? It's implicit, but consider first what God said later about their disobedience:

 

Genesis 3:22 (ESV) Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—”

 

God said about Genesis 2:6 that by eating of the fruit, man sought to become a god. Hence, it is implied that Genesis 2:6 is a command for man to not make himself a god, or in plain terms "You shall have no other gods before me." Thereby, using scripture and reasoning, it is truly apparent that God's first commandment in the garden is the same as the First Commandment of the Decalogue! In the beginning "God said it." and on the mountain "God wrote it down!". In stone, no less!

 

There is much to be learned from that one verse. The depth of it is only scratched. Books could be written to explain that one statement of God and what it has meant for mankind and what the consequences were. Consider how important the First Commandment is! It's the "Greatest Commandment"! The Greatest Commandment is:

 

Matthew 27:37 (ESV) "And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment."

 

"Loving God" is having no other gods! You see, it's the same thought! It's the same thought as loving God to the extent that a person does not make himself a god!

 

The Bible has continuity! That's called "internal consistency". All valid works are internally consistent. A writer can't change gears, so to speak. The message must be clear and the same throughout. Scripture shows that when God spoke to Adam back in the garden in the beginning, it was the same message which he gave to Moses on the mountain and the same message Jesus gave to all mankind during gospel times. Jesus spoke the same thoughts as God did back in the garden because he IS GOD and He was there! There were no other intermediary and the same message was god-breathed!