Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. [Genesis 2:7]
God’s breath. The breath of life. His breath straight into Adam’s nostrils—divine CPR. Imagine waking up and being fully cognizant of your Creator, in a perfect environment, no need for fear or confusion like a newborn. Nor were there any of the other emotions we experience upon wakening, such as the impending pressures or boredom of the day ahead.
Although God had created the whole earth at this time, He set aside a beautiful garden, created along the lines of Heaven itself, where He would commune with His new creation, mankind.
As He says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” He says “let them have dominion over” all the animals. He then put man in this beautiful garden to work it and to care for it.
God values rule and government—order. The Bible begins with his creating order out of void or chaos. Even his placing of the lights in the heavens indicate order and rule: “And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness.” (1:16-18)
A lot of the commentary regarding the mandate God gave Adam in having dominion over the earth is called cultural. I also want to call it a holy mandate. This was indeed a great responsibility given to the first man and woman, the responsibility to multiply from them a race that they would teach God’s ways about caring for, subduing, and keeping the earth. I heard a term that I loved, and searched high and low for the origin of it. I finally found that C. F. D. Moule in his book Man and Nature in the NT*, uses the term vice-regent. Mankind was to represent God in their rule over the earth, subject to the rules God gave them to abide by.
Psalm 8
O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
you have put all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
The question arises: If we are made in God’s image, and the original mandate is to be his vice-regents over the earth, to care for it, keep it, subdue it…as Christ’s followers, how are we doing with that?
Kibera slum, Kenya
Next, we will explore God’s first command given to Adam,
"You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 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." (2:16)
Did Adam understand the ramifications of death? Did he understand fully what the wages of disobedience to the Creator would be? Did he understand enough to explain it to his helpmeet? Did God explain it to Eve as well? Did he need to since he had explained it to Adam?
Ponder these questions as we will discuss communion in the garden prior to the fall, ramifications of the fall, and the first covenant made with man.
*Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1967
