Disclaimer: It should go without saying that these are by all means fictitious tales. I want to make this absolutely clear: This is not a new revelation from God. I am not dictating the Word of God. Please take everything I say here with great caution and perfect deference to the Bible. This is simply one man’s poor attempt at imagining what it would have been like to be Adam. I have tried to remain faithful to the Bible’s account and to not deviate from it.
Day 6
Eve was up before me. She awoke me as I was dreaming of flying through the clouds with the birds. Eve was distraught about something, for I sensed her feelings of sadness and pain and confusion. I asked, “What has saddened you?”
Eve was up before me. She awoke me as I was dreaming of flying through the clouds with the birds. Eve was distraught about something, for I sensed her feelings of sadness and pain and confusion. I asked, “What has saddened you?”
“I was
getting some water at the stream, and as I came to drink, I saw a small
creature motionless on the ground. Its eyes were open and yet it would not
move. I approached it and touched it. It was not alive. Why would it be dead?”
“Show me.” When
we came to the stream, a wild beast was eating the dead animal. We were both
disturbed, and Eve, for the first time, wept. I comforted her, but I was not
able to understand this ugliness of death and the cruelness of the animals. “Surely
God has a purpose for this ugliness in our paradise, or He would not have let
it be so, for He is too good to have no purpose.[1]
It is to teach us something important. Life without God brings decay and death
and pain; this is what He has taught me. Animals have no understanding of Him or
His beauty or true life. They are never really alive.”
It was at
that time that the Lord appeared and came near to us. We bowed before Him as
was our custom. “Please rise up, beloved children.”
“Listen now
to my words, for I have come to give you understanding and wisdom. Animals
deserve neither life nor death. They cannot transgress against Me, for they do
not know Me or understand good and evil, and only a transgression against Me is
deserving of death. I do as I desire in all heaven and earth;[3]
I give life and I take life from them. They are created for My glory. They reap
their rewards of living, and they reap their pains of living. I give them
breath and life as long as they have it.[4]
Even the pains of living are worth the gift of existence for them, for no
animal wants this gift taken from them, no matter how much pain they suffer. The
pain they suffer is because of their ignorance and selfishness, for no animal
has a selfless love for all the others. All the animals have fallen short of My
glory and live according to their vanity, and the suffering shows the rewards
of their ways.”
Eve said, “But,
my Lord, why do You let them die?”
“It is for you
to see My glory that they live and that they die. The animals perish forever in
the day that they die. They cannot understand death when they are alive, nor
can they remember living when they are dead or long for it again. You grieve
for yourself and not for them, Eve. Do you both understand these things?”
When we had
acknowledged that we did understand, He warned us once more earnestly not to
heed the voice of the serpent nor to partake from the Tree of the Knowledge of
Good and Evil in the garden. He reminded us that as long as we followed Him we
would never see death. It was then that Eve stopped crying and she knew again that
God was good. All her confusion melted away, and she hugged the Lord God, for
the first time. Then He said, “Bury the animal and go from this place, but
remember what you have learned today. You have been blessed above all the animals
to know Me and to have an abounding life that will not end. Rejoice in this!”
And His peace and comfort flowed powerfully into our hearts.
After
burying the animal and speaking to the Lord for a time, Eve and I walked in the
garden and did rejoice together. We laughed wholeheartedly without the
slightest measure of a dirtied conscience of guilt or regret.
(Those days
cannot be recovered—not even in nine hundred years of repentance. Rather, guilt
has been piled upon guilt. There is no rest for a sinner.[5]
Though I have found forgiveness and a measure of cleanness of conscience, there
is always regret as a lingering poison in a wound. Yet, I thank my God and
Redeemer that the guilt and regret are bearable because of His loving
forgiveness washing over my soul every day.)
We also worked
in the garden as God had given us command. We buried rotten fruit. We removed
weeds. And we drove out wild animals, all of which were made afraid of us in
those days, for the glory of the Lord filled the garden.[6]
We sang cheerful songs of our making together—praises to our Lord God. For the
first time, we discovered quite naturally how to harmonize in our music. The
end of this harmonizing brought great laughter of pleasure.
Then, it
occurred to Eve that we should build a place to dwell, though as of yet we knew
nothing of stinging insects or the burning sun. She wanted a special place to
rest together at night. After a moment of thought I agreed, and we pondered how
this should be done, for we had no tools.
After
scouting about the land of Eden for a time, we discovered a small forest to the
West. We decided that we would break branches from the trees and use them for
the roof and walls of our dwelling place. We also found dead branches on the
ground that we used. As I was starting to put together our dwelling, Eve headed
back to the forest to gather more branches.
She later
recounted this story to me. When she was out, she came upon the black, legged
serpent. The serpent spoke to her as it had to me, saying only deceptive
things.[7]
It could somehow speak directly to her mind and her to its mind. “Eve, queen of
the world and chosen of God, how is it that I am blessed to meet you?”
She was
confused and disturbed by this greeting. “How do you know my name, and what do
you mean by calling me ‘queen of the world’?”
“I know many
things, for I am a seeker of knowledge and understanding, and I search out the
truth.
“Has not God
told you, then? Has He not told you that you are a queen of many peoples to be
born? God is holding back great knowledge from you and Adam—”
“God speaks
what we need to hear. I know about you. You are a slanderer and a deceiver!”
“Ask Him,
Eve. He will tell you Himself that He withholds many things from you. He will
not tell you about the future or about evil. I am not the deceiver, but I reveal
to you what God will not for your own good.”
“You disgust
me! Go from me, now! I love my God and He loves me dearly.” When the serpent
tried to further talk, Eve turned about and left it near the forest. However,
questions began to rest in her mind about the Lord God and about what the
serpent had said.
When she
returned to me, I was too occupied with setting up our place of dwelling to
notice that she was upset. She came and helped me, but did not then mention this
encounter with the serpent.
Not far off,
we had found some small vines that were wrapped around trees. We pulled many of
these vines down to use as rope for our small lodging. We also started
collecting the largest leaves we could find to cover the roof and walls of our
new place.
The Lord came to us as the evening was nearing. It was then that He spoke of the Sabbath.[8] “Every seven days is a day of rest for you and all who come after you. This is a day sanctified to the Lord your God, and in it you must not weary yourselves but rest and seek My presence. I will come and be in your midst.” Beginning at sundown[9] was the first Sabbath, we were told.
The Lord came to us as the evening was nearing. It was then that He spoke of the Sabbath.[8] “Every seven days is a day of rest for you and all who come after you. This is a day sanctified to the Lord your God, and in it you must not weary yourselves but rest and seek My presence. I will come and be in your midst.” Beginning at sundown[9] was the first Sabbath, we were told.
So, we put
down our leaves and vines and spoke sweetly with the radiant Lord for hours as
the evening began to grow dark. Eve and I did not grow sleepy. Speaking to the
Lord in those days was so captivating and engaging that sleep would be
impossible.
The Lord never spoke of the serpent, and Eve had forgotten about it.
The Lord never spoke of the serpent, and Eve had forgotten about it.
When the
Lord walked off from us, we quickly became sleepy in the moonlit night. As I
slept with Eve in my arms, another vision came to me as I was expecting by now:
The sphere of earth was beautiful. I could see all of the world at once: dark blue and green and white and brown. In the vision, I fell down to the earth and came to see the surface of the waters and land again. Birds were flying in the air and alighting on the ground, but I could not see many familiar land animals. There were strange, fierce lizards, and some unrecognized creatures of the land, but nothing I was familiar with other than turtles, frogs, snakes, and a few other slithering, hopping, or crawling animals.
Then the Spirit of God spoke, “Let the earth be causing living creatures to be brought forth after their kinds: cattle, and scurrying animals, and wild beasts of the earth after their kinds.”[10]
The birds more fully abounded in great bursts of variety. Then, I watched as a fiery, burning mountain was cast down to the earth and dust filled the sky for a short time. The fierce and great lizards died out, and all kinds of familiar land animals abounded, even as some more birds formed.
Even as many new animals were forming on the land, the Lord spoke again and said that man should be formed and created in His very image and according to His likeness.[11]
So, with great interest, I watched as humanlike creatures formed from hairy creatures. This confused and disturbed me at first. Was I nothing more than an animal?
The Lord spoke to me, “Adam, consider how you were taken from among these lowly animals. You were a spiritless creature of little reason and without the gift of knowing Me. Watch and see what happened to you, and how you became much greater than any animal.”
I watched and saw myself collapse (just as I spoke of early in my story), and I became as dead. As my body lay there, the Spirit of God hovered over it and I saw His Spirit breathe out a sort of flame that entered my lifeless body through my nostrils.[12] Immediately, my body sprang up from the ground, and I was for the first time truly alive!
“Consider, My son, that you were once as good as dead,
but you were made alive by My life-giving Spirit.
You were as a lowly animal before,
yet you were created as a Human,
made in My image and after My likeness,
when you received a spirit from My breath.
You shall not say of yourself, ‘I am but an animal,’
but rather say, ‘I am a living spirit.’”
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