Article 2015-03 - Adam & Eve's Mission

Chapter 6: Adam & Eve's Mission

Introduction

When we fail, our failure does not nullify God’s calling on our lives. Often we underestimate the consequences of sin in our lives. When we do not repent from sin, our hearts harden, and increasingly so, to the degree that time progresses. There are only two sorts of people: the ones truly with God and those truly without Him. The former should reach out to save the latter, bathing their efforts in prayer. In this lesson we look at the fourth, fifth and sixth of the ten foundational themes: Man’s part in God’s mission, Man-made solutions for the sin problem and Conflict between brothers.

Scripture reference

• God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule … over every living creature that moves on the ground (Gen. 1:28
• … Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord … but on Cain and his offering He did not look with favor. So Cain was angry (Gen. 4:3,5)
• ... while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him (Gen. 4:8)
• By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did (Hebr. 11:4)

The story.

There they sat. Sad and defeated, counting their losses. Paradise lay behind them and they could not return. Adam and Eve had been disobedient to God, but they remembered His instructions. He said that they should be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. He wanted them to use all their possibilities to serve Him. Full of remorse they decided to obey God to the best of their ability.

They worked the land, named the animals, and children were born to them. Bit by bit they understood the difficulties of life that God mentioned before He sent them out of the garden. Adam noticed how hard it was to work the land; thorns and weeds sprung up everywhere. Eve was confronted with labor pains. They regretted their desire to know evil. Yet, they also found satisfaction and happiness in each other, in their children and their harvests. They served God and again felt His smile upon their lives.

They also noticed that after their first sin, sin was never far away from them. Sometimes Adam and Eve had arguments. Their sons had arguments. Not even the animals lived in peace with each other. With sadness they understood more and more how heavy the consequences of their sin were. Every so often they cried out to God and asked Him to restore peace to how it had been before. It did not happen. They even saw sin increase. It became visible in many forms. Every time they noticed this, their sadness grew and they tried to bring peace back to their home. Especially the frequent quarrels between their two sons Cain and Abel worried them.

After many years the differences between the two brothers came to a terrible climax. Cain killed his brother Abel and left home. In one day Adam and Eve had lost two sons: the youngest was dead and the oldest fled because in his tremendous guilt he could no longer face his parents. Adam and Eve cried, moaned and grieved for a long time. They had come to know evil in a yet deeper form – and hated it. Often they said to one another how horrible evil is. Sometimes they dreamed of going back to the time that they had no knowledge of it. If only they had chosen to obey God, instead of listening to the serpent!

Scripture reference

• If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9)
• The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them (Gen. 3:21)
• He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9)

The story, continued

Later Eve became pregnant again and birthed a son whom they named Seth. When the boy grew up his parents told him about God, about their time in the garden and how they lost it. They also spoke about his brothers and explained what happened. From time to time they heard from Cain and how he had left God and followed his own godless desires. Fortunately, in Seth they saw the same desire to serve God that they had seen in Abel. Eventually Seth also got a wife and children. That line of descendants served God.

Adam and Eve may have wondered why their sons were so different. Abel served God, Cain did not, but Seth again did. There were two different lines, the ones who served God to the best of their ability, and the others who left Him. These parents may not have realized that God created man with a free will, a gift they had abused by disobeying God. Adam and Eve, after being expelled from the garden repented and chose again to serve God. Some choose to serve God and others don’t.

Adam and Eve probably cried out to God, that He would bring their children back on His path. Maybe they visited them from time to time to see whether they could encourage them to repent and serve God again. Maybe they prayed for Cain, his wife, their children and grandchildren. They remembered God’s promise that later a Son would be born Who would bring salvation from sin, by crushing the serpent’s head.

Comment

The first sending we read about in Genesis is the assignment, given to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, in which man is destined to ‘rule, be fruitful, increase, fill the earth, and subdue it’. This was man’s destiny and although he jeopardized that assignment by sin, redeemed man can still reach his destiny to rule with Christ.
The original assignment implied the ‘working of the garden and to take care of it’. Therefore, world missions includes salvation outreach to the whole man (spiritually and physically), as well as caring outreach to flora and fauna including the environment. To neglect, defile or pollute God’s creation, in whatever form, is to insult its Creator.
God’s Mission is a mission of salvation which He first mentioned just after the fall: the seed of the woman – Jesus Christ – will crush the serpent’s head, that is, gain final victory over Satan.
The original assignment was not withdrawn after the fall, but its execution would now encounter considerable hindrances. The Bible says that there will be pain: in human reproduction, marriage relationships, agricultural reproduction and in the work place.

If failure would nullify God’s calling on somebody’s life, there would be no place for repentance or restoration and there would be no missionaries working in the world today. It is important though, that missionaries understand the seriousness of sin. It cannot be assumed that during our life on earth we will reach a state of sinlessness. Sinning can be compared with using rough wooden tools bare-handed. In using such tools tender hands contract blisters. If these are ignored, they will bleed. Eventually the hands become callous and lose their sensitivity. Another example could be a heap of cement, just made ready for use. As long as it is stirred it stays flexible and can be used, but if it is left alone it becomes hard. When we move away from the conscience-stirring of the Holy Spirit, we will eventually become hard and He can no longer reach us with His corrections.

Whoever was saved by the Lord has a responsibility to reach out to other lost people and tell them the good news of Christ’s salvation. This is true for all church members. They are called to do local evangelism. It is also true for church members that were called to take the gospel elsewhere. They are called to foreign missions, taking the gospel over barriers of language, culture and religion. Whether one is a local evangelist or a cross-cultural missionary, both must understand the seriousness of sin, everybody’s need for salvation and the hardening effect sin has on hearts that slide back or refuse to repent.

Discussion & dialogue 

• Discuss what Adam & Eve’s mission consisted of
• Why did Abel’s sacrifice please God, whereas Cain’s did not?

Comment, continued

In Cain and Abel’s story we see theme 5 coming up: man-made solutions for the sin problem. After the fall, man had to live with many consequences of sin. His conscience told him that he was wrong, guilty towards his fellow man but most of all towards God. Man was bothered by his conscience; it was a pain in his soul for which he sought relief. He knew: I am wrong, I have to change. At the same time he understood by his repeated sins that it is very hard to change, let alone do away with the accumulated guilt. Some cried out to God for help, others hardened their hearts and tried to silence their consciences.

We see the first pair of brothers in Genesis, Cain and Abel, present an offering to God. Both were conscious of their sins.

Abel understood that there can be no forgiveness without bloodshed and in offering an animal from his flock he followed God’s example, of which he had probably heard from his parents. He understood that sin leads to death because when his parents sinned, God killed an animal to cover their nakedness. Blood had to flow on their behalf and Abel concluded that this applied to him too. So he voluntarily killed and shed blood to atone for his sins. It gave him a cover in the God’s eyes and his conscience received peace.

Cain had no such understanding. He probably did not know what to do about his sins and silenced the outcry of his conscience by hardening his heart. He accepted his sinful behavior by trying to convince himself ‘that’s the way I am’ without trying to change. Yet, he knew that his behavior was not right and one day decided that it could do him no harm if he too brought an offering. His hardened and unrepentant heart still had some sin-awareness left that displayed some religious behavior: it looks right, it may even feel right, but it is not, at least not in God’s eyes. Cain knew he had sinned but considered it too small a thing to kill and shed blood for. He did not receive the inner peace Abel had and noticed the difference. He became jealous, angry and depressed. After a while his unhappy feelings turned bitter and he wanted revenge. Later he could not bear it anymore and killed his brother who, by his godly character, kept shaking Cain’s conscience awake which Cain had previously done his utmost to silence. Now at last he was delivered of this pain in the neck, called Abel. 

This first murder initiated a separation in mankind: that of those who follow God in His way and those who think they follow Him but use their own methods. The second one, truly without God, persecuted the first one, truly with God and so it has been ever since. All through history counterfeit followers have persecuted God’s true followers. As early as in Genesis we see the first separation between the true and the false church. The separation will culminate into a worldwide conflict at the end of time, which the Bible calls the great tribulation. Between Cain and Abel we see the only real separation in humanity: the ones with God and those without Him. This has always been true and will remain true throughout eternity. Therefore the first group must do everything they can to warn the second group and bring them back to God. That is our mission, because God wants no one to be separated from Him. 

Discussion & dialogue

• Discuss the functions of man’s conscience and how guilt should be dealt with
• Why did Abel’s sacrifice please God, whereas Cain’s did not?

Comment, continued

We now consider our sixth theme, already introduced in the last paragraph, and occurring more often later: Conflict between brothers. In Genesis we find several brother-stories: one brother or closely related family member walks the way of God, the other does not. The ones who did not made a conscious decision not to conform; instead they chose to remain on the way of death. Not because they had to – salvation was equally offered to them – but because they wanted to, for different reasons. These straying brothers suffered great loss. The same principle applies today.

Six Pairs of Brothers

With the first pair of brothers we see that Abel chose to follow God’s ways and principles. Cain chose not to do so, sinned heavily and lived away from the Lord’s presence for the rest of his life. It would be illogical to assume that deliberate choices made on earth, suddenly change at the moment of a person’s death. Choices made during life one earth have eternal consequences.

Scripture reference

• When he [Noah] drank some … wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside … When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, he said, ‘Cursed be Canaan…’ (Gen. 9:21,22,24,25)

The brother stories, continued

The second set of brothers we see with Noah’s son Ham and his brothers. We do not read about Ham repenting and changing his behavior after making fun of his father’s nakedness. Therefore he brought a curse over his descendants. A thousand years later, a number of peoples that descended from Ham were partially driven out of the country that God had promised to Abraham, through the latter’s descendants. It may look like as if this curse was universal, as if all descendants from Ham were predestined to damnation, but that was not the case, never has been, nor ever will be. God is good, always on the lookout whom He can save. There were individuals from these peoples that were saved, like Rahab or Ruth, because they joined Israel.

Later we read about Abraham and Lot, who were brothers in the sense that both were believers, but Lot’s greed for material wealth finally brought him down. He left the line of the promise (Abraham) and with that the blessing and the purpose. He lost almost everything: material possessions, his wife and his moral integrity, and was only just saved. Lot had received an earlier warning: he was taken captive by some kings who waged war against the king of Sodom, beat Lot and led him, his people and their spoils away. Abraham undertook a successful rescue mission: the true heir of the promises brought his straying brother back to where he (Lot) had chosen to live.

If only Lot had recognized the warning of God in this pre-judgment, he could have preached the council of God to his fellow-citizens, or, if they would not repent, have left. His losses could then not have been as big as they were when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed a few years later. The consequences of Lot’s sin with his daughters, resulting in the conception and birth of the two half-brothers Moab and Ben-Ammi (from whom the Moabites and the Ammonites came forth) are significant. Both peoples harassed the Israelites repeatedly in later centuries. It might all not have happened, had Lot stayed with Abraham. The choices of just one man may have far-stretching consequences for the wellbeing (or not!) of the nations.

Ishmael didn’t go along with his half-brother, the son of the promise, Isaac. Their mothers also made different choices. Hagar rebelled and later her son. As a result they had to be sent away. Had they submitted, they would have shared in the blessing. Rebellion leads to separation. God sanctioned this separation because Hagar and Ishmael had wrong heart-attitudes towards Sarah and Isaac. God knew that without true repentance there could never be true reconciliation. We have to pray for the conversion of the Ishmaelites, known to us as Arabs, the majority of whom are Muslims. The separation between Ishmael and Isaac is similar to the separation between Abraham’s seed (the followers of Jesus Christ) and all others, who are not. Without turning to Jesus Christ there is no salvation for them. This applies to Jews too. The only way of salvation for all of them is to believe in Jesus Christ. Neither Muslim nor Jew has to perish. They can be saved. Salvation is offered to them. But who is willing to travel to their lands and tell them? We see hostility towards their brothers in all the world, where Muslims fight or even persecute Christians as well as Jews. Only Jesus Christ can break those huge barriers of hostility down, and He died to do so! Jesus is the one true Brother Who gave His life for all, so that all can be reconciled to God by the forgiveness of their sins, and be reconciled to each other as well. Jesus Christ alone can do what no Palestinian-Jewish peace-agreement can ever do.

The next pair of brothers is Jacob and Esau. They are two types of men, neither of them holy and both in need of salvation. Their destinations were determined by their choices and behavior, not by God’s ‘pre’-destination.

Esau represents carnal, self-willed nominal Christianity that is not born again (despising his birthright). He refused to live up to the standards of his parents and married wives from an idolatrous Canaanite tribe. He represents a form of Christianity that neither submits to Christ (typified by Isaac) nor to His Church (typified by Rebecca). Esau-Christianity makes its own laws, goes its own disobedient ways, rejecting the way of salvation.

Jacob represents a form of Christianity that in the beginning differs little from that of his brother but on whom the promise rests and whose faith finally matures after God’s severe dealings with him. The older was to serve, that is to submit to the younger. Had Esau been obedient to this word of God, he would have been blessed too, but he was indifferent and thought about temporal life only. He refused to submit and separation came. These stories show us (as does the story of Jacob’s sons) that natural birthright is no guarantee for inheritance, but that promise is. Nobody can claim spiritual birthright, based on natural birth. For instance because one was born in a Christian family or culture, in a certain church denomination or by being a minister’s, or a missionary’s child. God has no grandchildren. A person can only become a child of God by being born into God’s family. Therefore, it was never the oldest who inherited the promise but always the younger. In a spiritual sense, only our ‘youngest life’, the new identity in Christ, can inherit eternal life. Our old(est) life can never please God. Carnal Esau-religion will not see God’s Kingdom.

The separation between Joseph and his brothers shows how the one who made it to the throne and saved the land stood apart from the others who didn’t. The latter needed to be saved themselves and never ruled.

Finally, we see the revelation of Joseph to his brothers. He surprises, blesses, frightens, feeds and imprisons them, ‘hijacked’ one, tests them and weeps over them, as one day the Jews will weep over Jesus when they recognize Him at His return.

Joseph said to his brothers that they had to bring the youngest brother; otherwise they would not see his face again. It reminds us of Jesus’s words: ‘But first the gospel of the Kingdom must be preached in the whole world to all nations and then the end will come’. So, the end will not come (we will not see His face again) until all nations have heard the gospel. Not until we bring the last brother to Him will we see Him at His return.

Discussion & Dialogue

Describe the main difference between the six pairs of brothers that were mentioned

Sum up why Lot failed in his ‘mission’ to Sodom and Gomorrah

Explain the difference between ‘Esau-Christianity’ and ‘Jacob-Christianity’

Explain the spiritual principle that the older brother should serve the younger

Links to related content

• Powerpoint to use for this study
• Biblical Mission Stories - Teacher’s Guide
• Biblical Mission Stories - Table of Contents