Creation Through the Eyes of Mercy

I have covered the fall of man.  Actually the first three posts I wrote for this blog were in response to the question, "Why did God create the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil if He knew man was going to fall (you can find them here, here and here)?"  You know me, I got started and just couldn't shut up.

I hope you have grown with me in this exercise in Bible study.  I started out with the explicit intent to keep the posts very basic and only cover the 'sincere milk of the Word' and not meatier matters.  I have not always been successful.  I'm at the point now to stop trying as hard.  I'm just going to write and pray for God's insight not only on by behalf, but on the behalf of my readers.

There are so many questions brought up by the story of creation found in the first three chapters of Genesis that we have barely scratched the surface.  The one I'm going to try to answer here is, "Where is God's mercy in all that judgement?"

Remember, Adam's sin brought death and a curse on all of creation.  God looked harsh when 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 is the ground because of you; and in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.  By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; and you are dust, and to dust you shall return." Genesis 3:17-19 ESV

God said this to Adam after He had already cursed the serpent to crawl on his belly and Eve to suffer in childbirth. 

"Where is the mercy?" you may ask.  It is everywhere in the story.  Have you ever wondered why God cursed the serpent first and not Adam?  After all, He was talking to Adam and then, all of the sudden, He turns to the serpent.

It is because the first thing God did was promise the Savior.  The first promise of the Messiah is found in the curse upon the serpent. 

"Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.  I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel." Genesis 3:14-15

This promised offspring, this seed of the woman, was none other than Jesus who was born of a virgin and not the seed of man. 

Another mercy is that God is the one who provided covering for Adam's shame.  Adam and Eve had tried to cover their nakedness with fig leaves which were totally inadequate. God had to spill the blood of innocent animals to make their covering.  He could have left them cowering in disgrace.

I think one of the greatest mercies is found in the fact that God removed the Tree of Life and this is actually what prompted this writing.  Many think that God was afraid that if He left the Tree of Life, Adam would have become His rival because of what He said. 

"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 life forever-' therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.  He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden He placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life." Genesis 3:22-24

Think it through, People.  Adam is a created being.  He could never rival God.  The same goes for Satan.  He thought he would ascend to the throne of God and take it.  Stupid, stupid, Satan!

No, God was not afraid that Adam would become a rival god.  God made sure that Adam and Eve could not live forever in their ashamed, fearful, miserable state.  What a mercy!.

God had promised redemption through the seed of the woman and showed how they could cover their shame until the appointed time through the sacrifice of animals.  The Tree of Life would have complicated things so much; of course, not beyond the capabilities of God, but complicated things nonetheless.  

Guess what else the mercy of God provides, future access to the Tree of Life.  That's right, it's right there in the book of Revelation.  Revelation 2:7 says: 

"He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God."

Revelation 22:14 says:

"Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of Life and that they may enter the city by the gates."

The point of the whole thing is that God had a plan.  Nothing takes Him by surprise, and by His mercy, the outcome has been in the works through Jesus Christ from the foundation of the earth.