Introduction. The resiliency God placed in the material creation is as amazing as the creation itself. God has not revealed the exact sequence of events, but we know that the creation in its pristine form was far different from the one we live in today. After God was forced to curse the earth due to sin, terrible things once impossible have become now frighteningly possible, and many of us have experienced them or seen them in the news. It was not God’s will that we live in such a creation. It all started with sin and the curse God was forced to create.
As God saw His finished creation, “God saw everything that He had made was very good.” This is the world God wanted us to live in. He wanted us to have complete dominion over everything in the creation. He gave us that dominion: “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish ... the birds, ... and the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (Gen. 1:26). This is the world God created for us to live and work within. The tree of life was there so we could live forever, and there was nothing that could bring sickness or death.
Although God warned Adam that terrible consequences of rebellion against Him would bring death, Adam still made the choice to rebel. The full extent of what happened after God was forced to curse His creation because of man’s sin is the new reality we see today. The world is a far different place than the one we read about in the first two chapters of Genesis. Because of the curse of sin, instead of “all that God has made was very good,” God now describes life under the curse as: “all is vanity and striving after wind.” Prior to sin, man had full dominion, but now, “what is crooked cannot be made straight,” and “what is lacking cannot be numbered.” (Eccl. 1:1-2; 14-15)
As God saw His finished creation, “God saw everything that He had made was very good.” This is the world God wanted us to live in. He wanted us to have complete dominion over everything in the creation. He gave us that dominion: “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish ... the birds, ... and the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (Gen. 1:26). This is the world God created for us to live and work within. The tree of life was there so we could live forever, and there was nothing that could bring sickness or death.
Although God warned Adam that terrible consequences of rebellion against Him would bring death, Adam still made the choice to rebel. The full extent of what happened after God was forced to curse His creation because of man’s sin is the new reality we see today. The world is a far different place than the one we read about in the first two chapters of Genesis. Because of the curse of sin, instead of “all that God has made was very good,” God now describes life under the curse as: “all is vanity and striving after wind.” Prior to sin, man had full dominion, but now, “what is crooked cannot be made straight,” and “what is lacking cannot be numbered.” (Eccl. 1:1-2; 14-15)