Man in a Perfect World (Part 2)

If you want to find Genesis chapter 2 verses 8-17 and I did not know why I've been doing this! I've had kind of a resistance to printing the scripture and I let myself do it anyway but you don't all have the same translation that I do and so maybe it will be beneficial for you to have the New King James Version there. The entire text is printed, not there at the beginning but as we go along, but I'm going to go ahead and read all of it now though.

So starting with verse 8 of Genesis chapter 2, here I am over in Romans. I declare somebody help the boy. Alright, the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden and from there it parted and became four river heads. The name of the first is Pishon. It is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. Not all gold was good but it must be really good. The Delium and the onyx stone are there and the name of the second river is Gihon. It is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Hittikel and it is one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates. Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden you may freely eat. 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. The Lord said, well I'm going to stop there. I'm going to give you verse 18. We'll have to wait until next time for that. All right. All right.

Now, last time we kind of ended up with, I didn't start with a three point outline but as we got toward the end of our study last time I started or gave you point one of the three point outline of, you know, pertaining to man. Man in a perfect world. And that's what we have here in chapter 2. Man in a perfect world. We don't get into the imperfect world until we get into the world.

Until we get into chapter 3 because something very bad happens there. Something that we are still suffering from today. But in chapter 2 it's man in a perfect world. Now, I shouldn't have to say this but ladies, because I use the word man quite often here and you know I'm not talking about just males. Although here initially we're talking about Adam and he was a male of course. But I mean mankind. All right. So mankind.

How about we put that? In fact, that's not even politically correct is it today? In fact, it irritates me when I'm working on my computer, my Microsoft Word and I have grammar check on the thing and if I use man or mankind it has a little red squiggly line there and it says that's just not proper.

So I need to check it out. So my computer, at least the program is politically correct. Maybe you've discovered that. All right. So we looked at, Ben, last time, Adam's creation. Now we didn't go into a lot of detail about that.

You know, God created him out of the dust or kind of scooped it up. Clay or dust and formed man and breathed into him the breath of life.

And so Adam became a living creature but unlike any other living creature God created because only Adam, of course, had the breath of God breathed into him.

Second, we're going to see Adam's location. Where did he live? And a little bit of what the Bible says about that. In Genesis 2.8, I read it a moment ago but let me quote it again.

The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden. And I kind of want to make note there that we speak a lot of the garden of Eden and a little bit later in the chapter, as a matter of fact, the New King James at least translates it garden of Eden.

But here, when it's giving a specific description or about to, it calls it the garden in Eden. That's a small point and I guess probably regarding any theological or doctrinal issue, it's probably insignificant.

But it's not the garden of Eden, it's the garden in Eden. In Eden. And there he put the man whom he had formed. Now, even though we don't know the exact location, and we don't, we have the general vicinity.

Because evidently, we can assume that the garden was destroyed, at least that part of the world. Well, really the entire world changed dramatically after the flood, Noah's flood.

And so, all that area was changed and the garden was destroyed. And we do know, I think, that we can safely say that it was eastward or somewhere east of Israel in that part of the world.

So, it would be placed, most would place it in ancient Mesopotamia. That may not mean anything to you, so you can get out an old biblical map and you can look that up some other time.

But, and that would include, by the way, the region that we today call the Fertile Crescent. Alright? Now, we're familiar with that, pretty much, I think.

And that would include, really, quite a large area. That would include much of Jordan, where Jordan is now. Saudi Arabia would be a part of that.

Really, that whole region. Syria, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait. That would be included in that region. Now, the word Eden means something like, or, best way we could maybe define it would be a beautiful plain.

Eden is a beautiful plain. And so, evidently, it was a very large area, because the Fertile Crescent in that area is very large. A large area in which, in which, God planted a garden.

He planted a garden in one particular part of this area, this place. Alright. Genesis chapter 2, starting with verse 9. And we'll make just a few comments along the way.

I don't know that I included all this in your notes, but just little, kind of little things that might be interesting to you. Verse 9, again, the Bible says, And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow.

That is, pleasant to the sight, and good for food. And I'm glad that you did, because I like trees. I really do. I know they're a real pain in the fall.

But just take care of that, and get on with it, and forget it. I love the trees. The tree of life was there. He says the tree of life was also in the midst of the tree. And there weren't trees of life, just one.

A tree of life, which was apparently for the continuance of life. That's not part of Scripture. I'm adding that as a little commentary. That apparently, the fruit from that tree, unlike the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, which was forbidden to them, best we can surmise is that eating from that tree is what prolonged their life.

Now, the tree, and then the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which as we shall see, was placed in the garden to test man. We'll get to that a little bit later. Verse 10, Now, a river went out of Eden to water the garden.

Remember I mentioned last week, I think it was last week, maybe the week before, that it had not rained, and did not rain on the earth until the flood. At least, in my judgment, from my understanding.

So how were things watered? Well, they were watered with a thick dew, and also rivers. So it doesn't say here that they were watered by the rain, they were watered by the rivers. And from there, it parted and became four riverheads.

And then God names the rivers, and he gives a little information about their location, though the information is not all that helpful to us. I'm not blaming God now, if you understand, okay.

But verse 11, the name of the first is Pishon, and it's the one, it says here, which skirts the whole land of Hivapabila, where there is gold.

And the gold of that land is good. And then he mentions Bidellium, which, best we can understand, was not a precious metal, but a fragrant gum of some kind that perfumes were blackly made from.

But it was very valuable, very valuable. And onyx stone are there. Verse 13, the name of the second river is Gihon, and it's the one which goes around the whole land of Cush.

We're just kind of describing Eden, and the garden that was placed in it. And he's mentioned here two rivers, and we don't know anything about them, really.

Don't know where they were. These rivers don't exist today, at least not by these names. That is Pishon and Gihon. We don't know about them. And the land of Havilah, verse 12, also unknown to us.

And also the land of Cush, though Cush is mentioned again later in Scripture. Not much later. You might remember that we're told that that's where Cain found his wife.

Actually, when we get to that, I'll explain that Cain found his sister, married her, okay. And just to whet your appetite for that discussion. The other two rivers are known.

And the places where they float are also known. Verse 14, the name of the third river is Hittichel, and it's the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is Euphrates. Now, especially Euphrates is familiar to us.

In fact, when our son was in Iraq, he was but mere miles away from the Euphrates River and actually did see the Euphrates River. All right.

So we know where those two rivers are. But even if we knew where all four of them are, and even if they still existed today, just to dispel any thought of maybe taking a trip over there and tracing those river heads back to a certain point and finding the Garden of Eden, you can probably forget that notion.

You're not going to be able to trace those rivers back and say, well, here's the spot. You know, here's where the Garden of Eden was. Because you need to remember, and I've already mentioned this, that absolutely every aspect of this earth's topography and geography were dramatically altered by the flood of Noah.

And so, you know, don't plan your trip anytime soon for that. All right. So we've considered Adam's creation, Adam's location. I've kind of moved through these pretty fast because the key part or key significant part of this chapter is what comes next.

And I've called it Adam's probation. Adam's probation, and that might seem to laud to you. We think of probation means, you know, somebody's committed a crime and they're out on probation.

You know, that kind of thing. But it's not exactly that. But I've already read, I think I included verses 15 and 17 in your notes, did I? Yes.

All right. I didn't in mine, so I guess I'll have to look at my Bible, which is not a bad idea. But here, what does he say? Then the Lord God took the man, put him in the Garden of Eden to tend it, to keep it.

That means to cultivate it and to guard it. Literally, he was lord over the garden. He was in charge of guarding it. From what and from whom, I have no idea.

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat. 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.

All right. So there it is. This is Adam's probation. Probation. Now, before we get into that, really, what I've called Adam's probation, I think there's a few, at least one major thing I think we need to consider.

And that's this. You need to understand that at this point, there is absolutely nothing, nothing wrong with the garden.

Not a thing wrong with it. It's perfect. Adam and Eve were placed in a perfect environment. Now, how we could describe that, we can.

And we have been, you have visited places on this planet, in our own country, beautiful places. You know, out in, you know, they're in the midst of trees and mountains and different places and they're beautiful and they seem so perfect, but they're not perfect.

But Adam was placed in a perfect environment. Now, this is going to make sense here in a minute. He was perfect in every, absolutely every way.

So, Adam was placed in paradise. In the truest sense of the word, paradise. God gave him a few things to do. I'd say probably didn't have a lot to do.

But he had a few things to do that were his responsibility. And God gave him basically, what it brought down to, God gave him one law. Go away.

Just one. And then he gave Adam, and this is important for us to understand. God gave him a choice. God gave him and created him with the capacity to choose whether to obey that law or to disobey it.

He had that choice. And so, if we're not happy, since all this is true, you know, perfect place. If we're not happy with the way things have turned out, then it's not God's fault.

All right, we know that, don't we? We can't blame God. If we're not happy with what happens next in chapter 3, and we'll get to that probably a couple of Wednesdays or so.

God's not to blame for that. See, God created the world and gave us paradise. Perfect. And man is the one that turned it into a garbage dump.

All right, I don't mean that in literal sense. Although some places it is kind of like a garbage dump. I mean, you know, it's full of death and full of sin and wickedness and crime. My world's full of crime.

I don't, you know, have to be the chief to know, you know. I know this world's full of crime and more crime and more crime and more and more. Now, here's my point.

What is it that people usually point to as the answer for the growing crime problem in our culture? What is it they know on the point? Usually poverty.

Poverty or a depressed social economy or however you want to define it. Now, the point I want to make is that Genesis chapters 2 and 3 should put to rest that popular notion.

That wrong notion. That bad environment creates crime. And if we would just, you know, the idea being that if we would just clean up the slums and if we could just end poverty.

And every politician that's ever run for office is, you know, if not promised, at least promised to work on it.

To end poverty. And that's what they seem to be trying to do. And if, you know, if people would stop doing drugs and drinking alcohol and stop killing one another and stop robbing the local convenience stores and other stores, then, you know, we could have paradise again.

That's the notion. Because, but that's foolish. It's ridiculous. And why is it? Because it supposes, it approaches the problem with this supposition.

That the basic problem in our world, problem in life, in our culture and society, the basic problem is what is on the outside of us. That's the philosophy of this world.

The problem's out here. It's outside of me. And so I'm not to blame. And so if we could just improve man's social environment, get rid of poverty and end class warfare, you know, by bringing everyone to a level playing field, that's, you know, we understand that kind of terminology.

So in the class warfare, everybody's on the same level, you know, economically and in every other way, which means, or which requires reducing some and elevating others.

And then, you know, turn everything over to a benevolent government that will take care of everyone's needs. And we know that they would do that and they want to do that, don't they?

Like education and health care and child care and employment and retirement and all those things that we very much want to have, you know. And if we could somehow do that, if people would, you know, just, if we could do all these things, then people would do the right thing.

Now, to put the prevalent philosophy of our world today in those terms does sound a little ridiculous, doesn't it?

Not a little, quite a lot ridiculous. You know, people just start doing the right thing. We could solve all these social problems and such. And, you know, they wouldn't steal because they wouldn't need anything.

And they wouldn't kill because they have no hatred and no envy. And we would just do away with all that. And all we, you know, then what we would do is recreate paradise.

Paradise that was lost. Now, Genesis 2, I think, positively disproves this philosophy. And it's because here is a man.

Consider this. Here's a man. His name is Adam. God named him. And Adam, unlike us, Adam had no sin nature. Had no sin nature.

And he's placed in a perfect environment. Perfect. In every way. He's placed in paradise. And guess what? He still chooses to sin.

He chooses to sin. And today, man chooses to sin. We don't even have the... Mankind does not have the freedom that even Adam had in his death.

He chooses sin. We choose to sin. And why is that? Because the problem we all face isn't out there somewhere. It's not only outside of us. Where is the problem? It's on the inside.

It's in here. And so we sin. Why? Because we love to sin. Well, sin is a joyful... Not joyful. Well, it is a joyful.

Fun. That's kind of thing. But we sin because we're sinners. You know, a person doesn't... I mean, a person lies because he's a liar.

Steals because he's a thief. It's the problems on the inside. And so we kill because we harbor murderous rage and envy and malice and, you know, things like that.

Selfish desires. And we rob for some of the same reasons. We steal and rape because something has gone wrong on the inside. And the point, of course, is...

And here's the connection with the gospel. Because this, you know, chapter 2 and on into 3, especially 3, lays the foundation for helping us understand why our world is the way it is today.

It gives us a biblical worldview. And then when we read the rest of the Bible, we understand that until the something is fixed, the only way to fix it, that's through redemption in Christ.

Until it's fixed, changing our environment is never, ever going to make things better. It's just not going to work. We're not going to ever reach a kind of utopia. And people have been striving for that for years upon years and promising that.

You know, utopia, paradise, Shangri-La, you know, all these different philosophies have been out there. And it's just not going to happen. You can take some rich people and send them to Harvard Business School and give them really important jobs and pay them hundreds of millions of dollars.

And what do you get? Enron. What do you get? You do remember Enron? So it's not the environment. Enron.

Which is why welfare will never, ever, in and of itself, will never change society. Never will. And that's good and right and, I think, biblical to show compassion for people in need.

And we need to do that. But do not be deceived in thinking that sin is merely an environmental problem or a cultural problem.

It's not. Sin is a problem of the human heart. Okay? And Adam's proof positive of that. That's the point that I want us to make. Now, here's the rub, though, in our culture especially, but not just here in America.

The problem, you see, is moral because it's on the inside. It's a problem with the heart. The problem we face are moral and they're not social. And they cross over into the social.

But the heart of it is the heart. It's moral. And yet, our government, their solution is always social and not moral.

Of course, you would expect them to seek a social solution, not a moral solution. But that's what they do. And they say or operate according to this philosophy that we cannot solve the problems of our society from a moral position.

Literally, that's what they believe. And why would they say that? Because that would be bringing religion in. And we can't do that.

I mean, that would violate, of course, this so-called separation of church and state. So we can't seek, you know, moral solutions because that's just another word for religion.

And we're not to be involved in that as a covenant. For example, we cannot teach abstinence in the schools as an attempt to curb the rise of teenage pregnancies.

We can't do that. Or to curb the rise of AIDS and some of those kind of things. We cannot legislate that marriage is between a man and a woman.

And we can't do that to preserve the institution of marriage in our culture. We can't do that. We cannot, say, endorse, you know, several years ago, and I think he's still quite outspoken, but Bill Cosby quite outspoken about telling the people of his own race to take personal responsibility for crime and for their neighborhoods and for AIDS and for the divorce rate and the rise of illegitimacy and so forth.

But we can't have that, you know. We can't support those solutions, not as a society, because that would endorse biblical values and therefore that would acknowledge God.

And that would be imposing religion on the culture. We can't do that. That's what they say. I'm not saying that. And so I would say that we ought to teach young people to save, you know, sex for the marriage.

They're thought to be doing that. We ought to teach them to do that. But others say, no, that's religion. They're not ridiculous. And I say, no, that's success. Not just religion, it's success.

I mean, that's the real answer to some of the moral issues of our culture. I say to preserve the healthy society. And marriage should be between a man and a woman. And others say, no, that's religion.

That's Bible. You know, that's the church, you know. And that's your belief, it's said. And I say, no, that's success.

It's success. And that's how to have a healthy society. Traditional marriage, traditional family, I'm just picking a couple there, those things work. They work.

And sure, God created it. He created it to work. He created it that way. But we don't have to believe in God for it to work.

You see, we don't have to turn everyone in the nation into a Christian, quote, Christian, in order to turn our culture back toward a moral culture.

What we need to do is certainly share the gospel. And we want God to say it as many as it pleases it. But we also want to preach the truth of morality.

And I think we can legislate morality. Yeah, God created marriage. And those things work, whether you're an unbeliever or a believer. And, you know, let me just have you think of it.

I think of this. Gravity works, doesn't it? Who created it? God did. But you don't have to believe in God for gravity to work for you, do you?

Do you? No. I guess the person could say, I don't believe in God, and so I'm not going to respect the law of gravity, you know. And that person would be a fool.

You'd go to the top of buildings. I'm just going to, you know, this is religion, so I'm going to disregard that and jump off the top of this, you know, 20-story building. Well, how foolish. And yet, I might remind you that no one, no one that I've heard of anyway, is complaining about the schools teaching the law of gravity.

They do that, don't they? They teach that. You know, they don't complain about that or want that removed from the schools just because God created it. And we know it works, and so we believe it, and we respect it.

And the same is true for the moral things as well. You know, heterosexuality, which is God's plan, it works. It works.

Homosexuality has always proved dangerous. It's just a common fact. And why, you know, of course it's a moral problem to even be blinded to this reality.

Marriage works, doesn't it? It does. I mean, when it's between a man and a woman. Abstinence works. It does. Every time.

You know, girls don't get pregnant when there's abstinence. You know. And they work, these things work because God created them to work, and so why not promote these things in our culture?

We should. They work. And they work regardless of who you give credit to. All right, now getting back to the text, though, when I'm talking about this probation. God placed Adam, remember I read the text a moment ago, and it kind of highlighted three duties, really a couple of duties and a law.

God placed him in the garden, Adam in the garden, and Eve there, to cultivate it and to guard it and to obey one law.

Don't eat from this one tree. It is, I think, important to note that Adam was given responsibility to cultivate the garden. That is, God did give him a job, and work was instituted early on in our creation.

And don't get the idea that work is, you know, part of the curse of chapter 3. We may feel that way sometimes, you know, that it's part of the curse.

But actually, it's the toil and sweat and struggle that we feel. That's part of the curse, okay? And the achy back and all those kind of things. I don't think Adam, working in the garden, and we're not talking about a little garden about the size of this room.

I don't know how large it was, but he cultivated a very large area. He worked very hard, I'm sure. So, God gave man a work, rather, was part of God's plan for man from the very beginning.

So, even in paradise, Adam was given a job to do. And, by the way, I might add that in paradise restored, and where will that be?

That'd be heaven. We'll have something to do there as well. I don't know what it's going to be, but I don't think we ought to have the idea that we're going to sit around on a fluffy cloud and pluck a harp all the rest of eternity.

We'll have something to do. But then God, he gave this law to Adam and Eve. And when you think about it, it's kind of unusual.

He said, eat from any tree you like. Any tree you like. This is kind of a paraphrase. Except one particular tree. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now, the question is, why did God do this?

Well, there are different views on it. I'll admit to you, I'm not going to tell you what they are, because they're all wrong with this one. And I'm not trying to be arrogant.

You can look them up on your own. Find some of the ideas about that. But I believe it was a test. A test for Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were, in that sense, put on probation after they were created.

And so the question is, will they obey? Will they obey this one commandment? Just give him one. Just one commandment.

I mean, technically. I mean, he was commanded to cultivate the land. And he was commanded to keep it, to guard it. But this is a clear prohibition.

A clear command. Thou shalt not. And he had just one. And it was not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good. And I want you to imagine with me, just suppose, and I don't know how many fruit trees God created, but let's just pick a number.

Say 200. Let's just say there are 200. In fact, Jonathan and I, before coming to church, were watching, I don't know why my son likes to watch the cooking channel, but he watched the cooking channel.

And these competitions, you know. And they are putting together, you know, some of the craziest things, ingredients. And I wouldn't eat it, wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole.

But there were several fruits they were using that had names I'd never heard of. So I don't know how many fruit trees there are. Let's just say there are 200. All right? And if so, then, the command really means this.

Adam, I have for you, I've given to you, 199 fruit trees to enjoy. 199 of them. You can eat a pear.

You can eat an apple. You can eat a peach. You can, you know, if you can eat an orange, a grapefruit. You want to have a fruit cocktail? Knock yourself out.

Go ahead. Put it together. You'll love it. It's all there for you to enjoy. Would you like to have some peach cobbler? Sounds pretty good to me. I don't know that they had ice cream in those days.

But I can't imagine peach cobbler without it. But, you know, God said you want a peach cobbler? It's yours. Just get Eve to bake it. I know you don't know how.

And how about coconut milk? No? Go ahead. Have fun. I saw somebody shake their head. Coconut milk. I know. How about, I mean, just climb up a tree.

Pick one. Get that coconut up there. Just drink it. Have fun. Maybe you'd like to have one of these fancy fruit pizzas. I hate those things.

Maybe Adam would like them. And if you want to have a fruit pizza, then go ahead. Have it. I think I have had one with strawberries. I didn't like that.

And so God is kind of saying, I mean, I think it's obvious. Indulge yourself, Adam. Eat from any of the trees or from all of the trees. Eat as much as you like, whenever you like.

You know, the buffet is open 24 hours a day. And they're all yours for you and your wife eating. 199 of them. But remember this.

God says, there's just this one tree. One tree that you must avoid. And if you eat that tree, the fruit of that tree, then you will certainly die. That's what he said.

Now, that's not a hard command to understand, is it? Is it hard to understand? I can't even imagine it would be hard to obey. At least from my perspective.

I'm not saying I would be any better than Adam. Is that, could we charge God with being too restrictive on that? You know?

199 trees are all yours, but just one. You better not touch it. In fact, later he said, don't even look at it. And, you know, and it might, I guess, might have taken, theoretically it might have taken Adam years upon years to sample all the trees.

To at some point get tired of 199 different fruits. You know, I don't know. And yet, you know, the possibilities are endless. So, what's the prohibition all about?

Well, I believe it's a loving test for Adam and Eve. A probationary period for them. Adam was created perfect.

He was created sinless. But God, in his wisdom, created Adam and Eve with a potential to sin. See, we're not even born with a potential to sin.

We're born sinners. I mean, we're part of the fall. But before Adam and Eve sinned, and that comes up here in chapter 3, they had not even a nature, no fallen nature, but they did have the potential to sin.

And so, they were created to choose. They could choose to love and trust and obey the Creator, God, or, of course, they could choose to reject Him.

And with that, they would be choosing to trust themselves. And God puts a test tree in the garden, and He warns Adam and Eve about it, and the warning is sufficient, and it's clear, and I can imagine that Adam listened very carefully to the instructions.

Don't you think you would? I think you would. I would. It was not a case of a communication problem here between Adam and God.

And, you know, He probably, I guess we could assume, even agreed with God about it. You know, that it would be foolish to eat from the one forbidden tree when there are so many others there for Him to enjoy.

I mean, that makes good sense. And yet, you know the rest of the story, and I'm not going to get into it tonight. That's the subject of chapter 3. But the serpent entered into the garden and tempted Eve, and she was deceived, and she ate that fruit, and she gave some fruit to Adam, and he ate it also.

And the rebellion became a way of life for the human race ever since. Ever since then. And it's almost as if Adam couldn't wait to disobey.

You know, when you read the Scripture here, you don't have any indication that there was a long space of time between Adam's creation and God giving these instructions.

I don't think you have unmarked time taking place. The Bible does tell us later how old Adam was when he died. And so we have, you know, a clear historical record that are given to us in Scripture about how old he was when he died.

And so a person could argue that their time wasn't being marked at that time, and yet we know it was because evening and morning, the first day, second day, third day.

So time was being marked. And so I think the indication is that Adam just couldn't wait to disobey. You just get right out there.

Well, Eve first, and then Adam. But it kind of seems like the very first time she was tempted. And then when Adam comes along, you don't have anything in Scripture, you know, indicating that he'd quarreled with evil about that or said, no, too naughty.

You shouldn't have done that or, you know, that he thought about it. She handed it to him. He took it. He ate it. That's what you get from Scripture. And so, you know, they didn't put up a fight, you know.

Just grabbed that fruit and ate it. Disobeyed God. And ever since then, we've all been born with a desire for that same forbidden fruit. And so we're born then, every one of us, we were born craving the fruit that leads to death.

And we eat it and we eat it and we can't seem to get enough of it as part of that fallen nature. And that's why the world is so messed up. And we, you know, Adam and Eve, in a sense, demanded their freedom.

And we have ever since. And when we got it, guess what? It killed us. It killed us. All right. So we're going to leave this particular issue for now, which is an issue that will be covered in more detail when we get to chapter 3.

And because, remember, we're still looking at a creation that is perfect at this point. Even though I've brought in, you know, my thoughts concerning what this tree was all about and what the purpose of the tree was.

At this point, anyway, and on to the end of this chapter, we still have Adam and Eve living in a perfect world. And though the probation, the test has been put into place, but Adam has not yet failed the test and sin has not yet entered into the world and Adam's world is perfect.

And so next time when we get back to this, we'll be looking at the first marriage. on the face of the earth. And we'll talk about that next time.