Troublesome Topic: ADAM AND CHAVVA’S FIRST 24 HOURS OUTSIDE OF EDEN

Let me ask you to think about this for a minute before proceeding to read my thoughts.

All you have known is safety, but now you are placed in a totally new place with lots of dangers. You arrive there at night. Your heart is so heavy you can’t think straight. You are afraid and angry. You have no idea what to expect. Everything you have known may have changed. How difficult would that be?

As we go through this thought process together, put yourself in their place, then ask yourself, How would I have responded?

It was evening, the time when the day breathes with refreshing coolness, when Yeshua (Jesus) came calling for them because they were hiding (Gen 3:8). By the time he had built an altar, prepared what He needed for a fire, started the fire, killed and skinned the animals, placed the remains of the animals on the fire, fashioned clothes and showed Adam (“The read man made from dirt”) and Chavva (“The one through whom God gives life) how to wear the clothes, it was completely dark.

So the first several hours outside of the Garden of Eden (“the protected enclosure of delicate delights”) for “The red man made from dirt” and “The one through whom God gives life,” were spend in complete darkness, wishing for some of that fire that Yeshua (“The Lord is Salvation) had used to consume the sacrificial animals.

I think there were storms that first night and they had to seek shelter wherever they could find it. They were chilled in a way they had never been in the protected enclosure. There was plenty of lightning and thunder, which were new to them, and more than a little terrifying. It seemed like God was very angry with them. That may have been true, or He may have been sending them the signal that things were not going to be easy for them.

They argued several times that first day. He was angry that she had been so head-strong and she was angry that he had not done his job of protecting her. But how could he, she was determined to eat that fruit no matter what he said. They remained angry at each other for quite some time.

On that first day outside of “The protected enclosure of delicate delights,” they had several immediate needs which they learned about very quickly. Over time they needed to become functionally knowledgeable about everything that directly affects life. But to start with they needed to focus on the basics. They needed food, water, and shelter. Fire would be nice too. Thankfully, water was not that hard to find at first.

The winds of the storm had caused much of the fruit to fall from the trees. At first the fruit was good, but soon it had worms in it! Image being the first person to discover a worm in a piece of fruit before you even knew that was something you needed to watch out for!

On that first day outside of “The protected enclosure of delicate delights” “the red man made from dirt” and “The one through whom God gives life” heard various animals making their customary noises but now they could not fully understand what they were saying. Whereas before those noises had communicated clearly with the humans, those same sounds were now almost meaningless.

Then they witnessed something that shocked them; they saw one animal kill another one and eat its flesh. They were aghast. They never imagined that such a thing would ever happen. Would new consequences of their fall into sin ever stop appearing? (We do not know exactly when animals started eating meat. The fall of man into sin may have caused this change immediately, or the change may have started at the fall, and then gotten worse over time as some animals grew more accustomed to eating meat.)

As night approached again, “The red man made from dirt” wanted to build a fire the way “The Lord is Salvation” had done in order to burn the flesh of the first sacrificial animals. He saw how “The Lord is Salvation” started the fire, but he could not get one started himself. He remembered that first “The Lord is Salvation” had broken off some branches from a tree and then with much intensity, He had blown on them hard and loud many times. “The red man made from dirt” and “the one through whom God gives life” saw the leaves wilt and dry up. Then “The Lord is Salvation” arranged the branches He had dried out and put other things among them, including bark and grass, which He also dried with his breath. Finally “The Lord is Salvation” used either His breath or a flint stone to set the tinder on fire (I think He used a flint stone in order to show man how he could do it later). So “the red man made from dirt” tried to imitate everything “The Lord is Salvation” had done, but he could not get the leaves to dry up or a fire to start.

By the end of that first full day “The red man made from dirt” said, “My garment stinks!” The alternative was to go around naked, but he no longer felt comfortable doing that.

The next lesson in this study is Adam and Chavva’s First Week Outside of Eden.