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Eve

first lady

created in God’s image (Gen. 1:26)

wife of / coregent with Adam

mother of all living (Gen. 2:7, 3:20)

I know you’ve all heard the term first lady. Well, I am the original first lady, created in God’s image to be the coregent with the first man, helping that man in the order, purpose, and relationships with which we’d been entrusted. I’ve come to tell you my story, but I need to begin at the beginning. That was just five days before I was created.

The beginning tells you about the place of perfection into which we were created, with the order, purpose, and relationships. You need to understand all that was prepared for us and how we fit into God’s perfect creation. You could divide my story into two parts: before and after our disobedience. That would leave you with a very bad ending. Graciously, The LORD God was ready and able to will a third-part: eternity after our temporal lives. It is too easy to lose sight of eternity, as I tell you about the beginning of time. But you must understand, eternity was never out of the mind of The Creator.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, an empty waste, with darkness covering the surface of the watery depths.

Some have difficulty seeing this description of chaos as a creation of God and have, therefore, speculated a gap between the two verses. They suggest that the battle in heaven between Michael and his angels with the dragon and his angels occurred between verses 1 and 2.

Revelation 12 tells you that the dragon and his minions were cast down to the earth. And since we understand that chaos is the enemies’ goal, this is a reasonable speculation. But if that battle happened between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, it was before my creation. I can only report the thinking of others.

What you may see in the rest of the creation story is that God was bringing order out of chaos, establishing purpose, and instituting relationships.

Now I’ll be telling you of creation, but not in the chronological order of Genesis 1, and not with a focus on the material. I want you to see the creation of order, purpose, and relationship. So I’ll be giving you the story in an order which I hope helps you see God’s planning.

In verse 3, God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. That was the evening and the morning of the first day (Gen. 1:1–6). The day began at evening, sunset. Jews continue to keep that original time design, evening as the beginning of the day, to this very day.

A second consideration I’d like to share with you is that those of an Eastern mind-set, Hebrews in the time the Scripture was written, will tell you that Westerners think too narrowly of creation. You ask “how;” they ask “why.”

So I’ll put more emphasis on the “why” aspects of creation, because those of us from the East do. As you listen, you’ll hear that every created thing was ordered and given purpose and relationship. That includes you!

Now we’ll go to day four. God returns to His creation of day one—light. God said, “Let there be lights in the heaven to divide the day from the night; let them function for signs, for seasons, for days, and for years, and to give light upon the earth.” And so it was. God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also, to give light, to rule, and to divide the light from the darkness. God pronounced it suitable; that was day four, evening and morning (Gen. 1:14–20).

Notice the order, purpose, and relationship between the lights and the day and night. The lights were to divide and signal. You might also be interested to know that the seasons, days, and years in Genesis 1 suggest holy seasons, holy days, and holy years yet to be identified.

On day seven, God would ordain the first Holy Day. Holy Seasons and Years, like Holy Days, were/are for remembering what God has done and for anticipating what God has said He will do. The means of signaling these days, seasons, and years were put into place on day four, while only the first holy day, Sabbath, was established in this first week. The others would come much later.

On day two, God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” So the firmament came into existence, dividing the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. God called the firmament “sky” (Gen. 1:6–9).

Ever wonder about the waters above the sky? The “canopy theory” proposes that the waters above the sky were an ice canopy connected to the earth’s poles, which dissolved in the flood. Such a canopy1 would have kept the sun’s rays from reaching the earth’s surface unfiltered. Those who propose this theory suggest that this would have slowed the aging process of all things, perhaps preventing the fermentation of fruit. Could explain a lot, don’t you think? Noah’s drunkenness may have been the result of this “new” fermentation process after the canopy melted.

On day five, God returned to the creation of day two—the sky with the waters above and below. God said, “Let the waters bring forth abundantly and swarm with living creatures, and let birds fly over the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.” So God commanded the waters to bring forth all the creatures of the sea and the sky, after their kind. God saw that it was good, and He blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the waters and the air.” That was evening and morning of day five (Gen. 1:20–24).

The waters “created” sea creatures and air creatures. The water’s and sky’s purpose was to be habitation and sustenance for these creatures. The creatures were given the purpose of fruitfulness. They were to produce and care for an ongoing creation—their offspring. Remember that command to the creatures; you’ll hear a similar command again.

Back to day three, when God said, “Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, so that dry land appears.” God called the dry land earth, and the gathered waters He called seas. God approved this.

Next, God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb-yielding seed, and the fruit trees yielding fruit after their own kind, with their seed in themselves.” So it was accomplished. God approved this also (Gen. 1:9–14).

Before we leave the third day, I want you to notice that God didn’t create the grass, herb yielding seed, and fruit trees. God commanded the earth to bring forth… God commanded creation to create. So have you considered that you were created to create? Are you creating?

And the relationship? Grass, herb yielding seed, and fruit trees derive their life from the ground from which they came. Relationship. Then there is the relationship between the plants and trees with the animals and humans, yet to come.

In the first three days, The Creator established…

order, which serves as the basis for time,

purpose, which serves as the basis for function, and

relationships, which serve as the basis for habitation and sustenance.

On day six, The Creator returned to the creation of day three, the land and plants. God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after his kind, cattle, creeping things, and beasts.” It was accomplished, and God declared it suitable. Once again God commanded creation to produce—in this case the earth was to bring forth cattle, creeping things, and beasts.

How interesting that He declares His plan “suitable.” Faint praise, to my thinking, for what was indescribably beautiful and functional beyond human imagination. And for a second time, The Creator tells the created beings, land animals, to reproduce.

Still on day six, God continued, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth” (Gen. 1:26).

You see, in Genesis 1, God reveals God’s Self. He is a united plurality—trinity, you’ve heard it called. “Let Us made man in Our image and after Our likeness.”

Humans are in God’s image. What does that mean? More than you or I could figure.

To begin, we are a united plurality. We are a mind, a body, and an eternal spirit. We are creative. Good stuff. We have power to choose. Aw, now that was a part of God’s image that we found both wondrous and disastrous. You’ve no doubt experienced that. But God’s purpose for us was relationship. Robots don’t relate.

From the beginning, God was making a place for humans. In creating humans in His Own image, God was establishing His relationship to the created order: He provided the earth for humans; humans were to serve Him by fellowship with Him and stewardship of His creation.

So The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul (Gen. 2:7). Humans were God’s only “hands-on” creation. Only with humans did God “get His hands dirty.” Only into humans did God breathe His breath. The crowning creation was humanity—in God’s image.

Man’s first creative function was the naming each of the types of creatures for which we were to care and keep.

But for the man, called Adam, there was not found a suitable or complimentary partner (Gen. 2:20). Did you ever wonder about the conversation between Adam and The Creator regarding this situation? Perhaps Adam noticed the relating of each animal to its partner. He, of course, had God, but The Creator is so infinitely superior. The Almighty, in His wisdom, chose to give Adam a partner who was suitable—a help equal to him.

So The LORD God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep. While Adam slept, God took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh. From that rib, The LORD God fashioned me and brought me to Adam.

Adam responded, “This, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she will be called woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they will become one flesh” (Gen. 2:21ff).

So my purpose was to be a help to Adam in all the purposes for which we were created. Do prophets always understand their words? What did Adam know of a father and mother? Perhaps more than you think. But that’s not important. They were not to be his partner. I was to be his lifelong partner, as he was to be mine.

Adam named me Eve, because I was the mother of all living (Gen. 3:20). Before children were born to us, I was the mother of all living. Do animals live? Was I the mother of all living? What did those animals mean to me? Do you get attached to the animals for which you care? I’ll just leave those questions for your consideration.

I will point out, I was not made from a foot bone to be walked upon, nor from a bone of Adam’s head to rule over him. I was taken from his side, near his heart, to be his companion, his love, his soul mate. I was created a suitable help—equal to the task. Oh, that I had been that help. A help to obedience. But I’m getting ahead of my story.

Now, Adam and I were naked, but not ashamed (Gen. 2:21–25). We didn’t think about clothes. We had no need to be protected. The sun didn’t burn. There was no frost to bite. The climate was perfect. We were perfect—in body, mind, and spirit. Such bliss, but we only realized that bliss later.

So God created us in God’s own image, male and female. God called us “human” and blessed us, saying, “Be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth, and steward it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and every living thing that moves upon the earth” (Gen. 1:27ff).

You’ll notice, Adam and I were both created in God’s image. We both received the same instructions about being fruitful (the first set of commandments). Unlike the animal kingdom, we were to steward creation—together. A steward is one who is responsible for the care and the direction of that being stewarded. What a privilege! What a responsibility!

God had created us equal to that task and dealt with us as one. So few in your time and place, even those claiming to be God’s Own, live according to that original design.

The Almighty instructed us, “Look and see, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit yielding seed. It will be meat for you. I have given every green herb for meat to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to every thing that creeps upon the earth” (Gen. 1:2ff).

And so it was (Gen. 2:27–30). Abundant food for all creatures just growing out of the ground. No planting, tilling, weeding, harvesting. Just growing.

We’d not been present to view God’s handiwork before we were formed. We’d known nothing of the void before God began creating order. We could only imagine a watery chaos stretching as far as the eye could see. We could not fully appreciate The Creator’s awesome, diverse, and detailed plan of creation. The earth becoming blanketed with vegetation as varied and lush as any garden you could imagine. Afterward, we became aware of perfection. Afterward, we came to know what perfect beauty had been like—when we could no longer see and live in it. You cannot imagine!

But try, won’t you. Try to see your world without sin and the consequences of sin. Perfect! Your own body, perfect. No aging, no injuries, no pains, no disease, no flaws, no scars. Envision all the people around you perfect, no jealousy, no misunderstandings, no animosities, no hurts.

Try to conceive of trees and bushes without damage or disease. What would it be like if all the animals of earth, sea, and air lived off plants, in peace, harmony, and the joy of each other. No imperfection—none.

Conceive of food in abundance, without blemish, and of superb flavor, texture, and color. No cooking or seasoning, only pick and eat.

Until you can get some idea of this world into which we were created, you can have no conception of what all we lost. Or I should say, “all we gave over” by our disobedience.

Among the trees—which were pleasing to the eye, delicious to taste, and nourishing—stood the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life (Gen. 2:8–10). Now it didn’t rain in Eden. A mist came up from the ground and watered the earth (Gen. 2:6). A river flowed out of the garden, dividing into four head waters (Gen. 2:10). I doubt, anywhere on your earth now, there’s such pure, clear, refreshing water. It was delightful!

The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He placed us. Our function, if you will, was to dress, guard, and keep the garden (the second set of commandments). God said, “Of every tree of the garden you may eat freely, except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You may not eat of it, for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die” (Gen. 2:15–17).

God looked at everything that He had made and declared it very good. No higher standard was there ever to be met, and no higher praise could ever be given. That was evening and morning, day six (Gen. 1:31).

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. On the seventh day God rested from all His creating. God blessed the seventh day and set it apart, because in it The Almighty rested from all His creative work (Gen. 2:1–3).

You may not have considered it, but the seventh day was a creation in a different sense—the creation of the first holy day—the first day of remembrance and anticipation. This was a day to rest and worship. Remember, we were not made for the Sabbath; the Sabbath was made for us—to remember, to anticipate, to rest, and to worship.

The days flowed by without much attention from us. We enjoyed being in this place of perfection, learning to know the plant, animal, and bird life. Of an evening, The LORD God would come to walk with us and talk with us. Only afterward would we know how delightful it had been to enjoy The Creator’s company and hear all He would teach us. Only when it was too late did we realize how much He had to share with us and how much we had benefitted from the time He spent with us. But time had little meaning for us. It was not our enemy, as it sometimes is for humans in your day. It just was. We just were. No pressure. No guilt. No fear. Perhaps when God had said we were to tend, guard, and keep the garden, we should have taken that as a warning (Gen. 2:15). Guard and keep it from what?

God has an enemy (Isa. 14:12–14, Ezek. 28:12–18). This enemy’s goal is to kill, steal, and destroy (John 10:10). This enemy wanted us dead. He wanted the power in God’s creation that God had given to us. And he wanted to destroy the relationships we enjoyed with The Creator and with each other.

Be aware: the enemy of God is your enemy. He wants to kill, steal, and destroy in your life, your purpose, and your relationships. If you fail to recognize your enemy, you will not be prepared to wage war against him. If you do not do battle, you lose. I know now—I lost. Please, won’t you heed my warning to you.

Acknowledge the enemy. Beware his subtle doubts and lies. Learn to battle him. The Almighty is on our side, if only we trust and obey our Creator. To disobey is the enemy’s plan.

One day as we were tending paradise, the enemy, in the guise of a snake, asked me, “Did God actually say ‘Y’all should not eat of any tree in the garden’ (Gen. 3:1)?” You see, he started by misquoting and casting doubt upon The Creator’s goodness.

I responded, “We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden, except God said, ‘Y’all may not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, neither may y’all touch it, lest y’all die.’” I use the plural y’all, because while Adam and I were one flesh, we each had a mind with a will. You’ll see (Gen. 2:23 and 24).

And I must admit to expanding God’s prohibition to include “not touching.” The Hebrews call that building a wall or hedge around the forbidden. Would that I had included “Don’t even be looking at it.” That’s where my trouble began—looking, pausing to consider an “alternative” view. Would that I had listened to God’s instruction to the point of obedience.

There is a time for a closed mind, you should know. Make a decision. Where God’s Word is concerned, accept it. Close your mind to “alternatives!” The enemy wants to spin you a tale. God says what He means and means what He says.

But the serpent said, “Y’all will not surely die. God knows that when y’all eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and y’all will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Now we wanted to be like God, but perhaps our “want” was more about ambition than about affiliation. Knowing good and evil did not seem a bad thing. (That’s the enemy’s alternative explanation.) But why we should doubt The Word of The Creator? I could never explain or defend my yielding to the doubt the enemy placed in my thinking.

It’s always the same. The enemy questions The Word. Then he contradicts The Word. Why didn’t we check with the Creator? But things haven’t changed.

Today you’ll read or hear something and not know what God says about it. So why not go to The Book and find out? The Bereans were labeled “more noble” because they searched The Scriptures to see if what they were being told, from the Apostle Paul, no less, was accurate (Acts 17:10 and 11).

We could see that the tree was good for food and of delightful appearance. Believing the enemy, that the fruit of the tree could give us insight, I took of its fruit and ate. I gave some to my husband, who was with me, and he ate (Gen. 3:2–6).

Immediately, after Adam joined me in disobedience, our eyes were opened. We knew good from evil, we knew we had chosen to disobey, and we knew that we were naked. In shame, we collected fig leaves and sewed them together to make ourselves coverings (Gen. 3:7).

You know the feeling of loss. You’ve had feelings of loss since you were small. Well, we had no experience with loss before this. This was our first. Now we knew. Our innocence was gone. Our relationship with each other tainted and strained. We were retched. The shame was all-consuming; even as we attempted to cover ourselves physically, nothing could ease the spiritual and emotional damage we’d done to ourselves by disobedience.

People are so foolish. Do they really think that God makes rules for His own convenience? The Creator knows how His creatures function. He knows what’s best for us. The rules are for our protection; the rules are for our good (Deut. 10:13).

When The LORD God came to walk with us in the cool that evening, we heard Him and hid ourselves from His Presence. Pointless, really, but we were ashamed to have been deceived and to have failed our Creator. The LORD called, “Adam. Adam, where are you?” (Gen. 3:8 and 9).

Adam responded, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself” (Gen. 3:10).

The LORD asked, “Who told you, Adam, that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” (Gen. 3:11).

Adam said, “The woman, who You gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit, and I ate” (Gen. 3:12).

Not good, to blame God for giving me to him. Thankfully, God is not easily angered but gracious and merciful (Ps. 103:8). Then again, I was created to be Adam’s help—equal to the purpose of coreigning with him in the earth. I’d failed to be his help to obedience. I knew I’d failed.

These questions were not to give The All-Knowing-One information. They were to help us realize what we had done and where we were in consequence of our choice.

So The LORD God asked me, “What is this that you have done?”

I answered, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate” (Gen. 3:13).

You’ll notice, The Creator did not ask the serpent why. The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and beasts of the field; on your belly you will go, and dust you will eat all the days of your life (emphasis mine).”

The curse fell on all creation because of us. We’d failed in our purpose as “caretakers” and plunged every created thing into a fallen state.

The Creator continued, “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. You will bruise His heel, but He will crush your head” (Gen. 3:14–15). Even as The Creator was pronouncing judgment upon sin, He was proclaiming the promise of redemption. The Son of Man would crush the enemy’s head. And so He has. Jesus did that in His sinless life, death, and resurrection (Gal. 4:4)!

Then The LORD said to me, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing. In pain you will bring forth children. Your desire will be for your husband’s love, respect, and confidence, but he will impose his will on you” (Gen. 3:16). The enemy had killed our physical perfection, stolen our coregency, and destroyed our relationship of equality and support. We’d had each other’s love, respect, and confidence. The curse resulted in domination and willful independence. The cost of our sin continues today. Even among those who are Christ’s own, it is the curse, not the original design, which is too often taught and practiced.

Then God addressed Adam, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground for your sake. In sorrow you will eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it will bring forth for you. By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till you return to the ground; for from dust you were, and to dust you will return” (Gen. 3:17–19).

You’ve no doubt heard it said, “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” Well, we needed to be employed. So our “tending and keeping” of paradise became “toiling and travail” in the ground in order to produce our food. Cursed was the ground–—for our sakes (emphasis mine).

The LORD God made garments of skins and clothed us. For those coverings, blood had to be shed. You realize, we’d not seen death before this. The animals were living creatures. They were ours to care for and enjoy. To see these animals die to clothe us was heart-breaking. To know their deaths were a consequence of our disobedience grieved us.

Then The LORD God agreed, “Behold, the humans have become like one of Us in knowing good and evil. We must prevent them from taking also of the tree of life and living forever.” For that reason, to protect us from eternal life in fallen bodies and a fallen world, The LORD God sent us out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which we were taken. The Creator placed Cherubim, and a flaming sword that turned every way, at the garden gate, to guard the way to the tree of life (Gen. 3:21–24).

This is how paradise ended. We had disobeyed. We had to bear the consequences of our choice. We had to be protected, so we had to leave the garden. We needed work to occupy our time, energy, and attention, so the earth was cursed. The Book tells you, the whole creation groans and travails in pain together with us, until redemption (Rom. 8:22–23). I am so sorry for what I did. But you can’t undo what you have done. Only when Jesus died could I be made “just as if I’d never sinned.” That gift, justification, is for anyone who chooses The Creator’s will and way.

Adam and I mated, and I became pregnant. I gave birth to a son, whom we named Cain, which means “acquired.” I said, “With the help of The LORD, I have acquired a man child.” Again, The LORD blessed us with a son; we called him Abel. Abel was a shepherd, and Cain was a gardener (Gen. 4:1–2).

We had daughters, but their births and names are not recorded. A possible result of the curse? Perhaps.

At the time appointed for sacrifice, Cain brought an offering to The LORD of the fruit from his garden. Abel’s offering was of the first of his flock. The LORD received Abel and this required blood offering. But God could not accept Cain and the offering Cain chose to bring, rather than the offering required by The Creator.

Things haven’t changed, have they? People still want to have God on their own terms. But you only have a relationship with The Almighty on His terms.

Because God did not accept Cain’s offering, Cain was very angry and pouted. So The LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your countenance fallen? If you do right, will you not be received? And if you don’t, sin waits at the door to control you, but you must master it.” I fear Cain paid little attention to The Word of The LORD.

But it’s still the same. Sin waits at each human’s door, looking for a way to take control of him or her. Sin must be mastered, but that only happens with The Spirit’s help and the individual’s vigilance.

Not long after this, Cain invited Abel to take a walk with him in the field. Cain complained against The LORD and against The LORD’s judgment of the fruit offering. Abel defended The Almighty as The One Whose requirements are just and Who alone is worthy to judge. Cain became angrier and angrier, finally drawing a knife and slitting Abel’s throat.

Not unlike sacrificing an animal—that. To whom was Cain’s sacrifice made? Self-will? The enemy?

Can you imagine how I felt? My oldest son murdered my second son. And by whom had sin entered into paradise? Whenever I saw one of my children, or grandchildren, exercise their will against The LORD God, or against one another, I grieved. I’d opened the way of self-will, and the consequences of self-will, upon all who followed after me.

The LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” The Almighty was presenting Cain with opportunity to confess and repent his sin (Gen. 4:9ff).

But Cain responded, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

“What have you done?” asked The LORD. “The voice of your brother’s blood cries to me from the ground. Now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened her mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you farm the ground, it will no longer yield for you her strength.”

Cain was cursed from the earth; it would no longer be the resting place or strength it had been for him. Remember, production is in the DNA of all creation. Not to produce is part of the curse. The ground was cursed. The Almighty continued, “You will be a fugitive and vagrant in the earth.”

Cain replied, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. See, You have driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from Your face I will be hid. I will be a fugitive and a vagrant in the earth, and everyone who finds me will try to kill me.”

No remorse, you notice. Just bemoaning the consequence for his own choices. You’ve no doubt seen that in your day. No accepting responsibility. No making restitution or seeking forgiveness. Just wailing against the consequences of self-will.

In mercy, despite Cain’s lack of repentance, The LORD said, “Vengeance will be taken seven times on anyone who slays Cain.” And The LORD set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should think to kill him (Gen. 4:15ff).

Cain went out from the presence of The LORD and lived in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. Not eastward in Eden, but east of Eden. Further away from paradise and relationships with The Creator and us.

And so, I lost my second son to death at the hand of my eldest, and I lost my eldest to the consequences of his own choices. No matter what your children do that disappoints you, you may not grasp how my losses grieved me. Every evil that followed, I knew to be part of the consequences for my disobedience. I had chosen disobedience. Through my children, I continued to experience the consequence of that choice the rest of my life.

Cain fathered a son whom he named Enoch (Gen 4:17). He, Cain, built a city. Why? Who told him to build a city? His own “creativity” perhaps? He called the city after his son, Enoch.

Cain had three great-great-great grandsons. Jabal was a cattleman who lived in tents. Jubal was a musician and instrument maker. Tubal-Cain worked with brass and iron. It was such fun when I could watch my children develop interests, skills, and talents. I enjoyed that immensely. Creation creating good things is part of the original purpose for humankind. God created us to create.

But these boys’ father, Lamech, murdered a man, Jewish sages say an ancestor and a descendant. Sorry, I’m just reporting. I can’t tell you how that worked. Lamech knew the murder to be to his own hurt, but the deed was done. As his great-great-grandfather, Cain, Lamech was a murderer. The consequences of sin are often seen generations later. Why don’t folks think about that before they choose sin (Gen. 4:3–24)?

Lamech had two wives. So the first polygamy is recorded. Interesting, Lamech was the first polygamist and the second murderer.

One hundred thirty years went by. I can’t tell you how old we were, since we were created mature. As was the earth and all else. So much for carbon dating. And if anyone ever asks you “which came first, the chicken or the egg,” you know, the chicken. All creation was created mature, with its seed in it.

God was gracious to us and gave us another son. I called him Seth, saying, “God has granted me another child in place of Abel” (Gen. 4:25–26, 5:3). A child is always a blessing, but in this case, an obedient child to replace obedient Abel was a blessed blessing.

Six generations later, when we had lived nine hundred twenty two years, one of Seth’s descendants, another Enoch, developed a habitual walk in fellowship with God. And God took him to heaven without his dying (Gen. 5:24). What an encouragement to us in our old age. God was/is still available to those who desire a relationship with Him, still communing with humans after all the grief we’d caused Him, still loving and powerful on our behalf.

The sons of God—quite possibly fallen angels—took wives of all the daughters of men they desired. There were giants on the earth in those days as the sons of God, living with the daughters of men, produced them. These became the mighty men who gained a name for themselves by their feats of conquest. Not by their creating, you understand, but by their conquest. The alternative plan. The enemy’s plan.

Then The LORD said, “My Spirit will not strive with man forever, for he is only flesh. His days will now be one hundred twenty years.” Quite a change from our nine hundred thirty years.

The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination and intention of all human thinking was only evil continually (Gen. 6:5). Does that sound like your day?

The Scripture says that God regretted that He had made man on the earth and grieved. I think grief is the only reasonable response to the sin in this world.

I’ve grieved it. I grieved the grief we caused The Benevolent Creator. Do you grieve at the wickedness of your generation? You’re in good company, if you do. In company with The LORD God Almighty and His judgment of sin.

But remember Enoch and that wonderful testimony: he walked in habitual fellowship with The LORD. You can live in habitual fellowship with The LORD God. How great is that? Only the best opportunity ever open to humans. Don’t miss it. Habitual fellowship with The LORD God is the only way to live and the only way to prepare for eternity.

You’ll not want to miss the perfection of the new heaven and new earth which The Almighty has in store for those who choose His will and His way. He created the paradise into which Adam and I were created in just six days. He’s been preparing the new heaven and earth for two thousand years (John 14:2). The LORD wants you to enjoy that and Him. That day is coming.

Until then, I pray that your desire is to bring pleasure to your Creator. Order your life after His Word. Fulfill the purpose for which you were created. Be a good steward. Acknowledge His right to reign, to control, to be Creator over the creatures of His creation.