The New Birth

Read Time: 11 Minutes

We have learned that God had formed man of the dust of the ground, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and created spirit in man. This is essential knowledge in understanding what God meant in Genesis 2:17 when God said,

Genesis 2
:17   But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, 
        thou shalt not eat of it: 
            for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

What did God mean when he said, "thou shalt surely die?" God tells us that Adam lived 930 years (Gen. 5:5). Some say the seeds of death were sown in Adam. But God said, "for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." In the day, that very same day, Adam ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he died. How did he die?  Maybe a better questions is what died? 

God had created spirit in Adam and Eve which was their direct connection to God. They could communicate with God and God with them easily. They had a choice of how to gather information, via spirit or the five senses.  They could rely on their five senses, as a natural man would, or rely on knowledge and wisdom from God. We have this same choice today and God gave us free will, we can choose.

God gave Adam and Eve everything. He gave them a garden rich with foods and gold, bdellium* and onyx stone. Rivers ran through this garden and there was animals in abundance to thrive in this garden. There were no thorns or thistles (those came later). Adam and Eve had it made. There was only one stipulation however:

Genesis 2
:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, 
        Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
:17   But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, 
        thou shalt not eat of it: 
        for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

They could freely eat of every tree in the garden except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were content to do so. They had no problem with this. They were on talking terms with God, God helped Adam name all of the animals. Names were necessary. It is better than saying, "That fat critter with the long shorthaired tail with a tuft on the end, split hooves, about yea high with horns and goes 'moo'." It is much easier to say cow, don't you agree? Sorry, I got side-tracked.

They could freely eat of every tree of the garden, except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and they had dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air and every of every living thing that moved upon the earth (1:26-28). And they were content to do so. They just couldn't eat of that one tree.

So what happened? God doesn't record them grumbling or murmuring about their situation. There was no discontent. As long as Adam and Eve walked in harmony with God's Word (spoken at the time) and walked with Him, spiritually, there was no problem. Just as soon as they let their five senses take precedence over God's Word and will there was trouble.

Genesis 3
:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field 
        which the LORD God had made. 
    And he said unto the woman, 
            Yea, hath God said, 
                Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

The very first thing the Satan tried to do is get Eve to question the integrity of God's Word. Satan quotes God's Word to Eve, but incompletely. He was trying to get Eve to question what God had meant. He was working on Eve to get her to doubt God's Word. Satan knows that he cannot blatantly contradict God's Word, that would cause Eve to reject his notions immediately. Satan worked on Eve subtly. "Did God really say you couldn't eat of every tree of the garden?"

Eve's response was not a spiritual response. She didn't go right to God and say, "What is up with this snake in the grass?" She started to consider what he said. She decided to go it alone and answer him, a natural man's five senses response. She shouldn't even have responded to him. We cannot totally stop satanic influences from bombarding us. Satan is the god of this world and he orchestrates all the evil, death and destruction. We may not be able to stop all of the influences but we can control what stays in our minds and how we react to it. Eve stopped to consider Satan's question and reason with him (a natural man response). 

:2 And the woman said unto the serpent, 
        We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

Is that what God had said? No! God said, "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat." She left out a word. She makes the Word of God unduly restrictive.

She continues:

:3   But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, 
        God hath said, 
            Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

Is that what God had said? No! God said, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,  thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."  She added, "neither shall ye touch it". God didn't say that, He said you couldn't eat of it. Here she is making God's Word unduly restrictive again. She is getting religious (man's rules instead of God's will). Then she doesn't identify the specific tree. There are two trees in the midst of the garden, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil..

2
:9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, 
        and good for food; 
            the tree of life 
                also in the midst of the garden, 
                and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Her final phrase, "lest ye die" is right were the devil wants her. God's Word is now twisted in her mind to the point that she is willing to accept Satan's next statement. Eve no longer has the Word of God and cannot fend off this attack.

3
:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, 
        Ye shall not surely die:

A lie!! A direct contradiction to God's Word. She has succumbed to the questioning of the integrity of God's Word. Because she considered and changed God's Word she no longer recognized this statement as a lie and believed the devil instead of God.  She was depending on her own five senses and knowledge instead of looking to God when she was confronted.

:5   For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof,  
        then your eyes shall be opened, 
        and ye shall be as gods, 
            knowing good and evil.
:6  And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, 
        and that it was pleasant to the eyes, 
        and a tree to be desired to make one wise, 
    she took of the fruit thereof, 
        and did eat, 
        and gave also unto her husband with her; 
        and he did eat.

This has five senses written all over it. She saw that it was good for food. It was pleasant to the eyes, a tree to be desired. Then she totally succumbed to the devil's lie. She could have stopped and said to herself, "Wait a minute, let me check with God first." But she was walking by her five senses instead of spiritually listening to God. I am sure God wasn't off doing something else like playing baseball with Adam. God is always with us. Eve just wasn't listening.

Notice that the devil didn't work on Adam to get him to transgress, Eve did. Ladies, you have great influence on your husbands. We must know the Word so that we can be a help mate instead of a thorn in the side.

:7 And the eyes of them both were opened, 
        and they knew that they were naked; 
    and they sewed fig leaves together, 
        and made themselves aprons.

The devil got Eve to question the integrity of God's Word 

• Eve reasoned with the devil, a five senses response instead of going to God right from the beginning
• She made the Word of God unduly restrictive by omitting the word "freely"
• She misrepresented the Word by not defining the tree they were not supposed to eat of
• She added to the Word by saying, "shalt not touch it"
• She changed the Word from an absolute to a possibility by saying, "thou shalt surely die" to "lest ye die"

Whenever we are attacked the integrity of God's Word is always at stake.  Did God really say that I should prosper and be in health?  Gee, I don't feel like it. It doesn't matter what you feel like or what the circumstances are, God made promises in His Word and it is up to us to believe them and see them come to pass.

I had full intentions of covering what died in this teaching but the fall of man was necessary to cover because it shows us how Eve got tricked. The devil got Eve to question the integrity of God's Word. We must take heed unto our spiritual lives so that we can say, "It is Written" and not get tricked by the adversary into accepting a less than abundant life. We have many religions because one believes one thing and one another and they cannot get back to the rightly divided Word to know what God said. The devil knows that we should be like-minded (Romans 12:16, I Corinthians 1:10, Philippians 4:2) because united we stand; divided we fall. Let us study diligently to show ourselves accepted and pleasing unto God, a workman that needs not to be disappointed in our expectations rightly dividing the Word of Truth (II Timothy 2:15 literal).

God said, "thou shalt surely die" it is either the truth or a lie. Well, I believe the devil lied and we need to know what died when Adam ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil also. That will be covered in the next teaching.

*Bdellium - occurs only in Gen. 2:12, where it designates a product of the land of Havilah; and in Num. 11:7, where the manna is likened to it in colour. It was probably an aromatic gum like balsam which exuded from a particular tree (Borassus flabelliformis) still found in Arabia, Media, and India. It bears a resemblance in colour to myrrh. Others think the word denotes "pearls," or some precious stone.
Source: Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary                  Return to Text