The Garden of Eden: Paradise Lost and Lessons Learned

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk

about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, well, welcome

to the Bible Guys. I'm Chris and Jay. Here we are, Yes,

we are here for a week back week two, starting week two of

our brand new series in the Old Testament. And we haven't really named this

series. We just said we got to think of something. It's sort of

the major events of the Old Testament in chronological order that point to Jesus.

Yeah, how about this question highlights? Yeah, okay, yeah, we'll

keep working on it. Yeah, well, I mean like highlights sounds like

I don't know, pretty cash. How about Chris and Jeff's check to the

Old Testament christ Christian excellent adventurement. There you go. That's right, that's

great. All right, Well, today we are playing a new game.

Actually it's not a new game. It's it's just a civic specific, geared

game. So it's yes, but it says, Jeff, you've been traveling

a lot these days. So basically, Desiree wants you to come up with

information to see if I know about your travels. Okay, so we're sort

of washing it to a two truths and a lie, and I have to

guess the lie. Okay about your travels? Okay U two truths in a

lie about travels? Yes, Okay, he travels a lot, by the

way, Yes, And I like I like to do fun stuff. Like

usually what happens is we'll work five or six ten hour days and then on

either the sixth or seventh day, we'll take a whole break for the whole

day and just go do something fun. Yeah, And well you got to

have a fun day, yeah, Yeah. And it's I think it's almost

a crime to be in Africa and not go see a giraffe or something,

right, So yeah, for sure, So that that's part of it.

So there's almost always it's funny because I don't post a lot of pictures of

the people we're with because in a lot of places, we're working with people

where maybe the thing is not legal to do right planning planning churches or sharing

the gospel, or it might cause it might compromise their safety. I don't

want to get my friends hurt, So a lot of times I don't post

any pictures of that work. So then I post a picture of Big Ben

or of the Eiffel Tower, and people go, wow, how was your

vacation? And it was like seven days of grueling difficulty and one day of

running around, And so I quit posting a lot of photos because of that,

because everyone a vacation. But okay, let's let's do let's do some

to truth is in a lie. First statement, Okay, I once stepped

on a cobra. I explored ancient temples in the in the Southeast Asia,

and a man, I'm having a hard time. I once shark dived in

a cage diving on a reef in the Red Sea. Okay, So first

of all, that was really good for being on the spot. It's a

good job. So I actually think that Desirae is going to be pleased with

the results of this because I actually think I know the answer. Good.

I think I've heard the story about you stepping on a cobra. Oh okay,

that is true, correct, yes, And I've actually just heard you

talk about this recently in the hallway or something like this, where you explored

ancient temples in Asia. So therefore I would say the lie has to be

shark diving. That's correct. I've never shark dived yet. Okay, I'm

gonna are you do you know that it's on my list too? Is it?

What? We got to do it? Yeah? Well you should bring

me along with you on one of your adventures, and then our fun day

won't be so fun and I'll be terrified. But I'd like to do it.

Okay, So for real, I have a friend who used to work

at a resort town on the Red Sea coast of Egypt. Herga is the

name of the place, and they do uh cage diving with sharks out.

Yeah, so I'd love to do that. Yeah, I would love to.

Yeah, okay, well we got to get better. It'd be better

if it wasn't a great white, but it'd be better if it was right

right exactly when he got a shark as big as a bus coming at you,

you know, when you when you have a tiger shark or something like

that, they kill more people. Oh, tiger sharks. Yeah. Oh

well then I hope it's a great way. They're just not as bigh Okay,

well, hey that sounds that was there. You go, Chris there,

I'm so proud of you. But that just means I tell too many

stories. Well that's what I was trying to think of told it means I'm

with you a lot. That's all that means, right, Because not everybody

hears all your stories, that's right, But those closest to you hear most

of them. Like Bonnie, for instance, she knows every story you have.

Yeah, that's right, well most of them. I don't tell her

the ones where I almost died until until later. How did Jeff die?

For the most part, she just asked me, now, when I leak

sit, you know, I'm gone a lot. Yeah, She'll asked me.

Hey, so our insurance is paid, right, that's what she wants

to know. It used to be goodbye, babe, but I love you,

can't wait to come home. And I was like, our insurance is

paid, right? Yeah? So would she says, so she can aggrieve

effectively? Yeah, yeah, yeah, so she can grieve effectively. That's

so good. Okay, So that is it. And now we are a

week. This starts our second week in the series, and we have managed

to rummage through Genesis one and two and half of chapter three, that's correct.

And then now we're in Genesis three. Because this is actually pretty important.

It's the fall. This is the event of events of humanity. So

if our listeners were with us on Friday last week or at the end of

the last week's thing. Adam and Eve ate the fruit. Yeah, here

they are. They're in this giant garden. It looks like maybe fifteen hundred

miles square. Yeah, there's one tree, it literally says, in the

middle of the garden, and for some dumb reason, they're hanging out by

that tree. And by the way, think about that, which indicates that

we don't know how long they existed in the garden, Like we have no

idea, right because because to travel that far and find the tree could have

been years, right, right, So, but it is interesting where you

know, humans are kind of like a moth drawn to a bright light.

We just can't hardly help it, right, So they go They just go

right to it, wet paint and apparently don't touch it. Hey, be

careful, that's hot, right, that's what we do. So they wind

up eating the fruit just so, which it ultimately represents they rebelled against God.

They chose to do their own thing, they were deceived to do it,

and they start blaming each other. They blame the serpent, they blame

Adam blames God. The woman you gave me right, gave you this to

me, right, it's not my fault, which is all a part of

the normal human It's sort of it's sort of a two for one in that

sentence, right, he's blaming the woman and God. Yeah, yeah,

he very smart slick on that one. So then God pronounces judgment here,

and so that's where we're at now, after they're done accusing each other in

the serpent. So then Genesis chapter three, verse fourteen, it says,

then the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this,

you are cursed more than all animals, domestic and wild. You will crawl

on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live. And

I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and

her offspring. He will strike your head and you will strike his heel.

And then he said to the woman, I will sharpen the pain of your

pregnancy, and in pain, you'll give birth, and you will desire to

control your husband, but he will rule over you. And to the man,

he said, since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree

whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of

you. All your life will struggle. You will struggle to scratch out a

living from it. It'll grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will

eat of its grains by the sweat of your brow. Will you have food

to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made, For

you were made from dust, and to dust you'll return. Then the man

Adam named his wife Eve because she would be the mother of all who live,

and the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.

Then the Lord God said, look, the human beings had become like

us, knowing both good and evil. What if they reach out take the

fruit of the Tree of Life and eat it, then they will live forever.

And so the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and

he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made.

After sending them out, the Lord God's stationed mighty cherub him to the east

of the Garden of Eden, and he placed a flaming sword that flashed back

and forth to guard the way to the Tree of Life. There you go,

there's a lot in there, I know. Yeah, so you know.

So Adam and Eve eat the fruit here. This is God's judgment,

and there's so much in there, because first of all, he gives a

curse to the serpent because you've done this. He said to the serpent,

you are cursed more than all animals domestic and wild, to crawl on your

belly groveling in the dust as long as you live. Now, when I

was younger, I tried to picture a serpent with legs. I tried to

picture yeah, like like maybe sort of like a snake lizard, right and

and yeah, something like this. And then he says, well, now

you're going to be cursed, you know, the actual serpent itself. And

so uh and do you think that's a literal curse like that? Yeah?

Sure, Yeah, I've always thought that because a lot of snakes actually have

places on their body where it looks like maybe that used to be shoulders right

in their in their bone structure and stuff like that. Not all of them,

but some do. Wow. Yeah, And so that's pretty wild because

obviously we weren't there, you know, at the very beginning when God created

all the animals, so we wouldn't know. And so that seems to be

a literal, physical, uh sort of curse. And then uh, and

then uh, hostility, we would cause hostility between you and the woman,

between your offspring and her offspring. And so this this is this is a

verse that I've always heard at marriage conferences where I went to a marriage conference

one time, my wife and I for a two day conference, and they

talked about how the difficulty of marriage takes work because originally marriage was created in

perfection, and they're in they were marriage of the institution of marriage was created

as a perfect sinless man, a perfect sinless woman. Uh. Together,

and then all of a sudden, now there it's literally saying in so many

words, your relationship will cause work, or it will it will require require

work, not cause uh and uh. And so I've always thought that,

I've always thought she was marriage is hard, but I think it was designed

to be just the bliss part. Oh yeah, absolutely right. They're running

around the running around the garden naked, they got a job to do,

they get fruit. It's just it's you know, you drink and be merry

kind of thing, work hard, have fun, right, all that kind

of stuff, fill the planet. That was your job, right, and

then you know, sin gets involved, and then all of a sudden we're

blaming each other. And oftentimes, you know, when marriages start to come

apart, both spouses blame the other, and then it's just it's at the

core of the of the curse, of the curse. We just struggle with

each other on that, and it takes a tremendous amount of work to manage.

But it's the same thing. Food wasn't supposed to be hard either,

right, right. Work wasn't supposed to be a burden either. Having children

wasn't supposed to be a difficult thing either, right, So everything that is

good and is worthy, we have to work really really, really really hard

at you know, we have to cultivate it. Quite honestly, this idea.

Their job was to cultivate the garden. It just wasn't supposed to be

hard. And now everything is hard that's worth doing. If you don't do

any work, if you don't cultivate your finances, what happens. Your finances

fall apart. If you don't cultivate your garden, what happens Your garden doesn't

grow, it gets overrun with weeds. If you don't cultivate your children,

what happens they run wild. If you don't cultivate your marriage. What happens

it falls apart, Right, everything worth having you have to work really really

really hard at And I think that all hints to we stay frustrated with it.

Hey, you and I are sitting here in the studio. People are

listening on Monday, right, they're listening on a Monday. They're getting ready

to go to work. And you're like, right, you go, oh

come on now, work is what provides all the good stuff in your life,

most of it, right, So the good things, I think it

all reminds us, the good things that come out of the struggle reminds us.

We all want to go back to the garden. That's what we want.

We want paradise. Right. That's why when you go on vacation,

you start looking. I wonder how much houses cost here? Right? You

going zelow? You start thinking, Man, if I could just lift here

on vacation. But you know, the people who live there go on vacation

somewhere else, that's right, right, they did. I gotta get out

of this place. Yeah. My buddy who lives in flor he lives like

in like the one of the nicest places in Florida, Treasure Island on the

boat. Oh yeah, yeah, literally on the beach. And he bought

a house in like the woods in North Carolina, like this log cabin with

a generator and all this stuff. And I'm like, that's where you go

on vacation. I got to get off this beach. I gotta go.

I gotta take a break, man. Right, It's so funny, isn't

it. Yeah, because we're all chasing the garden. Yes, we lost

it. And that's what we just read. We lost the garden. We're

chasing it. Every good thing we still know it should be a little better,

but we have to work hard to get those good things. So,

speaking of hating work, to all the old people who are listening out there,

let me ask you a trivia question. Which famous cartoon was famous for

saying I hate Mondays? Oh oh uh. It was like it was like

an illustrated like Sunday Morning comic streets. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

yeah. He was a cat. Oh my gosh, who's a cat?

I know, I know, I can't remember. It wasn't Heathcliff.

It was Garfield. It was Garfield ding Ding ding Ding. Another crazy silly

thought because I'm the silly thought guy. Was you know you like being outdoors.

So this you may not think this way. I I don't like necessarily

always being outdoors. So the thought of like Adam and Eve running through the

garden naked and having no protection or shelter, just in their daily walking.

Sure, I actually thought to myself, I wonder if mosquitos are a part

of the curse, because mosquitoes seem like they're cursing this world. Yeah,

that's right, they are. They're curse. They got it, yeah,

right, blocks right, So we're Adam and even in the perfect garden going

out and like, you know, scratching and then having mosquito bites. I

think not, I think I think not. I think that mosquitoes probably ate

fruit or something. Yes, And after the curse, they're like, we

like humans. We like humans, that's right. That's the worst. That's

the worst part about being outside, to be honest with you. Yes,

okay, so then in all bugs that crawl on you and anyway, so

the man and said, when I lived in Georgia, fire ants anyway,

let me just go, let me move on. He said, you will

struggle to scratch a living from from the ground. It'll grow thorns and thistles,

and by the sweat of your brow. You have food to eat,

return to the ground. I actually think to myself every time I go out

and weed a garden, every time I go out and see weed, it's

connected to the curse. Every time you hear one of our staff members just

had a baby, right, and there was a lot of complications involved,

a lot of struggle. Every time there's a struggle, it's a part of

the curse. Every time you have a marriage like a fight, you know,

and and the marriage isn't necessarily perfect. It's it's connected to the curse.

Right, every time that you wake up and there's a new pain in

your back, right, and then you're like, oh, it's it's a

part of the curse. Every time you go to a funeral, it's a

part of the curse. Everything that is bad, yes, yeah, all

those things. Yeah, it's so crazy. Yeah, I think it's crazy.

You know when you wead that flowerbed though, and you get your lawn

moode just right, and you step back and go, oh, that's perfect,

right, You feel so good about because you were made to work.

That's you were made to work. There is so much satisfaction to work.

You cannot get that satisfaction or that fulfillment from anything else in your life,

nothing else, but when you do a job and you do it well and

you complete it even with all the struggle. The problem is we weren't made

to struggle through it. We were made to work through it, right,

But the struggle is the curse. But when you get it done for just

a minute, you glimpse it and you go, oh, that's perfect.

We're back in the garden for a second, and then the weeds grow back

three days later. Right, And so this year we didn't spray our yard,

and so we are the yard in the neighborhood with all of the that's

good for the bees, yeah, yeah, I know it is. It's

good for the beest. It's not good for my neighbors who all have perfawns,

right right, Yeah, Well, I'll be honest, I'm the guy

with the perfect lawn. Yeah, And I had it sprayed and everything else.

And my wife was sad, and she said, she goes, oh,

I can't believe that. She's I sure hope that these danny lions that

are sprayed die because I don't want bees to come and get sick. And

so I was like, okay, so I paid to have it sprayed,

so instead of letting it just happen, I found myself with a mask on,

on my hands and knees, literally scooping up and deweeding my entire lawn

because my wife was concerned for the bees. Yeah, right, Well we

didn't do it this year. Yeah, well my neighbors seems like everybody either

loves the bees or everybody doesn't care about their lawn. Well, the bees

are important. I mean, we're losing bees. Without bees, we don't

live, So there's that. I'm not sure that that was my intent.

I wasn't thinking I'm a being noble saving the planet. It was just we

didn't do it. And it's funny now because we're running around our beds.

Just got a little overwhelmed. I've been out of town quite a bit the

last couple weeks, and so I walked up to my house the other day

and I'm just looking across, going, oh, my gosh, what happened

in that fast? We had some rain, we had some sunshine, and

all of a sudden, these beautiful gardens suddenly just went wam and it's all

just wild, overrun. In a matter of days, it'll get away from

you quick. It's unbelievable, right, And that's what happens. So it's

the same thing. We have to cultivate our marriages. It'll get away from

me quick. The fact that you did work last week, or that it

did work last month or last year, or that things were looking beautiful and

perfect a little while ago. Things get away from us quick. The same

thing with our children, the same thing with our finances. It's the same

thing with everything that's worth it to have in life. Every little glimpse of

the garden, every little glimpse of perfection. We lose very fast if we

don't cultivate it. But it takes work. And then God kicks them out

of the garden, which is crazy. He sets up angels with a flaming

sword, going, can't come back here, right. Yeah. And I

would not trespass, No, no, I would. I would avoid that

place. Yes. Uh. And here's another interesting tidbit. It says,

then the Lord God said, look, the human beings have become like us

plural not me, right, knowing both good and evil. Now, that

doesn't mean that we're that we have god like powers. It just means that

the aspect of God who knows both good and evil is now given to humans.

So becoming more like God really is what that sentence breaks down to.

And then then it says more like us, which again, because there's a

plural there, it's another nod to the trinity, isn't it right? Right?

Yeah? So father, son, holy Spirit, one, one,

God, three persons, which is interesting. Yeah, so you pointed out

that word, there's also another one. I thought it was interesting. Go

back to the serpent real quick. I ran across this as I was.

I was just fiddling with this before you walked in. The word for serpent

here is in Hebrew is nick hash, which can also be translated as shining

one or enchanter. Is an interesting because the Bible says that Satan is like

an angel of light. Sure, so when you were asking about earlier about

him losing his legs and all that kind of stuff, this could have been

a separate creature that's being translated as serpent, right. It's interesting, So

it can be translated as serpent or snake, but it also could be another

meaning of it. This isn't the traditional word for serpent. The other translation

could be shining one or enchanter. So we do know that he was an

enchanter. He talked them into doing things that they shouldn't do. Well,

it makes a whole lot more sense than the creepiness of a snake be appealing,

right, you know, but the Bible does use the snake theme throughout

the rest of the Bible. By the time you get the revelation, it

causing that old serpent the devil, right, So there's a lot of maybe

the symbolism in that, but I do believe, you know, you are

talking about an actual creature, something that they were familiar with, that received

the curse. And so then here is the first promise of a messiah.

By the way, I'll curse the hostility between you and the women, between

your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head and you will strike

his heel, the satan's ability to cause damage in the moment, he'll have

temporary winds, but ultimately Jesus will crush the serpent's head. Right, And

that was the very first promise of a messiah coming. And then the Bible

says that God then made clothing for them from animal skins, for Adam and

Eve, and this was the first death. Death had never happened on the

planet right prior to this, and he made them from animal skins. This

idea that their sins were covered, their shame, their guilt was covered by

an innocent one, was very symbolic of the fact that Jesus would come someday.

This was very likely the first sacrifice, quite honestly, an innocent one

was sacrificed to cover over the shame of the guilty. And you can only

imagine how horrifying that would have been. Oh yeah, for them, you

know, yeah, wearing an animal skin, yeah yeah, seeing something die,

right, right, seeing the insides of a thing, right, right,

But to see something die and it's dying because of you, right.

So Romans says, wherefore is by one man sinning it of the world and

death by sin? So death passed upon all men for all of sin.

Right, And so this is the beginning of them understanding that it will be

the innocent that will die for the guilty, but ultimately that innocent one will

crush, will crush Satan. Yeah, that's amazing. You know, sometimes

I have to laugh at my brain because did you ever see Tropic Thunder?

I had the image of Ben Stiller wearing the panda thing and he was while

he did it, because he didn't mean to kill the panda, but then

he had he had the skin it to stay warm. Anyway, sorry about

that, okay, insurution, But for all the people who are tropic thunder

fans out there, uh, they will love that comment. Uh. And

then and by the way, this this is a thing that is set into

motion for the rest of the the the entire Old Testament, until Jesus comes

right right, this establishes the theme. That's what I said a few days

ago. Genesis one through eleven establishes all the rest of the Bible, right,

all the rest of scripture, all the rest of human history is established

in these first eleven. These are all the foundational ideas. Yeah, that's

incredible. Well, but it looks like about our time, so hopefully we

will see you next time on the Bible. Guys,