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WHO WOULD THAT BE?

Things were kind of bleak until Noah came along.  Then there was Abraham and, of course, Moses.

I’M CONFUSED.  WHY WERE THE FIRST PARENTS DRIVEN OUT OF EDEN?

To dissipate the infection via the generations, longevity had to be governed.  Constantly feeding from the tree of generated life would postpone death indefinitely.  Such privilege had been sacrificed by their disobedience.³²

GENERATED LIFE?

We created the first Adam because of my love and desire for a family of faithful obedient children which would render the rebellious inoperable.  If the first parents had chosen to obey and to eat from the tree of life, their seeds would have started to develop, they  would have become full partakers of our very nature – a generated eternal life.  That didn’t happen.  The created man failed our test.  A second man was needed – only he would be generated, not created.  My son is that man – aka the last Adam, the second man.  His role would be similar in some respects, even though things had been compounded by the first man’s debacle.³³

VERY INTERESTING.  YOU BROUGHT UP MOSES.  I’VE ALWAYS BEEN CONFUSED ABOUT MOSES AND PHAROAH – ALL THAT WENT ON DOWN THERE IN EGYPT.  WHY DID YOU HARDEN THE PHAROAH’S HEART?

I’m in charge and chose to exact justice in that case.  I am totally just, among other things.  For example, without justice there would be no such thing as mercy.  Subtract justice and just any old conduct equals any other.  Sovereign justice serves a broad curriculum designed to teach my ways.³⁴

32 “. . . through one man’s offense judgment came to all . . . “ (Romans 5:18a).  “Then the Lord said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil.  And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever’ – therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken” (Genesis 3: 22-23).  “. . . on either side of the river, was the tree of life . . . The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:2).

33 “And so it is written, ‘The first man, Adam, became a living being.’  The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. . . . The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven”
(1 Corinthians 15:45, 47).

34 “(They) saw My works forty years. . . . ‘And (still) they have not known My ways’” (Hebrews 3:9b, 10b).