Not the One God
It’s easy to think that God the Father was with Adam and Even in Eden since that’s what most children’s Bibles and Sunday school teachers transmit to us. However, the fact that the one called Yahweh God walked with them, the fact that Adam hid from his sight, and the fact that he clothed them, mean that the one called Yahweh God was visible to Adam and Eve. That causes an interpretative problem because the Bible is clear that ‘no man has seen God.’
We deduce that the Yahweh God of Genesis 2-3 could not have been the Father. As a review, here are six New Testament passages that affirm that the One God cannot be seen. There are others from the Old Testament, but these are a reminder of the truth that God cannot be seen by the eyes of man.
... [Jesus said] pray to your Father, who is unseen (Matthew 6:6).
[Jesus said] You have never heard his [the Father’s] voice nor seen his form (John 5:37).
The Son is the image of the Invisible God (Colossians 1:15).
[God is called] him who is invisible (Hebrews 11:27)
... whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen (1 John 4:20).
Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the Only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever... who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see (1 Timothy 1:17; 6:16).
The Surgeon
Adam was alone running a zoo and practicing some gardening when someone by the name of Yahweh God put him into a deep sleep. Could this divine anesthesiologist have been the One God, the Father? No.
There are many reasons why the one who performed a surgery on Adam could not have been the One God. Let’s read the Bible passage first before we draw any conclusions:
So Yahweh God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh (Genesis 2:21).
Now, whoever he was, the one called Yahweh God performed surgery in Eden by taking out one of Adam’s ribs. That same Yahweh God closed the opening on Adam’s body—and that means that he touched Adam at least twice—or does it not? Of course it does. It proves that the one called Yahweh God was physically present with Adam in the Garden of Eden.
This Rennaissance Italian stone carving depicts the event that brought into being the first woman.
The Matchmaker
From Adam’s rib, the one called Yahweh God made the second human being, a woman. To make means that he sculpted Eve, which also requires touch. So we see that Yahweh had to be physically present at the creation of Eve.
Then Yahweh God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man (Genesis 2:21-22).
And he performed another physical action: Yahweh God ‘brought her to the man.’ Doesn’t that mean that this one (who many translations call the LORD) was visible to Adam and Eve? Of course it does. He brought Eve to Adam and Adam was looking straight at his God and his wife.
But let's remember again the principle that God has never been seen by any man:
... [to] the Only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever... who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see (1 Timothy 6:16).
Who could Yahweh God have been in that passage? Again, was it the Father? Impossible.
It had to have been the same Yahweh who put Adam in the Garden in the first place. Are we sure? Yes. Because the Scriptures call him Yahweh in that passage also—and God’s Word is never ambiguous. We repeat: The Scriptures are not ambiguous ever.
Yahweh God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed... And Yahweh God took the man and set him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and to keep it (Genesis 2:8, 15; LEB).
Yahweh God formed the man, put him in a garden, and took him, setting him in the garden. That's a lot of interaction. In the midst of all that interaction how many times did Adam look at his God? Dozens or even hundreds of times!
And this same God also brought every animal to Adam so that Adam could give it a name. So Yahweh God both created the animals and birds and brought them to Adam.
… out of the ground Yahweh God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and he brought each to the man to see what he would call it. (Genesis 2:19; LEB).
Yahweh God was moving and creating, coming and going right in front of Adam. Adam saw all that was happening. But this one the Scriptures call Yahweh God could not have been the Father for no one has ever seen him or can see him!
Now, the Bible indeed does have challenging passages where the Scriptures are designed to develop our curiosity and stimulate us to investigate who the mysterious being who has equality with God is—but the Scriptures are never ambiguous or confusing. God is not the author of confusion.
God is not a god of confusion, but of peace (1 Corinthians 14:33; NASB).
So who is this one who has equality with God? Who is this one with whom God shares his name? That's the big question almost nobody dares to ask when they read Genesis 2-3. But it's a necessary question if we're going to know God and how he works.
The Sound Maker
Whoever this Yahweh God was, as he moved around in the garden, Adam and Eve could hear him making noise. His movement made sound. The one called Yahweh God was physically present and made the grass rustle and the gravel crumble. They could hear him breathing! He was so physically present that they felt the need to hide from him.
They heard the sound of Yahweh God walking in the Garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God among the trees of the Garden.
Then Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ He said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the Garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself’ (Genesis 3:8-10).
The Genesis account is only about this one called Yahweh God. It's evident that the LORD [that's the other name Bible's use for him] who confronted Adam and Eve in their sin later on, was the same one who commanded Adam not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Look at what he said to them:
‘Have you eaten from the tree from which I forbade you to eat?’ And the man replied, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me—she gave to me from the tree and I ate.’ Then Yahweh God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ (Genesis 3:11-13; LEB)
The Tailor
This Yahweh God was also a tailor for Adam and Eve. He clothed the couple with animal skins. Now, the fact that he put clothes on them means that he actually touched them physically because you must touch someone if you're going to dress them.
And Yahweh God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skin, and he clothed them (Genesis 3:21; LEB).
In addition, it’s impossible for Adam and Eve to not actually have seen the LORD who dressed them. Who is dressed by someone they do not see? Have you ever been dressed by someone you couldn’t see? It's unheard of. Nor does the Genesis account give the slightest hint that the one to whom Adam and Eve spoke and with whom they were interacting was invisible. That's simply not the gist of the passage.
The Conversationalist
And what about this? Yahweh God spoke to another who was like him! The other one to whom Yahweh God spoke also had a conscience—the knowledge of good and evil. The one to whom he spoke was of the same nature as Yahweh God.
Then Yahweh God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil…’ (Genesis 3:22)
So there was at least one other being who was similar to the Yahweh God of Genesis 2-3 who was within earshot of him in Eden. The other one could hear the words of the Yahweh God of the passage.
Now, we’re not 100% sure whether the one Yahweh God was speaking to was there or not. It’s possible that Yahweh God was speaking to someone who could hear all things. It’s possible that he was in prayer to the Father, who can hear all things. Since there was no audible response recorded for us in the Bible, that’s possible.
The Word Was God
Let’s state the obvious: The one who was in the Garden of Eden was Jesus. The one who ministered to our forefather and foremother was the preincarnate Christ, otherwise known as the Word. We declare this with confidence. He was with the One God in the Beginning, and he was God. From Philippians 2:6 we know that he had equality with God.
Our biggest hint that the one Adam and Eve were dealing with was not the One God and Father is the unbreakable truth that no one can see God. No man, not even the first man Adam, has ever seen God. The same Apostle John who wrote that 'the Word was God' also wrote:
No one has ever seen God (John 1:18).
No one has ever seen God (1 John 4:12).
One of Us
Now, if you agree that this was indeed Christ in the Garden of Eden, then together let’s try to answer the question: Who did Jesus speak to when he said ‘the man has become like one of us’?
Well, he either:
consulted with the Father, who heard him from Heaven
consulted with the Holy Spirit, who was in the Garden too, or
consulted with both the Father and the Holy Spirit
Did human beings become like the Holy Spirit and like God when we got a conscience? Well, the Holy Spirit is like God and he’s like the pre-incarnate Christ too—because he has the divine nature, and the divine nature includes the knowledge of all things, including good and evil. So, yes. In a sense, we became like the Holy Spirit and Jesus.
Let’s say that Jesus was only speaking to the Holy Spirit in this passage. Even if it was only a conversation with the Holy Spirit, the Father (who knows all) would have heard. The Father would have been made aware of the conversation. It seems that Jesus conversing with the Holy Spirit is the most plausible scenario.
It was not, as we have heard many times, God the Father speaking to Jesus!
He Who Loved Us
If you’re able to see Jesus in this passage—a very well-known but poorly-understood passage—tell your friends. Sharing the right interpretation of the most ancient story of our race will help them to understand how deeply connected Jesus has always been to humanity.
Jesus has loved humans from the very Beginning. He loves all people today, and wishes for them to be saved, just like he wished salvation upon our very very very great grandparents.
He loved them so much that he made sure they wouldn’t live forever in the flesh. He loved them so much he made sure that they wouldn’t eat from the Tree of Life. He drove Adam and Eve away from the Garden.
Yahweh God sent him out from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. So he drove the man out, and placed cherubim east of the Garden of Eden, and a flaming, turning sword to guard the way to the Tree of Life (Genesis 3:23-24; LEB).
Jesus made the Cross our new Tree of Life. He made his death "the death of death" for us. His death became our access to the life God intended for us from the Beginning. If you die with him, you will also live with him.
A Second Eden
Jesus was in the Garden of Eden and he’ll return to Earth to make the World a Paradise again. When he establishes God’s Kingdom here, we’ll live in another Eden. The first Eden, where Adam and Eve dwelled, was a paradise. It makes sense for the one who created that paradise to create a second paradise—doesn’t it? The Bible calls it the World to Come.
It is not to angels that he has subjected the World to Come, about which we are speaking (Hebrews 2:5).
He Knows Mankind
Finally, isn’t it appropriate for the one who is the Savior of the human race, and who will rule over human beings forever, to have known our first parents—our ancestors, Adam and Eve? Isn’t it appropriate for him to have been the one who directly ministered to them?
The one who ministers to us now once knew our forefather and foremother. That proves how well he knows us, each one of us. For the same weakness that was in Adam and Eve is in you and me. Let's take comfort in the knowledge Jesus has of us. It causes him to sympathize with us.
Therefore, since we have a great High Priest who has ascended into Heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the Faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin (Hebrews 4:14-15).
He Delights in Mankind
Listen to Jesus speak through Solomon in Proverbs. Do you recognize his voice? He's the one who has his delight in the sons of men. He's the one who was with God in the Beginning.
When he [God] established the heavens, I was there… then I was beside him, as a Master Workman. And I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him, rejoicing in the World, his Earth, and having my delight in the sons of men (Proverbs 8:27-31 NASB).
If Jesus delights in you, why won’t you delight in him? Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega. He was with Adam and Eve in the Beginning, and he’ll be with us forever. He was there in Eden, and he’ll come back in the Kingdom. What will he do when he returns? He'll carry out the Restoration of all things. That's been God's plan since the time the World began!
… [Jesus] whom Heaven must receive until the Times of Restoration of All Things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the World began (Acts 3:21; NKJV).
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