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In the entire Bible God made eight covenants with man: seven in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament. In this lesson we will begin with the first covenant that God made with man (Gen. 2:8-9, 15-17), that is, the covenant that God made with the created man.
The One who made this covenant was Jehovah God. The name Jehovah stresses God’s relationship with man. Therefore, speaking concerning God’s relationship with man, in Genesis 2 the Bible begins to use the name Jehovah. This name means “He who was, who is, and who will be,” or “He who existed, who exists, and who will exist.” This means that He always is and never changes, He always exists and never passes away, and He is self-existing and ever-existing (Exo. 3:14-15; Rev. 1:8). He is the “I Am,” the One who always is; He is always everything to man. Whatever man needs, He is. He is well able to meet all of man’s needs. Such a One who always is, who is without beginning and without end, and who always exists and never passes away, came to make a covenant with the created man.
The One who made this covenant was God. The Hebrew word for God is Elohim, which means the mighty One who is faithful. This shows that God is a mighty One, even a mighty One who is faithful to keep His word. His faithfulness is the guarantee of the covenant that He made with man; His might enables Him to fulfill His covenant with man. It is such a mighty and faithful One who came to make a covenant with man. Furthermore, the word God here in Genesis 2 is plural, indicating that although He is the only God, He has the aspect of three—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Matt. 28:19). Such a Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, came to make a covenant with the man whom He created, that He might dispense Himself into the created man to be his life and life supply for the accomplishment of His eternal purpose.
The one with whom the covenant was made, the created man, was created by God in His image and after His likeness to express God and represent God.
When man was created, although he had the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:26), he did not have God’s life in him. God did not put His uncreated life into man; therefore, what man had was but the created life. Hence, the created man still needed to receive the uncreated divine life from God that God’s eternal purpose might be accomplished in man.
Although man did not have God’s life, neither did he have sin—he was upright (Eccl. 7:29). When man first came out of God’s creating hand, he was not crooked, evil, or defiled, but upright, good, and clean. At that time he was without sin, without corruption, and without defect; hence, God considered man very good (Gen. 1:31).
Although man did not have the divine life, he did have a spirit within him (Job 32:8). The spirit of man was specifically formed by God as the deepest part in the entire being of the created man; it is the receiver for man to receive God and an organ for man to contact God and all the spiritual things, in order that man may substantiate the things of God and the spiritual things. Zechariah 12:1 says that Jehovah “stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.” This indicates that the spirit of man ranks with the heavens and the earth. The heavens are for the earth, the earth is for man, and man has a spirit within him to contact God and to contain God that God may enter into him to be his life and life supply.
Although God did not put His life into man, He created man with a free will that man might exercise his own will to choose Him and to obtain His life. Therefore, He placed man in front of the tree of life, and He also set the tree of the knowledge of good and evil beside the tree of life, thus affording man the opportunity to make a choice. Man could either choose God, who was signified by the tree of life, or he could choose Satan, who was signified by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God allowed man to exercise free will to choose for himself that which he thought was good. God desired that man would voluntarily and willingly choose Him and take Him as his life and content.
After man was created, God did not require him to do anything; He assigned him only to dress and to guard His garden on earth (Gen. 2:15). To dress here means to cultivate or to till the ground. Man was charged to dress the garden of God, that is, to cultivate the garden of God so that it might not be ruined. Man was also charged to guard the ground, to protect the garden from God’s enemy, that is, to deal with Satan by God’s authority that the garden might not be damaged.
It was with such a man who was without sin, who had a spirit and a free will, and who was assigned to dress and guard His garden, that God made the first covenant with man.
God’s eternal intention is to work Himself into man, whom He created, to be man’s life and content that He may have a corporate expression. Hence, after man was created, God put him in front of the tree of life and commanded him, saying that he could freely eat of every tree of the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:16-17). This indicates that God desired and longed for man to receive His life, signified by the tree of life, that His eternal intention might be accomplished.
The tree of life is a symbol, signifying God as the source of life. This matter is clearly revealed in the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John tells us that in Him (Christ) was life (1:4), that He came that man might have life (10:10), that He is life (11:25), and that He is the unique true vine in the universe (15:1). This clearly indicates that Christ is the tree of life. Furthermore, Christ is the embodiment of God (Col. 2:9). Hence, the tree of life in Genesis 2 signifies God as the source of life. Its content is life, and its nature and result also are life. Everything pertaining to it is life.
God’s way for man to take the tree of life is by eating. Hence, God placed man in front of the tree of life and strongly commanded man to pay attention to his eating because eating is a matter of life and death (Gen. 2:16-17). Eating issues in a union and a mingling. It is not merely an outward objective contact but an inward subjective receiving. If man eats properly, he receives God into him subjectively to be joined and mingled with him, thus fulfilling God’s purpose in creating man.
Besides the tree of life, there was also the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2:9b). God warned man not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that he would eat of it he would surely die (Gen. 2:17). This indicates that God wanted man to reject the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and to receive the tree of life.
There are two sources in the universe: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life signifies God as the source of life; the tree of the knowledge of good and evil signifies Satan as the source of sin and death. Just as God’s life is the content of the tree of life, so also Satan’s evil life and nature are the contents of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. After Adam ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, sin entered into the world through him (Rom. 5:12). Actually, sin is the embodiment of Satan, the evil one. Furthermore, death came through sin, and Satan was the one who had the might of death (Heb. 2:14). Hence, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil signifies Satan as the source of sin and death; it includes good, evil, and knowledge. If man were to contact it, he would touch the source of sin and death, and this would surely issue in sin and death.
Just as man could receive the tree of life by eating, so also he could receive the tree of the knowledge of good and evil by eating. Hence, in this covenant, God especially warned man to reject the tree of the knowledge of good and evil lest the evil, poisonous element of Satan enter into man and be joined and mingled with man, thus damaging the upright and pure man whom God created for His eternal purpose.
Although God longed that man would take the tree of life by eating, man acted contrary to God’s covenant and ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, receiving Satan’s evil essence into his body. This is the greatest tragedy in the universe.
Because of the serpent’s temptation, man violated God’s covenant and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The serpent, the tempter, was the incarnation of Satan. Satan hid himself in the crafty serpent to tempt and deceive man, causing man, on the one hand, to doubt God’s word (Gen. 3:1, 4) and, on the other hand, to doubt God’s heart (Gen. 3:5). He caused man to think that because God was afraid that man would be like Him, knowing good and evil, He lied to man and prohibited man from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As a result, man was deceived by the serpent and cheated by Satan. Thus man misunderstood God’s love, doubted God’s heart, ignored God’s word, and thereby ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
After man was tempted by the serpent and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he received Satan’s evil life and nature into his body; that is, he received Satan. Hence, man became a child of the Devil (John 8:44; 1 John 3:8). Being subjected under Satan’s authority and obeying him as the ruler of the authority of the air (Eph. 2:2), man became a son of disobedience. He was blinded by Satan in his mind and could not see the illumination of the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Cor. 4:4). Moreover, he lay under Satan’s hand (1 John 5:19b), being oppressed and controlled by Satan, being slaughtered as Satan pleased, and having no freedom. This was the pitiful and tragic condition of man after he acted contrary to God’s covenant to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and thereby receive Satan.
After man ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and received Satan, he had sin and death. As Romans 5:12 says, “Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin; and so death passed to all men....” Sin entered into man and dwelt in man’s body (Rom. 7:17), causing man’s body to become damaged and transmuted into the flesh (Gen. 3:7; Rom. 6:6; 7:18). Thus sin reigned (Rom. 5:21) in the fallen man, lorded it over him (Rom. 6:14), tempted him, and killed him (Rom. 7:11). Moreover, sin dwelt in man, causing man to do things against his own will (Rom. 7:17, 20). Sin is living (Rom. 7:9) and is very active. Hence, it must be the incarnation of the evil one, Satan, living, walking, and reigning in the fallen man. At the same time, death came through sin (Rom. 5:12), and the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23a). Therefore, the wages that man earned for his sin was death. First his spirit was deadened, and then his body also died. Thus, when man violated God’s covenant and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he had sin and death.
Having been seduced by the serpent, man ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, received Satan, and had sin and death. Hence, man was driven out of the Garden of Eden and was kept away from the tree of life. Since there was a charge of sin against man before God and there was also the nature of sin in man himself, if man had eaten of the fruit of the tree of life, he would have lived forever with his sinful nature. God could never allow such a thing to happen. The tree of life, signifying God, must not be touched by the sinful man. Thus, before the redemption of Christ was accomplished, God had to close the way to the tree of life. Therefore, the result of man’s fall was that he was driven out of the Garden of Eden and was kept away from the tree of life.
After man was driven out of the Garden of Eden, God caused the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way of the tree of life (Gen. 3:24). The cherubim signify God’s glory (Ezek. 9:3; Heb. 9:5). The way to the tree of life being closed by the cherubim means that it was closed by God’s glory. Since man had sinned and come short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23), God closed the way to the tree of life by His glory, not allowing any sinful person, who was short of His glory, to contact Him.
Fire in the Bible always refers to the holiness of God. Because God is a consuming fire (Deut. 4:24; 9:3; Heb. 12:29), anything common, unclean, or sinful is consumed by Him (Lev. 10). After man ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and received the things that are apart from God, he became unholy, worldly, and common. Hence, God must guard the way to the tree of life by His holiness, not allowing sinful man to come near to Him lest he be consumed by the fire of His holiness.
The third item that guarded the way of the tree of life was the sword. The sword signifies God’s righteous killing. The sword in Genesis 3 indicates that to be killed is the punishment meted out to the sinner by God’s righteousness (Lam. 3:42-43; Rom. 2:5). Since God is righteous, He cannot consider a sinful one as one who is without sin. Since man was sinful, God had to inflict a penalty, and His penalty was to kill man. Therefore, God’s guarding the tree of life with the sword means that God’s righteousness would not allow the fallen sinner to contact the tree of life; otherwise, man would be smitten by the sword of God’s righteousness.
Thus, because of man’s fall, God drove man out of the Garden of Eden and placed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way of the tree of life. That is, He closed the way to the tree of life by His glory, holiness, and righteousness, keeping man away from the tree of life and not allowing the fallen sinner to contact Him and obtain Him as life. It was not until the accomplishment of Christ’s redemption, which satisfied the requirements of God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness, that the way to the tree of life was opened once again.
In the entire Bible God made eight covenants with man: seven in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament. The first covenant which God made with man was a covenant that God made with the created man. The One who made this covenant was Jehovah God, the One who always is and the mighty One who is faithful. The one with whom the covenant was made was the created man who was without God’s life and without sin, but who had a spirit and a free will and who was assigned to dress and guard the garden of God. God made a covenant with him that by eating he should receive the tree of life, which signifies God as the source of life, so that God might enter into him to be joined and mingled with him, thus fulfilling God’s purpose in creating man. Furthermore, God wanted man to reject the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which signifies Satan as the source of sin and death, lest Satan’s evil, poisonous element should enter into man, thus damaging the upright and pure man whom God created for His eternal purpose. Eventually, man acted contrary to God’s covenant and, having been deceived by the serpent (the Devil), ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thus receiving Satan and having sin and death. Hence, man was driven out of the Garden of Eden and was kept away from the tree of life, that is, kept away by the cherubim, which signify God’s glory, by the flame, which signifies God’s holiness, and by the sword, which signifies God’s righteousness. It was not until the accomplishment of Christ’s redemption, which satisfied the requirements of God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness, that the way to the tree of life was opened once again.
