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In the Old Testament, after man’s creation, God made the first covenant with man; after man’s fall He made the second covenant with man (Gen. 3:8-21).
After Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s word and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, immediately they knew that they had violated God’s prohibition and that the result of their transgression would be death. Therefore, they hid themselves from the presence of God, awaiting the sentence of death. However, instead of forsaking them, God came to the garden, to the place of the fallen people (Gen. 3:8); and instead of sentencing them to death, He preached the gospel to them. Therefore, Jehovah God came to the place of fallen man to make a covenant with man.
God not only came to the place of fallen man, but He came to seek and to call fallen man. He spoke to them in the way of seeking and calling, saying, “Where art thou?” (Gen. 3:9). Hence, Jehovah, the One who made the covenant, was such a God who came to the place of fallen man to seek and to call fallen man. Man’s fall did not cause God to give up His purpose in man. Since His will is established, it will never change. Many years later, God Himself became a man, the Lord Jesus, and came to the place of the fallen people to seek and to save us, the fallen and lost ones (Luke 19:10).
While man was in the Garden of Eden, God admonished him, saying, “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” (Gen. 2:17). God’s intention was that man should exercise his free will to choose the tree of life and reject the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. However, man transgressed God’s prohibition and ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Hence, man had an offense before God (Rom. 5:18a), and he also had Satan’s evil life and nature in him. Thus he became a fallen person.
When man ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Satan’s evil essence entered into man. Hence, within man there was an essence that was not created by God. This essence is the nature of Satan, which is also the sin that dwells in man, as mentioned in the Scriptures (Rom. 7:17), becoming the essence and constituent of fallen man. Therefore, the fallen man had sin and was constituted a sinner (Rom. 5:12, 19).
The fallen man not only had sin and was constituted a sinner, but he also had death and became a dead person (1 Cor. 15:22). First, the fallen man’s spirit was deadened, becoming insulated from God and losing its function toward God; eventually even man’s body died. Therefore, through the offense of one man, Adam, sin entered into the world, and sin brought in death, so death ruled over all men (Rom. 5:12, 17), causing all men to die. Although man fell into such a tragic and hopeless condition, God came to visit him and to make a covenant with him.
After man’s fall, there was a great change in man: man had the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 3:22a). Both the knowledge of good and the knowledge of evil came from the same tree, the same source, which is Satan as the source of sin and death, causing man not to depend on God but to be independent of God. Because the contents of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil are all things apart from God, its nature is death, its principle is independence, and, surely, its ultimate result is man’s separation from God and the bringing in of death. Therefore, having the knowledge of good and evil, fallen man departed from God and walked on the way of death.
Before the fall man, being innocent, was not ashamed of his nakedness (Gen. 2:25). It was not until man committed sin and became fallen that he became aware of his nakedness (Gen. 3:7); that is, he knew his sinfulness and shamefulness. The moment sin entered, the first result was that man saw his nakedness and immediately felt shameful.
After the fall man felt the shame of his nakedness and tried to make skirts of leaves to cover the shame. The fig leaf skirts represent man’s own work in covering himself as a sinful one, that is, man’s own attempt to hide, to cover by his own work, the shame of his sinfulness. However, since the skirts made of fig leaves would have withered, broken, and soon dropped off, they could not cover his nakedness in the eyes of God. Therefore, it was not possible for fallen man to cover the shame of his nakedness by his own work or his own behavior.
It was with such a man who transgressed God’s prohibition, who had sin and death, who had the knowledge of good and evil, and who knew his nakedness and made skirts of leaves to cover the shame, that God made the second covenant with man.
The first item of this covenant was that the serpent was cursed. God said to the serpent, “Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life” (Gen. 3:14). This curse included two matters. The first matter was that the serpent was to creep on its belly, which was to limit its sphere of activity and move, allowing it to creep only on the earth. The second matter was that the serpent was limited to eat only dust, and dust became the serpent’s food. Therefore, in this covenant, on the one hand, God limited the realm of Satan’s move and devouring, and on the other hand, He warned the man whom He had made from dust that if he would continue to live in an earthly manner, he would fall into the sphere of Satan’s work and would be devoured by him. However, if man would take God’s way of redemption and live in fellowship with God, he would be delivered from Satan’s authority and not be devoured by Satan.
While God was cursing the serpent, He also spoke a wonderful promise: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed” (Gen. 3:15a). Here God promised that the seed of the woman was to come. This seed of the woman is the Lord Jesus. He was born of the virgin Mary, and He was the only One among the human race who was born of a woman only (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:23; Gal. 4:4). Thus, He is truly the seed of the woman, the very seed promised by God to man in Genesis 3:15, to be the Savior to fallen man and, on behalf of man, to destroy Satan, who seduced and harmed man.
In this covenant God also promised that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15b), that is, cause its death. The Lord Jesus, the seed of the woman, came in order to destroy the works of the Devil (1 John 3:8). Therefore, when He was carrying out His ministry on earth, He frequently cast out demons, who were under the authority of Satan, from the possessed people (Mark 1:34, 39; 3:15; 6:7, 13; 16:17) that they might be delivered from Satan’s bondage (Luke 13:16). When He was on the cross, through death He bruised the head of the ancient serpent, destroying the Devil who has the might of death (Heb. 2:14) and ruining him completely. Thus, He fulfilled the covenant which God made with fallen man.
In this covenant God also required the woman to suffer in childbearing and to be ruled by the husband. God said to the woman, “I will greatly multiply thy pain and thy conception; in pain thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee” (Gen. 3:16, ASV). The entire process of childbearing, including pregnancy, delivery, and child-rearing, is a suffering to a woman. This is God’s arrangement for the good of the woman, that by being restricted she might be protected and may thus be prevented from falling further. Furthermore, God arranged especially that the desire of the woman’s heart would be to her husband and that the woman would be ruled by her husband. Such an arrangement by God was for the good of the woman that she might be restricted and protected.
In this covenant God also required the man to labor and sweat until he should return to the ground. To the man God said, “Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee...in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground” (Gen. 3:17-19, ASV). Here the ground denotes the job or profession on which man depends for his existence. In the whole earth there is not one job or profession that is without hardship. In every occupation it is easy for “thorns” and “thistles” to grow from the “ground.” Thus, man must toil and sweat during his entire life in order to exist. In His arrangements for both the woman and the man God ordained that fallen man should suffer. God uses suffering to restrict man that fallen man may have security and protection; He also uses suffering to constrain man that man may turn to Him and receive deliverance through the seed of the woman. Furthermore, God also ordained that man should not live forever, but that he should die, returning to the ground (Gen. 3:19). Therefore, death is also a restriction that God has placed over fallen man that man may not do evil endlessly and thereby affect the existence of the human race.
After man’s fall, God immediately came to make a covenant with man, giving man the promise of redemption and using suffering to restrict and protect man that the existence of the human race might be preserved until the coming of God’s salvation.
After they had eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve knew that they would surely die. Hence, they were trembling in fear, awaiting death. However, instead of sentencing them to death, God gave them a wonderful promise, that the seed of the woman was to come. After Adam heard this word, he immediately called his wife’s name Eve (Gen. 3:20), which means “living” or “life” in Hebrew. He believed that he and Eve were going to live and not die. This indicates that he believed what was promised in God’s covenant.
By faith Adam received what was promised in God’s covenant. Thus he had the hope of life. Originally he thought that he would surely die and that there was no possibility to have any hope of life. However, when he heard that the woman would have a seed, he knew that he was going to live and not die. Therefore, by faith he had the hope of life.
Since Adam believed in what was promised in God’s covenant, God made coats of the skins of the sacrifice for him and his wife and clothed them. The skins of the sacrifice signify Christ, who died for sinners, as the righteousness of those who believe. Christ is the Lamb of God (John 1:29). This Lamb was foreordained before the foundation of the world (1 Pet. 1:18-20) and was slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). Hence, there in the Garden of Eden we can see a picture of the shedding of Christ’s blood. On the cross Christ was killed by the righteous God, shedding His precious blood to satisfy the requirement of God’s righteousness upon man (Rom. 5:9). Hence, God can cover the believing ones with Him as their righteousness. Therefore, Adam experienced God’s anticipated redemption in the Garden of Eden. The skins of sacrifice that were put on him signified Christ as the righteousness of the believing ones.
When God clothed Adam and Eve with the skins of the sacrifice, He clothed them with Christ as their righteousness to cover them completely. This means that they were justified by God, that is, they were covered by God’s righteousness. Christ as God’s righteousness covered them that they, the fallen sinners, might be justified and accepted by God and have fellowship with God.
After they had children, Adam and Eve must have told them how they had fallen and how God had killed the sacrifice, using the skins to make robes to cover their nakedness that they could be in the presence of God and have fellowship with Him. Abel believed in his parents’ preaching. Evidence of this is found in Hebrews 11:4 which says, “By faith Abel offered to God a...sacrifice....” Such faith must have issued from the word preached by his parents, for faith comes out of hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ (Rom. 10:17). Hence, by believing in the word preached by his father, Abel received the way of God’s redemption.
Abel was a feeder of sheep, working and living for God. Moreover, by faith he presented to God a sacrifice with the shedding of blood as an offering and was accepted by God. He presented the firstlings of his flock and their fat, and God had regard for him and his offering (Gen. 4:2, 4). He did not present his sacrifice according to his concept, thought, or way, but according to God’s way of redemption. He knew that he had been born of fallen parents and that he was evil, sinful, and defiled in the eyes of God. He needed an offering with the shedding of blood in order to satisfy the requirement of God’s righteousness. Hence, he offered the firstlings of his flock and their fat. When he offered the fat, the sacrifice was killed and the blood was shed. The shedding of blood was for his redemption, and the burning of fat was for God’s satisfaction. Thus, by offering to God the sacrifice with the shedding of blood, he was accepted by God.
Cain was presumptuous in that he forsook God’s way of redemption and presented produce without the shedding of blood as an offering to God. Hence, he was rejected by God (Gen. 4:3, 5). Like Abel, he was born of fallen parents and he was sinful, evil, and defiled. Adam and Eve must have told Cain how they fell and how God covered them with the skins of the sacrifice. However, Cain forsook God’s way of redemption and refused God’s method. According to his own idea and opinion, he offered produce without the shedding of blood. Thus, his offering was an insult to God and an abomination. Therefore, God rejected it.
When Cain saw that God was pleased with Abel but not with him, he became jealous and very angry and his countenance fell. Then he even rose up against Abel his brother and killed him (Gen. 4:5, 8). In the beginning Cain worshipped God; then he became jealous, angry, and hateful, and eventually he committed murder. He even lied to God and was arrogant (Gen. 4:9). As a result, he was cast out of the presence of God (Gen. 4:14, 16) and produced a culture that corrupted his descendants and that was judged by God. This was a culture without God. It included building a city for self-existence, inventing cattle-raising for making a living, inventing music for self-amusement, and inventing weapons for self-defense (Gen. 4:17, 20-22). Eventually, in the generation of Noah this culture had developed to such an extent that the entire world was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. Hence, they were judged by God with the flood.
In the Old Testament, after man’s creation, God made the first covenant with man; after man’s fall He came to the place of fallen man to seek and to call fallen man. It was with such a man who transgressed God’s prohibition, who had sin and death, who had the knowledge of good and evil, and who knew his nakedness and made skirts of leaves to cover the shame, that God made the second covenant with man. In this covenant God cursed the serpent, restricting it so that it would creep only on the earth and that it would eat dust during its entire life. He also promised that the seed of the woman, Christ, would come to bruise the serpent’s head, that is, to cause Satan’s death. Finally, He required the woman to suffer in childbearing and to be ruled by the husband, and He required the man to labor and sweat until he should return to the ground so that fallen man, being restricted by suffering, would have security and protection and would turn to God to receive deliverance through the seed of the woman. Eventually, Adam believed in what was promised in God’s covenant and called his wife Eve, meaning “living” or “life.” By faith he also had the hope of life. Then God made coats of skins for them that fallen sinners, having been justified by God through Christ, might be accepted by God and have fellowship with Him. By faith Abel received God’s way of redemption, offering the sacrifice with the shedding of blood and being accepted by God. However, Cain refused God’s way of redemption, offering produce without the shedding of blood. Rejected by God, he killed Abel his brother and was cast out of the presence of God, producing a culture that corrupted his descendants and that was judged by God.
