He had more than he had received

He had more than he had received - Genesis 2:4-17 God plants a garden in Eden that was to the east, that is, east of Palestine. It was located in the region of Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq, part of Iran, Syria, and Turkey) near the Hidekel (Tigris) and Euphrates rivers. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was to test man's obedience. "The only reason; for which, its fruit should not be eaten, it was because God had forbidden it." And in different forms, the fruit is still with us today. The penalty for violating the commandment was death, instant spiritual death, and progressive physical death.

I. Here is a name given to the Creator, by whom we had not yet known and that is Jehovah the Lord.

A. Jehovah – Elohim = a God of power and perfection, a God who perfects.

1. Jehovah is that great incommunicable (independent, reserved, secret) name of God that denotes having the being in Himself and giving the being (entity, supreme Being, possesses a soul) to all things.

2. (V. 5-6) In addition, note is taken of the production of plants and herbs, because they were made and intended to be food for man.

3. Observe: (V. 5-6) The earth did not produce its fruits by itself; but, purely by the allencompassing power (which is absolute and total) of God.

4. So also grace in the soul, that plant of renown, (Glory, Celebrity), does not grow by itself in the land of nature, but is "the work of the very hands of God."

5. Rain is also a gift from God; it did not descend until God made it rain on the earth.

6. One way or another, God is going to take care of watering the plants that He Himself has planted.

7. Although there was still no rain, God caused a steam equivalent to a drizzle to rise from the earth to water with it the whole face of the earth.

8. (V. 7) Man was made of the dust of the earth, remember you were not made of gold in powder, nor of crushed diamond, but of common clay.

9. The manufacture of our bodies is earthly, and its modeling is similar to that of a clay vessel (Job 10:9).

10. So, what is it about us that we can be proud of?

11. The matter was despicable.

12. It was made of "clay from the soil", something not very appropriate to form a man out of it; But the same infinite power that made the world out of nothing, made man, His masterpiece, the closest thing to nothing.

13. Yet the Maker was great and exquisite in the work He did.

14. Creatures are said to have been created and made but man was modeled (a form according to a model = mold, mode, measure), which denotes (expresses, announces) a gradual process of the work with great accuracy and precision.

15. Manufacturing (manufacturing process) far surpassed materials.

16. (Romans 12:1) Let us present our bodies to God as a living sacrifice.

17. (Genesis 2:8-15) Jehovah God planted a garden in Eden; and He put there the man He had formed.

18. Destined to be the mansion and home of a noble lineage of this great lord, the palace of this prince.

19. The place intended for Adam's residence was a garden or orchard stocked and adorned by nature.

20. Heaven was the roof of Adam's house and there was never another roof so curiously covered and painted.

21. The earth was his soil and there was never another soil so richly paved, (with which the ground is covered (wood, high asphalt, cobblestones).

22. The shade of the trees was his inner chamber; under them were their dining rooms, their chambers, and there was never a room so finely stoned as these; nor were Solomon's, in the splendor of his glory, so dressed.

23. Nature is content with little and the most natural; grace, with less; but concupiscence, with nothing.

24. The utensils and furnishings of this mansion were the direct work of God's wisdom and power.

25. The Lord God "planned this garden.

26. There is no true paradise that is not God's plantation.

27. This orchard was extremely excellent.

28. I was in Eden, which means delight and pleasure.

29. Let us take care to secure a place in the heavenly paradise and we will not need to torment ourselves in the laborious search for the place where the earthly paradise was.

30. The trees planted in this orchard.

31. It had the best and most chosen trees.

32. God "as tender Father" not only looked for Adam's benefit, but also for his delight; for there is a delight compatible with innocence.

33. It had two extraordinary and exclusive trees; There were no equals on earth.

34. There was the tree of life in the middle of the garden, which was meant to be a sign and seal to Adam, assuring him of the continuity of life and happiness.

35. For an immortal and eternal life.

36. Through the grace and favor of his Maker, on condition of persevering in this state of innocence and obedience.

37. From it he could eat and live like this.

38. Christ is our tree of life, don't eat anything else, because you die.

39. There was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, so called, not because it had in itself any virtue to beget or increase (something greater in quantity) a useful knowledge, but, in the first place, because there was an express and positive revelation of the will of God concerning this tree, so that, through it, he could know moral good and evil.

40. What's good?

41. It is good not to eat from this tree.

42. What's bad?

43. It is bad to eat from this tree.

44. The distinction between any other moral good and evil was written by nature in the heart of man.

45. Secondly, because in this case, the fact was that it demonstrated to Adam an experiential knowledge of good by the loss of it (good) and evil by feeling it within himself.

46. As the compact covenant of grace not only believes and is saved, but also not believing and being condemned (Mark 16:16), so the covenant of innocence comprised not only "Do this and you shall live," sealed and confirmed by the tree of life, but also, "Fail to this and you shall die" of which Adam was certain by this other tree.

47. So, through these two trees, God set before him, good and evil, blessing and curse (Deuteronomy 30:19); choose, therefore, life, that you and your descendants may live.

48. (Genesis 2:10-14) The rivers that irrigated this orchard and from there it was divided into four arms.

49. They contributed greatly to both the delight and fruitfulness of this garden.

50. In the river Pishon, where there is gold; aromatic resin is used in the pharmaceutical and onyx industry; second river is Gihon, surrounds all the land of Cush; Hidekel (Tigris) goes east to Assyria and Euphrates.

51. (V. 15) It was not from the dust of paradise; it was created out of paradise and was formed from ordinary clay.

52. He could not appeal to his rights to the garden because he had not been born in his interior "nor did he have more than what he had received."

53. The same God who was the author of his being was the author of his glory.

54. Only the one who made us can make us happy.

55. (V. 16-17) God's authority over man as a creature who had the capacity to reason and freedom of will.

56. The Lord God commanded man, who was now listed as the father and representative of all mankind, to receive a law, as a nature had previously received.

57. Brute animals have their respective instincts; but man was made capable of performing rational service and therefore received not only the command of the Creator, but also the command of a "King and Master."

58. From every tree in the garden, you can eat.

59. This implied not only an assignment of freedom, but also a life insurance for him, of "immortal life", "under" condition of obedience.

60. Under condition of perfect, personal, and perpetual obedience, Adam was assured of paradise for himself and his heirs forever.

61. A test of obedience is imposed on him, under pain of losing all happiness: Know, Adam, which now depends on your good conduct, is put "in paradise to the test"; be obedient "and you are made for eternity"; otherwise, you will be as miserable as you are happy now.

62. Adam is threatened with death in disobedience.

63. Even Adam, in his state of innocence, was terrorized with a threat.

64. The penalty is death.

65. This threat will be fulfilled as an immediate consequence of sin.

66. Adam was tested with a positive law not to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge.

67. Because the reason for this is derived purely from the will of the Legislator.

68. Adam had in his nature a rejection against what was evil in himself and was therefore tested in something that was evil just because it was forbidden.

69. For the restraint to abstain from it is situated in the desires of the flesh and those of the mind, which in the "corrupt nature of man, are the two great sources of sin."

70. This prohibition would have to test both his appetite for sensitive delights and his ambitious curiosity to know, so that his body would be governed by his soul and his soul by his God.