Genesis

In studying the Old Testament Believers it is important to understand the context in which they lived.

Genesis 1:1 
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

The order of the words in the Word of God are important. God is perfect and the Word that He gave us is perfect. According to the Hebrew texts verse one properly reads:

God created the heavens and the earth in the beginning.

This places the first word in the bible to be God which is His proper position. Dr. Victor Paul Wierwille gives us more insight into the first verse in Genesis in his book The Word's Way page 3: 

The words "in the beginning," breashith in Hebrew, mean "origin" or genesis in Greek. The word "God," Elohim, is plural to emphasize God's creative greatness. "Heaven," shamayim, also is in the plural form to point out the vastness of this expanse. The heavens are so extensive that even though man has reached the moon, he has not begun to explore the heavens which God created in the beginning.

Verse one emphasizes the greatness of God and the magnitude of His creation. 

GOD, Elohim, [pause--indicated in Hebrew] creator and prime mover, created, brought into existence that which had never before been in existence out of materials that had never existed before, the vast, magnificent heavens and the earth in the beginning before there was anything else but God, at the very first.

Verse one tells us of God, his greatness and gives us the original heaven and earth. Verse 2 tells us that something happened to it.

Genesis 1
 :2 And the earth was [became] without form, and void; 
    and darkness was upon the face of the deep. 
    And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

God did not create the heavens and earth in chaos. In the original Estrangelo Aramaic and Hebrew texts there is no verb "to be," (from which 'was' is a form) but there is a word meaning "to become". The second 'was' in the verse is italicized telling us there is no word present in the text. The first 'was' is not italicized telling us that there is a word in the text at that point. However, it cannot be 'was' it is the word for 'became'. A cataclysmic event caused the earth to become without form and void. This was when Lucifer attempted to usurp the throne of God. The event was so violent that Lucifer and a third of his angels were dispelled from heaven and the earth became without form and void.

    In regards to Genesis 1:1 to 1:2, we don't know how long a period of time that was. The Word of God does not tell us. However it is roughly calculated that the book of Genesis beginning at chapter 1, verse 2 covers approximately 4000BC to 1500BC, which is 63% of Old Testament time, a span of about 2500 years. Remember, any dates given for the Old Testament are estimates. There are several chronologies published and they don't quite agree with each other. Any references to time are to help illustrate the order and scope of the Old Testament.

Since God had created everything in verse 1 He only had to remake things.

First Day God said, Let there be light.
Second Day God caused a firmament or expanse to divide the waters, some on earth some out beyond the universe and he called the firmament heaven.
Third Day God causes the dry land to appear on the earth and he makes the grasses, herbs and fruit trees and he saw that it was good.
Fourth Day God set up the sun, moon and stars and set them in the firmament of heaven. There must have been another source of light besides the sun and stars for the first three days. God's Word doesn't tell us what it is.
Fifth Day God made the creatures in the water to (Hebrew literal) swarm with swarms and the fowl of the air.
Sixth Day God made the living creatures that roamed the earth; cattle, creeping things and beasts and He made Adam and Eve and gave them dominion over everything.
Seventh Day God rested and sanctified (set apart) the seventh day.

God did all of this for you and me. Without each integral part of the earth we would not survive. He did all of this for His man.

All Adam and Eve had to do was Love God, believe God, and dress and keep the garden.

Believing - definition - it is to have confidence and trust in the information received to the end that the information is acted upon.

Romans 10
:17 So then faith [believing] cometh by hearing, 
    and hearing by the Word of God.

Adam & Eve

Unbelief comes by hearing. Hearing by the wrong dividing of God's Word.

Genesis 3
:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field 
        which the Lord God had made. 
    And he said unto the woman, 
        Yea, hath God said, 
        Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

What did the serpent attack? He attacked the Word of God, because without having the Word of God, it is impossible to believe God. The only way to believe God is to know what His Word says, and then to have confidence and trust in the information received to the extent that we act on it. If we do not have the correct or accurate Word of God we cannot believe God, we will end up believing our opinions or someone else's.

:2 And the woman said unto the serpent, 
        We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 
:3     But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, 
        God hath said, 
            Ye shall not eat of it, 
            neither shall ye touch it, 
        lest ye die.

That is not what God said.

This is what God had commanded Adam and Eve :

Genesis 2
:16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 
        of every tree of the garden
        thou mayest freely eat :
:17 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 .

    Eve omits freely and every (3:2), taking away God's abundance .

    She adds fruit (3:2) and "neither shall ye touch"(3:3), making God's Word unduly restrictive .

She changes "thou shalt surely die" [i.e.: dying you shall die - emphatic expression] (2:17) to "lest ye die"(3:3) - not emphatic enough , a conditional phrase makes God's Word uncertain . 

She also changes "tree of the knowledge of good and evil "(2:17) to "fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden"(3:3).

Genesis 3
:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, 
        Ye shall not surely die. 
:5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof,
        then your eyes shall be opened, 
        and ye shall be as gods, 
            knowing good and evil.

The serpent outright contradicts the Word, "thou shalt not surely die"

Eve allowed herself to be talked out of the promise of God, the basis for losing the Word is that she, Eve, no longer believed the Word. The cause of the fall was the loss of the accurate Word of God. What Eve was saying sounded a lot like the Word of God but it wasn't exactly what God had said and she ended up believing her opinion, and didn't receive the same results. This is the first time there was a problem believing. We don't know how long they were in the garden up until that time.

People will make God seem: 

  • Less abundant
  • Restrictive
  • Uncertain

The problem here is they lost the Word--the promise of God, so they couldn't believe correctly therefore God couldn't do what He promised.

Eve was the first one to have the Word diluted in her mind. She then approached Adam and convinced him of the error. It is an important personal responsibility to hide the Word in your heart and keep (guard) it there.

Romans 12
:2 And be not conformed to this world:
    but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
        that ye may prove what is that good,
        and acceptable,
        and perfect,
    will of God.

II Corinthians 10
:5 Casting down imaginations, [reasonings]
   and every high [false] thing
    that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God,
    and bringing into captivity every thought [random thoughts]
        to the obedience of Christ.