Page 36 - The Story of Redemption (1947)

Basic HTML Version

32
The Story of Redemption
“And unto Adam He said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the
voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded
thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy
sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also
and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of
the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return
unto the ground.”
God cursed the ground because of their sin in eating of the tree
of knowledge, and declared, “In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the
days of thy life.” He had apportioned them the good, but withheld
the evil. Now He declares that they shall eat of it, that is, they should
be acquainted with evil all the days of their life.
The race from that time forward was to be afflicted by Satan’s
temptations. A life of perpetual toil and anxiety was appointed unto
Adam, instead of the happy, cheerful labor he had hitherto enjoyed.
They should be subject to disappointment, grief, and pain, and finally
come to dissolution. They were made of the dust of the earth, and
unto dust should they return.
They were informed that they would have to lose their Eden
home. They had yielded to Satan’s deception and believed the word
of Satan, that God would lie. By their transgression they had opened
a way for Satan to gain access to them more readily, and it was not
safe for them to remain in the Garden of Eden, lest in their state of sin
they gain access to the tree of life and perpetuate a life of sin. They
[41]
entreated to be permitted to remain, although they acknowledged
that they had forfeited all right to blissful Eden. They promised that
they would in the future yield to God implicit obedience. They were
informed that in their fall from innocence to guilt they gained no
strength but great weakness. They had not preserved their integrity
while they were in a state of holy, happy innocence, and they would
have far less strength to remain true and loyal in a state of conscious
guilt. They were filled with keenest anguish and remorse. They now
realized that the penalty of sin was death.
Angels were commissioned to immediately guard the way of the
tree of life. It was Satan’s studied plan that Adam and Eve should
disobey God, receive His frown, and then partake of the tree of life,
that they might perpetuate a life of sin. But holy angels were sent
to debar their way to the tree of life. Around these angels flashed