What did God tell Adam and Eve?

We shall now consider man's place, as set over the works of God's hands. All having been set in order, one was needed to take the headship. "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." My reader will observe the change from "him" to "them." We are not presented with the actual fact of the formation of the woman, until the next chapter; though here we find God blessing "them" and giving "them" jointly the place of universal government. All the inferior orders of creation were set under their joint dominion. Eve received all her blessings in Adam. In him, too, she got her dignity. Though not yet called into actual existence, she was, in the purpose of God, looked at as part of the man. "In thy book were all my members written, which, in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them."

God then blessed them and told them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” This was said before sin entered the scene. Some have claimed that sexual union is sinful, but this is true only outside the marriage bond. At this time Adam and Eve were to rule over other animate creatures. By sin they spoiled this, so that man does not now have the same authority over animals, though Noah was told, “the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast” etc. (Gen. 9:2). This is a mercy of God, for otherwise animals could take terrible advantage of their superior strength to terrorize men.

But to return, we read, "And God blessed them; and God said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over fish of the sea and bird of the heavens, and over every living thing that creeps on the earth" (ver. 28). Man, as Prof. Owen said, is the sole species of his genus, and the sole representative of his species.

This is the second benediction of creation. The first was when God made the creatures that peopled the waters and the air of Adam's world, the earliest to enjoy animal life in that state of things. God has pleasure in blessing His creatures that have a life even of a lowly kind to appreciate the fruits of His goodness, and especially in view of their reproduction and multiplying within their sphere. Here, a second time, He blessed mankind, male and female, of whom alone it is said, though the detailed difference is reserved for a subsequent and more fitting occasion. In verse 22 we have only "saying," but here "God said to them, Be fruitful," etc. Man was the depository of God's revelation, as he ought to be His priest, and, as we have seen, His viceroy. This is more than the interpreter of nature, as one of our sages styled him. He had intercourse with God at once.

Language thus was in no way the slow invention of man's wit, but an immediate endowment of our first parents by God from creation. Here His word assures us of its reality from the first day of man's creation; and everything confirms in the chapters that follow. To imagine otherwise is to disbelieve the Bible and prefer one's own thoughts or the dreams of other men, as if we or they could know anything about the matter. He Who alone knows all has been pleased to tell us the truth through Moses. His word was valid for the unintelligent creation: how comforting for the human pair to hear Him say, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it! Even though man comes in as a creature with the rest, still he is introduced exceptionally as the crown of creation; and the higher creatures are pronounced good separately from man, who is blessed, male and female, in an address to them as at the head of all the rest.

Then comes the proclamation of the rule assigned them by God. Not only were they, like others, to multiply and fill the earth, they were to subdue, or bring it into subjection. Next He adds as before, "and have dominion over fish of the sea and over bird of the heavens, and over every living thing that creeps on the earth." Thus from the outset was man, even when enumerated as a being fresh from God, set apart essentially. None other was to subdue the earth. He alone had the God-given capacity. He alone was called to have dominion. Development in the Darwinian sense is not only an illusion, but at plain issue with the word of God. A striking and practical proof of the reality of this dominion as far as every beast and every bird was given to Adam (Gen. 2:19) when Jehovah Elohim brought them to see what their lord would call them; and whatever he called each living soul (or, creature), that was its name: a fact full of interest otherwise on which some remark will fall in its season. He was owned by God in that place of authority which entitled him to give each subject creature its name.

Genesis 2:15, etc. It was from God that the man had received his being, and it was by Him that he was placed in the garden prepared for him — placed there, not to be inactive, but "to dress it and to keep it." How absolute were God's rights over the creature that He had formed! All Adam's rights, as regarded the garden, the earth, and the various tribes of inferior creatures, flowed from the sovereign appointment of Him, whose, equally with Adam himself, they all were. How fitting that there be some test of whether Adam recognised these rights of His Creator: and if there were to be a test, how could there have been one easier or more favourable to man? In Genesis 2:16-17, observe, 1, God's authority — He "commanded the man;" 2, His bounty — "Of every tree," etc.; 3, His prohibition — "Thou shalt not;" 4, His threatening — "In the day," etc. Man is thus fully set in responsibility before that woman is created. She was to share the responsibility with him.

But there was “Law” in Paradise — before man fell, and man was a responsible creature before he broke away from God: he was responsible to obey the law-prohibiting his eating the fruits of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil — before he became a “transgressor.” God had revealed His ways to him, as a Giver, in the largest and widest munificence. Nothing was withheld from man. The ten thousand tributary streams which contributed to his happiness in Eden, spoke of a God who would withhold no good thing. “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat”; proclaimed the freeness and fullness of no niggard Hand. The man was to enjoy it all freely. One small interdict prohibited the eating of the fruit of one tree: a tree which marked a responsibility which, when accepted, would only entail evil: “In the day that thou eatest thereof, dying, thou shalt die.” It was that, in observing which, he expressed that his will was subject to God who had placed him there, and surrounded him with every creature blessing.

In our minds we often couple innocence and irresponsibility together; as in the case, for instance of a very small child. In verses 16 and 17, however, we find that Adam though created in a state of innocence was put in a place of responsibility. He had no knowledge of good and evil, so that one tree was forbidden to him, though he might eat freely of every other tree in the garden. He was put under law in the simplest way, for the law consisted of only one commandment and that commandment concerned with only one tree. He might have had many commands given to him of an intricate and confusing nature or alternatively, he might have been forbidden all the trees in the garden save one. As it was, the Divine command was cut down to the barest minimum, just sufficient to keep before him that as the creature he must be subject to the Creator and walk in obedience.

Moreover, he was warned as to the consequence of disobedience. If he acquired the knowledge of good and evil by disobedience, he would be unable to perform the good because enslaved by the evil. This would bring him under the power of death immediately. As we discover in the next chapter, he would not at once suffer the death of the body, which involves the dissolution of existing personality by separating the spiritual part from the material part of man. But he would at once suffer complete severance spiritually and morally from God, his Creator, which is death in its more intense form. In that sense he would die the very day in which he ate of the forbidden tree. To obey the one prohibition was his responsibility.

There was work for Adam to do in cultivating and caring for the garden (v.15), though it would not require the same toil that became necessary after the ground was cursed with thorns and thistles, etc. (ch.3:17-18). Then the Lord gave full permission to Adam to use all the trees of the garden as food, with only one exception. Of course there was great abundance to more than meet all human need, so that having one tree kept from them was certainly no hardship at all. God told Adam that this tree was "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil," and plainly forbid his eating of it, adding too that eating of it would certainly incur the penalty of death (v.17).

After God had created Adam He put him in the garden of Eden, commanding him, saying, "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 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. 2:15-17). God, in His goodness, allowed Adam to eat of every tree in that wonderful garden that He had planted, where there was everything to delight and gratify his heart; to maintain His claim as Creator, God only reserved one tree for Himself. Moreover, it was best for man to remain in the condition of innocency in which God had created him, without the knowledge of good and evil, for in the bliss of innocency he could rejoice in all the work of God's hand without the exercises of soul that the knowledge of good and evil would bring.

The LORD God came down in the cool of the day and walked in the garden. When Adam and his wife heard His Voice, they hid themselves amongst the trees of the garden. What a wonder it is that the great Creator should come down and talk with man! The LORD called to Adam. "Where art thou?" And he said, "I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself." His own best doings, the fig leaf aprons, could not cover him. In the sight of God he was still a naked sinner. The LORD said. "Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat?" Then he replied that the woman gave it to him. The LORD asked her what she had done. The woman said that the serpent deceived her. The LORD put a curse on the serpent so he should go on his belly always, and eat dust. And God would put hatred between him and the woman, and between her seed and the serpent's seed. The woman's Seed would bruise the serpent's head. The serpent would bruise His heel. And God told the woman that she would bear her children with sorrow, and that her husband would control her. The LORD God told Adam that because he had listened to his wife's words, and had eaten the fruit which God said he must not eat, the ground would grow thorns and thistles, and Adam would have to eat his bread by the sweat of his face, until he went back to the dust: because Adam came from the dust, and he must go back to dust. Adam named his wife Eve (meaning, Living) because she was the mother of all living people. We would have thought Adam would have called her the mother of all dying people, for sin had just come in; and with sin Death had come: but Adam, trusted in God, and called her Eve, the mother of all living.