2nd Book

ELTB TT Introduction alpha [∞]

Discussion

God wants everyone to know him. He created a garden to teach us who he is. In the garden he placed many trees and said that Adam could eat from them. They represented all the things God wanted Adam to learn. He also set aside a single tree to represent the things he didn't want Adam to learn. He told Adam not to eat the fruit from it. He said that the day Adam ate from it, he would die. He must not act like he is God; he isn't. He must not make his own rules; only God does.	God wants everyone to know him. He put many pictures of the cross in scripture so that Jesus could learn them. He set aside one tree Jesus should not learn from. The day he learned it, he must die. Jesus must learn the way we do and still not sin. He must not use his God power because we can't. He must not make up his own rules, because we can't. He must not teach well, or we would believe without the cross as the summary of all his teaching.
Adam taught Eve but she didn't understand well. God had not commanded that the tree not be touched.	Jesus taught people and they didn't understand either. He spoke in parables so that they would not understand.
Eve was looking at the tree and a serpent came along and tempted her in a way more subtle than the other animals. She was probably watching the other animals eat and they didn't die. "They are animals and I am not; I can't eat that. I don't want to die." she mused.	Jesus was subtly tempted by the serpent as he looked at the cross; he didn't want to die. He was tempted to read the scriptures plainly, rather than as prophecy of the cross.
We are told that the serpent spoke. I am sure he did since Eve and God both spoke back to him. If that is too hard to believe, think about how the serpent could tempt Eve, without a word. He could have unlocked his lower jaw and opened his mouth wide to swallow the fruit whole. "Surely he must die!", thought Eve. But he didn't. She might have watched as the serpent gulp it down, and his throat swelled. "Oh, he'll choke!", she panicked. Perhaps she watched the fruit keep it's shape as it traveled down the length of the snake and she marveled. The snake did not die. "Did I understand right? They did not die. God made both me and them. We breathe the same air. We have blood. We get hungry. When they eat they are doing what God made them to do."	When the Satan tempted Jesus, we are told he talked. He didn't need to. When we are tempted, we are tempted by our own desires. Jesus read that the Messiah could turn stones into bread. Jesus remembered that teh angels would not allow him to dash his foot on the ground. Maybe if he did tricks like jumping off high places he wouldn't have to die. It would appear plain and simple to Jesus. But Jesus read the prophecy of scripture hidden in the plain teaching: He need not turn stones into bread, he is the stone, and would be the bread after the cross. He need not jump from high places. He already left the highest of places; heaven itself, to be on earth in the flesh.
It appeared plain and simple, to Eve. She made herself to be a god by making her own rules, using her flesh, or instinct. She was like a baby; like a little animal. She didn't care about anyone else. She want everything to do what she wanted to do. She made up the rules by instinct. She had been deceived by the flesh, by her own desires.	Jesus was like that as a baby. He was a real human baby. He cried, he wanted things his way. He thought he was the center of the universe. The difference is that he was God in the flesh. He was the center of the universe. He was allowed to expect everything to be his way. There was no sin in him when he did the things the way all others babies do.
Adam wanted to be like God too. He participated in Eve's transgression by choice. He made his own rules by his own will. When he took the fruit from Eve he recognized he had not taught her completely, so he took the blame for her by eating it too. How do we know this? Because it is a picture of Jesus and that is what Jesus did.	Jesus wanted to be restored to his former glory. He said he only did what he saw the Father do. He chose to take our sin the way Adam took Eve's fruit. He recognized that we had not been taught fully, because the full teaching would come through the cross. He took the blame for the teaching saying, "Forgive them. They don't know what they are doing." Then he died with us and for us.
The words of the serpent would seem true to Adam and Eve, and many people continue to believe him. "You will not die." They did not die for a long time. "Your eyes will open." They recognized their nakedness. "You will be like God by declaring good and evil". Adam and Eve only thought they could make the rules. There are always consequences to playing god.	Jesus understood the serpent's lie. Adam and Eve were separated from God the day they ate. They died spiritually. The day he learned from the tree; the cross, he died, and his bride died with him. Their eyes were not opened; the became blind, deaf and dead. Otherwise they were perfectly normal. Jesus's eyes were closed, he stopped hearing and he died that great and terrible day. They did not become like God, but became enemies of God by taking his job as the one who makes the rules. Jesus became the enemy of God having been made to be sin. He shouted, "Why have you left me?"
Adam and Eve made clothing from fig leaves. They had become cunning/naked. Have you ever spilled something, then said, "I don't know who spilled this, but I'm cleaning it up?" They were trying to hide the fact they had become like the serpent by pretending to have learned to sew. "Oh, sorry, we weren't hiding. We were just collecting more leaves for our new clothes." Sin makes you afraid of God.	{{{2}}}
When we hide in the cross, God does not see us, but see's the cross.	Jesus and his bride died, and while in the grave, were separated from the Father.