It sounds unbelievable that so soon in the history of man, the first human beings made a wrong choice, throwing over board all the good things they had for nothing.
Man had received desires and showed how those desires could bring themselves in difficulties. Man had to learn to cope with them and to control them. We can wonder if it was because of the strong will that the chavah had, that often the desire is connected with
attainment or possession of an object.
When we look at our ancestors of the first hours we see that there was the “we’el isek tesuqatek wehu yimsal bak” – וְאֶל אִישֵׁךְ֙ תְּשׁ֣וּקָתֵ֔ךְ וְה֖וּא יִמְשָׁל בָּֽךְ – literally: [and towards] [your man] [your desire] [and he] [he will rule] [over] {Genesis 3:16} and the “teshuqah” or teshukah talking about a longing for something or some one.
Not being satisfied with what their Father had given them, the ish and isha deemed it necessary to follow their own interests and were attracted by the glow or ‘shining brass’ in the middle of the Gan. “The shining one” or נחש — nachash took their heart. Notice that the same root is the basis for the word נחש — nechash — “brass.” Thus, we find a play on words in Numbers 21:9 when Moses creates a brazen serpent on a pole. He makes נחש nachash נחשת nĕchosheth — a serpent of brass. It was called Nehushtan by Hezekiah, who had it destroyed in 2 Kings 18:4 because the Israelites had started to worship it.
A brass trumpet may give a loud sound but by eating from the Etz HaDa’as Tov v’Rah they were silenced and the silencer pushed them behind the bushes, in the hope the Elohim would not find out what they had done or where they were.
Clearly they showed, by their actions, not knowing the Elohim very well and to be more interested in their own private relationship than having a ‘sacred’ (set-apart) relationship with their Divine Maker. They also overestimated their own forces and possibilities, trusting that they could better satisfy every need of themselves. In doing so, they broke relationship with the Bo’re.
As soon they had eaten from the fruit of the tree their eyes opened and got to see what they had done wrong. They effectively came to have knowledge of moral and got to understand what is good and what is bad.
All people now, do have such an inborn knowledge, call it instinct or moral or ethics. No human being is without that essential knowledge of basic elements to build up a good life. As such also some one, who does not believes in the Elohim, has in his guts the feeling of doing something wrong or well. Deep in us is there that feeling that should keep us away from doing bad. We may have all sorts of dreams and create all sorts of evil stories, but that does not have to make us become evil ourselves.
The Elohim had told what happen and did not take back a step. Everyone who would come from A’dham and Chavah would now have to carry the burden which had to come over those who trespassed the forbidden space in the Gan. All the descendants of Chavah who ever lived, is living now, or will live in the days to come (“all the world”) is initially held in a state of condemnation (“guilty before God”), because of their sin, their trespassing and/or going against the Will of God. From then onwards nobody could escape this guilty condition which would persist for a lifetime, if God did not supply a remedy.
Ish and isha were placed (נוּחַ “set to rest”) in the Gan … to work it (עָבַד, “to serve”) and to take care of it. Whatever work ish did was therefore described as his service to the Elohim.
Genesis 2:15 OJB And Hashem Elohim took the adam and put him in the Gan Eden la’avod (to till, to work) it and to be shomer over it.
At first that work would not feel a burden for ish, but now the Elohim told man he would feel it.
Genesis 3:17-19 OJB And unto Adam He said, Because thou paid heed unto the voice of thy isha, and hast eaten of HaEtz, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, arurah (cursed) is haadamah because of thee; in itzavon (pain, suffering, see verse 16) shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; (18) Kotz also and dardar shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the esev of the sadeh; (19) In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat lechem, till thou return unto haadamah; for out of it wast thou taken; for aphar thou art, and unto aphar shalt thou return.
We too are under that damnation (consigning to perdition) and shall by the sweat of our brow have to provide for food until we return to the soil, for man was taken from there.
Both had shown shame because they knew they had done wrong to the Supreme Being Who had given them everything they needed. Now on ish came the curse, the curse on the ground which entails the toil on each man. The necessaries of life must now be forced out of the earth which before might have spontaneously yielded them, until the ruach chayyim or breath of life returns to the One Who gave that life.
Ecclesiastes 12:7 OJB Then shall the aphar return to ha’aretz as it was; and the ruach shall return unto HaElohim who gave it.
Ish should know that perhaps isha could have tempted him like she was tempted, but like her he too could make his own decision and resist the temptation or even bringing her to better ideas, not to eat from the tree. The A’dham had hearkened to the voice of his Chavah.
17 Then he said to the man, “You listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree, although I commanded you, ‘You must never eat its fruit.’
The ground is cursed because of you.
Through hard work you will eat food that comes from it
every day of your life. {Genesis 3:17 Names of God Bible (NOG)}
Ish had his own choice. Chavah could not force him; though it was her fault to persuade him to eat, it was his fault to hearken to her or to give heed. Thus men’s frivolous pleas will, in the day of God’s judgement, not only be overruled, but turned against them, and made the grounds of their sentence.
By excusing the fault, by laying it on his wife, A’ham made himself twice to do something wrong. By both their fault they now had to face that their marvellous surroundings were not going to be available any more for them. Their habitation should be changed or they had to be taken out of that present Gan.
Ish and isha should no longer dwell in a distinguished, blessed, paradise, but should be removed to common ground, and that cursed. The ground, or earth, is here put for the whole visible creation, which, by the sin of man, is made subject to hevel (vanity), the several parts of it being not so serviceable to man’s comfort and happiness as they were designed to be when they were made, and would have been if they had not sinned.
The Elohim had created a marvellous pristine perfect nature. The Elohim had given it to man, having it designed to be a comfortable dwelling to them. But their wrong going, their aversion, their dislike of the higher position of their Maker, and their disobedience to God (their sin) caused God to alter the property of it. Also eretz got now cursed for man’s averah (sin). From the fall of man the earth became to look like a dishonourable habitation for man. It seemed to comet to bespeak man mean. For man now the world its foundation was to be in the dust, a dry and barren habitation, its spontaneous productions now being weeds and briers, something nauseous or noxious. What good fruits it produces must be extorted from it by the ingenuity and industry of man. Man was created to be in harmony with nature but now he was to have to battle it to produce his crops. Man will have to work hard to make food grow from the ground, fighting kotz (thorns) and dardar (thistles) until he dies and returns to the ground from which he was made. Fruitfulness was its blessing, for man’s service (Bereshith 1: 11, 29), and now barrenness was its curse, for man’s punishment. It is not what it was in the day it was created and not how God had planned it.
Sin turned a fruitful land into barrenness; and man, having become as the wild ass’s colt, has the wild ass’s lot, the wilderness for his habitation, and the barren land his dwelling, Job xxxix. 6; Ps. lxviii. 6. Had not this curse been in part removed, for aught I know, the earth would have been for ever barren, and never produced any thing but thorns and thistles. The ground is cursed, that is, doomed to destruction at the end of time, when the earth, and all the works that are therein, shall be burnt up for the sin of man, the measure of whose iniquity will then be full, 2 Pet. iii. 7, 10. {Matthew Henry commentary}
The man was still to keep his right to govern. Toward the mannin her shidduch would still go her lust, yet he will be ruling over her. Being put into a state of subjection, put under the dominion of her husband, the isha shall not have it easy to bring forth banim (children). She would have pain in bearing children, and would be mastered by her husband whom she also desired.
But strangely enough in the bringing forth children lies the future of mankind and there it is that God provides a solution for mankind. The Elohim is not pleased with such suffering and sorrow for man, but has no choice to fulfil that what He said would come over them, death.
But death to be the total end of everything was not provided in the original Plan of God. Therefore that Plan still must be fulfilled, because everything God says shall come into fulfilment.
Already in the third chapter of Bereshith we may observe a mixture of mercy, A’dham himself not so much cursed, as the real adversaries of God (the nachash standing for the satan or any adversary of God). The Elohim is aware, and wants man to be fully aware of that danger, there going to be for some time those who still shall object the Power of God. But man may be sure God shall not let it happen for all time. The satans or those who oppose the Elohim, shall come to see that even when they want to destroy the one who the Elohim shall provide to bring an end to the curse of death, they shall be able to kill him, but not destroy his work.
Mankind shall have to recognise that the Elohim has provided blessings in ish and that out of an isha shall come set apart zera (holy seed).
Genesis 3:14-15 OJB And Hashem Elohim said unto the Nachash, Because thou hast done this, thou art arur (cursed) above kol habehemah, and above every beast of the sadeh; upon thy gakhon (belly) shalt thou go, and aphar shalt thou eat all the days of thy life; (15) And I will put eivah (enmity, personal hostility [see Ezekiel 35:5]) between thee and HaIsha (see HaAlmah, Yeshayah 7:14), and between thy zera and her Zera; it shall crush thy rosh, and thou shalt strike his akev (heel).
Isaiah 65:8-9 OJB Thus saith Hashem, As the tirosh is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a berakhah is in it; so will I do in behalf of My Servants, that I may not destroy them all. (9) And I will bring forth a zera out of Ya’akov, and out of Yehudah a yoresh (inheritor) of My mountains; and Mine Bechir (Chosen ones) shall inherit it, and My Servants shall dwell there.
יהוה Elohim cursed the act of temptation and the transgression, which shall be allowed to exist for some further time, but not in eternity. Between the nasach and the woman, and between her seed and the seed of a by God selected woman it shall come to be that the Elohim shall crush their head, though the adversary of God shall crush “His akev” (heel, the weak point).
And by that remark we get the first great promise of the Messiah. We are told that even when they might try to destroy the sent one from God, hurt him in the weaker point of his body, his soul (his being) shall be much stronger and survive in the power of righteousness, giving proof to mankind that it is really possible for man to remain faithful to God. From the seed of Chavah, shall come the seed of Abraham and the seed of King David, from which tribe shall come a greater king who shall shine over the whole world and bring salvation to the whole world.
But it shall not be given without condition. Man shall have to work to stay alive and each individual shall himself or herself have to undergo the same choice as the first man and woman, either to choose to follow God His Will or to go against it.
As long as man lives he shall feel that the law shall have dominion over him. However, this condition need not persist, because the Most High Elohim there in the Garden made His first promise of a solution, which He later would repeat to Abraham and others. The one who the Elohim was going to send would make everything clear. He was going to be the one who clears the Way to God.
Already the children of Chavah got to hear of the curse and its way out. They knew they had to look out for the “brass” or “shining light” which would bring “Good News“. The people knowing there would be an opponent for the nachash and who came with Moshe in the desert looked also with hope to the נחש nachash נחשת nĕchosheth — a serpent of brass, believing that Moshe was a man from God who could bring liberation for them. But as we will see it was not him who would be the Voice of God which would bring the end to the curse of death by the one who may be called
- The god of this world: 2 Cor 4:4
- The prince of the power of the air: Eph 2:2
- The wicked one: Mat 13:19, 38; 1 Jhn 2:13–14, 3:12, 5:18
- The enemy: Mat 13:39; Luk 10:19
- A murderer: Jhn 8:44
- The father of lies: Jhn 8:44
- The tempter: Mat 4:3
- An adversary like a roaring lion: 1 Pet 5:8
- The great dragon: Rev 12:9
- The serpent: Gen 3:1; Rev 12:9, 20:2
- Beelzebub: Mat 12:27; Luk 11:18
Like the people looked for their liberation brought by Moshe the world had come to look for a mightier Moshe (“to pull out/draw out”) or “son”. Like the Elohim had created the first man from the red earth which was first from the nothingness or void, the second Adam also would be partly from the nothingness, but also from the cause of all the trouble, namely the temptation or the human weakness, the woman. That woman to having had no intercourse with any ish would receive from the Elohim life in her to bear and to take care of.
Coming from that zera of the set apart woman would come one man of flesh and blood who has a physical birth and death but would be taken from the dead by the Power of God bringing liberation of that boundary of that curse of death. By him the road has been opened for new creatures in him who shall be able to stand justified by faith in him (not by law performance).
Romans 3:28 The Scriptures 1998+ (28) For we reckon that a man is declared right by belief without works of Torah.
Though for becoming justified, declared not guilty, pronounced righteous in Christ, people shall have to show that they have faith in that sent one from God, apart from the deeds of the law.
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Preceding articles
Orders for the first human beings and Rebellion against their Make
Moment of getting knowledge and its consequence
Scattered, broken, thwarted reflection of God
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Additional reading
- An openingschapter explaining why things are like they are and why we may have hope for better things
- Account of origin of man, sin and death
- Possible problems with two Accounts of the beginning of human race
- The figure of Adam
- The figure of Eve
- An anarchistic reading of the Bible (2)—Creation and what follows
- Between Alpha and Omega – The plan of creation
- The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #3 With his partner
- The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #5 Temptation, assault and curse
- The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #6 Curse and solution
- A solution for a damaged relationship 3 Insight and prophesies given
- Looking for a primary cause and a goal that can not offer philosophers existing beliefs
- First mention of a solution against death 1 To divine, serpent, opposition, satan and adversary
- First mention of a solution against death 2 Harm or no harm and naked truth
- First mention of a solution against death 3 Tempter Satan and man’s problems
- First mention of a solution against death 4 A seed for mankind
- First mention of a solution against death 7 Human sacrifice
- The habitual misreading of John 1 and the ‘Word being God’ #2
- Mental Enslavement and Sins Syndrome (MESS)
- God should be your hope
- God’s will is that all sorts of men should be saved
- OT prophesies and the NT fulfillment of them
- Out of the seed of Eve
- Many forgot how Christ should be our anchor and our focus
- Jesus begotten Son of God #10 Coming down spirit or flesh seed of Eve
- He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
- In a few days time it will be 2020 years ago that the Messiah was born
- 2020 years ago, the road was opened
- Hope by faith and free gift
- Which man is mentioned most often in the Bible? Jesus, Moses, Abraham or David?
- Not bounded by labels but liberated in Christ
- Being Justified by faith
- Luther’s misunderstanding
- Sinners do not turn awy from God
- A Living Faith #9 Our Manner of Life
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Further reading
- The Purpose of Man
- Desire of the Woman
- Why do bad things happen?
- The fall of “The Fall” Part 1
- The fall of “The Fall” Part 2
- True Love and The Fall
- Have You Seen Jesus?
- Hope is Strength – It Starts with Faith
- Sacrifice – What God Expects From You
- When The Comets of Life Come Crashing
- Warning to The Body of Christ – God Will Not Be Mocked
- Knowledge of Sin (Romans 3:20)
- The true nature of God – 4
- The Dark Lord (Part One): Samael, Satan, and the Adversary of God
- In the Beginning, Part IV
- DailyPearls 24/6/17: Salvation: The fall of man
- The Fall of Man Into Sin
- How Did the Moral Fall of Adam Affect the Human Race?
- Love and doubt: the central truth of existence
- Tip of the Day, May 16
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Immanuel Verbondskind - עמנואל קאָווענאַנט קינד 
17 thoughts on “Fog, brass and light for the eyes”