Adam & Eve
In
the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." This is the
first thing the Bible tells us. Out of the formless darkness God made this
beautiful world we live in. He made night and day; He separated sky and
earth, land and sea. And when the world was formed, God created the living
creatures on it. Finally
God made man and woman. The first man was called Adam, a name meaning man
or earth-man," for God had created man out of the earth. The woman
was named Eve, meaning "living." Adam
and Eve lived in a beautiful garden, where they had every thing they
needed, without worrying or working. This garden was called Eden and they
lived there in perfect happiness; and God talked directly to them, telling
them everything they needed to know. This garden was also called Paradise. God
gave Adam one firm command: there was one tree whose fruit he must not
taste. This was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now Adam and
Eve had never known anything bad, so they could not understand the
difference between good things and evil things. God knew that if Adam and
Eve learned that things could be bad, they and all men and women after
them would be subject to fears, anger, hatred and sadness. Perfect
happiness, such as theirs, would never again be known on earth. One
day, when Eve was admiring the beautiful fruit on the forbidden tree, she
met a serpent, a creature we call a snake. The serpent urged her to pick
the luscious fruit, but Eve knew that God had said she and Adam could have
everything but this. The serpent, however, persuaded her that the fruit
would make them as wise as God Himself. That, he explained, was the only
reason God did not want them to eat it. Tempted by the serpent's words and
the beauty of the fruit, Eve picked it, and both she and Adam tasted it. Immediately
they knew they had done wrong. Afraid and ashamed, they hid among the
trees. God came into the garden that evening and, finding Adam and Eve
hiding, made them tell Him what they had done. He sternly explained to
them what they now faced. They
must leave the beautiful garden forever and go out into the world, where
they must work long and hard to make the land produce enough to keep them
alive. They would have children, but both they and their children would
always know much hardship and sadness. And
God's words proved to be only too true. No
sooner had Adam and Eve's first two sons grown up than a terrible thing
happened. Their sons were named Cain and Abel; Cain, the elder, was a
farmer and Abel was a shepherd. Adam and Eve had not forgotten God, but
since they could no longer talk with Him, each of the family offered gifts
to God of the things they produced, to show that they knew they were still
His children. One
day Cain and Abel fell into a bitter and violent quarrel, about which of
their offerings was most pleasing to God. When it ended, Abel lay dead
upon the ground, and the first deadful crime of man against man had been
committed. God
punished Cain severely, but He did not kill him. He protected Cain from
death at the hand of any man, and Cain lived to found a family of his own.
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