Why Did God Test Adam And Eve?

Why Did God Test Adam And Eve?
(A Leap From Genesis 2-3 to Revelation 21-22)

Yesterday, our nine-month-old puppy Bella provided a real-life parable to demonstrate the answer to this question. We have had her since she was two months old and are taking great delight in her. She is a smart as that proverbial “whip” and full of cute antics as she tries to get our eight-year-old cat to act like a puppy. But after eating and playing, her next biggest passion has been CHEWING anything she can get into her mouth. She has seemed to regard charge cords for cellphones, laptops and GPS’s as if they were pasta! So, being a puppy, we have had to get her a nice big cage for sleeping and staying when we leave the house.

But she has not chewed anything or had any accidents for a while, so yesterday I decided to put her to the test, to see if she was ready for her next milestone: to be promoted from puppyhood into being given all the privileges and responsibilities of a DOG! So, when we went to our midweek Bible Study and lunch, which would keep us gone for almost six hours, we did not put her into her cage.

How excited I was to see if she passed her test; how much I WANTED her to pass that test!
And when we returned, I went all over the place, looking for any signs of chewing, pooping or unwanted moisture.

NOTHING!!!

DELIGHT!!!

It was amazing how tickled I was at her having passed this test. I had not given her the test with failure in mind, but success, HOPING she would pass it and get her promotion from puppyhood into doghood.

And, as a result, when we went out today for a while, we felt confident that we could leave her on her own once again, and – one again – she acted like a DOG!

That got me to thinking about Genesis Two: “15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’”

The WORDS that God used in that passage above are structured like a warning, as if God might perhaps be expecting the inevitable failure (which DID occur). Whatever God actually did expect due to His omniscience, I do not think that an expected failure was the REASON for His testing them.

He was testing them for the reason I put Bella to the test: to get her ready for the NEXT stage in my plans for her – that I might begin to relate to her as a faithful dog rather than a cute puppy. And He would have been more delighted at their passing their test than I had been with Bella! Remember, He is the God whose heart DESIRES for all people to come to the know Him and know the joy of His salvation! (1 Timothy 2:4).

And speaking as the one who had been watching over them for many long centuries, Jesus had said, “How often I wanted to gather your children, just like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings…” (Matthew 22:37). If you have ever seen any videos of that behavior in mother hens, you will be delighted to know that Jesus should describe His (and His Father’s) heart attitude in that wonderful way! Have your instincts yet become like one of God’s little chicks?

For God, the purpose of testing is not so much as to find out “IF” but to “test” good things INTO you. He who already knows the heart already knows that “IF.” We may WANT to be “holy” or “faithful” but that is a DESIRE more than a reality. Holiness becomes real by having it TESTED into us, as we see in the test that God put Abraham through with his son Isaac (Genesis 22).

The goal of God’s testing Adam and Eve was to test INTO them the same surrender of their autonomous wills to Him, the surrender that His own eternal Son had always been willing to yield to Him: “my judging is just, because I do NOT seek my own will but the will of the Father who sent me” (John 5:30).

Humans were created in the “image” of God (Genesis 1:26-27). Now, who IS the “image of God” but Jesus HIMSELF (e.g., 2 Corinthians 4:4, Colossians 1:5, Hebrews 1:3)? In His testing of Adam and Eve, therefore, Man was being given the opportunity to think, decide, act, and BECOME like the Son of God – the Image of God – had voluntarily and delightfully done at all times! Had they so thought, decided and acted, that quality of the Eternal Son would have been “burned” into their character and instincts forever. And that would have made them become forever – WAY back then – what has once again been made possible in the ministry of Jesus: “that Christ may dwell IN your hearts through faith” (Ephesians 3:17), “Christ IN you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).
And HAD they had this wonderful instinct tested into them, what would have been next? Was the creation in Genesis One intended to remain in that wonderful, “VERY good,” flawless but natural condition for ever and ever?

We know the answer to that question by looking at what God has revealed for the FUTURE of the humans and the creation that are His. What WOULD have been is identical to what is GOING to be:
“looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? 13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:12).

You are now invited to meditate on the 21st and 22nd chapters of the Book of Revelation, which begins with:

“1 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. 2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God [is] with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them [and be] their God. 4 “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

What WOULD have happened is what is GOING to happen. Essentially, God quite literally “unzips” the barrier between “heaven” (His dwelling) and “earth” (the “crucified,” “resurrected,” and “glorified” physical universe). He personally, with His Son and Spirit, share the same “space” forever with all that He has created, in such a condition of glory and we can scarcely even IMAGINE!

The eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
nor have entered into the heart of man
the things which God has prepared for those who love Him”
(1 Corinthians 2:9).

YOU AND I ARE BEING SIMILARLY “TESTED.”

AMEN?