THE CROSS' PURPOSE, FROM ADAM, TO NOAH TO JESUS CHRIST

November 19, 2008
MF Blume

  Scripture Text:


Genesis 2:8-9 KJV  And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.  (9)  And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 2:16-17 KJV  And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:  (17)  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.

Genesis 9:1-6 KJV  And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.  (2)  And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.  (3)  Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.  (4)  But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.  (5)  And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man.  (6)  Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.

  Message:




People have noticed similarities between the commands given to both Adam and Noah in that both were told to multiply and replenish the earth.

COMPARE

Genesis 1:28  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it:

Genesis 9:1-2 KJV  And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. 


Gen 1:28 ...and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Gen 9:2  And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.


Also, that both headed up a creation of sorts, with Noah seeing all mankind destroyed except his family being the second head of the human race.
  • But there are a lot more similarities than that, and all accounts actually lead to the cross of Jesus.

Both were given dominion with special significance over cattle, beasts and fowl and man.

COMPARE


Genesis 2:20  And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.

Genesis 9:10  (10)  And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.



Adam and Eve enter marriage covenant before God, an they sin involving fruit, and are shamed with nakedness.
  • Noah enters covenant with God and the rainbow is the token, and he sins regarding fruit and is shamed with nakedness.


COMPARE


Genesis 3:11  And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

Genesis 9:20-23  And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:  (21)  And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. 



Genesis 3:21  Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

Gen 9:23  And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.



Adam and Eve hear curses from God.
A curse is mentioned by Noah to Ham's son, since Ham, Noah's son caused him shame.

COMPARE

Genesis 3:14  And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

Genesis 9:25  And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.



Among all these parallels there is a message of the cross.

Genesis 2:9  And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Notice that ALL the trees had these two qualities about them.
  • But two of them each had something the rest did not have.

Genesis 2:16-17  And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:  (17)  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.

Of all the trees in the Garden, two stand out.
  • All other trees could not kill nor give life, but these two trees each did one of those things.

When you notice that all the trees were pleasant to the sight and good for food, look at the forbidden tree.

Genesis 3:6  And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

And this one difference WAS THE KILLER!
  • Notice that the killing aspect of it was the desire to make one wise.
  • EXALT SELF.
  • PROMOTE FLESH.
  • And it would replace God in one's life.

Genesis 3:5  For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

Take God out of the equation, be your own God and get the same thing!

And the other tree had something that none of the trees had.

Genesis 3:22  And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

You could eat of it and LIVE FOREVER.

All were pleasant to the sight.
  • All were good for food.
  • But one would give life and the other would give death.

One had something in it that gave death and one had something in it that gave life.

Noah's day comes along and the flood occurs, when God says Noah can eat all kinds of MEAT except one.
  • Meat is added to man's food items, since in Adam's day only herbs were eaten.

Both Adam's and Noah's commands involved NOT EATING ONE KIND OF FOOD.
  • Adam could have no food with DESIRE TO MAKE ONE WISE IN IT.

COMPARE

Genesis 2:16-17  And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

Genesis 9:3-4  Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.



Gen 1:  (17)  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 9: (4)  But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.



BLOOD in the meat was like DESIRE TO MAKE ONE WISE in the fruit.
  • It would not cause Noah to die, but in speaking of this one element in the meat there was a note added that God mentioned THAT WOULD CAUSE NOAH TO DIE.

Genesis 9:5-6  And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man.  (6)  Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.

So there is both the forbiddence to eat certain food and the warning of death in both cases, but in Noah's case God had to combine eating blood with shedding man's blood to get the full picture we find packed into one picture of the forbidden fruit.
  • The forbidden fruit alone was both not to be eaten and would cause death.
  • You do not get the cause of death in the forbiddence to eat meat with blood, but the cause for death is brought into the picture when God adds that blood of animals MUST BE SHED to eat it, but blood of man MUST NOT BE SHED or MAN WILL DIE.

ONE FRUIT CANNOT BE EATEN
ONE MEAT CANNOT BE EATEN

Both  commands to Adam and Noah speak the same spiritual picture, too!
  • Desire to make one wise in the fruit EXALTS SELF and REPLACES GOD.
  • Blood IN THE FLESH when you eat it represents NATURAL LIFE IN THE FLESH.
  • We can try to make natural life a replacement for God's life, and this is a substitute and alternative to God's Life.
  • NATURAL LIFE.
  • Natural LIFE MUST BE REMOVED so we can have food.
  • NATURAL LIFE represents our fleshliness and carnality.
  • OUR OWN NATURAL LIFE would be exalted and relied upon if we fell for the desire to make one wise AND THAT WOULD HINDER GOD FROM MANIFESTING THOUGH US.
  • WE HAVE TO DENY OUR NATURAL ABILITIES TO REQUIRE GOD'S!
  • Eating meat with blood remaining in it is the natural life remaining in it, and shedding that blood represents DENYING OUR NATURAL LIVES since we NEED GOD'S.
  • Both forbidden items send the message that they are forbidden because they REPRESENT DENYING GOD'S LIFE AND LIVING BY NATURAL LIFE.

LIFE must be removed from all animals for food.
  • But LIFE MUST NOT BE REMOVED from one creature, man.
  • BECAUSE MAN IS THE IMAGE OF GOD.

So now, even reference to the image of God is mentioned, just LIKE GENESIS!

And we see another pattern repeated:

COMPARE

Genesis 1:27  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 

Genesis 9:6-7  Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.


Gen 1:(28)  And God blessed them, and God said unto 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 moveth upon the earth.

Gen 9: (7)  And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.



ONE FRUIT CANNOT BE EATEN
ONE MEAT CANNOT BE EATEN
ONE SHEDDING OF BLOOD WILL KILL

But Jesus had to shed HIS  BLOOD and DIE AS A MAN!

John 6:53  Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
John 6:54  Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

ONE FRUIT GIVES ETERNAL LIFE (In Garden)
ONE MEAT GIVES ETERNAL LIFE (Jesus)
ONE SHEDDING OF BLOOD GIVES ETERNAL LIFE

All these manifest God's life!

John 6:60  Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?

Jesus clarified their mistaken notion of cannibalism and said:

John 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

HIS WORDS were what would give eternal life.

John 6:68  Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.

The things that are natural and of human life can replace God's life when we exalt ourselves and magnify the flesh.
  • The pride of mankind kills God's opportunity to manifest Himself, because flesh is being praised in such instances instead of him.


The picture continues:

COMPARE

Genesis 3:11   And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

Genesis 9:20-21  And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:  (21)  And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.



Genesis 3:21  Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

Gen 9:23  And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.


Adam, Eve and Noah ate something that brought sin and shame to them.
  • Fruit.
  • Fruit of the vine.
  • Noah's case involved WINE.

They all had to be covered by someone else after their sin.
  • Jesus said WINE represented HIS BLOOD.
  • WINE IS CALLED BLOOD OF THE GRAPE.
  • When Noah shed the BLOOD OF THE GRAPE and drank it he became intoxicated and shamed.

Bro Smith noted that THERE IS THE CUP OF BLESSING AND THE CUP OF CURSING.
  • JESUS BLOOD BEING DRANK AND THE BLOOD OF MARTYRS BEING DRANK.

Both were called WINE.
  • There was the trodding of the winepress of the fierceness of God's wrath and the wine of Christ's blood being shed for God's salvation.

It's not just between the church and Israel in the first century, but goes way back to Adam and Eve and Noah and his sons!

You could not drink the wine of the world that intoxicates because...

Ephesians 5:18-21  And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;  (19)  Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;  (20)  Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;  (21)  Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

EXCESS is when all the plugs are pulled and you have no more inhibitions that you use to keep your fleshly urges down.
  • Your flesh is no longer hindered by even yourself, and debauchery and excess occur.
  • The worst things your flesh can do will occur.

But when we get intoxicated with God's Spirit and are filled therewith, the plugs are pulled for a very opposite power than flesh, and the HOLY GHOST fills us and we do things by the power of the Spirit of God!
  • The BEST things God can do will occur!

  • ONE FRUIT CANNOT BE EATEN
  • ONE MEAT CANNOT BE EATEN
  • ONE LIFE CANNOT BE TAKEN
  • ONE WINE CANNOT INTOXICATE

But on the positive side

  • ONE FRUIT GIVES ETERNAL LIFE
  • ONE MEAT GIVES ETERNAL LIFE
  • ONE LIFE GIVES ETERNAL LIFE
  • ONE WINE MUST INTOXICATE!

It all focuses upon THE COUNTERFEIT OF THE FLESH AGAINST THE PURPOSE OF THE SPIRIT.
  • It all focuses upon hindering God's Spirit and manifesting self, or hindering self and manifesting God's Spirit!

ONE TREE AMONG MANY WILL KILL
ONE TREE AMONG MANY WILL GIVE ETERNAL LIFE!