Lets look at what we know about God:
God is perfect. He is not sinister, he has no "good and bad" counter parts. He is 100% good. How can he not be? Would someone build a working engine and throw an wrench into it to "balance" the good and bad parts inside of it? No! You'd mess it up. Jesus said a house divided against itself will fall. God can't fall. When he does something, he does it right. It is impossible for him to do wrong, because in doing so, he wouldl fall.
God's character is one of love. He loves his creation, he wants it to grow, and he wants to be a part of it. How hard is it for someone to be kept from the object of their love? That person will miss it, long for it, and fight for it. This person will do things that they usually that seem silly, just to be a part of it. This is God. Love with a passion, he looks over the world he created, longing for it to be his again.
God is not overly controlling. If God really wanted to be controlling, things would be perfect. His will is that none shall perish, yet that isn't the case, so we can see that He doesn't control every single little aspect of life.
God is fair. Do the crime, do the time. And the time must be equal to the crime. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth. But he also is love, so there can be an element of forgiveness, which we should always keep in mind. But even the forgiveness must be fairly distributed.
Now I will stop explaining God's character. It is too deep to go any farther. These things are enough to keep in mind as the story unfolds.
Genesis the first few chapters. I have a link that will take directly to the source of my writings, just incase you need to compare. Its best to start here anyway. Gen 1:1
God creates earth. He starts with a watery ball spinning in a dark space. He commands light into existence, and it happens. Now there is light everywhere, on every side of earth, crystal clear light. It reveals a chaotic earth. Since all earth is at this point is water, the surface of the earth has no one shape. The waters are unsettled. Looking at earth is looking at one big title wave floating in the newly created light. God then separates the light and moves it from all around the earth to one side. As the giant ball of ocean spins in a complete circle, and the very first day of earth's existence is finished.
Click here to see what water looks like when floating in zero gravity.
On the second day, chaos of earths shapeless surface is put to rest as the oceans are made steady. God creates the crust of the earth. This crust gives earth its round shape. The Crust leaves water above it, as well as leaving some below. Seeing a steady earth spinning in space must have been a great blessing to God, because he called the crust "Heaven", and a second day iwas over.
God now was ready to make earth into a livable environment. He gathered all the water into one place, allowing for the crust to show. This was the first time dry ground showed its face to the earth. He also gathered the atmosphere together.
This land was all in one place. There were no 7 continents. There was no atlantic ocean. However there were large seas. And there were 4 huge rivers that ran through the earth from the center of this land mass that would be used to give water to everything that needed it. These rivers branched out like a tree all over the earth.
Now a world of land and seas is ready for life. The first life on earth to be plant life. Trees that could make fruit and thus make more trees. All over the earth self sufficient life was created. And earth is becoming a place for possibilities. The plant life was making oxygen, the rivers were watering the plants, and there was a source of light for the entire thing to work. At the end of the third day, God stood back from the earth and saw that it was good. He had something to brag about.
Now on the forth day, the earth was looking good. But from the ground of Earth looking up, there wasn't much going on. Just one light in the sky, and thats all. No stars, no moon, no planets. Nothing. Other than the day and night, there was no other way to mark time. So God created all of the Stars, he created the sun, the moon, and all the planets. The dark side of earth had some light now. The earth could now go through seasons of growth and seasons of rest. The night wasn't too dark, and the day was marked by the sun. The moon had a perfect face. No asteroids had ever touched its surface, and its gravitational pull gave life to the seas. In my opinion, this day was the busiest day for creation. And God is already attached to it. It is his, look at what greatness he created. Working perfectly. Indeed, it was good.
Now day five. God said: Let there be fish and birds. Different kinds of them all. let them fill the waters, let them fly through the sky. Let them reproduce and make more. How exciting. Living, thinking beings, doing its own thing, bursting into life for the first time. As tho just waking up to a new day, their lives began. The first of every thing to follow after them. On the first day, God started creating water. Now his first living, thinking creatures consumed it.
Day six God filled up the land with creatures. Anything that will roam the ground, he made it. Cattle, Dinosaurs, Lions, Dogs, Cats, Oh my. God blessed them all, giving them the gift to have young ones.
But God was about to out do it all. On this perfect planet, he was about to create a man.
"Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
This was what It was all coming down to. On day one of creation, he had in mind to make this very creature. It would be a being very much like God himself. A being who could experience love, responsibility, who could be creative, and one that could create new life himself through the gift of children. He would be able to relate to God unlike any creature he had made so far. God also gave man the gift of love. The very thing that inspired creation, to give man a passion unlike anything else in creation.
The newly created man longed to have his own object of love. So God showed the man all of creation, letting him give it all a name. But nothing would satisfy the mans longing for a companion. God created for him a woman. The first ever love between man and woman. Man's first understanding of what God felt for him was manifested in this relationship.
And this eventful and very meaningful sixth day of creation ended with a young couple, very much in love watching the sun set for the first time, seeing a sky filled with stars, knowing that they owned the world. A word God created for them.
God's desire was that man and woman love him back. He gave them the world, all he wanted in return was mans heart. Have you ever felt that you would trade the world for someone's heart? God did just that.
But things aren't that easy. In order for man do give God his love, he cannot be forced into doing it. What kind of love is it to receive, when it is forced from someone else. As creation was when God made, there was no wrong. There was no hate, there was no death, there is only good all the time.
For true love to exist from one person to another, there has the be the possibility for hate. I can set my computer to display a message to me everyday, saying "I love you pat". But it would be meaningless to me. I know the only reason it does that is because I made it like that. However, if i showed the computer that it could either love me or hate me, and it still displayed the message... then i would appreciate the message more. I would know that it really loves me, not because it has to, because it doesn't want the alternative.
God knew that concept, only on a much grander scale. "Man, must be given a choice to love Me or not." Life isn't life with out freedom. So God gave man a free will and a free choice.
But freedom wasn't only for matters of the heart. It was for everything. Man could have things Gods way, or he can have them his own way, in every aspect of life. So God devised of the perfect way out for man, in the event that man wanted it.
God put man in the center of the land, there the rivers flowed over the entire earth. He put him in a garden to be fed with perfect food. He even gave him work to do, managing the garden, keeping it in good order. Pruning the trees, keeping it clean, taking care of the animals. No cares, no worries, a perfect place to start a family. Things were as they should have been. They were God's way.
However, in the garden was the escape. Escape was a tree who's fruit contained the knowledge of right and wrong. Knowing these two things would give man everything he needs to know to make it on his own. With this knowledge, man could decide for himself what he should or shouldn't do. Who needs to ask God if you know already? He can make his own rules, live by his own standards, and never have to look to God again. And God would not force himself on man from there on after, if that was what he wanted.
This fruit, eating it, is a sign. It tells God two things. I don't want you. I don't need you. Which spell one heart breaking blow. "I don't love you." And that means a People going their way, and God allowing it.
Eating this tree is Man's way of saying "Love me all you want, I won't love you back. I am doing things my way. I would rather have the world for myself, and not share it with you."
Man was never ready for this knowledge. God knew it too. So He told them not to eat from that tree. Though he never forced them away from it.
So the test began. What will man do. Will he love God or not. Regardless of the answer, it had to be done, or life would have been hell for man anyway. Being forced to love not a fulfilling life.
Hope means you want something, even though its not there yet. God's will is that no one perish, so he hoped that man wouldn't turn from God. How can God hope for something if it exists already for him? If time, present-future-past, is always present with God, then why does God long for things to happen? The truth is that time does not exist as one big present-future-past. There is the Present. Everything looks back to the Past. We wonder about the future, until it becomes the present. That is how time works, even for God.
The concept that God knows what will happen tomorrow as though it is happening right now is not in the Bible anywhere. It does not say "God knows All of the future". In fact, God sometimes says "Maybe this will happen if....." or "If you do this......." And God changes his mind. If God tells us that he changed his mind, it should make you realize that the future is an unexplored land. As new events happen, even God must make new decisions.
(While Gods mind can change, his nature cannot [which we covered some aspects of his nature above]. He can do no wrong, so he doesn't change his ways from evil to good, but his decisions can change depending on what he thinks is best. To see how God changes his mind and repents in the Bible, see Hosea 11:7-9, also a good example where God admits that he expected one thing to happen, but another thing happened instead, see Isaiah 5. To see when God longs and desires for something see Jeremiah 12:4, Jeremiah 26:3. Also see Matthew 23:37. If the future is in the present for God, why is he longing for what he already has?
These clearly show that the future is open to our choices, our freewill. But we must also understand that God can cause things to happen. Whatever God says he will cause to happen, may be marked down as true. For more on this issue, look for my Future Present and Past thoughts on the home page.)
A being with a free will is unpredictable. If it is predictable, it does not have freedom, it is programed. We have free will. We are at times unpredictable.
So God didn't know if they would eat of the tree. And they do. Man, Adam, eats of the tree that he wasn't ready to eat of, that he was told not to eat. Then he blamed his wife for doing it. And he also blamed God for giving him a woman that would do such a thing. Wow Adam. Just point all the fingers to everyone. He already thought he was better than everyone, including God.
So what did Adam get? Exactly what he truly wanted, a world where he doesn't have to answer to God. So God gives it to him. He sends Adam out of the garden, where God provided everything, and put him in a place where God was out of the equation. Now man must work for his food.
What about the Woman? She ate too. What does she get. The same thing. She must depend now on Man for her food, that they are both on their own to provide. And she get increased birth pains.
Increased birth pains? That seems to be a weird punishment. Why?
God just gave up everything. He was heart broken by mankind's rejection of him. The pain he received from his creation was great. Therefore, so will woman's pain be great when delivering new life into the world.
So he lost them. God Lost the love of his creation by their own choice. He will still be around, as man asks for them. He will still try to win Mans heart back. And God will always watch over mankind, who he loves. But now man doesn't "need" God.
Keep in mind that God doesn't forget about man. For the next thousands of years, God will interact with different people. But the more time goes on, the less man thiinks he needs God. And God will do as man wishes over the course of the Bible. He will become as distance as the human race wants him bo be.
So that is how the story begins. God creates the world. Loves what he created. Creates man with a choice to love him back. Man says no thanks. And now God is on a mission to win the hearts of whoever will come. But he must be fair about it.